Texture Baking Assistant for Blender

Welcome to the Texture Baking Assistant, a feature-packed add-on for Blender specifically designed to optimize and simplify your texture baking workflow. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned professional, this tool is perfect for those who primarily utilize Blender's built-in texture baking but find the process too complex or time-consuming.

Individual Material Baking: This mode focuses on baking each material of your object individually. It is especially useful when dealing with a single object that has multiple materials applied to it. The plugin takes care of separating each material and baking them separately, saving you time and reducing the complexity of the task. This mode gives you complete control over the baking process for each material, allowing you to fine-tune the results for your specific needs.

All Material to One Baking: As the name suggests, this mode combines all the materials of a single object into one texture. It's particularly useful when you want to simplify the material setup of an object with multiple materials. Instead of dealing with a separate texture for each material, you can manage a single texture that encapsulates all the materials. This mode can significantly simplify your workflow, especially for game assets where texture count and management can be critical.

Selected to Active Baking: This mode is perfect for baking details from one object onto another. For instance, you can bake details from a high-poly model onto a low-poly model, a common practice in game asset creation. The plugin will bake the details from the selected objects onto the active object, creating a texture that includes the detailed information from the selected objects. This mode also includes a "Bake from Applied" function that accelerates the baking process for complex objects.

Node Output Baking: This mode provides the flexibility to bake the output of any shader node. This is particularly useful when you want to bake specific parts of your material setup that aren't covered by the standard baking options. With Node Output Baking, you can select the specific node you want to bake from your node setup, providing you with a high degree of control and flexibility over your baking process.

These modes provide a comprehensive set of options for texture baking in Blender, allowing you to tackle a wide variety of baking tasks with greater efficiency and control. With the TBA version 1.4.0+, you can manage complex texture baking workflows with ease and precision.

What's new in 1.4.0:

1. PBR Texture Baking: Our plugin supports PBR texture baking based on the Principled BSDF. All inputs of the Principled BSDF are available for baking, offering you great flexibility and control.

2. Bug Fixes: We've corrected numerous issues related to incorrect plugin usage. For example, if you try to bake an object without selecting it, the plugin will now display an error message. Similarly, if you don't select a texture type for baking, an error message will indicate what went wrong.

3. Folder Organization: The plugin now bakes textures not into a single selected folder but creates separate folders with the name of the baking object. This feature is incredibly useful for batch baking.

4. Improved Object Handling: If any selected objects have no polygons after conversion, the baker will skip these objects.

5. OpenEXR Texture Baking: We've introduced the ability to bake textures in OpenEXR.

Latest Updates:

With the release of Version 1.4.0, we have introduced significant improvements to enhance your baking experience. We've introduced separate modes for Individual Material Baking, Selected to Active, and All Materials to One, offering a more intuitive experience. A progress bar has been added for the baking process, showcasing the number of baked textures, overall progress, and percentage readiness. And now, baking can be cancelled using the ESC key or the right mouse button. We've also made improvements to metallic baking and added a "Bake from Applied" function in the Selected to Active mode.

Why Choose Us?

The Texture Baking Assistant significantly automates the process, ensuring a fast, efficient, and user-friendly experience. It's constantly updated with new features and bug fixes, ensuring it remains the most convenient and straightforward plugin for baking in Blender3D.

The Texture Baking Assistant (TBA) is designed with simplicity and efficiency in mind. Instead of reinventing the wheel with a new interface, it slots seamlessly into Blender's existing interface, specifically in the Render Properties panel. This is the same location where Blender's standard baking functionalities are found, making it intuitive for users already familiar with Blender's workflow.

With TBA, you can control all of its features directly from the Render Properties panel. This design decision was taken to ensure a smooth learning curve and to provide users with a straightforward and efficient baking workflow. TBA strives to simplify the texture baking process in Blender, providing users with a streamlined, user-friendly experience that doesn't require learning a new interface.

With TBA, you can swiftly navigate through the baking process, choose from a comprehensive range of baking modes, and apply specific settings for each bake, all from one convenient location. The simplicity of its integration into Blender's interface underscores the plugin's goal to make texture baking quick, easy, and accessible to all Blender users.

Before you start baking with the Texture Baking Assistant, you'll need to specify a few initial settings to tailor the process to your needs. Here are the steps:

1. Choose the Texture Types: The first step is to decide what types of textures you want to bake. TBA provides a wide range of options, including Diffuse, Glossy, Emission, Environment, and many more. Select the ones that are relevant to your project.
2. Select the Baking Mode: Next, choose the baking mode that best suits your needs. TBA offers three main modes - Individual Material Baking, All Material to One Baking, and Selected to Active Baking. Each mode is designed for a specific use case, allowing you to have flexibility and control over your baking process. Additionally, there is a Node Output Baking feature, which can be accessed through a separate button in the plugin's footer. This feature is only available for the selected node.
3. Set the Image Size: Determine the resolution of your baked textures by setting the image size. High-resolution images capture more detail, but they also take longer to bake and use more storage space. Choose a size that strikes a balance between detail and efficiency.
4. Designate the Output Folder: Finally, specify the folder where you want to save your baked textures. Organizing your baked textures in a specific folder can help keep your project organized and make it easier to find and use your textures later.

After setting these initial parameters, you're ready to proceed with the baking process. The Texture Baking Assistant will take care of the rest, baking your chosen textures using the specified settings and saving them in your designated folder.

After setting your initial parameters, the next step is to select the objects you want to bake. Here's how you can do it:

Multiple Object Baking: One of the powerful features of the Texture Baking Assistant is its ability to bake multiple objects simultaneously. This means you don't have to go through the process of baking each object individually. Instead, you can select all the objects you want to bake at once. However, please note that this feature is only available for Individual Material Baking and All Material to One Baking modes.

For Individual Material Baking, the plugin will start baking all the materials for all selected objects separately. In the case of All Material to One Baking, for each selected object, the plugin will create a duplicate object and bake a unified version of the object's materials onto it.

Preparation for Baking: Make sure that UV unwrapping has been done for your objects, and all modifiers have been applied. If this is not the case, you can select the relevant options in the settings before baking for automatic creation. TBA will then handle UV unwrapping and apply the modifiers for you.

By carefully selecting your objects and ensuring they're properly prepared for baking, you can utilize the Texture Baking Assistant to its fullest and get the best possible results from your baking process.

Once you've set all your preferences, chosen your texture types, selected your objects, and chosen your baking mode, you're ready to start the baking process. Here's how you do it:

Start Baking: Click the "Start Baking" button. The Texture Baking Assistant will calculate the number of textures to be baked and initiate the process. You'll see a progress bar that provides updates on the number of baked textures, overall progress, and percentage readiness.

Cancel Baking: If for some reason you need to interrupt the baking process, you can do so by pressing the ESC key or the right mouse button in Blender's interface. This action will cancel the baking process as soon as the currently baking texture is completed. Interruption occurs between textures, allowing each texture to finish before the process is halted.

By following these steps, you can smoothly navigate the baking process using the Texture Baking Assistant. It's designed to make the process as efficient and straightforward as possible, giving you control over the baking and providing regular updates on the progress.

After the baking process is completed, you have the option to automatically create materials for each object. Here's how you do it:

Create Materials: If you didn't choose the option for automatic creation of materials before starting the baking process, you can do it now by clicking on "Create Materials". The Texture Baking Assistant will go through each baked texture for every object and automatically create materials for them.

This function is unique to the Texture Baking Assistant, and it's part of what makes the plugin so versatile and user-friendly. It allows for a high degree of automation in your workflow, making the process of creating materials for baked textures not just easier but more efficient as well. It's a feature you won't find in many other plugins, and it contributes to making Texture Baking Assistant a powerful tool for Blender users.

Blender is a fantastic software suite, but texture baking can often be a pain point for many users. Blender offers the ability to create intricate procedural materials, and there's a wealth of such materials available from various authors. However, these come with their own set of challenges - the more complex a material is, the longer it takes to render. The use of the EEVEE render engine becomes practically impossible with these complex materials. The Texture Baking Assistant plugin is designed to combat these challenges by baking the textures.

Though the baking process itself takes time, consider the amount of time you save during rendering, especially if you're creating animations. The plugin is structured to work with a wide range of procedural materials, disregarding the number of nodes if you're baking in the standard mode. If the procedural materials are based on the Principled BSDF, PBR baking becomes a feasible option.

The Texture Baking Assistant shines when it comes to optimizing complex, procedurally generated materials, allowing you to achieve high-quality results without the rendering headaches often associated with such materials. This is particularly useful for artists who need to use a wide variety of complex materials in their work, as it greatly simplifies and streamlines the workflow, saving significant time and computational resources.

Baking active nodes is another powerful feature of the Texture Baking Assistant. As an author of procedural material libraries myself, I can attest to the fact that sometimes, you don't need to bake the entire material. Rather, you need to bake only the active output node. For instance, in my Easy Material Setup library, nodes generating damage in the form of masks need to be baked to speed up the material's performance.

To cater to this need, I've created a function for baking the active node. This function will save the nodes with the selected settings in a folder named after the node and its output. It's also capable of instantly switching the baked result from the active node to the baked image. This feature can significantly streamline your workflow, especially when dealing with complex procedural materials that require specific parts to be baked. This way, you can focus on the aspects of your material that require baking, rather than having to bake the entire material, saving both time and computational resources.

The Texture Baking Assistant is an advanced plugin designed specifically for Blender users to optimize and streamline their texture baking workflow. Regardless of your expertise in the field, this tool is a valuable asset for all who find the standard texture baking procedure in Blender too complex or time-consuming.

This plugin significantly automates the texture baking process, transforming it into a fast, efficient, and user-friendly experience. With features such as PBR Texture Baking, users can bake all inputs based on the Principled BSDF, providing a high level of flexibility and control over the baking process.

In addition, the Texture Baking Assistant implements innovative solutions for common issues users face, such as object selection and texture type selection. These features are designed to prevent errors and make the baking process smoother and more intuitive.

The plugin also supports advanced folder organization for baking textures, creating separate folders for each baking object. This feature is especially beneficial for batch baking, helping to keep your projects organized and efficient.

Moreover, the plugin is equipped with improved object handling, skipping any selected objects that lack polygons after conversion, and the newly introduced ability to bake textures in OpenEXR format.

The Texture Baking Assistant is continuously updated, with each new version bringing a host of enhancements and bug fixes to provide the most convenient and straightforward baking experience in Blender3D.

What's includes in 0.9.7:

The Texture Baking Assistant (TBA) version 0.9.7 is an add-on for Blender that simplifies and optimizes the process of baking textures for a 3D object or scene. This version provides a robust set of features that significantly enhance the user experience and efficiency of texture baking in Blender:

1. Baking Modes: The TBA add-on version 0.9.7 offers two different modes for baking: Bake Individual Materials and Bake Selected to Active. These modes cater to various use cases, whether it's baking textures for a single object or multiple objects with different materials.
2. Baking Options: The add-on offers a range of baking options, including AO (Ambient Occlusion), combined texture, normal map, and specular map. This diverse range of options allows users to create a comprehensive set of textures for their 3D models.
   
   

   

3. Simplified Workflow: The add-on streamlines the baking workflow by allowing users to select which textures they need to bake and choose the folder to save them in. It also manages the creation of the baking node, which simplifies the process for the user.
4. Automated Material Creation: After baking, the plugin can automatically create materials based on the names of the textures. This feature enhances the workflow and saves the user time in post-processing tasks.
5. Image Settings: The user can adjust the resolution of the bake and the margin size, optimizing the quality and detail of the baked textures.
6. Baking for Selected Nodes: The plugin can perform baking for selected nodes, providing more flexibility for the user.
   
   

Note: The TBA version 0.9.7 is a free version of the add-on. While it provides a robust functionality and streamlines the texture baking process in Blender, the latest paid version offers a wealth of additional features, optimizations, and bug fixes. Upgrading to the latest version can significantly enhance your texture baking workflow and provide a more intuitive and user-friendly experience.