as the title says, which software do you prefer, which workflow/technique gives you the best results. I have been using the technique where you put a plane underneath your object/character so you get a top down direction lighting look, but I think it was maybe Earthquake mentioned ages ago, this is not always desirable. I…
yeah I am not doing pbr just now, so its really way of adding a little extra to the diffuse as an overlay and for example the lighting I bake in at 75 sel illum is very subtle ie maybe 20 percent overlay
For realistic stuff? I just bake AO in xnormal, and that's it. Just plop it in the AO slot as is. So there's no workflow, it's just baked. :) But I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, really, because you go on to describe baking the lighting in DOTA style and adding a gradient for visual pop. Just FYI, neither of those…