How do you avoid texture stretching or distortion when baking from high-poly to low-poly models?

1 Understand UV mapping

UV mapping is the process of assigning 2D coordinates to the vertices of a 3D model, so that a texture can be applied to it. UV mapping can affect how the texture is projected onto the model, and how the texture baking is done. To avoid texture stretching or distortion, you need to have a good UV layout that matches the shape and topology of your model, and that minimizes seams, overlaps, and distortion. You can use tools such as UV unwrapping, UV packing, UV smoothing, and UV checker to create and optimize your UV maps.

2 Choose the right baking method

There are different methods of baking textures from high-poly to low-poly models, such as projection baking, ray casting baking, cage baking, and normal map baking. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and can produce different results depending on the complexity and similarity of your models. To avoid texture stretching or distortion, you need to choose the right baking method for your situation, and adjust the settings accordingly. For example, projection baking can cause artifacts if the models are not aligned well, ray casting baking can cause gaps if the models have different scales, cage baking can cause bleeding if the cage is too big or too small, and normal map baking can cause seams if the tangent space is not consistent.

3 Use high-resolution textures

The resolution of your textures can also affect the quality of your texture baking. If your textures are too low-resolution, they can lose details, become blurry, or pixelated. If your textures are too high-resolution, they can cause performance issues, waste memory, or exceed the limits of your software or hardware. To avoid texture stretching or distortion, you need to use high-resolution textures that match the size and density of your models, and that preserve the details of your high-poly model. You can use tools such as texture resizing, texture compression, texture mipmapping, and texture filtering to optimize your textures.

4 Fix the errors manually

Sometimes, texture baking can produce errors that are hard to avoid or fix automatically, such as seams, gaps, bleeding, or noise. In these cases, you need to fix the errors manually using tools such as texture painting, texture cloning, texture erasing, or texture blending. You can also use tools such as texture masking, texture layers, texture channels, or texture baking modes to isolate and edit specific parts of your textures. To avoid texture stretching or distortion, you need to fix the errors manually with care and precision, and check the results in different lighting and viewing conditions.

5 Test and iterate

The final step to avoid texture stretching or distortion when baking from high-poly to low-poly models is to test and iterate. You need to test your textures on your low-poly models in different rendering engines, platforms, and environments, and see how they look and perform. You also need to iterate your textures based on the feedback and results, and make adjustments and improvements as needed. You can use tools such as texture preview, texture export, texture import, and texture reload to test and iterate your textures.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?