Texture Merge Help!

Jumbee

Hello I really need some help,

I work with lots of props that are their own separate objects but they share the same UV space.
When I finish modeling each one: I export it, bake it and paint it and export the textures as a pack.(ORM etc.)
I keep doing this for all of the objects, until they are all done.
Then, I mask each textures UV's one by one so they don't overlap, but it is a huge pain and a time waster.

I was wondering if there is any smarter, easier or faster way to do this process. 

Eric Chadwick

mask each textures UV's one by one so they don't overlap

Do you mean you pack all the props into a single non-overlapped atlas uv layout?

Why not pack these props all together before you start texturing?

Also, what software are you currently using for each step?

Jumbee

Hey Eric,

Eric Chadwick said:

mask each textures UV's one by one so they don't overlap

Do you mean you pack all the props into a single non-overlapped atlas uv layout?

Why not pack these props all together before you start texturing?

Also, what software are you currently using for each step?

They are both in the UDIM 1001, and have the same material. But they have to be baked and painted one at a time. Cant import them both at the same time.

But after painting is over I have to mask object a, so to create some space for object b.

They are already packed. From packing I meant the Channel Packing.

I use blender substance painter and photoshop for the entire process.

gnoop

Why bake one at a time ?  just copy  your hires  and name as  Hires_A  and Hires_B (or split  it accordingly)   while low res objects as Low_A and Low_B   and let Painter recognize the naming.   

Also Blender can bake several objects at once actually , one after another into same  texture . You just need to uncheck "clear image"  and set  the  padding to couple pixels only  so the second bake wouldn't  overprint  previous one by the padding.

dimwalker

You can automate mask rendering in substance designer for example, then use photoshop script to batch combine all textures from a folder into single texture, merge and bleed it.
Unfortunately I can't give you exact steps, so if time spent on research and automation is worth it depends on how many textures you need to process and how often.

poopipe

gnoop said:

Why bake one at a time ?  just copy  your hires  and name as  Hires_A  and Hires_B (or split  it accordingly)   while low res objects as Low_A and Low_B   and let Painter recognize the naming.   

Also Blender can bake several objects at once actually , one after another into same  texture . You just need to uncheck "clear image"  and set  the  padding to couple pixels only  so the second bake wouldn't  overprint  previous one by the padding.

the problem is that painting all of them at the same time is a pain in the arse. 

I wrote a painter plugin that does it for me because I can but if you don't know how to do things like that then Dimwalker's suggestion is the best option. 

Set up an export preset that dumps a mask out along with the textures and then use photoshop to combine - either with the automation stuff, a script or even using those smart object thingies. 


you could of course import the objects to blender with separate materials and rebake them all to a single texture page but you'd likely lose some quality