Making displacement maps in GIMP | Tutorial

Tutorial / 14 December 2024


Displacement Map

I’m using a photo I downloaded from Pexels.Com and made it tileable in GIMP


I first desaturate the image by going to Colors > Desaturate > Desaturate

I change the mode to Lightness HSL

Next, I distort the image by going to Filters > Distorts > Shift and use a Shift option of 5

I then add some blur by going to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and change the blur to around 10

I then adjust the contrast by going to Colors > Curves and make the blacks darker and the whites lighter

I can now export the displacement map


Blender

In Blender, I subdivide a plane and apply the original image as the base color

Under the Materials tab, in the Settings panel, I change the Displacement to “Displacement and Bump”

I import the displacement map (changing the color space to Non-Color) and connect it to a Displacement node which is then connected to the Material Output


I add a Displace modifier and open the displacement map

I decrease the Strength

I change the coordinates to UV and choose the default UV map

I also change the direction to RGB to XYZ