How do you render your textures?

Talbot

Hey everyone!

As some of you know I've been working on a door model for some time now. Please don't make fun of how long it is taking because it's my first asset and I've been learning a lot. But I'm a little curious about what people are using as there render to textures set up. This morning I was about to start texturing again with a new set of maps that rendered and noticed that my AO map looked a little different from the last time I rendered. Keep in mind that I did change the UV's and dimensions.

OLD AO:


NEW AO:



Now to be honest I don't remember what my set up was for my old render. But the obvious difference is that there is a lot more white in the new render. I tried with and without a skylight... and there seems to be no difference.

Anyone know what I'm doing differently? Also feel free to let me know how you render your AO map... and other maps if you don't mind sharing that as well.

Thanks

Farfarer

The second one is probably better to use, as it won't darken your entire texture when you overlay it - only the parts that are actually ambiently occluded. It does look like you maybe had a light or something else above the model in the first bake as there's definitely directional light in there. Or did you have a large floor plane below it or something to occlude the light from below?

Can't be of much help in saying what the proper way to bake it in Max is, though.

MoP

Yup looks like you had a floor plane below it when baking the old one, since it's darker near the bottom.
This can actually be a pretty good technique for making stuff fit together more believably.
Probably I'd keep the plane quite small though, since otherwise it can darken too much as Talon said, and your texture will probably suffer for it.

Ryno

Yah, if you use a ground plane, make it small, and drop it down a little further than the ground in the enviroment actually is. That'll keep it from occluding the whole of the object.