Tips

Image Sequences

Only relevant for the Image (UV) and Image (Plane) bake types

It is possible to bake multiple frames with a Baker node by setting the node's target image to an image sequence. When baked, one image will be written for each frame in the sequence (the number of frames is specified by the Frames setting on the node).

Note that baking an image sequence will overwrite any file with the same filepath as an image in the sequence.

The Frames, Start Frame, and Offset settings have the same meanings as on the Image Texture node:

• Frames - The total number of frames in the image sequence i.e. the number of frames that will be baked.

• Start Frame - The frame on the timeline at which the sequence should start.
  E.g. if Start Frame is 5 then the first image in the sequence will be displayed on the 5th frame.
  This doesn't affect the numbering of the image sequence when baking (i.e. the first baked frame will still have a 001 suffix).

• Offset - How many frames the image sequence is set back by.
  E.g. if Offset is 5 then the image sequence will begin 5 frames before Start Frame (if Start Frame is 1 then the first frame of the sequence will be on frame -4).
  If Offset is -5 then the image sequence will begin 5 frames after Start Frame (the first image will be on frame 6 if Start Frame is 1).
  This doesn't affect the numbering of the image sequence when baking.

Creating a new image sequence

1. Press the New or New Image button on the Baker node and create an image with the desired width, height, bit-depth etc.
   This new image will act as a template for the other images of the image sequence.
2. Save the newly created image to disk as the first frame of the image sequence. Use the same file format and settings that the other frames should have.
   The filename should end with a numeric suffix (e.g. image-001.png).
3. Open the Additional Settings panel (the gear icon on the node) and change the image source from Single Image to Image Sequence.
4. Set the Frames, Start Frame, and Offset properties on the Baker.
5. Baking should now write an image to disk for each frame of the image sequence.

Using an existing image sequence

1. Set the image target of the Baker node to the image sequence. The image sequence should already have been saved to disk and have a valid filepath.
2. Set the Frames, Start Frame, and Offset properties on the Baker to the correct values.
3. When baked, the existing image files of the image sequence will be overwritten.

Masking

It is possible to use masking so that only certain areas of the bake target are affected when baking.

The process for masking is:

1. Select a Baker node and right click to bring up the context menu.
2. Select "Add Masking Setup".
3. Connect the mask value to the Reroute labeled Mask, this could be e.g. an image texture painted on in Texture Paint mode.
   Lighter areas on the mask are less affected by baking.
4. Connect the color to bake to the Reroute labeled Color.
   This color will replace the color of any unmasked areas and mix with any partially masked areas.
5. Bake