Learning to bake HP to LP, use 3rd party software?
Simply put is it better to begin learning baking HP to LP using a program such as max and using the raytracers and cage to create the bake, or 3rd party software such as xnormal that makes it a few mouse clicks and setting tweaks?
I really do not know much about the intricacies of baking at this point. Lets use a quick analogy. When one first begins to learn math and develops basis skills (multiplication/division/fractions/etc) you are likely to do so mentally, or by working it out on paper so you can understand whats going on. Once you have mastered this, then you are allowed to use shortcuts such as a calculator because at that point, you understand the process why and how to do it. When you first start learning math you shouldnt jump straight to a calculator, but after you have mastered it and it saves time its acceptable.
Would you say learning to bake HP to LP is the similar to this analogy then? Where the first party bake (e.g. inside max) is the equivalent of learning the fundamentals of of math, and using a third party program to bake such as xnormal is the equivalent of your calculator shortcut?
I really do not know much about the intricacies of baking at this point. Lets use a quick analogy. When one first begins to learn math and develops basis skills (multiplication/division/fractions/etc) you are likely to do so mentally, or by working it out on paper so you can understand whats going on. Once you have mastered this, then you are allowed to use shortcuts such as a calculator because at that point, you understand the process why and how to do it. When you first start learning math you shouldnt jump straight to a calculator, but after you have mastered it and it saves time its acceptable.
Would you say learning to bake HP to LP is the similar to this analogy then? Where the first party bake (e.g. inside max) is the equivalent of learning the fundamentals of of math, and using a third party program to bake such as xnormal is the equivalent of your calculator shortcut?
Replies
Maya is much slower. What you give up in speed you gain in more precise control. xNormal is lightning fast but your control options are a little limited. You also might have to tweak the generated cage in the 3D view with is cluttered and un-intuitive. You can import your own cage though and that in general helps. There might be a slight accuracy edge to Maya but not enough for me to tell most of the time.
I personally use xNormal for just about everything.
XNormal is far quicker to use and set up, however if you get problems within XNormal, having the knowledge of what is causing problems are easier to diagnose, if you understand what is going on "under the hood" so to speak. You learn how to notice these issues by doing the bakes "by hand" within Max, or Maya for example.
@ Maya Users: Skip maya go straight to xnormal and don't look back.
"Skip maya" sounds like advice from someone who doesn't really know much about maya.
You should always bake in the app that is synced up to your shaders/engine/app/etc. This is much more important than what app has the "best features" or is the fastest or whatever, is what app uses the correct tangent bias.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76256