BakeMaster Blender Baking Addon

3 ratings

About BakeMaster

We all know that models with loads of geometry require way more computer power to render. On the other hand, lowpoly model is easier to handle, and you can transfer high-resolution details onto it. This is called texture baking, and BakeMaster delivers everything you need to get it fast and of the highest quality.

Introduction

Welcome to BakeMaster, a powerful and feature-packed baking solution created for Blender.

Along with the BakeMaster's intuitive and convenient workflow baking process becomes a pleasure. The addon is for users who can't stand wasting time and yearn for most functionality with professional and cutting-edge baking features.

With it, baking feels like a new book. Everything is right in your hands, under control, and easy to access and configure. Created by artists, BakeMaster is straightforward and comfortable to use, yet lands with numerous tweaks and toggles to fully meet your ultimate texture baking preferences.

Baking with BakeMaster takes only three steps:

Setup Objects
Choose Maps
Hit Bake!

An unlimited number of objects and maps to bake, each driven by unique or grouped settings - carry it all out with BakeMaster!

Why creators choose BakeMaster

Baking standardly with Blender is ok. But what about baking dozens of models with a desire to have different settings, maps, masks, or view how baked maps will look like, make sure your objects have a correct shading set up, perform a Channel Pack, or any other highly requested task? It can easily lead to losing valuable time. Here is when BakeMaster comes into play. It can manage all of that in seconds and with a few clicks!

Have complex materials? Never worry about the nodes again: toggle a couple of settings, and BakeMaster will configure it all for you. Are Cycles maps gone? Not just yet - simple UI and manageable settings make it feel cool.

For whom is BakeMaster

Whether you come from Game Dev, prepare and texture your models, or bake for fun, BakeMaster is for you.The addon fits beginners as well as proficient users. Comfortable creation tools saving you time and making your artistic thoughts never jump out of the boat are vital.

Key features

Bake an unlimited number of objects and maps.
Drive with 36 different map types.
Match all lowpolies, highpolies, decals, and cages in a single click.
Enhance your texturing with loads of special maps and masks.
Outstanding configuration, customize everything.
Preview maps before baking, real-time.
UDIMs? No problem.
Texture Sets. Bake multiple objects onto the same images.
Channel Pack maps the way you prefer.
Group objects into bake jobs.
Turn on Denoising and Supersample AA, for UDIMs too.
ACES out of the box, Default Rules and Color Management for pro artists.
Bake Decals separately and onto objects.
Bake from and to Vertex Colors.
Fastest ID Map.
Save time with presets and execute any task on the go.
Get the best results.

Learn the ropes of BakeMaster

Click on the hyperlinks to view the most important sections in the online Documentation, or follow them below.

The Setup

Getting Started

Advanced

Installation

Make sure the Blender version you use is compatible with BakeMaster.

Download BakeMaster

Download the latest BakeMaster addon version from the Blender Market or Gumroad.

Go to your Blender Preferences and install the downloaded zipped folder.

Open Blender
Go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons
Click "Install"
Choose the downloaded zipped folder
Enable the addon

It is recommended to install the latest BakeMaster version, as it delivers more stability, improvements, and features.

If you have a previous version of BakeMaster running, make sure you uninstall it first:

If you have any issues with installing the addon, feel free to reach out for help.

Access BakeMaster in Blender

BakeMaster can be accessed in the 3D Viewport. Hit the "N" key on your keyboard and you'll see the side menu pop up on the right. Head over to the addon's panel called "BakeMaster".

Setup Objects

Choose Objects

To start settings up maps (image textures) for the mesh objects you want to bake, add these objects to the Table of Objects. Do it by pressing the "Add" button on the top:

If you have highpolies or cages beside lowpoly models, add them to the Table too.

Name Matching

BakeMaster can automatically match all your lowpolies, highpolies, and cages with each other. To do so, press the "ɑ" button (Containers will form):

Additional Controls

The Table of Objects provides additional controls for the Objects in it.

You can read about them here.

Object settings

Select the object in the Table of Objects to configure its settings.

High to Lowpoly

Mind this section if you plan to bake from high to lowpoly meshes.

Table of Highpolies

Table of all added highpolies for the current object.

Add Highpoly

Add new highpoly for the current object.

Remove Highpoly

Remove the current highpoly from the table.

Read more about High to Lowpoly panel here.

UVs and Layers

Configure crucial UV and other settings for the object like bake to Image Textures or Vertex Colors.

UV Layer for bake

Choose UV Map to use for baking.

UV Layer Type

Set the type of chosen UV Layer for bake. Single - single tile, Tiled - UDIM tiles, Automatic - automatically determine if the chosen UV Layer for bake is single-tiled or uses UDIMs.

Read more about UVs and Layers panel here.

Shading Correction

Let BakeMaster save you time with important mesh normals and shading correction that can decrease the number of projection glitches when baking from highpoly.

Triangulate lowpoly

Enable lowpoly triangulation. Takes time but improves lowpoly mesh shading with redundant UV stretches.

Recalculate lowpoly normals outside

Recalculate lowpoly mesh vertex and face normals outside.

Enable smooth-shaded lowpoly

Use smooth-shaded lowpoly for baking. Can be kept unchecked if you've set up the shading on your own.

Read more about Shading Correction panel here.

Decal Object

When baking decals separately, configure Decal Object baking.

Enable Decal Object

Set the current object to be the Decal Object.

Read more about Decal Object panel here.

Bake Output

Specify how you want to output the baked result.

Batch name

Output files naming convention. Write keywords starting with $, any additional text can be added. View available keywords by hovering over this setting.

Output filepath

Directory path on your disk to save baked maps to. “//” is relative to the blend file.

Create material

Assign a new material to the object after the bake with all baked maps included.

Hide when inactive

if checked, the object won't affect any other objects while baking.

(more about visibility groups)

Choose Maps

Add Maps first

Each object has a list of added maps. The slideshow below will guide you through.

Table of Maps

Table of all added maps for the current object.

Add Map

Add a new map pass to the table.

Remove Map

Remove the current map from the table.

Map Preset

Load/save the Map panel Settings to a preset.

(more about presets)

Remove all maps

Remove all added maps from the table.

Active/current map

Select a map in the table to configure its settings. Click on the map in the table to choose its type in 36 available.

Map Settings

Each map has got custom map settings.

Map Types

BakeMaster can bake 36 different map types, here are some of them:

Albedo

Glossiness

Opacity

Vector Displacement

Position

Cavity

Curvature

XYZ Mask

Gradient Mask

Edge Mask

Wireframe Mask

Map settings

Besides the map type mentioned above, there's more to tweak.

Map Customization

Read how you can fully customize each map here.

Real-time Preview

Preview how the map will look when baked!

Albedo Metallic

Metalness

Rougness

Albedo Specular

Specular

Glossiness

Opacity

Emission/Lightmap

Normal

Displacement

Vector Displacement

Position

Decal Pass Normal

Cavity

Curvature

Thickness

Mask

XYZ Mask

Gradient Mask

Edge Mask

Wireframe Mask

BSDF Pass IOR

Vertex Color Layer

Format Settings

Configure output format settings for maps.

Unique per map

Set unique format settings for each map.

File Format

Choose a file format for output image files. BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, EXR.

Map Resolution

Specify the output map resolution. You can choose between the common ones or set custom.

Transparent BG

Create image texture with a transparent background instead of solid black.

SSAA

Supersample anti-aliasing. Improve image quality by baking at a higher resolution and then downscaling to a lower resolution. Helps to remove stepping, jagging, and dramatic color difference near color area edges.

(read more about SSAA)

Adaptive Sampling

Automatically reduce the number of samples per pixel based on the estimated noise level.

(read more about samples)

Bake Samples

Number of samples to render per pixel.

(read more about samples)

Denoise

Denoise and descpeckle baked maps as a post-process filter.

(read more about denoising)

Map Unique Settings

You can make High to Lowpoly, UVs and Layers, or Format Settings unique for each map. For this, turn on "Unique per map" in these panels. Then, select a map and customize the settings.

Hit Bake

Start the Bake

Overwrite

If checked, old bake files in the output directory will be overwritten by the new ones if they have the same name.

Reset BakeMaster

Remove baked objects from BakeMaster Table of Objects after the bake.

Bake This

Bake maps only for the current object or container.

Bake All

Bake maps for all objects added.

Apply Lastly Edited Setting (read more)

Select maps or objects to apply value of lastly edited property for.

Create Bake Job Group (read more)

Group objects into a Bake Job Container, where all settings can be set at once for all.

Bake Instruction (read more)

Short Bake Instruction.

BakeMaster Bake won't block anything, so you can continue creating while it's doing its magic.

While waiting

Control the baking process from your keyboard or Blender Console. All keybindings are present below and under the "Bake Instruction" field in the Bake panel.

Press "BACKSPACE" to cancel baking all next maps
Press "ESC" key to cancel baking the current map
Press "BACKSPACE + ESC" to cancel baking

Tip: Blender Console

By opening the Blender Console you'll see more precise bake process feedback and be able to press "Ctrl + C" or "⌘ Cmd + C" (Mac) to abort the bake.

Caution

Blender freezes are expected when handling meshes with large amounts of geometry, baking map results to modifiers, Denoising baked results, or UV unwrapping and packing. Please be patient, BakeMaster will notify you if any error occurs.

Ask a question

If you happen to have a question raised, feel free to ask directly (kirilstrezikozin@gmail.com), here on the product page, or in our Discord.