Tutorial 2: Human head

This tutorial shows how to bake a human head the baking process for a character head.

The high poly model used as example can be found under the folder TotalBaker -> Models -> human_high.fbx.

The low poly model is located in TotalBaker -> Models -> human_low.fbx.

Open the total baker window by clicking on Window -> Total Baker -> Open Total Baker.

Drag the low poly model into the low poly object slot.
Set the "Normals" option is to "Import". The original model is already smoothed.

In the high poly object slot, drag or select the high poly model.
Set the Normals option to Import. This model comes smoothed, too.

Set the cage to Auto Generate Cage, and its offset to 0.05. In this way you force the system to generate the cage by creating an inflated copy of the low poly model.

Now, click on Update models in scene.

Your scene should look like this:



Now, open the "Output" panel, choose the output directory, a base name and set the resolution to 2048. Disable the Auto Update Preview option (you can always re-enable later).



Now, open the Maps panel.



In this example, we want to bake Diffuse, Normal, Metallic and Ambient Occlusion maps. Use the following settings:

1. Diffuse settings :
   
   -


2. Normal settings :
   
   The high poly model is smoothed, so you can choose the Interpolation method to get a smoother normal map.
   Also, it doesn't have any normal map on it, so just uncheck the "Bake Normal Details" option.


3. Metallic settings :
   
   -


4. AO settings :
   
   Set the AO algorithm to Fast. This method uses the GPU to produce an AO map based on the high poly's surface. Please note that to use this feature the high poly model must be UV unwrapped without overlapping faces.

Now, click on the button to start the baking process.



Once the process finishes, all the generated maps will appear in the preview area and the selected map’s filters will show up in the filters area. You can switch maps them using the buttons above the preview area.
You should see something like this:



As you can notice, there's a black seam in the back part of the model. This is caused by the background of the textures bleeds where the UV map is cut. To remove this ugly seam, the best thing is to dilate the generated textures. For further reading about edge padding and background bleeding, please visit this page.

Here are some convincing filters settings:

1. Diffuse
   
   Set the dilation value to 20. If you look at the lowpoly model, the black seam should be partially gone (the metallic map should delated, too).
   
   
2. Normal
   
   Set the dilation to 20 and Blur Large Details to 0


3. Metallic
   
   Set the Dilation to 20. Now, the black seam behind the head should be completely gone.


4. AO
   
   Use the settings as shown in the following image, and play a bit with them to see how the AO map and the model in scene react.
   
   
   
   

Now, look at the lowpoly model. If you’re satisfied by the result, clik on the icon to save the baked textures.

Congratulations! This tutorial is completed. Feel free to try a bake for other sample models. It shouldn't be too different by what you've done here (tip: use the same settings except for the AO method, that should be set to Classic since the other models are not unwrapped).