Texture color differs before and after baking

[OwnedbyCow]

When I bake my textures, bump etc onto my low poly mesh the texture looks completely different.  Its way darker in this instance.  Is it the shader that I used when I was texturing my model?  Can I correct it?  If you need more information, please ask.

 

I realize there are problems with the bake as the eyes showing through his eye lids plus I need to fix his anatomy.  Right now I just need to figure out what went wrong with the color transferring over during the bake.

 

Thanks

 

-Michael

[Carlosan]

Hi

 

Is it the shader that I used when I was texturing my model ?

may be

 

which version are you using ?

 

at 4.5 use PBR shader

at 4.1 Cook-Torrance shader

 

hope this help

[OwnedbyCow]

Thanks for the prompt response.  I am not using the new PBR shaders as 4.5  is still in beta and I haven't downloaded it yet.

 

I am using the Cook-Terrance Shader.  My 3d-coat version is 4.1.17D.

 

Thanks again,

 

-Michael

[Carlosan]

Is the AO layer set as Multiply blend mode ?

 

try switching that layer off -pressing the eye icon-

[OwnedbyCow]

Are you talking about the "BakedOcclusion" layer?  It is set to Modulate2X and I tried turning it off.  It did help but it was a very minute difference. Still nowhere close to the original lightness of my textures.

 

Now that you mentioned the whole blend mode thing.  I checked one of my layers that when I turn it off it makes a huge difference (its set to multiply).  It looks like I did quite a bit of my spec on this layer so just turning it off sort of breaks the texture. (the toad looks like it goes to an almost dead looking color, light blue/grey tone)

 

Thanks,

 

- Michael

[Carlosan]

Is the issue solved ?

[OwnedbyCow]

No, I am still clicking through stuff trying to figure it out.  Maybe its one of those "start over" moments?  

 

This is my only guess.. I left the layer off that I mentioned in the previous comment.  I turned my voxel layers on and changed the shader to the default shader.  The colors matched perfectly. Both of them have that dead look now. I think I painted with the bronze shader on.  How can I make the bronze shader transfer over? or is that not possible?  Should I try screen capping a video or something?

 

Thanks,

 

 

EDIT: I THINK I FIXED IT!!!!!! I moved that layer almost to the very bottom of the layer tree and it looks really close to what it did originally, if not exactly.  About to post a render. One minute

- Michael

[OwnedbyCow]

I think that its fixed.  Thanks again for your help. I didn't think about looking through my layers to see if that was the issue.

 

It caused his belly to turn grey when I moved the layer down. I'm going to keep moving my layers around until I have it back to normal. 

 

One final question.  Why do you think that it did that?  Did it create a new layer or move my layer up?

 

Thanks a bunch

 

-Michael

Edited April 28, 2015 by OwnedbyCow

[Carlosan]

View

Show Voxels in paint room... is Off, right ?

 

if you can, share the project here,

i can take a look

[OwnedbyCow]

Ok I sent it.  It took a while because my internet isn't the best.  

 

If you see anything that bothers you about my organization, naming conventions, etc please let me know so I can stop myself from doing that stuff.  I know I didn't use good naming convention for the actual file.  It may be why I am having issues now.

 

The file is right before the baking process.  I used the Bake with Normal Map (Per-Pixel) method.

 

Thanks again,

 

-Michael

ToadUVed.rar

Edited April 28, 2015 by OwnedbyCow

[Carlosan]

Using Pic_Mat_Grey_Clay i cant see a difference *

 

Try to perform a test with a clean mesh, this have a fine polypaint done and is not a good subject for bake testing.

 

 

 

* sorry bad bake settings, was a rough fast test.

[OwnedbyCow]

Okay so use a sculpted model and bake it to a low poly without any polypainting.  Are you wanting me to try baking with different shaders? Such as they Grey Clay, default, or whichever else?

 

Do you think it is possible to properly bake the polypaint for my toad?  If not.. Should I change my process?

 

I did this:

Sculpt, paint, retopo/uv, then bake.

 

Should I do this instead:

Sculpt, retopo/uv, bake, then paint?

 

Edit: Or what about version 4.5?  Does it bake differently?  I really liked being able to paint on my sculpt before baking.

 

Thanks,

 

- Michael

Edited April 28, 2015 by OwnedbyCow

[Carlosan]

Sculpt, paint, retopo/uv, bake is ok -there isnt an only way, is up to every user-

 

i do same workflow usually but, only to paint base colors or general texture areas

 

then perform fine painting and details -depth, color, gloss- over the baked low poly

 

why ?

because you need a high density model to polypaint fine details.

 

note: any workflow that stress the computer performance is not a good workflow...

 

Because every user have different works, models, computers... there isnt a workflow to rule them all...

[OwnedbyCow]

Oh alright thats really good then

 

I personally haven't had many performance issues with 3d-coat other than a memory leak with directX 64 bit in the paint room and a large brush.  I was painting on a voxel model though so that may have been the issue.

 

I will take your workflow into consideration.  It seems like a better performance option so I don't have a memory leak or anything.

 

So after you bake your model, you are still able to add the fine details?  I was worried about that myself.

 

When you begin poly painting, do you use a certain shader and paint on top of it, or do you pick one depending on your needs? 

 

I wish I knew what the problem was with my toad.  I know it felt really odd when I was painting it because I was using the bronze shader rather than the default or grey clay.  None of the colors that I chose actually painted that color.   

 

Thanks,

 

- Michael

[Carlosan]

after you bake your model, you are still able to add the fine details?

yes, 3DC in this area is outstanding -note: the limit is your texture resolution and the UVlayout topology-

 

do you pick one depending on your needs? 

yes or may build a new one if needed

 

glad to be able to help

[OwnedbyCow]

Perfect, I think I may do that from now on so that I don't have this issue again.

 

But I still don't exactly understand what happened with my toad though...  Because you can use the shader you want, you would think that it would transfer over properly.  I am going to watch some videos on baking to see if that can help clarify my issue.  We have figured out it was something with the bronze shader.  But why? I think I might go ahead and download the beta for 4.5 and see how it works.

 

Is building a new shader hard?  

 

Thanks again,

 

- Michael

[Carlosan]

4.5 is far superior in everything

 

remember the warnings

- Do NOT use beta builds in production

- Keep backups of scenes, presets and materials. Better - do backup of folder MyDocs/3D-CoatV4