Not sure if it is right to start a whole thread for this but it has a lot of images and I do not want to overflow the Advanced Foliage Shader thread with this.
So I will be showing a rough tutorial on how to combine the normal, gloss, and translucency textures into one using GIMP.
So first lets open our normal map, gloss map, and translucency map in GIMP.
Next we will decompose the normal map. Color-Components-Decompose…
Leave the settings as they are and press OK
A new greyscale image should open with a red, green, and blue layer.
Now we need to rip this image apart. Delete the blue layer and rename the red layer Alpha. Also move the Alpha down the the bottom of the layers. Make sure to keep it at the bottom when adding the next layers.
Now we will drag over the translucency and gloss map(one at a time) over to the decomposed image.
Now that we have them rename the translucency to red and gloss to blue. Then line them up Red-Green-Blue.
Now we will compose the image. Colors-Components-Compose…
In the opened Compose box keep it at RGB and make sure the channel representations match. Red to red, green to green, blue to blue. Then press OK
The composed image will open and it should look like a good old fashioned AFS texture
We now want to bring the alpha (normal map red) over to the new composed image tab till the image opens.
Then drop it on the new image.
Now we will drag the alpha copy over to the channel box.
We now want to hide the alpha by clicking the eye button
and delete the alpha layer in the layer box
Now we have the AFS texture that you can export it as a PSD so it will save the alpha and colors.
This technique can be used for other things like setting up a tree creator normalspec texture. Only difference in a normalspec is blue is height and red is specular.
Hope this helps some. Let me know if you have any questions.