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Map Baking Techniques in Maya LT

by Justin Marshall

When working on 3D projects, games more specifically, using efficient assets is very important. Software required: Maya LT 2015.

What you'll learn

When working on 3D projects, games more specifically, using efficient assets is very important. There are limitations that make using very dense, highly detailed models impractical. They can be difficult to maneuver around a scene, and the topology may not be ideal for deformation. For this reason, we can transfer high resolution detail and color information from a high resolution model to a low resolution target and Maya LT provides tools for doing just that. In this tutorial we'll take a brief look at texture baking in Maya LT. We'll look at the Turtle Texture Baking interface and some of the basic settings to look for. We'll then transfer a color texture from one model to another. We'll also look at transferring detail via normal maps, baking ambient occlusion maps, and learn to bake lighting into a texture. Software required: Maya LT 2015.

About the author

Justin thrives as a lead modeling author at Pluralsight. Growing up, Justin found a deep interest for the computer graphics industry after watching movies like Jurassic Park, Toy Story, and The Abyss. His ambition would lead him to work at Sony Imageworks in Los Angeles on movies like Monster House and Surf's Up. Justin has also had numerous articles, tutorials, and images published in 3D World and 3D Artist. As an author, Justin enjoys collaborating with fellow authors, especially on project... more

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