[Tutorial]how to Baking normal maps

Ellessarr

ok guys, here my last promised tutorial, it's time for the "bake", one of the most important process for peoples wanting "more detailed characters which normally they could not achieve, we gonna cover the process to bake high poly details in low poly and to bake the "bump map into the normal map, all the process will be made using subtance paint, then if you don't have acess to it, you can still use free stuffs like xnormals" which also "bake normals" but since i'm used to use more subtance and it's been a long time since i used xnormals and in some cases substance paint is better like it can bake multiple surfaces of the character at same time then i will be using it

 

let's go to the dsiclaimers, as aways english is not my native language then bear with it, you will find some errors here and there but i hope it not gonna be a issue to you not understand what i'm trying to say, well some peoples would say "then google translate" well i prefer try and misspelling than just go laze translate because in this way i'm learning and improving than just use a auto translate and to be fair when i have some words i do feel not being able to proper pass to english i do that or when i do feel a phrase don't go well i do that but overal i do prefer try for myself then bear with.

 

i will try to cover all the steps i normally do when i go bake a texture for character, all the needed maps and formats and some personnal tips.

 

remember this is not the only way or the best way, this is my way and probably you will find better ways than mine, it's supposed to be a "start" for peoples learn and improve overtime not something to take as aways do that.

 

before starting let's first learn a little about "what is baking and why it is important even with unreal 5 and nanites.

ok the bake process was created a long time ago basically because of games, because sculpting and rendering a "high poly model" is a lot of time consuming" and process which would be impossible to "replicate" for games, because games need a real time render, and until now rendering a really high poly model would be something to take even hours, which we can't wait in a game, then this process was created to be a way for peoples be able to get most of the high poly mesh details and after create a "low poly version of the model" be able to paint that details in the low poly in way where the right "light effects" will make it's looks like those details are "real" i means they looks like where sculpted in the model rater than painted, making a low poly character looks amazing as much as possible as a high poly,  this process also created the other famous process called retopology, which is exactly the process of "reduce the poly count" of the high poly model to a low poly, which is not the focus here, but just to know.

 

well the bake process normally need you have 2 versions of the model, the original high poly model and the "low poly model", where the high poly can be a obj and the "low poly can be a fbx or obj too, the process make all the shadows which the high poly model cast over the details be throwed at the low poly creating the illusion" of where is the shadows you have a difference where it don't have, here my classic exemples:

Before bake      After bake 

the meshe still the same as the first picture the bake process just throwed a lot of shadows all over the mesh giving it the effect making it's looks, for this tutorial i will be making it only for the skin character, which means arms, ears, face, lips, legs and torso, any other part of the character body will be removed/ignored because this process is for the skin, for mouth, eyes and others you must bake each one "alone" because the bake process use the "illumination" in the scene then whenever something is "hidden" or being covered by others mesh parts this area can generate a "artefacts(bug) then since mouth and teeths and eyes will be or parcially or totally hidden then it's no good try to bake then with the skin then the tutorial will cover using only the skin mesh, don't worry you can export the full character to the scene, the bake process is just to generate the normal maps you not gonna need the edited mesh in game it's just a reference to create the maps.

ok let's start i will do it in steps

 

1 - choosing and preparing the character for bake

   tip: as long the base character is the same for exemple genesis 8 female, you can apply the baked normal map into base genesis 8 female, then any details from any other g8 female, like charllote, zalora, even female monster ofcourse some monster details being baked in a normal body can look ugly but the idea is as long all the characters are sculpited from genesis 8 female they will work on her and between each one.

 

for this tutorial i will be using the base genesis 8 female:

 

first of all i will go on her parameter and go to the mesh resolution and set it to max as show here:

it will bring her to her highest resolution inside daz it's important for when you want to make the bake be the best as possible, even when the hd character is not on the "max" resolution aways set it to the max, like if this play let's say 1/5 chance to 3 or 4(max allowed)/5 it will bring the highest resolution it will be a little heavy on daz and your machine but it's ok

then for the tutorial i will use those morphs

https://www.daz3d.com/aging-morphs-bundle-for-genesis-8-female-s-and-male-s

then after apply the "age on her" let's see how cute and wonderfull and waifu material she becomes:

wow  a hot milf 

ok since we setup the character to the highest we can see a lot of details which not gonna be exported to unreal and will be lost

let's just export it using the bridge i will use the base level or 0, then using the bridge let's export the model to unreal

as you can see all the details "disappeared", it's because the model is on it base resolution which is too low to hold all those details, then let's start the magic, let's go back to daz and start the preparations:

 

first the "pose", the current daz genesis 8 pose while for most of the characters is fine for some characters speciallly the "large ones" or too bulk" it can be bad, because some body parts get too close to each other and we know which is not good have "body parts too close because it can generate "our loved artifacts then we must make some adjusts

first adjust the arms, go again to the paramenters but this time instead of parameters look for "posing" and click on it, then you will see it:

thyen in pose controls you gonna click not in the g or the name but on the arrow before the g it will open the tree as here

 

then you gonna click on "arms

then in the options appeared you gonna look for the arms up-down option, moving the bar to the negative will move the arms down, moving the bar to the positve will move arms to up, we gonna up it a little any number between 25 and 30 is good enough, optionally instead of move the bar you can click direct in the 0.0% number and enter numbers then again between 25 and 30 what you feels better is good, i will go with 30.

 

now it's time to also adjust the fingers, then you gonna click in the fingers then you gonna look for the options "right hand spread and left hand spread, each one you gonna set again any number between 25 to 30 it will spread a little more the fingers, this will help the bake process to be more precise.

now you gonna for the feet and do the same for the toes you gonna look for the left and right toes spread and again this time a little more between 30 and 50, since the character is not that fat and the legs are not that tight then you don't need to space the legs but in case the character model have too tigh legs you also would need to spread a little the legs, then in that case just go to legs and legs spread and spread a little between 10 and 20 not too much.

now time for eyes and mouth.

to proper bake the eyes and make sure when the character blink or close the eyes you not gonna see a really weird shadow bug you need to 'close the character eye while for the mouth the opposite you need to open, then you gonna click in the arrow before the "head" then eyes and mouth in the eyes you gonna look for eyes closed and set it around 90 to 100&(it can go up to 120 but you don't need), then go for mouth and look for mouth open(don't need to click in the arrow before the name mouth) then any number between 50 and 100 is good.

if everything is fine you character will be looking like this:

now time to remove the not needed extra mesh, which means, eyes, finger nails, toenails, mouth and teeths, you don't need it to bake the skin, if you want to bake those stuffs you must do it apart and make a bake for each one alone and follow the rules like for the mouth and teeths the mouth need to be the most open possible with everything being most visible as possible the eyes the same and bla bla bla.

to make this post less giant as possible i will link this:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/6800036/#Comment_6800036

on this i explanning on how to proper remove all the not needed stuffs.

 

now time to export it to bake, first we not gonna use the bridge to it, this time we gonna export by the normal way daz have to export clicking in file----> export, then will appear a window to choose the local name and file type to save, let's start with the high resolution mesh which means the hd, then for that we gonna be choose to save as a obj instead of fbx then name was you want, for me will be oldladyhd, then click save a new window will pop up

the 2 marked options with the blue arrow are the most important for you to be marked all the others are fine looking like mine then hit accept

now after it finish the work you gonna again export can be the same name but this time you will choose the fbx, extension/format instead of obj, then after choose a name and choose fbx formate to save click in save, then again a new window will appear different from the obj

again the ones i've marked with the blue arrow are the most important

then click on accept, now it's time to open the substance paint, after it finish to load the you go file ----> new then a window appear clcik on select

then choose the place where you saved the fbx and the obj then choose the fbx and click open then it will open the fbx file and all the surfaces as here:

now in the right side where its show's texture set list

then more in low layers/texturing setting first you gonna clikc on each ot the materials start on the arms anyway, then with arms selected, you gonna clikc in the "texturing settings

then it will change for this

then you gonna click on the "+"(plus) and choose ambient occlusion and specular, it will enable both maps to be created, you will do it for each material you have to go for ears then enable ambient occlusion and specular then go face, well all the materials, when you finally enabled all.you gonna click on the layers and it go back to the first look, then again on each material you gonn add a fill layer and delete the current layer to add a fill layer look at the icon with a bucket droping, the will appear the name fill layer then click on the icon it add a fill layer then after added a fill layer into all you will delete the old layer for bake you really don't need it unless you want to add yourself something otherwise just delete, click on the old layer and press delete, you again will do it to all materials.now when all materials have only the fill layer you gonna click again in texture setting, the scroll down until you find the option bake mesh maps then click on it

when click on it a new window appear

here what you have to look for is "unmark "id", you will remove the mark on id then where it's saying high definition mehses you gonna click on the icon with the text paper after the big black square, the it open a window for you to choose the high resolution obj, then select it and click on open then on the big empty black square the obj will appear for you to choose make sure it's selected, now the next step is look to where it's saying:

max frontal distance and max rear distance, going from my experience with it without going too deep, click on the numbers and where it is 0.01, change to 0.001 in both, this is to make the number more precise as possible when baking the texture you also have others stuffs and options here but i never played with then and some of then requer you work with stuffs like blender and others steps well in the end they where not really important for us, by doing just those ones are enough then again make sure which in the big black square the obj is selected/highlighted, then if everything is fine click on bake all textures sets, it will bake not just the current one you selected but all the materials , if everything is right your panel will be looking like this one

then wait for its does the job

as you can see the old lady now really looks more "old"

now it's time to add some extra details in case you want if the character already have a "normal map" (which normally don't have many details as it was supposed to have) you can dd it to the final normal map, you just have to go to any daz character open it and looks for where it's being stored all his textures to findo it after load a character, in the window where it is paramenters you gonna look for sufarce then with the character selected you gonna click in the arrow before the character name then options appear you gonna look for surfaces then click on the arrow before the name the more options will appear then you will choose one like for exemple torso or arms then just after the name you choose you gonna see a option "base color" with a little texture map and paramenters then you gonna click on the little texture then choose browse the it will open for you the place where the maps are save to choose one, you not gonna choose anything rater than you gonna select the full area where it is store as appear in this image

then after you select/mark everything here, you gonna right click and choose copy then in your windows you gonna open a new windos explore lik this

then in the fast acess you will replace for the one you copy from the other window and press enter

then it will be something like that

now from this window you can choose the textures you want in this case will be the normal maps and bump map ignore all the others and you will choose only the normal and bump for, arms, face, legs and torso, they will have all the parts you need for the skin the bump maps are the ones with a B_ in the name then after select the 4 first maps which will be the normals go around and look for the bump maps for all those 4 too and save it in another folder, remember you must copy "don't move' otherwise you can screw you daz later, you have to make copies and you gonna use those copies in the substance or if you are like me lazy or want to have all the maps you can just select all the maps and copy to another place, now after made the copies you wanted/needed time to go back to substance paint.

now you have to pay attention to the "shelf" where it's marked then you gonna click on the icon with a square and a arrow entering on it, which means import click on it, this new window will open

then click on add resources, in my case i choose the normal maps, the bump and speculars, the specular are the ones with the "S_" obvious as here:

ok now where it's shaying undefined you gonna click and choose texture for all, after you set all to texuter you gonna now clikc on where it's sayhing import your resources to: click on the arrow and if you don't plans to "save" anything just choose current section if you choose another option it will create a new copy for the subtance which honestly you don't need then just making a temporary save with the current session is enough, after you choose the current session you wil be able to clikc in the import buttom, then again in the shelf where it was displaing all the subtance materials it will show now only the textures you exported don't worry about it now it's time to add those stuffs.

 

now is the reason you created fill layers in your layers it allow you to direct throw the texture into the material then tis time you gonna look to the right side where it is "properties-fill, then scrolling down you will see the material then under it many options with color, hieght, rough, metal, nrm, ao, spec,

you will keep scrolling down then you gonna see it:

each of those paramenter is for one of those textures in the blue square into material, remember those options are for each body part material in my case i've selected torso then those are for the torso you will have to make the same stuff for each body part material

then we gona ignore color for now and just pay attention to normal, height and specular then for each of those you gonna click like in my case is torso then i gonna click and hold in the torso normal on the left side in the shelf and drag it to where ir write normal uniform color

before after 

 

based on the normal you are using you gonna notice a little change in the mesh, then you will do the same for each body part and the same for each option, normal, specular and height, for height you use the bump map, when appling the bump map to the character in many cases you can notice it can start to look like a mumy being too much strong the bump map we will fix it later, is on the bump which artists like to store stuffs like pores and others details. and you must adjust the values because the normal value is too strong, also a tip i've found in a very exclusive case where is not good add specular maps, because somehow they are made in a weird way where like for exemple the arms map is bigger than the torso in way which it just don't work i've tried a lot and just give up, it's just in really rare cases most of the times will work normal. well let's go back, now again for each body part you must applie the normal map the bump and specular if you had added, after that let's fix the "bump" to fix the bump making the character look totally screwed, you will go back to where it is layer/texturing setting then choose layers, then on each material with the fill layer selected you will look to where it's saying "base color

then click on it and choose height  then it will change to something like that:

then where is the 100, you will click on it, here is the strengt of the texture where's 100 means 100% strengt, we gonna reduce it to numbers between 10 and 20 what you feel looks more "normal" and real", those are the general value but sometimes some body parts can ask for "more or less" then just play with numbers until you feel satisfied.

 

now we finally fixed the numbers, now is time to save the texture and here's come's another trick

tip: first the base configurations: whenever you create a texture you must choose to create it as target, for unreal engine it's the best format, it keeps more data info stored in the picture than even the jpeg, then use targa

then go to the file and choose export texture

this new will window appear

where's it's say png you will click and choose targa format then here's come another of mine tips and way to work, you gonna now click on configuration, then this window will open

mine already have some extra i've created but ignore, you gonna look at the left for the mesh maps, in my image you have a mesh display spec, well it was the one i created but you must ignore it for now and focus on the first one which is the simple mesh display, you will select it and choose duplicate it will create a copy of it as here:

if you want you can rename it right clicking on it and choosing rename but let's ignore it, then you gonna click on this copy, then where it's saying current preset:name your copy you will see a list of all the maps will be generated

you will remove almost all leaving only ambient occlusion and normal_base, then in the normal_base you gonna clikc on the pink rgb cube and choose clean channel, then in the right side where's it's saying converted maps you wil click and drag and drop on the cube choosing the option "rgb channels", then it wil change to something like green now we gonna create a new map which will be the specular for that click in the buttom "RGB" after the "create option" a new map will be created then you will rename it like this:

$textureSet_Specular  

exactly like this

then in the grey cube you will this time you pay attention to the input maps and will look for the specular then do the same click and drag to the gray cube and choose again RGB channel if you did all right then it will looks like this:

then now choose the export where's it is export/configuration, make sure the format still targa then in the "config" look for the one you created now, if everything is fine it will be looing like this:

if you want to choose where to save the textures click in the bar where it's saying c:/user... bla bla it will open a window for you to choose where to save the textures, after you choose it hit export, when finished it will open a little option where you can choose to open a new window where you saved it to see or just hit ok, then you created your "normal map, ambiente occlusion and specular, well you gonna ask me where i do use ambient occlusion?? it don't have on the daz material well you have to create this when know how to edit the skin material you can add it to have the ambiente occlusion, this map is to help generate better shadows, if you already saw david tutorial or explanation about how to edit or create your own materials/shaders then you can do that otherwise other time i will teach how to add the ambient occlusion map, but for now you have at last the specular and normal maps, in case the base character don't have a specular then you have at last the normal map, this normal map will be the combination between the baked high normal map+ normal map you added + the bump map" making a really complex normal map.

 

as way i'm not a super expert on this, just have some experience then while i can't say which for sure i will answer any question i will try to answer the ones i can

 

have a nice week, nice weekend, be safe and health, cya bye bye til next time.

 

josueramos1293

OH MAN!!! You are amazing, the end result is better than expected, thanks for the tutorial!