Help on Baking AO in maya

Samuraigun7

hi there i recently learned how to bake my ambient occulsion on my model but it seems it went wrong in some places I dont know what i am doing wrong but i followed a couple of tutorials and it was the same way but the end result was the same. I have maya 2011 so if anyways could help that would be great thanks

here is what is looks like

Ace-Angel

Are you using Cages or Rays? Also, what samples?

Samuraigun7

The samples are 1048 i think and i dont know about the cages or rays sorry

Samuraigun7

I followed this tutorial http://www.game-artist.net/forums/spotlight-articles/1317-tutorial-ambient-occlusion-maya-alchemist101.html

malcolm

Wow 1048 samples is insane, I usually use 128-256 samples. Have you checked to make sure there are no overlapping uv's or double faces in your geometry?

Samuraigun7

I dont think so but i unwrapped my box an seperated it maybe it is my uv unwrapping but some area's worked and some didnt so i am confused

throttlekitty

Also voting for doubled faces. The search envelope might need to be bumped up slightly, you can preview it in the Transfer Maps dialog via the dropdown for the target mesh.

I don't know if this ever got fixed, but objects hidden via layer aren't actually hidden and contribute to baking via Transfer Maps.

I highly suggest using xNormal to bake the AO, the quality is better and isn't nearly as slow as doing it in Maya.

Samuraigun7

Sorry i dont know what you mean by that I am just learning out about doing maps the only thing i know is how to unwrap a model and put it into photoshop and texture it up from there i dont know much about baking

ceebee

You're not using transfer maps are you? That's the easiest way to bake AO in Maya but it does take a decent amount of time. You'll be able to bake normals and AO from your high resolution crate if you have one.

Samuraigun7

I dont have normal maps or low and high ploy models just the one because i was trying to do a toon hand painted texture practice this is a the texture map I just really want to learn how to do it

Samuraigun7

Okay so i tired using the Transfer maps i dont it if it is because i dont have a high and a low ploy modles but just one here are the settings

and it turned out like this

And together

malcolm

Did you add a source mesh? You have that window collapsed. This still looks like a double face issue of some sort, if you post the model file one of us can bake it and see if we get the same results as you.

throttlekitty

The tutorial shows two methods for baking AO, but since you don't have a high-poly, the first method, baking with mental ray is what you want to use.

For the double faces, try selecting a face in the affected areas and move it inward. If you have another polygon in the same spot, you have some fixing to do.

Also, it's spelled Vegetables.

Samuraigun7

here is the files for my crate http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3KWS342M

throttlekitty

I did a low res bake and it came out fine. You'll need to reset the transforms on the model before baking.


One thing is that on the crossbars, you have faces on the inside that don't have UVs, which can be bad, delete them.

Samuraigun7

Hey thanks it worked thank for that help i am sure i will have more question later on