Baking Objectspace Normals in Modo

Slave_zero

Hey guys. I recently bought Modo Indie and I'm trying to establish a new pipeline for me.

As Modo Indie has an Export limit of 100.000 triangles, I want to do my bakes completely in Modo. In particular I'm aiming at an object space normal map bake thst will then be transformed into the proper tangetn space normals via handplane or xNormal.

My Point is, that I'm really a bit lost on how to bake an object space map in Modo. I managed to do the standard tangent space map.

I would be happy if anyone could point me in the right direction.

Tzur_H

Had the same question couple of weeks ago, I'm using 801 though but I guess it's not so different than indie version when it comes to the baking process..try this:

You need to add a Shading Normal output and Bake from Object to Render Outputs.
The Shading Normal output can be found under Render Outputs > Geometry - make sure to tick Remap Pixel Values in the output properties.
Make sure the low poly mesh layer and the corresponding UV channel are active and have the high poly mesh layer visible but not active (background layer), also you need to have different UV names for the low and the high, or just delete the high poly mesh UV channel entirely, otherwise you'll get errors. After all of this is setup, hit the Bake from Object to Render Output from the Render menu.

I hope I didn't forget anything :]

Farfarer

Add a render output set to Geometry > Shading Normal.
In it's properties, tick Remap Pixel Values.
Render > Bake from Object to Render Output.
Save the resulting Shading Normal bake.

Slave_zero

Well thank you guys. That really helped me. Funny enough I had already tried this approach yesterday but all I got was a grey shaded map in the renderview.

So there is one thing missing, as it seems:

• you have to disable "final color output" in the shader tree, or else the rendered map will just have the final render information (shading) in it.
• If "final color output" is still active you can access the obj space normals via the output selector at the top of the render-window and save it manually

Anyway thank you, If something of the two things that I pointed out is incorrect please tell me, such that this thread may provide valid information for others.

Farfarer

You don't have to disable final color, that's just one of the render outputs. There's a drop down at the top which lets you select which output you wish to see. It will bake all active outputs and they'll be in the drop down.

But if you're not using final color, you might as well remove it.

Also, to have edge padding, you must ensure you keep the Alpha render output there and active - MODO uses that as a guide for where to expand.

Slave_zero

thank you again, that was the next issue I was having, that my edge padding got lost.

Anyway still struggling to get perfectly synced normals. Still looks shit in Toolbag2. I just do some more tests and post some images later on.

dzibarik

You might be saving your renders in not linear space, that was my problem for a long time