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CGSD Bump Texture Tools

Computer Graphics Systems Development Corporation, or CGSD, created a set of bump texture tools for Adobe Photoshop. The tools are plug-ins that work inside Photoshop as menu options. An assortment of plug-ins creates texture maps, i.e. a pattern applied to the surface of computer graphics. Although conventional texture maps provide color and transparency patterns, bump texture provides surface normal vector patterns.

Shape-From-Shading Tool
- The shape-from-shading plug-in is a bump texture toolset that deduces height variations from the shading within an image. This tool helps the computer determine shadows from actual images. It is also a filter for creating bump maps from several images simultaneously.
Bump-Removal Tool
- The bump removal plug-in tool is a filter for removing shaded areas of an image from bump-map data. Removing the shading from the color map makes objects look more realistic as the bump map determines how a shaded object appears.
Wave-Bump Synthesis Tool
- The wave-bump synthesis tool creates textures that simulate ocean surfaces. It simulates ocean waves by interpreting swell and wind-strength factors that you enter into the plug-in. The texture incorporates sea foam and white-capped waves resulting from your desired wind speed along with water color, depending on the color and cloudiness of the sky. Running the images in an animated loop provides motion and a realistic-looking ocean.
Rotor-Downwash Tool
- To produce the effect that a helicopter prop has on surface water, use the rotor-downwash tool. With this tool, sea foam and whitecaps correspond to the swirl of the helicopter blades. The color of the water corresponds to the color and condition of the sky, and a shadow in the water mimics the helicopter above the water.
Stereo-Pair Inversion Tool
- The stereo-pair inversion tool is a tool that creates a height map of 3D data from two photographs of a single scene. You can use one or two camera for taking photos for 3D projects. When using only one camera, use a tripod on a flat, level surface. After taking the first shot, move the tripod sideways without rotating it or the camera and without changing the pitch of the camera.
Synthesis Tool
- The synthesis tool creates texture patterns for common materials. Real materials contain imperfections that may appear flat and unrealistic in a 3D rendering of the image. This tool allows you to control variations and imperfections on the surface of the material within the image. Two synthesis tools help you accomplish realistic-looking images; the brick-and-rock synthesis tool and the reaction-diffusion synthesis tool.

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