Lighting setup for texture baking?

[playmesumch00ns]

You could try using dirtmap to render an ambient occlusion pass, then multiply that with your normal colour textures in photoshop.

[racer_f50]

You could try using dirtmap to render an ambient occlusion pass, then multiply that with your normal colour textures in photoshop.
thanks for the tip, but i'm not sure what dirtmap is? guess i'll have to look into it:thumbsup:

[racer_f50]

well, after tinkering around with dirtmap and looking all over the net i serioulsy can't figure out how to use it properly.

do you still have to use a FG dome to get hte even lighting? cuz i just get a solid black model when i connect the dirtmap to the surface shader's color (what i read to do).

so can someone give a really clear explanation of how exactly to apply this to the model to get even lighting?

i'm using Maya 5 and of course using MR in my attempts.

[MunCHeR]

Well I havent baked a texture before, but changing your camera's colour is all you need, no need for a dome(if you're using a dome, make sure the normals are facing inwards) also why are you using a surface shader? I usually plug it into a liminance node then into the diffuse colour.You need a light in your scene with 0 intensity, you' probably know all this stuff but just covering some bases.

Cheers

MunCH

[racer_f50]

Well I havent baked a texture before, but changing your camera's colour is all you need, no need for a dome(if you're using a dome, make sure the normals are facing inwards) also why are you using a surface shader? I usually plug it into a liminance node then into the diffuse colour.You need a light in your scene with 0 intensity, you' probably know all this stuff but just covering some bases.

Cheers

MunCH
here's exactly what i have in my scene:
--the model i'm trying to shade
--one point light with 0 intensity

its my understanding that this dirtmap is supposed to light the model by itself, but i'm getting horrible results so far, nothing like the ambient occlusion passes i've seen rendered in things like Turtle.

from your post, this is what i gather you've done (see pic). is this conencted correctly? cuz when i render i just get a solid black image (my renders always show a solid black model, with no shading at all, no matter what color i tell the camera's environment to be)
http://sio.midco.net/mmonhoia/connections.png
this is with default settings on the dirtmap node.

maybe someone could post a small sample scene where this is used correctly?

[BillSpradlin]

I just pipe the dirtmap outValue to the outColor of the surface shader and don't use an Rgb->Luminance node in between.

[racer_f50]

I just pipe the dirtmap outValue to the outColor of the surface shader and don't use an Rgb->Luminance node in between.
i had tried that as well, but still did not get any results from the render, just a solid black model.

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