Texture Baking Assistant

Texture Baking Assistant is a feature-packed add-on for Blender, explicitly designed to optimize and simplify the texture baking workflow. This tool is a perfect fit for users who primarily utilize Blender's built-in texture baking but find the procedure too complex or time-consuming. The add-on significantly automates the process, ensuring a fast, efficient, and user-friendly experience.

What's new in version 0.9.7?

• Added bake active node feature, allowing to bake textures directly from the active material node for more flexibility and control over the baking process.
  
  
• Introduced bake with reconnect option. When enabled, this reconnects the output of the freshly baked texture node to where the active node was previously connected, ensuring material continuity.
  
  
• A compact panel added in the Shader Editor, named "Texture Baking Assistant". This panel duplicates some of the plugin's functionality for easy texture baking directly in the shader editor. It includes image settings, save location, sample count, and even provides an operator for a smart UV project and returning to object mode, making the baking process more accessible and efficient.

These updates are designed to streamline and automate your texture baking workflow in Blender. Enjoy!

For more details, see the video at the link...

Workflow:

Main Features of Texture Baking Assistant

Comprehensive Texture Types Support:

The plugin supports an extensive range of texture types, such as Combined, Diffuse, Glossy, Transmission, Albedo, Emit, Specular, Ambient Occlusion, Shadow, UV, Environment, Roughness, and Normal, offering versatile options to suit your specific needs.

Customizable Baking Settings:

The add-on offers flexible baking options, allowing you to tailor the image size, sample count, file format, and other parameters according to your project requirements.

Selected to Active Modes:

Choose between baking textures from one object to another (Selected to Active) or baking textures for a single object, giving you flexibility in different workflow scenarios.

Automatic Material Creation:

Save time and effort with the plugin's automatic material generation feature. With baked textures, the add-on simplifies the setup process, allowing you to focus on creativity rather than manual technical adjustments.

Intuitive User Interface:

Texture Baking Assistant boasts a user-friendly interface that streamlines the texture baking process. Its design is straightforward and accessible, ensuring both beginners and seasoned users can effectively operate it.

Streamlined Workflow:

Operating the plugin is quick and simple. Select the object you wish to bake, choose the texture types to bake, pick a save location for the baked textures, and click 'Bake.' It's texture baking made hassle-free.

Smart UV Project:

Fast track your UV unwrapping process with a Smart UV Project feature. A single click on the button will unwrap the selected mesh using Blender's Smart UV Project, switching automatically to the edit mode if necessary. This feature also provides access to the Smart UV Project settings, allowing for customization.

Texture Baking Assistant is not just a tool; it's a game-changer that aims to provide a seamless and efficient texture baking experience to Blender users. Elevate your 3D texturing workflow today with the Texture Baking Assistant add-on.

• Demo Images and Videos:

Texture Baking Assistant: User Guide and Documentation

The Texture Baking Assistant is a Blender add-on designed to streamline and simplify the texture baking process within Blender. It's perfect for users who primarily use Blender's built-in texture baking but find the process inconvenient. This add-on automates the process, making it fast and easy with just a few clicks.

Installation:

1. Download the .zip file containing the Texture Baking Assistant add-on.
2. Open Blender and navigate to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons.
3. Click the Install button and locate the downloaded .zip file.
4. Enable the add-on by ticking the checkbox next to it.

Usage:

1. In Blender, switch to the Render Properties tab in the properties panel.
2. Locate the Texture Baking Assistant panel.
3. Set your desired baking options:
   • • Bake Mode: Choose the bake type, such as Combined, Diffuse, Glossy, etc.
   • • Selected to Active: Enable this option to bake textures from selected objects to the active object.
   • • Cage Extrusion: Set the distance to extrude the cage object along its normals (used when 'Use Cage' is enabled).
   • • Use Cage: Enable this option to use a cage object for baking.
   • • Cage Object: Specify the object to be used as a cage for baking.
   • • Samples: Set the number of samples to use for baking.
   • • Margin: Set the distance in pixels between the texture and its border.
   • • Width & Height: Set the size (in pixels) of the baked texture image.
4. Click the Bake Textures button to start the baking process.
5. After the baking is complete, you can click the Create Material button to automatically generate a material using the baked textures.

Tips and Recommendations:

• Ensure your objects are properly set up and configured for baking. For example, pay attention to proper UV unwrapping.

• Save your project before using the add-on to avoid any potential loss of data due to unexpected issues.

• The quality of the baked texture may depend on various factors, including render settings, lighting setup, and more.

• Experiment with different settings and parameters for the best results.

The Texture Baking Assistant add-on is developed to make the texture baking process in Blender more convenient. However, as with any tool, the best results come when the user fully understands the process and uses the appropriate settings. Always check your settings and results to achieve the desired effect.

Support:

If you have any questions or issues with Texture Baking Assistant, please feel free to contact me, and I'll be glad to help you.