Welcome to
BakeMaster Blender Add-on

BakeMaster is an add-on specified for baking various texture maps
and created for Blender - open-source 3D Computer graphics software.
Along with its intuitive and convenient workflow baking process becomes a pleasure.
Created from scratch for users who can't stand wasting time,
and yearn for most functionality and cutting-edge features.

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Stay tuned for Announcements ✅

Introduction

BakeMaster is a Blender add-on that is built on Blender Python API. It uses a native Blender baking operator for baking PBR-based maps, default Blender Cycles maps, and special mask maps.

The add-on emits and advances Blender's baking process, making it a powerful, fully-featured and one-place solution for any scene setup.

Created by artists, BakeMaster is simple, straightforward and convenient for comfortable use, yet lands with numerous tweaks and toggles to fully meet your ultimate texture baking preferences.

We gave our best shot to make you love the setup in BakeMaster, which takes only 3 steps:

add meshes
add maps
set and hit Bake!

An unlimited number of objects and custom maps, each driven by unique settings - all can be configured and baked with BakeMaster!

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Why Artists choose BakeMaster

Baking standard Cycles maps is straightforward, but what about baking dozens of them, or PBR-based that are highly relevant in physically accurate texturing? This can easily lead to losing valuable time. Having taken advantage of Blender's node-based material system, we decided to create a fast, responsive, and comfortable baking solution alongside the native baking operator.

BakeMaster makes the whole process easy to tweak and delivers more functionalities.

Never worry about the nodes again: just toggle a couple of settings and BakeMaster will configure it all for you. Cycles maps are gone? Not just yet - simpler UI and manageable settings make it feel like a new book.

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Key Features

Take a look at the main features of BakeMaster that make it stand out:

Bake an unlimited number of objects and maps, each with unique settings
25 different map types available:
- PBR-based maps
- Default Cycles maps
- Special masks
Bake adaptive Displacement with automatic modifiers
Real-time map preview in the viewport
Packing many items onto one map
Fully customizable map bakes
Denoise baked maps
Bake to UDIM tiles

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Even more features

Expand your view onto features that make BakeMaster rock:

Unique Bake settings:
Choose a different bake device for each object.
Set bake samples, adaptive sampling, noise threshold and more.
Outstanding Output settings:
Automatic material creation with all baked maps.
Automatic image color profile configuration.
Custom file formats, resolution, alpha and 32bit float use.
Internal & External Bake:
Manage maps output directory.
Manage Subfolder creation.
Pack your maps into a .blend file.
Fully control Map Settings:
Control Contrast, Brightness, Opacity.
Control Samples, Saturation, Distance, Coverage and much more.
Invert map colors on the fly.
Real-time Map Preview:
No need to guess what each map setting refers to,
toggle map preview and instantly see how the output will look like.
Denoising:
BakeMaster will denoise any baked map in seconds.
UV Organization:
Auto unwrap models.
Pack UVs of multiple objects.
Choose UV to use for bake if an object has many.
Baking to UDIMs:
Choose object UV type in Single or Tiled (UDIMs).
Specify custom UDIM tiles baking range for each map.
Source to Target Bake:
Choose a source object for your target object.
Keyword batch naming:
Custom map name keywords to be filled with all necessary information.
Tips and Documentation:
Every property, button or field is documented with a description or instruction.
Add-on Documentation will help you find everything regarding usage and explanation.
Blender versions compatibility:
The add-on is fully compatible with the following Blender versions:
2.83, 2.90, 2.91, 2.92, 2.93, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 Alpha.
Enhanced Bake Control:
There is not a single keybinding that you can use to control the baking process.
Responsive UI:
As you tweak the preferences either of map or object,
the interface will change to fully mirror and appropriate your actions.

To view all features and learn the ropes of BakeMaster, visit Documentation.

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Installation

BakeMaster add-on works in Blender, so if you haven't got it on your device just yet, go ahead!
Make sure the Blender version you are using is compatible with BakeMaster.

Uninstall previous versions

If you have a previous version of BakeMaster installed, follow the steps to uninstall it:

Open Blender

Go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons

Type "BakeMaster" into the search bar

Expand the add-on panel and click "Remove"

Save Blender Preferences

It would be good to restart Blender after.

Download the latest version

Download the latest BakeMaster add-on version from the Blender Market.

A demo version can be also installed from the GitHub repo:
Go to the install/ and download a zip folder.

See BakeMaster Versions for details.

Install BakeMaster into Blender

Open Blender

Go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons

Click "Install"

Specify the path to the download zipped add-on

Enable the addon

Access BakeMaster in Blender

BakeMaster add-on can be accessed in the Viewport.
Hit the "N" key on your keyboard and you will see the add-on pop up on the right.
Head over to the add-on panel and you are good to go.

Update BakeMaster

Once a newer version of BakeMaster becomes available, uninstall all the previous versions.
Download the newer one. Follow the steps in the sections above to install it into Blender.
A new version will be announced in the Announcements.

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Basic Usage

Below are the basic steps about how to quickly set up and get the hang of BakeMaster.
If you want to dive into every setting or toggle and become a complete BakeMaster master,
you can visit Documentation.

List of actions:

Choose objects
Source-target Settings
UV Settings
Choose maps
Map Settings
Bake Settings
Baking process

1. Choose objects

First of all, you need to choose the objects you want to perform bake for:

Select objects in the scene

Press the "Add" button on the BakeMaster panel

As long as objects are added to the list, you can configure their settings.

Tip: to quickly find the object you have added to the list in the outliner, just simply click it in the List of Objects, and it will be selected in the scene.

2. Source-target Settings

If you want to bake high-poly model details onto a low-poly model,
use Source to Target settings:

Add both low and high-poly models to the List of Objects

Select the low-poly in the List

Expand Item Settings panel

Expand Source to Target panel

Check "Target"; set "Source" to be the high-poly.

Extrusion, Max Ray Distance and Cage object can be configured inside the Source to Target panel as well.

3. UV Settings

If you want to bake to UDIM tiles, or include an object in UV Pack,
the UV Maps panel is essential:

Select the object in the List of Objects

Expand Item Settings panel

Expand UV Maps panel

Inside the panel, you can choose:

Active UV layer

UV type (Single tile or UDIMs)

UV Packing settings

If your object has no UVs, BakeMaster will auto-unwrap the mesh for you before baking.

4. Choose maps

Add maps you would like to be baked in the Map Settings panel:

Select the object in the List of Objects

Expand Map Settings panel

Click the "+" button to add a map pass

Click on the map pass to set its type

If you have prepared some maps for the future and you don't want to bake them alongside others,
click the "📷" button near the map pass to toggle its "bake visibility".

5. Map Settings

Every map pass can have unique output settings.
All of them can be configured inside the Map Pass Settings panel:

Select the object in the List of Objects

Expand Map Settings panel

Choose an active map pass

Expand the Map Pass Settings panel

Map pass output settings include:

File format

Resolution

Margin

Use 32bit float bit depth

Use Alpha Channel

Map Denoising

Affect by Source (apply Source to Target settings for this map pass)

Other settings that depend on Blender version

Some map passes like AO, Thickness, Displacement and others can have custom settings.
They can be also set inside the Map Pass Settings panel.

For example, Curvature Map has the following custom properties
(These settings can be toggled by unchecking "Default" inside the Map Pass Settings panel):

Samples count (quality)

Radius (edge radius)

Edge contrast

Body contrast

Invert option

Special maps have a "Preview" toggle to turn on real-time map preview in the Viewport.

6. Bake Settings

Last but not least is the Item Bake Settings panel:

Select the object in the List of Objects

Expand Bake Settings panel

Expand Item Bake Settings panel

Each object in the List of Objects can have custom Bake Settings, including:

Material creation (create a material with all baked maps)

Internal/External output

Output directory and subfolder creation options for External save

Maps Batch naming (map naming keywords)

Bake device (CPU, GPU - depends on the system)

Adaptive sampling, sampling

And more

Inside the same Bake Settings panel, there are several important controls to know about:

Reset BakeMaster option (reset BakeMaster after bake)

Bake This Button (bake maps only for the current item in the List)

Bake All Button (bake maps for all items)

There is also an embossed field called "Bake Instruction".
When you hover over it, you will see Baking process information and controls.

7. Baking process

The baking process can be controlled from your keyboard or Blender Console.
All keybindings are presented under the "Bake Instruction" field inside the Bake Settings panel.

Press BACKSPACE to cancel baking all next maps

Press ESC to cancel baking current map

Press BACKSPACE + ESC to cancel baking

If you want to undo the bake result, press Ctrl + Z just after it has been finished or canceled.

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Process Flow

BakeMaster process flow is described below:

BakeMaster keeps track of all added maps and objects in a stack-like order:

Item0

Map0

Map1

Item3

Map0

Item2

Map0

Map1

The order of classes can be changed using the order controls.
Each class has its unique settings.

BakeMaster picks an Object added to the List of Objects and bakes maps added to it one by one.
This process can be shown in the following diagram:

BakeMaster shows baking progress in the bottom info bar, in the style:

    Baking [Object Name]: [Map Name], map [Current Map Index] of [Length of Maps] ... [Map Baking Progress]

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Releases

The latest stable release of BakeMaster is the release-bakemaster-1.0
Older versions or development versions are available in the GitHub repo.
BakeMaster Changelog.