Texture baking onto existing UV map?

A

Andreu

0
Texture baking onto existing UV map?

I am very excited about the new Texture Bake function, I think it is a great function. However, I have one question about UV mapping and texture baking, I could not find the answer on other posts.
If you create a UV map and then customize the groups of polygons to paint them more easily in Photoshop, is there a way to force the texture bake into using the UV map that you have modified?

Thanks in advance.
 
podperson said:
Yes, unless you create UV coordinates it uses the existing UV coordinates.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the answer. However, I don't see how it answers my question. I mean, I already have created a UV map. All I want is the texture bake to take advantage of the existing one, without changing the location of the elements in the UV map...Maybe I need to fidget a bit more with texture bake and UV mapping.
 
Texture baking usually involves two sets of UVs -- the one for the textures, and the one for the texture baking (they differ because, generally, textures get tiled or otherwise reused across models, and baked texture -- usually lightmaps -- need to map every face uniquely onto the map.

The usual process is:
1) UV map and texture your model (using UV1)
2) Generate UV map 2 automatically (with the texture baking tool)
3) Bake a texture map using UV2.

Unless you explicitly regenerate UV2, it won't change. You can change UV1 and it won't affect UV2. You can create UV2, bake a texture map, and rebake to the same UV coordinates.

Even if you have only one set of UVs (and this would need to uniquely map each face) you can generate a texture map without changing the UVs, so again the answer to your question is yes.
 
Hi podperson,

Thanks for taking the time to explain things to me. This clarifies many things. However, I feel that, if I understand your answers correctly, I can't do what I would like to do using UV1 and UV2. Let me explain graphically:

I have been working on a model to be incorporated in a racing game. First, I create a UV map for the textures of the model:

UV_map.jpg


Then, I export this UV map as a .pdf, open it in Photoshop, and add the textures on top of the UV map outlines. I export this image (minus the outline of the UV map) into a .tiff file, which will be placed in a Material for the object in C3D:

textures_on_map.jpg



Then, I want to texture bake another UV map so that I can add shadowing info to the textures I created in Photoshop, but C3D creates a texture bake UV2 which does not match the first UV. Note that I convert the texture bake into grayscale mode to control only the shadowing info:

texture_bake.jpg


Obviously, the baked texture does not match the texture I created for the UV1. It would be very useful, though, and this is precisely what I don't know if it can be accomplished.

Sorry if I'm being obtuse. :)
 
If the baked textures are different from your original textures, it is because you clicked on the "baking UV coords" button. When you click that button, it will rearrange your UV map. If you leave it alone, and just select the UV1 or UV2 setting, it will burn to the existing UV map.

Sorry to break this to you, but unless you kept a backup, your original UV map was replaced. If you didn't save, you are ok, but if you saved after clicking on "baking UV coords", you will have to redo your UV map.
 
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