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Bake or "render to texture"


SteveH
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Hi All,

 

I was wondering if there is a way in 3DCoat to take the depth, colour and glossiness maps of a PP painted object and burn/bake/'render to texture' the whole lot down to just a single colour/diffuse map based on whatever lighting I have set up.

 

The reason I need to do this is that I make costumes that are actually in the real world ie. we digitally print fabric and then put it all together. So I want a static texture with the bump and specularity "locked in".

Currently we get away with it by using photographed references and paint them into the model.

 

I can't just export the separate maps because the process of flattening out the individual panels means that the light is no longer accurate. I've attached an image of a typical set of patterns (a giraffe in this case) to give you an idea of what I'm dealing with.

 

If it can't be done in 3DCoat has anyone got any bright ideas of a workflow? 

 

Oh, and while I'm here - let me say what a pleasure it is to use 3D Coat. Fantastic work.

 

Thanks, Steve

post-29435-0-34872700-1425367076_thumb.j

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Not sure if i understand you correctly, but i dont think that works.

Sure you could export it as PSD file with all layers. Then you have Diffuse, Bump and Spec in one file. But thats all.

Bump and Specular wont be splittet in separate layers if you paint everything in one layer. But i dont use a professional PS Version, i use PS Elements and Gimp and thats all what i see.

Maybe with CS6 or above you get a different result.

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Thanks for the reply Malo.

 

I didn't explain it very well. I have a limitation in the process I use that I can only use the diffuse map for the final output to go to the digital printer.

 

So what I want is some way to burn the effect of the bump and spec maps onto the diffuse map. Then I would have the extra detail from the bumps and spec. Think of it as a render of a static scene with all that you see recorded on the diffuse map.

 

Maybe there is a way to combine the various maps in Photoshop using layer blending modes to simulate this?.

 

I know it's a weird request but if anyone has any ideas I'd be very grateful.

 

Cheers, Steve 

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I still dont think that is possible.

You have to create your All-in-One texture in an external programm.

 

I dont know any area where you need textures like you need.

You dont find that in games, vfx, movies, renderings or any other application.

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Thanks Malo, I figured as much

 

 

I dont know any area where you need textures like you need.

You dont find that in games, vfx, movies, renderings or any other application.

 

The reason is that I am building physical objects ie. not screen based. Last time I checked there wasn't a high powered GPU creating the sights we see ;-)

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So you want to print color, bump and specular or gloss all at the same time and you only have one channel to do it on? (I know little about 3D printing). Can you print 'bumps' or dents from a file if that is the sole user of the channel? It would seem that the printer needs channels for these other properties because you can't fake it as with Normals. The baking should take care of the bumps if a displacement map is needed but the printer needs to know how to use the file.

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Hi Tony,

I'm doing a fabulous job of not explaining myself very well ;-)

I'll try again and see if I can do a better job.

I make large scale inflatable sculptures and costumes.

I model the object usually in Tsplines, then UV map and texture it in 3dcoat.

Then I move to another program and flatten it out into patterns (just like a clothing pattern, but more complex).

Then these patterns are nested to match the fabric size.

Next this is rendered out and printed on large format digital printers.

The resulting prints are then cut out and sewn or welded together to recreate the 3D object.

This all works just fine with something that it just textured with a diffuse map only.

The problem I am trying to solve is how to add bump and specularity. If I have a bump map applied, when the flat patterns are all arranged for printing their orientation no longer matches reality and it obviously looks truly bizarre.

So what I need to be able to do is set up a lighting scheme then burn the lighting, bump, spec and diffuse maps all down to one map in the same UV space. In other words, "render to texture" as 3DSMax calls it.

I suppose I can just go and buy 3DSMax, but it seems overkill for one function.

Cheers, Steve

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I have a little question about the final result.

Why want you a bump and specular on a fabric material?

I mean if you have a jeans cloth, it have its own bump in real, and the specularity comes from the real lightning that is around you.

Or if you want to create something like a teddy bear or other toy that is buildup like clothes.

You have fur on arms, lags and bodys and then extra materials for the eyes or nose.

 

What are you trying to do?

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Ok, What you are describing sounds likes you need to bake lightmaps where the Diffuse, Spec and Normal map/bumps plus lighting information are baked into one uv map/image. The same you would do for a game engine. Render to Texture is the word for it in 3DMax. Lightmaps is the more general common word to use.

No need to spend money. Blender can bake lightmaps...

 

Now I just did this quick bake in Blender of a model please to not judge the quality.

I imported the model into 3DC after baking in Blender and applied only the baked diffuse map to the model.

The model you see in the 3DC viewport has no lighting information on it from the 3DC lights or Hdr. I switched to flat shade (view menu) where no lighting information is calculated.

No normal map information from using a normal map in 3DC.

 

All the information Diffuse and Normal map plus Blender scene lights are in one uv map image including the shadow on the right side of the model from my Blender light.

I used no spec in this example.

 

The flat uv map is shown in the texture editor, right side of image. The two darker spots are the baked shadows inside the cylinder and the other lighter one is the shadow side of the model all baked into the image plus again the normal map information as well.

 

The Workflow.

Create your maps in 3DC as normal.

Export the model and textures.

Import into Blender.

Set up your lights according to how you want the light and shadows to fall on the model.

Use the Baking tool for selecting the combined render pass. I use Cycles for Baking because it will use my GPU

Bake then save that image and you are done...

The above is the workflow not a tutorial.

 

I hope this is what you are looking for...

 

I will be back with a better example but thought I throw this out if you stopped by...

post-518-0-42089600-1425732652_thumb.jpg

Edited by digman
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This goes with the above post...  another quick example image...

Diffuse, Normal and Spec plus lighting information baked to one uv map image using Blender.

Again the model is shown with no 3DC lighting or normal map use only what has been baked in using Blender's baking tool.

post-518-0-60448800-1425738780_thumb.jpg

Edited by digman
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Need to clear a question that might be asked about the normal map part of the operation in Blender using the baking tool. The AO, lighting and other information that is produced by the applied normal map is calculated into the baked map. No real normal map is bake. In the baking tool if you just bake for the normal map you will get a blank normal map.

 

You still get the appearance of depth in the image through the other calculations that are based off the applied normal map.

 

In order to get a real normal map. You would have to bake from a high polygon to a low polygon model. That is a method that could be used as well baking from high to low to get a combined baked map.

 

The above information is to the best of my knowledge. If have misunderstood anything by all means correct my information...

 

In the picture on the left is the combined baked map in Blender. On the right is the model rendered in cycles with the diffuse, spec and normal maps from 3DC applied before baking the combined map.

 

In my other post I forgot to update the world color so it appears more pinkie in 3DC. I corrected it here in this picture. I also forgot to change the uv island bleed, so it is a little big in this picture... I should write this stuff down, I got so much 3D stuff rolling around in my brain it leaks out when needed...  :blink:

post-518-0-25087700-1425756886_thumb.png

Edited by digman
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Digman, Thankyou so much. That is exactly what I needed to know.

I'm out of the office today but I am looking forward to trying it tomorrow.

I'll let you know how I go.

Many thanks for describing the process so clearly.

Steve

Edited by SteveH
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  • 4 weeks later...
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Got swamped with a zillion projects and couldn't get around to trying this until now.

 

Yesterday installed Blender and spent 12 hours getting up to speed.  

 

After several false starts, I ended up exporting just the diffuse map and a tangent space Normal map and wired that up in Blender as per the attached.

This worked pretty well. It baked down to a single diffuse map really nicely. Pretty slow though, since I was using 8K textures and I think Cycles is not yet using the GPU for baking which is a waste of my nice Quadro.

 

More research and practice to do, but it seems to work well.

 

A huge thankyou to Digman for pointing me in the right direction.

 

Hmmmm - now for some reason I can't attach an image to this post except by uploading it and linking to it. Oh well here it is.

 

Thanks, Steve

 

Blender_3Dcoat_normals.jpg

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Cycles can use the GPU or CPU for baking...

You might be interested in the Bake Add On Tool for Blender since in your line of work, you might be baking a lot.  This add on is not free but cost about 15 dollars...

Here is a video link for the Bake add on tool so you can check it out if you so desire.

https://cgcookie.com/blender/2014/11/04/using-baketool-addon-blender/

 

There is a link to the market place under the video.

Edited by digman
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AwesomeBump -free-

http://awesomebump.besaba.com/

or

You need to make two renders in render room at screen resolution
One from front and one from the back
Save camera position for each
Then go to sculpt room (haven’t tried from paint room)
Import the two renders as stencil
Set up one stencil from camera and hit reset to adjust to screen size
Set up projector from stencil
Save file in case next action produces crash
Do fill layer with projection
Deactivate projector
Go to paint room and create new layer
With paintbrush and rectangle stroke mode paint all you see to create a mask (ignore back faces)
You need to paint many times with rectangle to cover all
Hide layer and set it up as clip mask for filled layer with render
Do the same on other side with second render
Go to flat shading mode and blend the two layers on new layer

(Thx Silas Merlin !)

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AwesomeBump -free-

http://awesomebump.besaba.com/

Interesting. And it's free! :o

Are there any specific advantages over Bitmap2Material 3? I already have a license for it.

I'd love to see some comparison between the quality of maps generated by both programs. Maybe somebody already tried it? ;)

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  • 4 weeks later...
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Sometimes bake function is needed,For example  you are developing a 3D mobile game(or web application),But the performance is not satisfactory,

It can not achieve real-time advanced lighting effects, Bake (Render to texture)function will provide better results,and It‘s still running fast.

This is a useful feature for those who need it.

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