Fixing Baking Issues in Substance 3D Painter

Hi Creators, Substance 3D Painter is a fantastic tool but sometimes it doesn't give you the best results, especially when baking textures. In this video tutorial, we troubleshoot some of the main issues in baking including weird normals, and more!
Software Used: Maya 2022, Substance 3D Painter
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[@erwin0265]

There are so many videos "out there" that go through the baking process; but yours is the first I have seen that discusses some of the issues we may have as beginners. Knowing all of the theory is of no help at all when confronted with an issue that we have no idea as to how to fix (and manuals are just useless; "Max Frontal Distal slider allows you to alter the Max Frontal distance" well, duh - but what does it do?). You explain not only how but why. Thank you! Erwin (High school maths/science teacher with 25 years experience teaching)

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Hello fellow teacher! Thank you so much for your comment. I'm so happy to hear it's helpful!

[@dianar8081]

Thank you so much! I was racking my brain trying to figure out why my normal maps looked like my low poly! Soften edges in maya was what fixed it! So grateful!

[@Momo3dArt]

Just in time! I have those problems right now, hope the solutions you gave here will help 🙏🏽

[@2010cam1]

My bakes come out so much better after following your settings! Thankyou so much for the help! :D

[@victormteosc4]

Wow, thx for this small tutorial, I was getting mad about getting weird lines in my baked maps and tried everything in Painter, but the problem was the normals itself, I never thought about that

[@fattimslim8343]

I found your channel recently and it's been so helpful learning how to rig and Maya! I'm mostly a Max user and I'm at least trying to get a handle on rigging. Basically what I'm saying is: Thank you for your work and keep it up!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Great to hear! Thank you for watching! I hope you enjoy Maya :)

[@juicelopez7131]

WOW, Monica, that SO ROCKED!! Help me out greatly! I understood prior to watching your tutorial about how it "should" look when backing maps, but was not clear on why some of my maps were coming out baked black. The whole making sure both models are occupying precisely the same pace and the "All Transform" are reset (Freeze), made all the difference in the world. (Rightfully So) Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and time to help us. I'm for sure subscribing. ♥

[@ben28messi10]

Bro you need to do those Cage things in maya (Duplicate low poly and making it Bigger in size and renaming it as _cage)

[@samyos231]

Thank you so much! I would've never figured that baking has to do with soft or hard normals, I used to fix my AO maps manually in photoshop, this is so much better!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

wow, that would take forever! I'm happy to hear this method works better for you 😊

[@nialismcreates]

Very helpful! I was always getting those annoying lines and wasn't sure what was causing it. I thought it was maybe my low poly was too low poly or something but I'll definitely try Soften Edge next time I'm trying to bake :)

[@ballsackcadillac1]

Thanks for your tutorials, it has been super helpful.

[@etienneduberger186]

Good explanation and very dynamic, thank you ! When i make so change on my low poly, I like to import the asset in Substance 3D Painter with Edit/Project configuration. No need to create a new project.

[@carlhdz8201]

Your video is GOLD for me, thanks a lot!!!

[@giorgi877]

love this channel

[@I_was_a_Bullfrog]

I wish baking in Substance would give some sort of visual feedback similar to that of Marmoset Toolbag (e.g. the cage is visible), would make things much easier.

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Me too! I would love that addition to substance!

[@reezethevampire]

Unfortunately now that Adobe owns it all we will see is bloatware and watch as the software slowly but surely becomes unusable.

[@velstorios9473]

@@reezethevampire Instead of improving , Adobe tries to cancel competitions by buying the competing programs, but that strategy will only delay their fall, and probably not by much.

[@boitahaki]

@@velstorios9473 Hopefully you are right, I can't wait for them to vanish.

[@VFXJanitor]

hey I'd like to mention there is one extra method that you could use, it may be slightly time consuming but the results provide a really good clean bake, for anyone reading this you should only use what I'm suggesting if you experience intersecting baking issues in tight areas and the front and rear distance don't work, basically the way it works is by making your own cage file by duplicating the low poly mesh and renaming the end from _low to _cage basically the steps are these (in maya) 1 duplicate the low poly mesh and rename its end tag from _low to _cage 2 make sure you high poly mesh is visible and on top of your cage mesh. 3 on the tool settings of the move tool make sure you set it to normal. 4 with your cage file select the verts and pull in the N direction (N would be normal) until your high poly mesh is nolonger poking out of the cage file in some tight areas you can change the move tool back to default and nudge the verts of the cage file aswell. 5 export the cage file as fbx (in substance) 1 under the baking settings tick the use cage file on. 2 directly underneath the use cage tick box link your cage file, after that, bake.

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thanks for the tip! Yes, creating your own cage is a great way to create more controlled normals. I'm working on a tutorial for that as well. :)

[@ben28messi10]

Monica you taught me how to proceed further and fix those issues And Samuel Edwards your are a gem bro thank you so much ( With those cage things I was able to fix high Zbrush details and bake properly in SP) ❤️❤️❤️❤️ You both are my saviour ❤️❤️❤️ Thanks a lot to both of you , Keep Doing good things like this 👍

[@duncantabletop1909]

Hey @@AcademicPhoenixPlus, did you ever create this cage tutorial in the end? I can't find it on your profile.

[@zackempire]

Thanks for your video, it helped me a lot. I wish you much success. 🙂

[@capch85]

Thank you so much for your videos! They are so useful!!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you for watching Michael!

[@Abstered]

great tutorial!! thanks a lot

[@ankurroy6081]

simple and good explanation. thankyou for your constant efforts

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are most welcome! Thank you for watching!

[@wincchesster]

Awesome, Way to go !

[@MikeliousXD]

Very helpful thank you!

[@SianGeraghty3D]

You're the best, Monica!

[@srinivasansrini6948]

Wow thankyou for this, I am stuck in this hole day now you save me, Thankyou 😘

[@amineangliz1845]

Great tutorial, thanks ! Please Make more tutorials on detailed things and issues like that

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thanks, will do!

[@santcorstudio]

Thank you so much! you saved my night

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Glad I could help!

[@coldrain8993]

Thank you so much! It helped a lot!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You're so welcome! Glad it helped! :)

[@joui6245]

thank you you saved my week

[@Agency-1001]

Love this so much this really will help me in my mobile game

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are so welcome!

[@muqdadlinux3331]

Thank you!💯

[@kynanleslie4889]

Keep looking up my 3D problems on YT and you keep popping up to solve them♥

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Glad to hear that! Happy to help. 😊 💖

[@jhenyee_00]

Thank you!!!

[@leonaraya2149]

Nice tip. Great video. Thanks!!!!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Avdenton]

Thank You !

[@imaperk8419]

thx for the smooth tip, that was my problem

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are so welcome! Glad you it helped!

[@jonathanteodoro4156]

On game production, we don't allow this kind of normal map which you showed in the end. Since you soften the lowpoly, the normal map out will bring you gradations, and we don't like that. The only way to address those edge issues on baking is to cut the UV where the hard cut is. Then make sure that you move the UV island a little bit to make sure the edge seam will not appear again.

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

That's interesting. I'm going to have to check on that. Usually you separate the UVs as you mentioned was for issues with the engine and lighting, but the newer engines don't have that issue. I'll have to investigate with my friends in the industry! Thank you for bringing it to my attention. :)

[@none53]

I have a question jonathan, i hope you would help, as you mentioned we need to cut the UV's where the hard cut is on the model, but what if the seem shows up? And i didn't get this like to move a UV island a little bit to the side or where? Thanks.

[@none53]

​@@AcademicPhoenixPlus I also have a question for you Monica, like why everyone is showing up the same method where we have high and low poly mesh, do you have any other video where you have shown the method without baking with the low poly, just a mid-range poly asset and still causing the normal baking problems I want to know about that issue, because it's literally so weird to see those edges after baking.

[@ShawnPaul86]

If your goal is to reduce chances of shading gradients, a better solution is to mark sharp edges on locations where you want very hard edges. Also good usage of mid-bevels. This will clean up your shading without splitting UV islands. Splitting a UV island just to avoid this in a bake or shading is not ideal, it will create even more issues with texture painting.

[@ShawnPaul86]

@@none53 If you don't have a low and high poly mesh, there is no reason at all to bake normals. Just use the original normals. If you have a medium mesh ONLY, and go into painter and bake normals, you will get poor results and it's not necessary. In that case just turn off normal baking, because there's no data to bake.

[@MAYA-pr1cr]

Thank you very much ma’am.

[@GnuCremoso]

You're AMAZING

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you so much! 😊

[@preize6844]

Big thanks you save me !

[@scar55577]

I have been looking for this T_T thank you monika

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are so welcome!

[@ChaosWolfNinja]

Awesome!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@nithinbonagiri6330]

Thank you

[@HIMrTerry]

thank you so mutch!!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You're so welcome!

[@JoseMendoza-mc8ic]

Million thanks :D

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

you are so welcome! 😊

[@shreyahkr]

thank you so much.hope this works. IT WORKED ILY ILY ILY THANK YOU AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

So glad it worked! Yey!!!

[@prashantvyascg9499]

Informative

[@MrPeterheather]

great!

[@velstorios9473]

So we actually need to keep it very smoothed, the thing that we usually avoid and consider very ugly can be the solution when baking into a low poly, been looking over the internet for a while, thanks.

[@mdhasnain5262]

Thanks 👍

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you for watching!

[@prakashgoutam9294]

I finally right solution video in this topic I face this problem but i did not get the solution thankyou for making this video

[@kapildahiya1255]

thanks

[@bentogugapimentel]

really nice

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@ankitdighe]

This is the video that I have been looking for. But only 1 doubt in it. Didn't understand Max Frontal Distance and Max Rear Distance role in it (as shown in fixing Bake Maps Issues video) and why other maps were turned off (except Normal, World Space Normal and Ambient Occlusion) while fixing 1 issue shown at timeline 9:40 mins. Kindly help me in understanding these parameters.

[@Noise_bubbles]

life saver

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Glad you liked it! Thank you for watching 😀

[@gr33npurple]

Great tutorial thank you! I was wondering, how can I ensure that the details of the baking are of good quality and not pixelated? like the arrows or the screws on the box

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Good question! I would double check to make sure the high poly model has clear details. Then increase the map resolution in Painter. So either 2k or for extreme close ups/vfx shots, go for 4k

[@gr33npurple]

Alright! thank you so much for these tips! @@AcademicPhoenixPlus

[@FaisalIqbalvfx]

You are Awesome😇

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you so much 😀

[@goranradomirovic2284]

Great! Tnx & kiss!!!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

My pleasure!

[@USNavalAirForces]

Thanks, the normals were my problem

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Glad it worked!

[@kmylahu9312]

Thank you so much!!!! Our prof did not tell us that the two objects have to be at the same position and I just could not bake as desired. I can't thank you enough it's late at night and I have finally fixed my problems after struggling here for almost two hours thank u thank uuuuu!

[@ahmetkaanakay7791]

Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You're so welcome!!!!!

[@combojerman28]

does the bake thing needs to be made before any painting or can i bring my high poly model and bake after?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

To bake, you need a low poly UV mapped model, and a highpoly detailed model. That should do it!

[@alperozgunyesil]

thaank you!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are very welcome! Thank you for watching!

[@MehrdadParthian]

hi there, i've created a very high poly battleaxe for Skyrim, and whenever i bake the high poly mesh on the low poly in Substance painter, i'll see bits and pieces of the low poly still overwriting the high poly model. even though both meshes are identical in size. what do you think might be the problem ?

[@velstorios9473]

I think using a cage may solve this, so the low poly being low poly may cause some parts to overlap the high poly a lil bit causing this, a cage is basically the same low poly model, but scaled a lil bit along the normals, then tick the option that says "use cage" in painter and select the file that contains the Cage model.

[@MehrdadParthian]

@@velstorios9473 a cage model ? i never even heard of that. is that a feature in substane painter or blender ? and if so how do implement it into my low poly mesh, does it replace the low poly or do i have to somehow apply it to the low poly ?

[@velstorios9473]

@@MehrdadParthian No i's not a feature, it is just the low poly model, duplicated, and scaled up along the normals. a third model other than the low poly and high poly, then in substance painter for example, on the baking window, you will see a "use cage" option, and under it an option to pick that third model exactly the way you pick a high poly model

[@SeraphsWitness]

I can't seem to get my zbrush sculpt to align with my original model... it turns out the the pivot points weren't zeroed out. So I adjusted the pivot point to the origin but they're still misaligned... is there a way to align them in Substance painter?

[@antarasengupta9000]

can you help me with these substance painter problems:--- when i am finished with baking my character some maps are turning grey. and also i am not able to import my mesh into substance when checking the udims ckeckbox on.

[@sunetrasaike5928]

hello i just started learning substance i have this character has a white bumpy mesh its location is near the corner of the mouth, i can't erase, paint on, or fill it , can you explain why that is happening?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

I would double check your UVs to make sure there is no overlap, then try again. I hope that helps!

[@qiuvincent3267]

hi there, while export the high and low objs, do you need the model's uv stay same?or just transfor the lowpolys uv to high?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Hi Qiu, the low poly is the only one that needs UVs. I hope that helps!

[@qiuvincent3267]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus cool , it does help me, and thanks for reply too, my teacher recommended your channel too , keep doing great sis CHEERS.☺

[@user-mu8ok5xf8d]

when i try to bake every face makes a hard seam on the bake and it shows up in the render. how do i fix it

[@dreidrey]

Thank you! ou helped me so much. I didn't know that both HP/LP model needede to be in the same space. thank you so much! now my nomal info is appeareing on my LP bake!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Glad I could help! Good luck in your project!

[@Anarkyp]

hello, I just get some bug or I don't know what is it. after baking mesh is just black, like normal mesh, curvature is just black or grey. how can I fix it? adobe doesn't answer : (

[@Anarkyp]

there was problem with UV : ) i just super dumb , i put all uv in wrong square XD that is why substance painter didn't saw any UVs. now i can go sleep

[@flokiololo6698]

I don't understand why it's absolutely not working at all for me. Using soften edge just smoothed my entire object and the baking process is worst than before. I can't figure how to have a correct precise baking using high and low poly mesh ...

[@b3d3d]

you saved me

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Yey!!

[@namanbisht975]

Hey, I am working on a project but in baking my seams are visible. I have tried all the ways I knew but no good. I request you to check my file and tell me how to fix it if possible. Please reply me if you are ready.

[@gtatak9805]

Maya placing 3d car on hdri Arnold realistic render make tutorial

[@RaviShankar-gi1zl]

❤️😘🙏🏼

[@nithinbonagiri6330]

I was facing same problem

[@muralimanoj7032]

Is it not necessity to unwrap highPolly model?

[@FuzzLevingston]

no you dont have to

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Nope! Just UV map the low poly. The high poly does not have to be uv mapped.

[@muralimanoj7032]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus u are the best yar. Luv u 💖

[@Peinston]

Me quiero morir, el baked no funcionaba porque olvide encima el high con el lowpoly, GRACIAS!

[@jhenyee_00]

7:45

[@Glorfindel92]

Marmoset is the best

[@ElenaBG3]

I hate baking so much

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

lol, it's a necessary evil. :)

[@TheAngelArrow]

thank you! at 5:30 or so when you said "normals" after saying it was "the low poly mesh causing the problems" i felt like an idiot for not realizing my issue 😭👌i feel so stupid rn

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

That's how we learn! You are smart for doing the research instead of giving up. Keep it up! There's always something new to learn. :)

[@VeggieBanton]

Thank you