CSM Academy

CSM Academy

Retopology and Baking Textures

Retopology and Baking Textures

CSM meshes might be low-poly but possibly not as low-poly as required. While improvements are underway, here’s how to retopologize and bake textures in Blender:

Step-by-Step Guide:

  1. Generate Mesh:

    • Use CSM’s Image to 3D to generate your mesh and download it.

  1. Import Mesh into Blender:

  • Position your mesh accurately on the axis.

  • Select Object > Apply > Apply Transforms to reset location, rotation, and scale.

  • Rename this mesh High-poly.

  1. Duplicate Mesh:

  • Duplicate the high-poly mesh and rename the duplicate Low-poly.

  1. Retopology:

  • Retopologize the duplicated mesh to reduce its poly count. You can retopologize manually or use Blender add-ons like Quad Remesher for quicker results.

  1. UV Unwrap:

  • UV unwrap the low-poly mesh for accurate texture mapping.

  1. Set Up Material:

  • In the Shading tab, add a new material.

  • Add an Image Texture node and connect it to the Base Color input.

  1. Prepare for Baking:

  • Set your renderer to Eevee.

  • Under the Render Properties, open the Bake section.

  1. Create a Cage Mesh:

  • Duplicate the low-poly mesh and rename it Cage.

  • Enter Edit Mode, press A to select all vertices, then press Alt+S to slightly expand the cage so it fully covers the high-poly mesh.

  1. Bake Settings:

  • In the Bake settings, enable Selected to Active and check Cage.

  • Use the eyedropper tool under Target to select your Cage mesh.

  1. Baking Process:

  • Select your low-poly mesh first, then hold Shift and select your high-poly mesh. Ensure the Cage mesh is not selected.

  • Select the Image Texture you created earlier.

  • Click Bake.

  1. Finalize:

  • Your baked texture map appears in the Image Editor. Save this texture map.

  • Now, your high-poly and low-poly meshes should visually match.