3dsmax Texture baking

Special tutorials, usually for the exporter plugin, but also general modeling tutorials.

3dsmax Texture baking

Postby Embreon » Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:32 am

For all the people asking them selfs if its possible to ad shadows and extra maps that 3dsmax uses in Uru.
The answer is yes, but it needs some understanding about UVW maps and UVW unwrap.

Before you should start texture baking, your scene should be finished with atleast 1 3dsmax light with shadows applied.
I made a bench with a floor to explain how to get basic shadows and for example bump maps.
Image

You start with your bench without textures, so the first thing you have to do is texture it !
A good way to reduce the amount of textures is to reduce the amount of components your object has.
This bench is 1 object, because I welded the support to the bench itself. This way you will only need one texture for the entire bench.

SInce we are going to work with Texture baker, we can also use the auto flatten UVW function it provides.
Select the object and hit 0 ( that opens the baker ) and set " Use automatic Unwrap" and then hit Unwrap. Your object will now get a Auto Flatten UVW modifier.
Image

To be able to apply your texture correctly you need the UVW coordinates from this unwrap so save them !
As you can see when you hit "edit" that the unwrap has moved the pieces in a nice order. You can also do this with the UVW unwrap modifier
but it will be a mess and its a lot of work to get it sorted out.
Image

Now its time to set the Texture baker... so hit 0 to open it.
In the output segment "add" a map and you can select all types of maps, but for simplicity we will just stay with a Diffuse map.
You can set the resolution of the image that is going to be made and don't forget to set "shadow" and "Light"
Image

In the "baked Material" setting, select "Render to Files Only"
And hit Render !
3Dsmax will open the Render frame and render your image, Save this image with the floppy disk on the left hand corner.

Select your object again and delete the Automatic Flatten UVW. Now add a Unwrap Modifier and use the load button to load the UVW map you previously saved.

And last, create a Plasma Material with a texture ( the saved Image ) and apply it to your object.
Image

And this is the result , shadows baked in the texture ! .
Its also possible with more types of 3dsmax maps, select "Complete map" to get all the functions !
Embreon
 
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