This page provides information on texture baking in V-Ray for Cinema 4D.
Overview
Rendering to texture, or "texture baking,” creates texture maps based on an object's appearance in the rendered scene. The textures are then “baked” into the object; that is, they become part of the object via mapping and can be used to display the textured object rapidly on graphics cards using hardware-accelerated APIs such as OpenGL and DirectX. Options for texture baking in V-Ray can be found in the V-Ray Tools menu. Keep in mind that the lights in the scene are also baked into the texture, so changing the lighting results in inconsistencies.
TIP: Before you bake, make sure to arrange the polygons in UV space so that they do not overlap. Overlapping polygons cause unwanted artifacts in some render elements when the texture is baked into the geometry.
UI Path: V-Ray menu > Tools > V-Ray Bake Object
Options
You can modify the baked texture using these options. Once you are satisfied, click on the Bake button.
General
Objects – Determines which objects are baked. You can drag and drop objects into the list or use the eyedropper tool to select them.
OUTPUT PROPERTIES
Output Directory – Determines where the baked texture is saved.
Output Format – Determines the file extension for the baked texture. The available options are: png, jpg, vrimg, hdr, exr, tga, bmp, sgi, tif, and vrst.
Alpha Channel to Separate File – When enabled, the alpha channel of the image is saved to a separate file.
Don't Save Alpha Channel – When enabled, the alpha channel is not saved with the baked texture.
Don't Save RGB Channel – When enabled, the RGB channel is not saved with the baked texture.
ANIMATION PROPERTIES
Animation Range – Determines whether only the Current Frame is baked or you can Manually select a range of frames to be baked.
Start Frame – The first frame of the animation range.
End Frame – The last frame of the animation range.
Frame Step – Determines the amount of frames per "step" when baking.
Submit to Chaos Cloud – Enables baking of the texture to be performed by Chaos Cloud. If multiple objects are added for baking, a batch rendering process is started in the cloud.
Texture Baking
PROPERTIES
UVW Tag Name – Determines the name of the UVW Tag.
Width – Determines the width of the exported texture.
Height – Determines the height of the exported texture.
Dilation – The number of pixels to expand around the geometry.
Rays from Camera – When enabled, V-Ray shoots rays from the camera per object to bake them.
TILING
U Min, Max – Determines the minimum and maximum horizontal tiling.
V Max, Max – Determines the minimum and maximum vertical tiling.
