Bake Helper
A Blender addon that makes it easier to bake Cycles materials by creating image and UV nodes for each material on the selected objects and making sure its image nodes are selected.
After that, all you need to do is set the bake type and bake!
Why
I created this because I was tired going through the ol' baking checklist:
- Did I add an image node?
- Did I select it?
- Oh, I edited my material... is my image still selected?
Repeat for each material your objects have.
Install
- Download the python file (put it in a place where you can easily find it, like your desktop)
- In Blender's settings, go to the addons tab
- At the bottom, click "Install from File"
- Find where you put the python file, select it, and click "Install from File"
Using
Bake Helper is in Properties Window > Render Tab > Bake Helper
When you want to bake, simply press the Prepare Bake button in the Bake Helper panel.
Bake Helper will create its nodes under the Material Output node in the objects' materials and select them.
Change the nodes' settings, e.g. the image you'll be baking to, if you need to.
After that, the selected objects should be ready to bake.
Notes
If a Bake Helper node was already created in your materials, pressing the Prepare Bake button will not overwrite them, it will just select them.