Step 3. Scene Setup: Lightmap Preparation.

Once the meshes and lights are in place, Its time to address lightmap preparation.

 

 

In the Candela Pipeline, each instance of geometry is assigned its own lightmap, based on the mesh’s unique name. This section is a bit involved, so lets go over all of the controls:

Lightmap Controls:

1. The lightmap size sliders. These let you select the size of your lightmaps, in powers of two, for both the X and Y dimensions. Most game engines work best when the texture is a square, so bear this in mind. The higher the resolution of lightmap, the better it will look, but the longer it will take to render.
2. The file format selector. This menu tells mental ray what format to render the lightmaps as.
3. The Lightmap Name field. This tells Candela what to name the lightmap for a particular object at render time.
4. The Lightmap Path Field. This tells Candela where to put the lightmap for a particular object at render time.
5. The Bake Prep Button. This adds a bakeset -with the parameters described in the controls listed above- to all the objects selected.
6. The Bake Clean Button. This removes the bakeset from all selected objects, and allows the user to pick new parameters.
7. The Bake Button. This actually renders the lightmaps based on the bakeset parameters of all selected objects, and attaches the lightmaps to the shaders of those objects.

Workflow:

1. Determine what the lightmaps for a particular type of legos should be called, and enter them into the lightmap name text field (e.g. “Pillar_Map). Be sure to hit “return” when finished.
2. Determine the desired resolution and format for that lego type. Balance quality versus physical size. A huge 2048 by 2048 map would be wasted on an object smaller than a breadbox, for example.
3. Determine what folder the lightmaps should be rendered to, and enter it into the lightmap path text field (this must be within the maya project folder). Be sure to hit “return” when finished.
4. Use the selection list and select copies button to select all the references you mean to give your settings to.
5. Once your selection is complete, hit the “BakePrep” button.
6. Repeat steps 1-4 until all referenced objects have been prepared with a bakeset.
7. Hit the “bake” button, and wait until the render is complete.
8. To test the results of your render are satisfactory - Turn your in-panel display settings to “high quality render” and hide your lights.... The objects should stay illuminated, through the effects of the lightmaps!

Candela is copyleft 2009 under the GPL v.1. Developed by Jack Turner.