EZ Baker

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EZ Baker

This addon was created to offer an easier alternative to blender’s default bake system.
It was designed to automatically match “low” and “high” objects and collections, and it offers a few more custom passes.

Here is a tutorial made by @mrgesy in which he explains how the addon works:

Bakers

Each baker stores the most basic bake options (texture size, output path, padding…).
Multiple bakers can be created to export with different settings.

Devices

Each baker can be configured to bake with one of three supported devices:

  • Blender: The bakes are done directly in blender using cycles. Although it’s the slowest of the three options, it’s the only one that works in both linux and windows and its useful for baking bevel shaders.

  • Handplane: The bakes are done in Handplane, a free and fast baking tool.

  • Marmoset Toolbag: The bakes are done in Marmoset Toolbag (Paid software). It’s fast and offers plenty of bake passes to choose from.

Each device has its own set of settings to configure.

Bake Groups

Bake groups are dynamically populated based on the objects or collections that are in the scene.

e.g. If you have two objects named “test_high” and “test_low”, the option to create the “test” bake group will appear.

Once the bake group is created, any new object that matches the naming conditions will automatically be added to it.

It’s used for baking objects that are close together without intersecting issues, or to specify different projection cage settings to each one.

Projection Cages

Projection cages represent the distance from which the rays are cast when baking. EZ Baker lets you edit the cage displacement value and at the same time shows a visual reprentation of the cage.

Custom Projection Cages

Custom cages are automatically found by their names.

To use a custom cage, make sure it has the same name as the low object but with “_cage” at the end of its name. e.g. “myobject_low_cage”

(Currently not supported for Marmoset Toolbag)

Maps

The desired output images are configured in this panel.

Each device (Blender/Handplane/Marmoset Toolbag) has its own set of maps to choose from.

For each map, you can specify the output image suffix and some specific bake options.

Blender:

Handplane:

Marmoset:

Outputs

Once the bake process finishes, all the generated images can be viewed in this panel

You can download it from here:

If you like the addon, you can support me on ko-fi
ko-fi

42 Likes
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Awesome. It’s like baking in Marmoset but in Blender. Just what I was looking for!

2 Likes
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Hi,

Thanks for developing this.

I installed it (haven’t had chance to test yet) but noticed you reference C:\Program Files\Handplane3D LLC\Handplane Baker\ in the prefs section.

I am using a mac so this path will not work with the os however is the handplane baker addon also required?

I attached an image showing the path

Screenshot 2020-08-08 at 08.06.33
Screenshot 2020-08-08 at 08.06.331104×1172 70.2 KB
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Thanks,

Andrew.

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Hi,
There is an option in the baker settings that lets you bake either with blender, or with an external program, this external program is called Handplane3d. it’s way faster than blender when creating maps and it’s free. But as far as I know, it only works on windows.
The path you see in the preferences is the default path where this program is installed. If you don’t use it you shouldn’t worry about it :slight_smile:

1 Like
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Great, thanks for the explanation :slight_smile:

Andrew.

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One sentence: Hudge Thanks and congratulations!

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I need to try this :eyes: :eyes:

(Would you check BakeLab 2 to nitpick which features can be included in your addon?)

I have no idea about Marmoset since I use Substance Painter, btw it sounds like Matching By Name (sounds great)

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This looks great! I may actually try baking here instead of exporting to Toolbag now.

One suggestion would be maybe adding the ability to bake the bevel shader. That would be amazing to have!

1 Like
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There is cage baking and automatic cage extrusion which is usually set to 1. It seems to be better than ray distance especially for hard surface objects.
Bake group is actually like Marmoset, it isolates a group of low/high objects which are supposed to be baked together separate from other objects, to avoid ray intersections.

1 Like
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Its exactly what Substance Painter does too but with more control with a cage and straight in Blender

1 Like
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For that, it seems this button can enable that
image

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-From the gitlab page, “Once the bake process finishes, all the generated images can be viewed in this panel” it mean that the preview will be visible upon the mesh itself? If not, it will be possible to include it?
-The “Triangulate” checkbox inside Normal Map setting use the ‘beauty’ method?
-What the “shadow” baking does?

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Thanks but I actually meant this: https://youtu.be/jf9GIJ6W1HU

The thing you showed would be good for when you need an AO bake that doesn’t include the high poly info.

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Your link doesn’t work.
edit It works my bad
I think the low to low will work because your low poly duplicates itself into a low and high and bakes the bevel shader from the “highpoly”. I’ll do some tests

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I’ll take a look, for now I wanted to add the rest of the surface properties (roughness, metallic, subsurface etc) but if you are missing some specific feature feel free to post it here or add an issue in the gitlab page.

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  • That panel right now lets you see which images the bake generated and if you click the buttons the image will show up in the image viewer, if you have it openned… It would be a nice feature to preview it in the mesh itself, I’ve added that to my to-do list.
  • The triangulate option uses “beauty” indeed, but I’m planning to add a few buttons there so that the user can pick whatever option they want.
  • The shadow bake is one of the default bake passes that blender offers. If you have lights in your scene, it will bake the shadows of objects.
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Baking the bevel shader would work with the option mrgesy pointed out (bake low to low). You would need the bevel shader already setup in your “low” object.

But it won’t work right now :sweat_smile: I believe I’ve fixed it in my end and I’ll upload the fix with the next release.
For now, you’d need to duplicate the mesh and use it as high

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  • if you add the “preview the clicked texture on the mesh itself” would you also add a button to revert to previous material(s)?
  • because the triangulate suggest the “fixed” method for the “keep normals” checkbox (I use it to preserve the weighted normals from the same modifier)
  • It bake lights too (environment)? And I noticed that some “basic” maps type are not listed (roughness, metalness, specular etc) : this is because Handplane doesn’t bake them, yet you try to streamline the offert? Also it looks like handplane cannot bake any sort of bevel shader.
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  • Yes, I imagined it like a toggle button, when checked it would apply the preview material to the “low” objects and when unchecked it would restore their original material and delete the generated one.
  • I’ll definitely add those extra options for the triangulation
  • If you wan’t to bake direct and indirect lights you can use the “Diffuse” map, check direct and indirect and uncheck color.
  • The maps available for handplane are limited and I can’t create more, it doesn’t recognize imported materials either so bevel shaders or custom normal maps used on the highpoly objects won’t be recognised. The blender baker on the other hand can, and I’ll be including those “basic” maps soon.
1 Like
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I linked the BakeLab 2 addon in a previous comment, it can bake roughness metallic and much more. Peraphs you should use a mixed approach?: when Handplane is enabled the baking process will also use Cycles just for those peculiar maps that Handplane cannot elaborate. So this way Handplane will bake nice and really fast AO, normal maps, curvature and cavity etc, then cycles will handle the other kinds of textures.

(Any idea about AO for floaters?)