<aside> 👉 Baking is a process of transferring information from your high definition mesh with a lot of details to your low definition mesh with simplified geometry. This high definition information is stored on texture maps that will be applied to the low definition mesh.
</aside>
<aside> ❗ Even if you do not have a high definition mesh, you can bake your low definition alone, as many generators and masks use the resulting maps in the texturing process.
</aside>
THE INGREDIENTS
Low poly
Your main mesh, usually well-optimized with simpler geometry and a lower polygon/triangle count. It should match and superpose the silhouette of the high poly mesh as closely as possible. This is a lighter mesh, easier to work with and import in whatever your final destination is (UE4, Unity, ...).
High poly
Secondary mesh, used as the high detail reference in a bake. A high poly can be obtained by subdiving your existing low poly mesh in order to obtain smoother edges, or it could a high polygon count sculpted mesh with a lot of surface details. These meshes are not usually imported into game engines as their high polygon count makes them very heavy to work with fluidly.
BAKED MAPS
The baking process can output several different texture maps. Most apps will let you choose which maps to bake. Keep in mind that there is a number of other maps you can bake depending on software, but the most commonly used maps are -
Normal
This map represents how light hits the mesh. It has a characteristic violet hue - the uniform violet color represents the flat surfaces, and a different shade either represents a bump or a dent.
Ambient Occlusion
A black and white map representing the most shadowy and the most exposed parts of your mesh.
Color ID
This map is useful for masking if you want to assign different color IDs to your mesh parts. For instance, if you assigned red to the wooden parts of your mesh, you can tell a mask to only take into account the red parts when you are working on your wood material.
Curvature
A grayscale map which highlights the edge and cavities of your mesh. It is often used for masks to designate the dirties (the cavities) or the most damaged (edges) parts of an object.
Thickness
A grayscale map showing the thickest and the thinnest part of your mesh. A common example of use is when you texture skin on a character - the thinnest parts of skin, like nose or earlobes, will scatter light more than the thickest parts, like cheeks or arms.
Position
Colored map which assigns a color per different direction on your mesh - up vs. down, left vs. right. This map can be useful for masks: for instance, if you would like to make a mask for a moss material which grows on the lower part of your mesh and gradually fades as it gets higher.
BAKING TUTORIALS