On Mars 3D covers five tips to solve common texture baking issues in Substance Painter.

Baking has come a long way over the years, and while Adobe Substance Painter is relatively straightforward, sometimes it feels like rolling the dice to get a good texture bake from your models.

Here, 3D Art Lead Aunmar Mohammed (On Mars 3D) shares five tips for getting the best bakes possible.

Here are the 5 tips shown in this video to master texture bakes:

1. Maintain silhouette: Consider the context in which the model will be used. For example, high-quality game assets require maintaining as much geometry as possible in the areas that need it. You can check the overall silhouette and the flat-shaded mode to ensure it looks as good as possible.
2. Hard edges and UV seams: Use hard edges and UV seams to ensure that your cylinders and spherical objects have enough geometry. Seams on hard edges will prevent artifacts from showing up in your baked textures.
3. Minimize UV map gradients: When baking textures, aim to minimize gradients in your maps. Gradients in textures can cause compression issues in game development.
4. Utilize as much UV space as possible: Split your shells and islands to maximize UV space. Doing this will help you pack your textures more efficiently.
5. Bake in exploded view for complex models: When baking complex models, use an exploded view of the model instead of a static pose. Exploded views help ensure that all model parts can bake correctly, especially if they move during animation.