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What is normal baking?
When baking a normal map, we are basically telling the baking program to modify the direction that the low poly normals follow so that they match the direction of the high-poly model; as a result, the low-poly model is bouncing light as the high-poly would. All this information is stored in a texture called normal map.
What happens when you bake in blender?
Therefore, Blender allows you to “bake” some parts of the render ahead of time, for select objects. Then, when you press Render, the entire scene is rendered much faster, since the colors of those objects do not have to be recomputed. Render baking creates 2D bitmap images of a mesh object’s rendered surface.
What’s the best way to bake normal maps?
DigitalSculpting and/or Subdivision Surface Modeling are the usual technique for building high-poly models for baking normal maps. Optimize the high-resolution model to speed up bakes, to avoid running out of RAM while baking, and to keep 3d file sizes manageable.
How is texture baking used in normal mapping?
Texture Baking has the step-by-step workflow for baking textures from a high-resolution model onto a lower-resolution model. A Practical Guide On Normal Mapping For Games has a detailed survey of normal mapping workflows.
How to bake the AO into a normal map?
To bake the AO into a normal map, adjust the levels of the AO layer first so the darks only go as low as 128 gray, then set the AO layer to Darken mode. This will shorten the normals in the normalmap, causing the surface to receive less light in the darker areas.
Which is better normal map or rotated UV?
To get seamless lighting, rotated UVs require specific gradients in the normal map, which can only be created properly by baking a 3D model . A normal map baked from a high-poly mesh will often be better than one sampled from a texture, since you’re rendering from a highly detailed surface.