What is normal map 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.

When should I use normal maps?

Tangent Space normal maps are great for things like characters. For assets that don’t need to deform, often times an Object Space normal map is used. These maps have a rainbow assortment of different colors as well as slightly improved performance over Tangent Space maps.

Is normal map necessary?

No it’s not necessary to bake the normal maps. … This is because creating normal maps from “real” geometry, gives you a better result, though it is slightly more work. The more you work on creating high poly assets, for normal mapping, the faster you will be able to do it, which is always a bonus.

What does it mean to bake a mesh?

Baking is the process of saving information from a 3D mesh, to a texture file (bitmap). Most of the time, this process involves two meshes, a high poly mesh and a low poly mesh: A high poly mesh has many polygons (often millions) which means it can display high-resolution 3D detail.

What Colour is a normal map?

One of the most valuable maps for a 3D artist is the normal map. Rather than having a color range of black to white, like a bump map uses, normal maps consist of red, green, and blue. These RGB values translates to x, y, and z coordinates, allowing a 2D image to represent depth.

What is normal map blender?

Normal maps. These are images that store a direction, the direction of normals directly in the RGB values of an image. They are much more accurate, as rather than only simulating the pixel being away from the face along a line, they can simulate that pixel being moved at any direction, in an arbitrary way.

Why are normal maps called normal maps?

Most modern video game assets have multiple texture maps applied, and one of those maps is called a normal map. This is a technique in computer graphics that simulates high detail bumps and dents using a bitmap image.

What is baking in 3D Modelling?

Baking is the name of the process about saving information related to a 3D mesh into a texture file (bitmap). Most of the time this process involve another mesh. In this case the information of the first mesh are transferred onto the second mesh UVs and then saved into a texture.

How do you bake maps?

Summary ^

1. Make sure both meshes are the same size and at the same location.
2. UV map low-poly mesh and assign an Image (with or without Material).
3. High resolution mesh can have Subdivision or Multires modifiers active.
4. Set “Bake” options “Normal” and “Active to Selected”.
5. Click the “Bake” button to generate Normal map.

How do you use a blender to bake?

In the Bake panel at the bottom of the Render menu, bake your desired type of image (Full Render, etc.). When rendering is complete, Blender replaces the image with the Baked image. Save the image. Apply the image to the mesh as a UV texture.