Texture Baking Tips - Part I
Hey guys, I just wanted to share with you a few texture baking tips and tricks that I've learned in the past four years in the VFX industry, working as a texture painter. This trick I learned from my mentor and friend Justin Holt, and it is super useful during my texture workflow. I also bake other curvatures using Substance Painter, Mightybake and Mari, but Zbrush's Curvature is by far the fastest method.
You can check a more in-depth article in my website: http://www.paulhpaulino.com/7-steps-to-create-a-quick-curvature-mask-in-zbrush
Let me know in the comment section what kind of breakdown you would like to see in the future!
1 - Import your asset and subdivide a few times. This will avoid having weird faceting artifacts in your bake.
2 - Set your render to FLAT mode, so you we can see the mask clearly
3 - Go to MASKING > MASK BY SMOOTHNESS
4 - Dial your RANGE and FALLOFF until you get the desired effect
5 - This is the best part about this method. You can adjust the mask as much as you want, having full control of it's smoothness and sharpness.
6 - When you're happy with the result, go to COLOR > SELECT BLACK > FILL OBJECT to fill the mask with a solid color.
7 - Go to ZPLUGIN > MULTI MAP EXPORT and choose TEXTURE FROM POLYPAINT and set your file name accordingly. The export will be suprisingly fast! Have fun!
BONUS - This video shows how I usually use these masks in production to create color variations.