When using Cycles rendering, I have a problem of always having my colorful textures turn to black after I bake the object….

[Dustin Shaffer]

When using Cycles rendering, I have a problem of always having my colorful textures turn to black after I bake the object.

1-Create mesh
2-In edit mode, mark seams
3-Split screen showing 3-D view on left, and UV/Image editor on right
4-Create new image in UV/Image editor (I use the UV grid), name new image “TestImage”
5-In edit mode, select entire mesh and UV Unwrap, showing unwrapped image in the UV/Image editor
6-Move to the Nodes editor, select new Material and name it “TestMaterial”. I use the default Diffuse BSDF shader connected to the Material Output Surface node.
7-Add new Image Texture node and select “TestImage” from the selection menu, and leave the entire node unconnected from the shader node.
8-Go back to the UV/Image editor and I paint my UV map all bright green.
9-Save the TestImage to my hard drive.
10-In Nodes editor I click on the Image Texture node to highlight it (still unconnected to the shader node).
11-In the 3-D view I highlight the object I want baked.
12-Click Bake button (with Bake Type: Combined selected)
13-Finished product is an image texture that is all black, grey and not green at all.

Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong?

[Dustin Shaffer]

Oops, my bad. I did not realize that the environment around the object could have an affect on the baking, such as the lighting and the shadows in the scene.

Great tutorials by the way. Huge help in making 3-D assets and shorts.

[Kent Trammell]

I’m glad to hear you figured it out! Indeed, combined is not the pass you want. That includes everything from lighting to shader effects. You can use combined if you plug your image texture into an Emission node. Try the diffuse bake mode though.

Honestly though, I would just use Blender Render for the baking. Much more preferable workflow in my opinion.

[Dustin Shaffer]

Thanks a million! I definitely give that a try!

[Author]

Posts