SimpleBake for Blender: A MUST-HAVE for texture baking!

Texture baking in Blender is complicated. It's a pain! The Simple Bake Add-On for Blender streamlines the texture baking process. With SimpleBake, we can bake multiple textures on multiple objects at the same time. No more complicated settings or copying and pasting image nodes into materials.
The Simple Bake add-on does a lot. We can use it for PBR baking or Cycles Baking. It can bake from one object to another. It supports background baking and will even set up a new UV map to bake to. It's packed with features and is seriously a must-have add-on if you ever plan to bake textures in Blender.
SIMPLE BAKE LINK:
blendermarket.com/products/si...
Why do we need to bake textures? If we want to export models to another 3D program or game engine (Like Unity or Unreal) we will need to bake. Also, if we want to share or sell our models on a site like Sketchfab or Blender Market, we will need baked textures. Baking also allows us to simplify a Blender file and use fewer PBR images. Whatever the reason for baking, SimpleBake is the add-on you want to do it with.
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[@Brandon-3D]

Simple Bake Affiliate Link: blendermarket.com/products/simplebake---simple-pbr-and-other-baking-in-blender-2/?ref=422

[@CamIsMac.]

lol the price went up $1 now it's $17, that's too much for me 💰💰

[@dubtube6691]

@@CamIsMac. now its 20$

[@EricMalek]

After watching this, I bought the addon. All I can say is WOW! It's so nice to get something that exceeds expectations instead of leaving gaps in abilities. I highly recommend this. Thank you!

[@Brandon-3D]

That is a great review! I agree 100% thank you!!

[@FPChris]

Same.

[@shemdesuuu]

the way you explained the add-on was really easy to follow, thank you so much as well for sharing the preferences you like, it helps in familiarizing with the add on!

[@thepolyglotprogrammer]

This was great man! Thanks a lot for referring to the addon. I had already read your post, but as you said yourself, even with a step by step this process can be very complicated. Agai, thanks!

[@Brandon-3D]

Thank you so much for the kind words! I send out a monthly newsletter with new tips and sometimes cool new addons. If interested, you can join for free here: brandonsdrawings.com/subscribe

[@kylianthehylian]

missed opportunity to call it "easy-bake"

[@MRUStudios]

Wow! That's a great find Brandon! I totally agree about baking texture maps. I don't know how it is now, but in Blender 3.3.0 and below there was an issue I believe where you had to disconnect the metallic map from the Principled BSDF node for the Diffuse map to bake properly? I think that's what it was. Also, the names to select in the drop down for baking don't always match with the name of the map you're trying to bake. If I remember correctly there was a trick to baking emission maps as well. It's awesome you found an addon that takes care of it all. Thanks so much for sharing with us and for the awesome content. You're the best! I hope you, your loved ones and everyone reading this has an awesome 2023! 😃

[@Brandon-3D]

Man, I always look forward to your input. There are a ton of quirks in the whole baking program. The fact that somebody seemed to have cleaned it up with an addon makes me wonder why Blender hasn’t improved on it. But, for the cost of using Blender I guess I can’t complain :). Take care my man and happy new year!!

[@ScorgeRudess]

OMG, I was needing this a week ago... I posponed the project because of this... resuming now! you are GOD... thanks!

[@Brandon-3D]

Glad you discovered it. I was in a similar situation when I found it myself. Thank you and good luck!

[@Glithware_403]

DUDEEEE, the way you explained it cleared all my doubts, I really want the addon now ^w^

[@Brandon-3D]

It's a great add-on! And thank you!

[@weirdwoodsy]

I was already thinking about getting this add-on (but comparing to several others) and this video was the final push I needed to make it happen. It seems dreamy AF.

[@Brandon-3D]

I’ve been very happy with it! Good luck!!

[@ClaimClam]

just get gpt4 to make a baking code

[@bafsr]

@@ClaimClam make an add on for blender ? with gpt ?

[@ClaimClam]

@@bafsr yes it can write code

[@jurgenvantomme]

very well explained. I try this now.

[@chrystianyaxche5381]

I wish all the addons and explanatory videos were like this, thank you very much for the info.

[@Brandon-3D]

Happy to help and really appreciate the comment! Take care!

[@shycat3d]

OMG! Yes a bran new video! I was waiting for a video from your amazing channel Thank you so much :D

[@Brandon-3D]

That is very nice if you. Thank you! Hope you enjoyed it!

[@shycat3d]

@@Brandon-3D awww thank you too for your kind comment and the heart :)

[@LanMcGaha]

Simplebake made very easy to understand. Thank you!!!!

[@billyjjackson]

Great guide - purchased!

[@NN-wc7dl]

Great tutorial for a great addon!

[@kat74809]

I purchased the addon and I was wondering if I can use SimpleBake to bake a high-poly character mesh texture to a low-poly character mesh? If so do I use PBR Bake or Cycles Bake and how do I set everything up? Would lighting set up be necessary for the scene or can I just jump into baking?

[@foveate3d]

You can!

[@metageist666]

This video is excellent, thank you

[@alex.nolasco]

Thank you for this!

[@Brandon-3D]

Absolutely! It’s been a lifesaver for me.

[@ICon415]

THank you for this Brandon👏

[@Brandon-3D]

You’re very welcome and thank you!!

[@user-co6xm6hi7r]

That's what i exactly called 'God of Bake'!!

[@SwissplWatches]

purchased, thank you!

[@Brandon-3D]

Thank you!!

[@ladyvanessa972]

i needed this in my life

[@rivergamer5763]

the best tutorial ty

[@violentpixelation5486]

super explained. Thank you. #blender #3dtexturing

[@lukaspaver]

Amazing addon, I bought it.

[@Brandon-3D]

Thank you!!

[@qbukhari]

I have bought it 100% useful

[@GregorifElfeNoir]

Thank you, it was just what I needed to export my TinyEye models without having to go through hell :)

[@chinering23]

Ended up here by chance after finding out how painful baking is and the intro spells out exactly what it's like. Still having trouble with a building after this though. Best result I have so far is separating it by material then baking all those separated objects. Not what I am going for though and was hoping to put the whole building into one atlas. That last run was 68 baked objects but would be nice if could get that down to 3 or 4.

[@godzoookie]

It's a good add-on for some cases. If you have any other shader nodes (glossy, diffuse, etc.) mixed, added or just anywhere in node tree, doesn't even have to be connected to principled BSDF it will not work.

[@akshaybabu898]

Could you suggest some other addon that could work for the rest?

[@coystt7233]

Yep same problem and support is taking ages to reply

[@DELETE5020]

Faced the same problem when I tried to bake Fluent Materializer’s nodes. After removing couple of GlossyBSDF nodes inside Fluent’s Layer node (they are for preview purposes only anyway) everything worked just fine.

[@zolo5425]

May I ask if there will be a feature to output multiple channels into one image in the future? Just like Substance Painter's "2D View", it is very helpful for some game projects that are not PBR.

[@Marvin-bm1de]

Thank you for this Tutorial. This really Made me buy Simple Bake. But i am experiencing issues. I am trying to Bake the Texture of several Joint Objekts and one of Them with procedural texture. It Always Turns Out either completely black or mostly black without Details. Is it possible to Bake Something Like that with simple Bake? I couldnt Figure Out the correct settings. Any Idea ? :-(

[@ario9907]

Its a horrible ad on dont use, bake them normally and you wont experience blank/black textures

[@C1OUS3R]

I've purchased the plugin but every time i try to bake it just crashes. It tells me to check a crash log but every time i attempt to open it. It says the log doesn't exist. There are no details besides that and I'm really worried i just wasted my money

[@JonToons0208]

Wow that is interesting. I wish I can do one like that too.

[@Brandon-3D]

I bet you can! Thank you!

[@JonToons0208]

@@Brandon-3D you're welcome

[@KennyDovahkiin]

Hey All, first of all let me say: I love the tool, it makes my life so much easier, thanks for the effort to develop and maintain it :) however I have an issue right now. I'm trying to bake and export some metallic parts with high glossyness / reflective chrome material, but can't find the right settings. I want to use PBR bake and export the end result in glb format. Any help appriciated! Thanks

[@Zerccies09]

Very cool, i finally figured out how to bake in blender. Boi it was a pain, still is. It only took making many models and doing it over and over bashing my head against the wall only to figure out some of the bake options need to be changed in order to get the look i was going for as if i dont turn them off everything bakes to black

[@jan3cki]

Looks promising. Does it work with transparent materials? I see your house models don't have transparent windows. Is it possible to SimpleBake materials with different transparency and export to a gltf file?

[@a.kromatyk]

Very helpful but my question is if there is anyway that I can bake a material that has Multiple BSDF nodes, like Multiple Principle BSDFs and Mix Shaders. I am really stuck in my process because of this. Let me know please. Thanks

[@aryanmrd]

God bless you man

[@Brandon-3D]

Thank you!!

[@C0llinsW0rth.]

do you happen to have a video about baking lighting? Excellent video and totally worth a subscribe and like!

[@starder6676]

Do I have to rename a new UV as simplebake every time if I want to bake my current texture to another UVmap ?

[@hotsauce7124]

Hello, I'm new to Blender. Does "SimpleBake" also work for multiple objects with UDIMs?

[@user-su2uo6zu3b]

Hi! thx a lot, any idea how to control strength of AO in the baking process? it choose it automaticlly. thx

[@EridaniOpsCG]

Do you know of a guide for using SimpleBake to properly export to Unreal Engine 5? I've been trying to figure it out for 4 months now. My materials always turn out solid white

[@Halves-wn2nc]

I'm fairly new to this, and just bought the addon. Was there a way to bake textures into seperate UVs? I'm porting and my objects have several UVs across one object but it bakes it into a single image and causes overlap.

[@HATL201]

Hi, I have a question. Some of the models from Blenderkit have a mix shader that then goes into the Material Output node. Will it work with those? Thanks!

[@Brandon-3D]

I think they have to go through the principled shader. But I’m not 100% sure.

[@virtualfunart]

I purchased this plugin. It really is great and simple! I never attempted to bake the hard way, as it seemed so complicated, so jumped straight into baking with this plugin. Do you have any tips on baking things quicker? I have a model of a building. It has lots of textures. To bake my entire model, it would probably take a whole week, even using this plugin. I am not sure what settings in blender reduce time for baking. Also, is it better to join the buildings walls together? then i guess it would not need to bake 4 sides of a room, but would then bake all walls as one object?

[@replacehumans]

@BrandonsDrawings I have a really dumb question, how do you get the version of the addon for version 3? I purchased the addon from the blender market and they only provide the download link for version 2.9. I see you have it working in the video so I know it exists. Thanks for any help and great video! I can't wait to use this for baking

[@Brandon-3D]

Hey, not a dumb question at all. I don’t see it either and just sent a message to the creator asking what’s up.

[@replacehumans]

Thank you!!

[@gertjubileus5680]

Awesome

[@Brandon-3D]

Thank you!!

[@fmmustafa]

bro i tried baking with simple bake , but idk why every time i bake texture , their quality is little blurry, can u tell me whats the problem specially diffuse map

[@jodyyy_surfs]

when i bake i'm gettting entirely black diffuse maps any idea what would cause this?

[@Ryujinnnnnn.]

Does it do everything needed regarding very complex materials ? (Procedural) thx

[@vincentboudewijn]

I have this problem, where I set the output path, the textures get baked, but it does not export the maps out of blender. Anyone know how to solve?

[@jorgemoises5311]

Thank you for the video, i buy the addon using the link!, but i do have a question it is posible to UV wrap exactly what i am see in the Shade Editor? some how when i use the simple bake do something diferent.

[@Brandon-3D]

First off, thank you! Im not entirely sure what you’re looking to do though.

[@clipboardchannel99]

How do I use SimpleBake to bake Normals from High Poly mesh to a Low poly one?

[@lawnside82]

Simple bake on mac, where does the bake go? Is there a default folder or same folder the . Blend is in??

[@IIIQZAIII]

:DDDDD I like the start of video

[@IIIQZAIII]

but you understand that this is a super long process with this plugin

[@IIIQZAIII]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKamk5xud7eJnJY

[@designomomento]

Thanks for the tutorial and introduction. I have an addon creates procedural buildings. So when I finish designing and apply the node, it is turned into one piece whole object with like 30 materials. I want to use the building in İclone so I need to bake all those materials on one texture image. Does this addon make it happen?

[@Brandon-3D]

Yeah that should work after you apply the geo node. Depending on how much geometry you may need a really large texture and could consider splitting the buildings into a few groups. But yes it will work for baking and transferring to Iclone.

[@designomomento]

@@Brandon-3D thanks for quick response. I will bake one building with multi material each time. I think this is the right purchase for me. 🙏🙏🙏

[@xReSteel]

Hi, I have a problem, when I tried to bake PBR Diffuse/Specular/Roughness I alway got black textures, but Normal and AO works. Thanks in advance.

[@tastypepper2505]

hi,Have your problem solved?i just found set metalic to 0 may make it work(mentioned by stoner_037)

[@loudertv8676]

Thank you once again for another God sent tutorial brandon. Can I apply simple bake to particles? 🤔

[@Brandon-3D]

Thank you! I don’t think it would work on particles.

[@loudertv8676]

@@Brandon-3D ok thank you. I will still purchase though

[@zachhoy]

wow that saved me a lot of effort, Blender needs to have this integrated, but in the meanwhile good on HaughtyGrayAlien

[@AlisonReidMe]

I'm sold, but I was curious about something that flashed by in the video, namely, a Specular bake. How does Simple Bake do this if it's not in Blender to begin with?

[@gabgab3768]

This will save a ton of time in baking, 16$ is too cheap for the time you spend from baking manually.

[@shycat3d]

Exactly! The only thing that has more worth than money, is time

[@Brandon-3D]

Absolutely!!

[@ItBlabz]

Can this be used to take an existing texture from an old UV map, and bake that existing texture to a new image that matches the layout of a new UV layer?

[@Brandon-3D]

Yes. Absolutely. You’ll set the old UV as the one to “view” but the new one as the target.

[@amanchomal6194]

what to do if i have overlapping UV because i have textured the object that way only

[@royalj8160]

can i bake multiple highpoly objects on multiple low poly in a texture set ?

[@jhonysteak5512]

Do you know where I can find info on how to bake with a skin texture? I arrive at nothing convincing with this addon?

[@sufyanaatish750]

Hi can we increase sample count from 2

[@benveasey7474]

Which maps should be baked when exporting to UE5?

[@1upMan1]

Hey I’m still kinda don’t understand much about baking but can this addon bake world textures? I created a chrome look on an object but all the texturing is mainly in world.

[@Brandon-3D]

I believe it can using the “Cycles bake” feature. But I’ve never actually used it for that.

[@1upMan1]

@@Brandon-3D thanks man, once i get that addon i will try it.

[@johansno5019]

I really can't deal with baking, it gives me so much headache and for such an integral feature it's way too convoluted. I will try this one, thanks

[@Brandon-3D]

Good luck. 100% agree.

[@yosatip182]

I can't export the texture.. it says "unavailable - blend file not saved" on export setting.. please help

[@haroldramislives]

Will this bake a texture if that texture is made from uv mapping? I make a lot of buildings where i rip the textures from rl.

[@Brandon-3D]

Hi! I’m not exactly sure what you mean but yes it will bake textures with UV Maps.

[@haroldramislives]

@@Brandon-3D thanks for the reply. I probs worded that wrong. What i mean is if i used multiple uv maps as different materials, would this then bake those into the new uv map, say if i used the window portion of an image forone object then a door from another for a second object? I make assets for cities:skylines and I use image textures more than BSDF/PBRs but I want to use those as making a uv map manually takes 4 times longer than the model its self.

[@harveystott7460]

Does it support displacement baking?

[@shadows1235]

One problem I'm having, is that my uv unwrapping are over stretch in the uv editor. How do i bake it? I did the "Simplebake" in the uv but its only baking part of it. If you dont understand, i can email you the screenshots. (I did bought it in your affiliate link)

[@Brandon-3D]

I don’t fully understand but having a clean, well packed UV to bake to is necessary. The UVs you use to set up the materials can be messy but the one you’re targeting to has to be clean. Yeah you can email me. [e-mail]

[@shadows1235]

ok i sent the email@@Brandon-3D

[@sulivarace7138]

Anyone know where to find info or tutorials for more complex textures? I bought the addon and I always get better results using the manual method or doing everything by hand with photoshop, it's certainly fast but unusable when you compare the result to the basecolor. But maybe I'm doing it wrong but I found nothing conclusive on youtube, most videos are like this one, it only shows this addon with the simplest scenes.

[@randomshittutorials]

Always funny to see these types of comments not getting any attention.

[@sulivarace7138]

@@randomshittutorials Thanks to me, I don't use this plugin anymore.

[@HanaxBanana]

Does this also bake Decals?

[@herreriagv4489]

I bought the addons, but it doesn't allow me to export

[@patek2385]

Does it bake high to low poly?

[@kart1372]

I'm a noob in blender. I was building a flashlight that has some rays coming out of the front. For the rays I used a spot light and a cylinder and set the cylinder's material to volume scatter. But if I export it as a gltf model , I can't see the ligth rays , just see the cylinder as black. Will this add-on fix that?

[@cov.teo.8131]

Cool add-on but every time I export something to OBJ./FBX it always turns out purple and I don't know why cuz I am following everything step by step. And I am using Blender 3.5.

[@gears257]

I got the same issue, did you find a solution?

[@cqrhqr3418]

what is the latest version of it?

[@madeeasy7148]

What about decal machine details?

[@user-ji8fz7nc8m]

I'm trying to bake textures from Kitbash3D assets. It is just insane, how not optimized these models are. But it gives me a hard time. Sometimes it works, when the model is relatively simple. But in case with big buildings, which consist like 20 materials (and where it is must have) it doesn't work because of there are transparent materials. I tried to get rid of them, but still no luck. Something other going wrong. And Cycles version also does not work :( I'm nearly ready to give up However I must admit that addon is nice, and when it works - it does it well.

[@RobertoFavillaMEDIACLIK]

Salve. Can i bake Procedural Material ?

[@Brandon-3D]

Yes absolutely!

[@Hadrhune0]

Is this real life? It must be a dream...

[@Brandon-3D]

Haha! It’s real my friend!

[@Metal92990]

I've been using Blender for 8 years now, and I love it. There is 1 thing that still stumps me though, and that's the nodes Math, Vector Math, and Mix RGB. Each of these 3 nodes have options on there like add, multiply, fraction, ping pong, etc. Sadly, there are NO tutorial videos as to what these options can do for you. I looked all over the place for 1, but to no avail. Can you explain, or better yet, show, as to what these options do, and how we can use them for node editing? PLEASE?

[@Brandon-3D]

Yes, those can be confusing. Vector math I’ve never yet needed to use and it does seem intimidating. As for the methods of combining the RGB colors those are similar to layer methods in Photoshop and other software. They’re different ways of combining colors together. Honestly there are like three I understand and occasionally just experiment to see what happens. But I do think you’re onto a good video idea and I might add it to my research list.

[@dragosoprea8354]

i would just want to see a practical example, baking high to low (diffuse, normal map) - the high is actually low plus subdivision. i bought the addon, and after watching your video i don't know how to do it...

[@toddlask]

ive been trying to understand textures in blender lately... not many ytvids on that topic!

[@Brandon-3D]

Working on one!!

[@toddlask]

@@Brandon-3D cool, cant wait! the textures panel and how that integrates is a nut im trying to crack open.

[@arise3494]

It can’t bake displacement?

[@jhonysteak5512]

I tried again but it destroyed my procedural texture and failed the baking by combining the normal with the diffuse then overwriting my procedural texture. the ctrl z doesn't work, this crappy addon is really horrible.

[@hirkdeknirk1]

I wonder why everyone says texturing in Blender is so great and easy. With SimpleBake it's apparently the same as in 3ds MAX and without it it's not pretty at all.

[@mikerusby]

blender does n't bake out metallic either and you basically have to turn off metallic or the bakes come out weird or black at least simple bake can do this which is cool

[@herreriagv4489]

export settings Unavailable blend file not saved

[@Brandon-3D]

Hey! Save the .blend file you’re using and that should fix it.

[@snark567]

Doesn't seem to work on transparent textures.

[@yosatip182]

I thought that only happen to me

[@nicholash1278]

this plugin sounds great but in practice, has way too many shortcomings to be a reliable part of my workflow :(

[@P4TCH5S]

dang but my project is in 3.5

[@tendollah156]

I wish this would work with eevee

[@Brandon-3D]

So all baking uses Cycles to do the actual baking. But the baked materials can absolutely be used in Eevee. In fact the simple baked settings will appear in Eevee. I believe the addon will switch to cycles, bake and then switch back to Eevee.

[@mendezcreative]

bought the plugin before watching so I'll subscribe to you instead :)

[@Brandon-3D]

All good, I appreciate it and enjoy!

[@hermano8160]

WHY IS THIS NOT VANILLA BLENDER?????

[@AndyTanguay]

Sorta makes me wish the Blender Foundation worked like Autodesk. Buy the developer out and build it into the base package....then KILL the old way. It's HORRIBLE.

[@lukastemberger]

Except Blender is free and open source. And has a robust plugin system. Which is the main reason why talented devs and artists choose it and why we get gems like this on the Blender market.