[Max / VRay] Need Help With A Lighting Setup For Texture Baking...
Hello There,
I've been experimenting with VRay for a while and I love the results I'm getting. I would like to try using VRay in combination with Max's Render-To-Texture to see what kind of results I can get. The only problem I'm having is trying to figure out a decent lighting setup for the object's I'm baking...
The main problem I'm having is that every texture baking tut I've seen is basically for lightmapping environments to speed up renders. But I'm trying to render textures for objects, specifically characters and equipment. So, this is stuff that's going to be moving or it'll be environment art objects which'll get lit when I drop them in a level. I'm trying to figure out a way that I can get decent / uniform lighting across the surface of the objects without any major directional shadows which would just look weird in-game. What I normally do as a first pass using Max lights is just dropping in a sun light and a floor or using the default lights, which is fine for my purposes most of the time. But since I have to use VRay lights, I'm kind of stumped as to what direction I should be trying.
I thought about just dropping in a dome light and seeing what kind of results I could get from that. But, should I even be trying to use lights? Would it be better if I did a pass with self illumination on the materials and just using an AO map as a jumping-off point for my shadows?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, 'cuz I'm completely stumped!
BTW, I don't think this would make any difference, but I'm using Max 2012...
I've been experimenting with VRay for a while and I love the results I'm getting. I would like to try using VRay in combination with Max's Render-To-Texture to see what kind of results I can get. The only problem I'm having is trying to figure out a decent lighting setup for the object's I'm baking...
The main problem I'm having is that every texture baking tut I've seen is basically for lightmapping environments to speed up renders. But I'm trying to render textures for objects, specifically characters and equipment. So, this is stuff that's going to be moving or it'll be environment art objects which'll get lit when I drop them in a level. I'm trying to figure out a way that I can get decent / uniform lighting across the surface of the objects without any major directional shadows which would just look weird in-game. What I normally do as a first pass using Max lights is just dropping in a sun light and a floor or using the default lights, which is fine for my purposes most of the time. But since I have to use VRay lights, I'm kind of stumped as to what direction I should be trying.
I thought about just dropping in a dome light and seeing what kind of results I could get from that. But, should I even be trying to use lights? Would it be better if I did a pass with self illumination on the materials and just using an AO map as a jumping-off point for my shadows?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, 'cuz I'm completely stumped!
BTW, I don't think this would make any difference, but I'm using Max 2012...