bakes

Baking between UV sets in Maya by Xuan Prada

One of the most useful workflows when you are texturing is bake your textures from one UV set to another one.You will need to do this for different reasons, one of them for example could be using different resolution models with different UV mapping or using a different UV mapping for grooming, etc.

The first time I tried to do this in Maya I realize that MentalRay Batch Bake tool doesn't work fine, I don't know why but I couldn't use it.

I solved the problem using Transfer Maps tool for Maya and decided to write down for future chances.

  • Check the different UV sets in Maya.
  • Apply your textures and shaders.
  • I'm using six different shaders with six different texture maps.
  • If you use the Mental Ray Batch Bake tool (common used for baking purposes) and configure all the parameters, you'll realize that the baked maps are completely black. Something is wrong realated with UV sets. Bug? I don't know.
  • You need to use the Maya Transfer Maps tool. Lighting/Shading -> Transfer Maps.
  • Duplicate the mesh and rename to source and target.
  • Select target and his UV set.
  • Select source.
  • Select desired map to bake. (probably diffuse)
  • Select the path.
  • Select resolution.
  • Bake.
  • Your baked texture is ready.