Baking Problems

[alvordr]

This is driving me nuts!  I can't seem to finish this model, because after trying to redo the retopo mesh 3 times and changing all kinds of bake settings I still get this:

 

 

Everything else in this complicated gun works fine.  The "Happy Baking Guide" is useless to me, as messing with settings and picking zones is all random, as far as I can tell and ends up yielding results like the above that is worse than not using it.

The closest I can come to fixing this is adding spans on either side where the corner is (makes sense, anyway), but I still get this:

 

Edited July 24, 2013 by alvordr

[digman]

If that object is on it's own layer could you share it with it's associated retopo cage. I can get a look at it...

 

How you tried cutting the uv seams differently around this part to see if that helps. I only suggest this as I do not see your uv layout for this section.

 

3DCoat does have the edge bevel tool for the edge of the interior hole and the outside of the gun site hole. Maybe you want to keep the polygons as low as possible though. 

 

Select Edges top menu

Select your edges to bevel

Left tool bar /commands / bevel , set your bevel size (distance).

 

I know it is a dummy question but you are deleting the object from the paint room and layers before remerging...

 

As always, remember I am just just trying to help with what information is given and their is always skype voice communication with screen sharing which sometimes is just a faster way to resolve problems...

[alvordr]

Digman,

 

Hey.  Thanks for trying, but I've done almost everything you've mentioned, except the bevel tool.  The object is on it's own layer, but I'm not sure how to export it with the associated cage alone.  How would I do this?

 

Thanks for helping...this has been excruciatingly annoying.

Edited July 24, 2013 by alvordr

[digman]

Export the layer from the voxel room for the voxel /surface obj.

Retopo Room / select the polygons faces that are associated with the object. Those will be the ones you export only.

"Top menu" / Export/ Export Selected.

 

Since I do not know how your voxel room layer or retopo groups are set up, the above would be the easier way...

[alvordr]

OK, thanks.  I'm attaching the files and sending to you now.  Gonna take a while to get to you.

[alvordr]

It should be there now.

[alvordr]

Tnx m8.

[alvordr]

Thanks to Digman for helping me see some of the things I was missing.  I had unwelded verts for some reason, some ngons, and a couple of areas that needed a bevel.  I also figured out that the material I was using wasn't baking well.

[TimmyZDesign]

What is the best shader for baking?

[artman]

the best shader for baking is the orange "car paint" shader....you can replace the texture shader ball used in the shader by any of your liking by selecting the .dds image file of the shader in its folder if you want (ex:picmat clay) or use any shaderball image you made yourself.

All shaders that work with 3DCoats directional light cannot be baked (ex: lamblight,default shader ect...)

[alvordr]

I used the default shader.  While I have repainted it, I need to redo the darker metal to even it out a bit, but the barrel baked well.

 

[artman]

I used the default shader.  While I have repainted it, I need to redo the darker metal to even it out a bit, but the barrel baked well.

 

The default shader bake only base color it does not bake the lighting ...so basically....it bakes nothing . Taking the Fill tool and filling your layer with a full flat color gives the exact same result.

[digman]

I think alvordr did not want any lighting information baked into a regular texture. Also we were fixing problems, default shader is good one for that.

Plus AO baking is fine with the default shader, I found no problems with it.

 

I bake a number of times with the default shader as I do not want any lighting information baked into a regular texture but that again is a workflow decision...

[artman]

ao is not shader...its ao....he asked "What is the best shader for baking?" and end up using a shader that does not get baked.

Base  color is not shader its just a big flat color.At the moment only picmat shaders can be baked in 3Dcoat.

[digman]

@Artman , Yes, some confusion is going on here in our wording and what we desire so lets try and clear this up... I am all ears in a good way... 

 

The best shader, can that be different from one artist to another?

 

I base most of my personal shaders off the Granite shader as it gives a large number of parameters to use which inculdes the use of a normal map that gets baked as part of the paint room's normal map when merging and of course the texture map as well.

 

When you talk about lighting being baked, are you talking about the spec lighting for baking as stated in the carpaint shader's parameters...

 

It get alittle confusing when they are all listed as shaders, so maybe the use of "Shaders" is just a generic name for all of them whether they are a shader or fit the description of a shader.

[artman]

ok its true cubemap shaders get baked too...I forgot to mention.

 

But Default and Lamblight do not get baked....so they cant be a good shader for baking as they are the equivalent of having no shaders at all.

 

No,Im not talking about the spec light Im talking about the physical apperance of the shader Color+lighting using multilple projection blending Andrew implemented that gives result that is equivalent to when people bake shaders in Maya or 3DS max using "render to texture". I never inspected spec light baking but I think  it ends up a big flat grey tone

[artman]

not all picmat shaders use same projections blending and I found the orange car paint result being the closest to voxel room.

[digman]

Ok, thanks Artman... I remember now when Andrew was working on want you see in the voxel room is what you get in the paint room for shaders. I think that is one reason the shader layer is set to multiply in the paint room but could be wrong.

 

Now got a question, If all I want is a flat color and no lighting information then the default "cough, cough" shader would be the way to go. correct?  I have to choose one of them from our currect selections or personal made ones.

[artman]

Ok, thanks Artman... I remember now when Andrew was working on want you see in the voxel room is what you get in the paint room for shaders. I think that is one reason the shader layer is set to multiply in the paint room but could be wrong.

 

Now got a question, If all I want is a flat color and no lighting information then the default "cough, cough" shader would be the way to go. correct?  I have to choose one of them from our currect selections or personal made ones.

If you want to bake no shader information you can use either Default,Cook Torrance or Lamblight. Those 3 shaders are not compatible with shader baking at the moment.Maybe latter as Bronze shader which has ambient and directional light support baking but the result is much greenier than voxel room.

[TimmyZDesign]

Thanks for the info everyone!

[alvordr]

All I said was that I used the default shader to do my piece here, as the clay shader produced ugly results.