Best way of modeling cutlines for baking?

Udjani

I guess that there are many ways to do that, but i don't really know which to choose, considering that being truth to the real object is not necessary. 

I did use a cylinder here, but could be any other shape. 

EarthQuake

Really this is just a matter of how fat you want the bevel to be. That depends on:

• How large the asset is
• How close you will get to it
• How much texture resolution you have

Once you figure those things out, then you'll be able to answer this for yourself.

Alex_J

There is a lot of reading you can find about this subject on the polycount wiki. 

I've read it all, but to be honest, much of it is still over my head. Like mentioned, how you approach this depends largely on the type of asset you are creating, but here is a small suggestion: Take that cylinder you have right there, make a low poly version, and try baking just with that object alone. See how the different style grooves come out. Then, try adjusting your baking parameters to correct any errors. 

Also, keep in mind that simple grooves like this can easily be added with textures alone. Tons of normal or grayscale alpha's exist that you can easily add to your normal/height maps inside of photoshop or 3d texturing apps like Substance Painter.