Blending and Mixing Normal Images

There are two different ways to blend normal maps: Alpha and opacity, and normal perturbation.

Blending with Alpha

When blending with alpha and opacity, the foreground normal image is composed over the background image using the alpha channel and the opacity value. The final result is normalized.

Compose Normal Alpha

To Blend with alpha and opacity you use the Blend and Mix nodes in the Compose nodes toolbar sub menu.

Compose Nodes

Blending with Normal Perturbation

When blending with normal perturbation, the normals of the foreground image perturb the normals of the background image.

Compose Normal Perturbation

To Blend with normal perturbation you use the Blend Normal and Mix Normal nodes in the Normal nodes toolbar sub menu.

Normal Nodes