Baking with Flat Projection Issue

[likeshesaid]

Hello everyone,

I am trying to bake an object with flat projection. I created a material in Octane Render and I really enjoy the way it looks when it covers the entire object with the flat projection mapping on it. I want to somehow retain the way this material looks and bake it so that I can use it inside of a Unity Project. Can someone please help me?

This is the error I am getting right now when I am baking the texture via Flat Projection with the Octane Camera Tag:


I know this is partially because the Flat Projection doesn't get the front and the back of the object. Is it possible to keep the way the material looks with the flat projection, UV unwrap the object, and bake it?

Please help!!! I really need it.

Here is a link to my project file if you want to take a look: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yg6c0cdwn1lhm ... F.c4d?dl=0

Thanks so much...any help is appreciated.

N

[TonyBoy]

How does it look with cubic mapping?

[likeshesaid]

How does it look with cubic mapping?

Hi TonyBoy,

This is what the UV map looks like with cubic mapping:


However, this is not the mapping I want anyway. Though, it does seem like the UV map is segmented into island mostly properly, there is still some black marks anyway. :/

I really just want to bake this look:


This is the result of Flat Mapping. I am not sure how to do this (is it possible)? If anyone has insight I would really appreciate the help.

N

[jayroth]

On the material tag, set your mapping to Flat and align the widget to your needs. Then, in the octane material, create a projection tag and set it to UV. Done.

[likeshesaid]

On the material tag, set your mapping to Flat and align the widget to your needs. Then, in the octane material, create a projection tag and set it to UV. Done.

Hi Jayroth,

I followed what you said but I am still having the same issue:


Could I possibly be doing something wrong?

If you want to take a look, here is the file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yg6c0cdwn1lhm ... F.c4d?dl=0

Please let me know, or if anyone else on here can help.

Thank you so much,
Nicole

[jayroth]

It looks like the basic mapping is working, actually. The lines appear to be as you referenced in the other image. The issue appears to be whats happening with the dark purple polygons, is that correct? It could mean that you have duplicate geometry, bad geometry or your ray epsilon value needs to be adjusted one way or the other...

[likeshesaid]

It looks like the basic mapping is working, actually. The lines appear to be as you referenced in the other image. The issue appears to be whats happening with the dark purple polygons, is that correct? It could mean that you have duplicate geometry, bad geometry or your ray epsilon value needs to be adjusted one way or the other...

I think you are correct. I am working with an exported Daz character. I desperately need to make this work though. Do you know how I would go about rectifying this issue so that I can bake with this map?

[jayroth]

If the character is a single mesh, try optimizing points for starters. Note if there are any changes to the image (there may not be.) This step should catch any duplicate polygons as well. Have you animated this? Is there any flickering?

[frankmci]

It looks to me like the UV space of the mesh is planer mapped instead of your texture being planer mapped onto a mesh with well a formed UV space. Baking a texture properly requires tidy UVs. Try unwrapping the UVs on the mesh, then using a Projection node on your texture. Bake the resulting texture into a bitmap and you should be good to go.

When you look at your UV layout, it should look more like the image on the right. You want the planar projection to be a property of your material, not a property of your geometry. That way you can bake it properly, and it should work fine in whatever render engine you are using. This screen grab is just automatic mapping, and ideally, you'd carefully lay out the UV space to minimize seams and distortion, but automatic might be enough for what you need.

[likeshesaid]

It looks to me like the UV space of the mesh is planer mapped instead of your texture being planer mapped onto a mesh with well a formed UV space. Baking a texture properly requires tidy UVs. Try unwrapping the UVs on the mesh, then using a Projection node on your texture. Bake the resulting texture into a bitmap and you should be good to go.

When you look at your UV layout, it should look more like the image on the right. You want the planar projection to be a property of your material, not a property of your geometry. That way you can bake it properly, and it should work fine in whatever render engine you are using. This screen grab is just automatic mapping, and ideally, you'd carefully lay out the UV space to minimize seams and distortion, but automatic might be enough for what you need.

So I have now have a proper UV map for the entire figure.


I still need to figure out a way to get my texture (which I have set to flat projection) to properly map to my UVs.

If my texture is set to UVW mapping, this is what the figure looks like (which is not what I want:


The above, however, bakes directly to my UVW map. Since the texture is set to UVW projection, there are no issues and it directly bakes.

The issue is, I want the texture with the flat projection on it to bake to UVW map:


But when the material is set to flat projection, it changes the figures UVs!


Does anyone know if there is a way around this? I am banging my head against the wall with this issue.

I hope there is a way to fix this. Thank you everyone for the help

N