Baking OBJ Texture on a Plane
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I am trying to Bake this buckle OBJ geometry on to flat plane as AO and Normal Map.. Attached 2 images to show what i am trying to do
I see that there is Bake texture option in C4d but it bakes the UV, my goal is just Bake that Buckle on to that plane.
Attached an image that has been baked AO in another software.
Is there a way to do this in Cinema4d?
Thank you
Pina
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Hi road-conclusion,
There is no good way to store this information, but here are my suggestions if you like to have it that way.
AO is a fake calculation of "imagined light traps. Even if there is a light, it will be dark, based on the Polygon angle directions to each other.
Normal maps are surface representations of the Normal direction. A normal is a direction expressed with three vectors, whereby the resulting vector of the three is the surface orientation. These three values are expressed with R, G, and B values and require UV data. In other words, the more tangential things get, the less data is provided, which is not ideal.
My suggested approach would be to set up only the polygons visible from the "Top" view parts (Top: going by your image of yours) and place them as UV, while all other UV polygons get scaled down in a corner while not overlapping with the top
Example
https://stcineversityprod02.blob.core.windows.net/$web/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2023_PROJECTS_DRS/20230304_CV4_2023_drs_23_TXbf_01.zipA project to a different object is not given for AO. For Normal mapping, there is an option to go by source.
Cheers
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@Dr-Sassi Thank you! for the reply and example.. Looks like you did with the bake tag. I tried but the image comes out Purple.. Yesterday i watched a video on how to do in marmoset software. Attached images how he bake down on to a flat plane , so this is not possible in C4d?
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You're welcome, road-conclusion.
Yes, I used UV here.
UVs are just a representation of the object, either as is or unwrapped. UVs are like little Picture frames; there is nothing more complicated than that. The critical part of understanding is that they live in a normalized space, which is simply zero to one. With that, a higher or lower resolution texture can be swapped out. The UV polygons are the bridge between 2D images and 3D objects.You might invest a few minutes in watching the 60-sec video and then doing the little drill. This has typically cleared the main obstacle of UV problems. At least if you do it actively, i.e., playing with it, has worked for over a decade uncounted times.
https://stcineversityprod02.blob.core.windows.net/$web/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2023_PROJECTS_DRS/20230305_UV_challenge_drill.zipLet me answer your 2D approach with a photography example. The world around us has 3Dimensions and time. When we take an image, we freeze time and reduce the 3D space to 2D. Some might argue that motion blur expresses time. Let's ignore that for a moment. We have reduced the 3+1 Dimensions to 2Dimensions. And there is no way back; anything obscured by an object is not recorded in the image.
In that way is the idea of a Normal flat map. It has a massive reduction of information. What you see is what you get, and you can't move around it anymore.
However, if your view of that specific object is limited, perhaps no one will notice.
What I need to help you, as usual, are not images or screen captures; I need the Project file. If that can't be shared, create a dummy file.
When you get UVs working for you, you lose a massive limitation in your work.All the best
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@Dr-Sassi Thank you! for all the information. I attached the project file, included the plane that i created.
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This post is deleted! -
@Dr-Sassi also as an information after my previous reply.. , i am trying to bake normal map and AO onto a plane because i am going to use that image as a texture in another software (CLO3d), I am creating a buckle from fabric and would like to add the image as a texture( graphic) so fabric will look like hard surface buckle. That's why trying to bake the AO and normal map on to a plane surface.
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In case you find it useful, I found this the other day. It's a native C4D shader that you can use to generate normal maps. It's listed on the homepage as NLinn Shader and best of all its free.
https://c4dplugin.com/
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Hi @smckenzie Thank you! for the information, will look into more depth but i am also trying to do the same for AO and it needs to be onto a flat surface
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Hi road-conclusion,
Just to repeat, as some might read on the post with the example file, to have that as a flat projection is a limitation. But set to flat and Fit to Object, it will work without UVs.
The key was to fix the mesh first. Removing triangles, SSD, using the Volume modeling to smooth it, then Remesh it. I then scaled it up.
By the way, I assume the little plane and buckle rotation was accidental.Please explore the file; the two renders are inside the tex folder.
I have placed two stripes on the model, which need a transparent material (alpha) to get the textures fitted to the plane and the buckle.
The camera is set far enough away to get no parallax.
File
https://stcineversityprod02.blob.core.windows.net/$web/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2023_PROJECTS_DRS/20230305_CV4_2023_drs_23_TXbf_21.zipMy suggestion is never to replace skills and knowledge with a plugin. Plugins can be helpful, but history has shown that they might be EOL at one point. Your gained knowledge in finding native solutions will have no EOL.
All the best
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Hi @Dr-Sassi Thank you! for the file.. I am exploring the file that you shared.. I see that you did it with render option not the bake. Is that correct?
In this case how we can have a normal map like this? Same buckle is used for this normal map .. , someone did it in Modo, not sure how he did it but i know that he used this exactly buckle that i shared.. and he came out with this AO and Normal map . I don't think he changed the mesh type but he mentioned he softened only the corners.
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Hi road-conclusion,
There are different formats for Normal Maps: Tangent, Object, and World. All are useable, but if not mentioned, it is diffcult to know what you need, you mentioned some 3rd party apps.
https://help.maxon.net/c4d/en-us/#html/TBAKETEXTURE-ID_BAKEOPTIONS.html?TocPath=Object%2520Manager%257CObject%2520Menu%257CBake%2520Material%257C_____3
More in detail
https://help.maxon.net/c4d/2023/en-us/Default.htm#html/MMATERIAL-ID_MATERIALGROUP_NORMAL.html
Here is the buckle with a Plane as a base for baking; as initially described, this one needs to be fully UV wrapped, so you don't get overwritten areas. This one is done via baking.
https://stcineversityprod02.blob.core.windows.net/$web/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2023_PROJECTS_DRS/20230305_CV4_2023_drs_23_TXbf_31.zip
The image below is a jpg and not suitable for normal mapping, use the EXR, float,linear, as provided in the zip
All the best
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Thank you! @Dr-Sassi ,, yeah the thing i am trying to find the way without UV unwrap .. but thank you for all the help..Appreciated!
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You're very welcome, road-conclusion.
I want to encourage you to get familiar with UV; at one point, you need to have that skill anyway.
Have you tried my little drill? It takes perhaps less than five minutes.
Cheers
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@Dr-Sassi I know how to unwrap but some of the OBJ that i need to work on are triangles and changing them to quads takes time and also removes the details..
sorry didn't understand your question which drill? -
Thanks for the reply, road -conclusion,
Sorry, I thought I had attached it, but if you know UV and avoid it for other reasons, please ignore it:
https://stcineversityprod02.blob.core.windows.net/$web/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2023_PROJECTS_DRS/20230305_UV_challenge_drill.zipYes, improving a model takes time, and bad models will take later on a lot of work to fix things, a balancing act.
I understand you have your ideas about this, and you don't want UV.
My best wishes, and have a nice Sunday Evening.
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@Dr-Sassi Thank you! have a nice evening to you as well
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Very kind of you, road-conclusion, thank you.
