Hey, this is a video that I made to explain normals, normal maps and bump maps, specifically from the lens of blender. I wanted to make this because while there are others in this general vein, I haven’t seen any that look at the whole topic holistically and pragmatically, not just looking at what, but also at why? Link to the example material: https://freepbr.com/materials/steel-plate1/ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:20 What are normals? 01:53 Smooth shading 03:19 What are normal maps? 04:57 Where do we see normal maps? 05:32 A brief tangent (how normal maps work) 06:16 How to use normal maps 07:31 What about bump maps? 08:06 How to use bump maps 08:34 Use distance not strength (IMPORTANT) 09:22 Bump maps vs. normal maps 10:45 Recap 12:03 Outro --- While watching this, you might notice that my vocal delivery isn't very good. You might also notice I recorded this at 4 am. Maybe I would have eaten fewer words if I had any semblance of a sleep schedule.