Auto Bake is an addon for texture baking and exporting, with automatic material and object setup for baked versions, and with a built-in exporter for the baked objects. The goal with Auto Bake is to provide a fully automated, seamless workflow, while ensuring simplicity and full control at every step.

Set what texture you want to bake in the bake list, and in what size. Choose from various bake types; check the full list here.

Select the objects in the viewport you want to bake.

Click on the bake button to start baking all the set textures in the bake list for all the selected objects. Both the textures and objects have their own queue, where you can follow their bake status. 

After the textures are baked for all the objects, you can review the results for the bake queues. It's useful when a texture or object failed to bake, and it will show the exact reason why.

Textures can be exported using the 'Export' button. Textures can also be set to export automatically right after they're baked, using the checkbox next to the 'Export' button.

Although Auto Bake is designed around the Principled BSDF node, it can also bake other shader nodes. Some are fully supported, while others are only partially, meaning not all the input sockets can be baked. When baking Auto Bake will look for matching or similar socket names to those the Principled BSDF node. The bake type descriptions explain exactly which types bake which shader sockets.

The shader nodes above are fully supported, meaning you can bake all the input sockets.

The shader nodes above are only partly supported. You can bake the sockets with the green highlight, and you can't bake the sockets with the red highlight.

You can also use any number of node groups, mix, and add shader nodes. Having multiple shaders is not a problem at all for Auto Bake.

Auto Bake provides the options to automatically create baked versions of objects, create and assign their own materials, and connect the baked textures to the corresponding sockets of the Principled BSDF node.

Auto Bake can automatically export the baked objects as .fbx, .obj, or .gltf/.glb files. Explore the available export settings for each file type by clicking on the file extensions.

While Auto Bake's goal is to automate the processes around texture baking, it places a significant focus on customizability. The aim is to provide control over every step, allowing everyone to utilize Auto Bake according to their preferences and achieve the exact desired results. Click to check out the panel.

When you purchase Auto Bake, you can expect my full support. If you run into a bug or just have a question, feel free to contact me, and I'll try my best to resolve any issue you encounter! You can contact me on Discord, by joining to Auto Bake's support server.

Check out the review by Ryan! Please note that the review was done in version 1.1, and since then, a lot has changed. However, the review could still give you a good introduction to using Auto Bake.

A detailed description of all the elements of the addon.

Bake Queue

The main panel holds all the bake control buttons along with the bake queue list. At its default state, it has two buttons:

• Auto Bake: Starts the baking process.
• Export: Exports the unsaved textures from the previous bakes.

Next to the “Export” button there is a checkbox, if it’s checked in the baked textures will automatically exported to the set export path.

*The “Export” button can only be used when there is unsaved baked texture.

Bake

After clicking on the “Auto Bake” button, it will be replaced by a “Pause“ and a “Cancel“ button along with the “Export” button and its checkbox.
A bake queue list will also be added below the new buttons with a queue status bar. The status bar shows the amount of items has been completed.

*The queue list and its items are independent of the bake list. Modifying the bake list won’t make any changes to the queue list.

The textures will be baked one by one. Their status will change depending on their current state.

Bake Status

• Pending: On queue, waiting to be baked (default state).
• Baking: Currently baked.
• Baked: Successfully baked.
• Exported: Successfully baked and exported.
• Failed: Failed to bake.
• Canceled: Canceled by the user.

Pause

The bake queue can be paused anytime with the “Pause” button. If there is an active bake at the time of the pause, the current bake will be finished and won’t be canceled (it will also be also exported if it's set to).

Resume

Resume the bakes from the pause anytime by clicking on the “Resume“ button. The bake queue will continue right where it was stopped.

Cancel

Items in the queue list can be canceled using the “Cancel“ button. Their status will change from “Pending“ to “Canceled”. If there is a current bake in progress (an item with the “Baking“ status) it won’t be canceled, only the items with a status of “Pending“.

Results

The bake queue is finished when there is no item left with a “Pending“ status. The queue status bar will disappear and a “Confirm“ button will appear below the list. On click this button will hide itself along with the list, restoring the initial state of the panel.

Disable Items

Items in the queue list with a status of “Pending“ can be disabled. The status will change to “Canceled”. This means it won’t bake. Until the canceled item is not passed in the queue list, it can be re-enabled, the status will change back to “Pending“.

Export

After the bake queue is finished and the textures are not set to export automatically, they can still be exported with the “Export“ button. When the button is clicked on, a popup window will appear.

In this window all the unsaved baked textures are listed with the folder's name next to them. They can also be renamed, both the textures and the folders. Textures can be excluded from the export with the checkbox next to their name.

Bake List

Bake List is the panel where you make the list of what to bake.
*Enabled bake item count is displayed in the panel name: “Bake List (4)”

Bake Items

The main component is the list. Each item in the list has three basic properties:

• Type: Define what to bake. Types can be separated into three main groups:

  

  • Principled BSDF: All the input sockets of the Principled BSDF node.
  • Miscellaneous: Special bake types, including material displacement, color attribute and composite (combination of 3 selected gray Principled BSDF sockets).
  • Multiresolution: Normal and Displacement data from the Multiresolution modifier.
  • Standard: The default Blender bake types.
• Size: Scale of the texture, with a range between 1 and 65536.
• Gate: Items can be disabled, which means they will be ignored in the bake queue without deleting the item itself.

  

*Items that share the same type and scale are marked as duplicated and displayed in a reddish color.

Type Specific

Other than the three main item components (type, scale, gate), there are type specific settings. The first, that every type has is the name. This is an editable text property, which will be used when creating and exporting the texture.
Additionally some items have more settings related to their type. Such as: ambient occlusion, displacement, combined, normal, composite, etc.

List Operators

Use the + button to add an item to the list. Hold CTRL to add multiple items at once using the pop-up window.

Use the - button to remove an item from the list. Hold CTRL to remove multiple items at once using the pop-up window. Choose from removing all, the duplicated, or the disabled items.

Use the Up and Down buttons to move the items. Hold CTRL to move the active item to the top or to the bottom of the list.

Use the dropdown menu to access additional list modifier operators.

• Load by Linked: Load items from the selected source material. From the material’s Principled BSDF node’s connected input sockets items will be added with the sockets corresponding type to the list with the set scale value.
  • Source Method: Select material or object as source method. List items will be imported from the selected source, if material is selected items will be imported from the set material, if object is selected, all the object's materials will be used as source.
  • Texture Scale: Texture size of the new items.
  • Placement: How to place the new items in the list.

  

• Selected to Top: Move the active item to the top of the list.
• Selected to Bottom: Move the active item to the bottom of the list.
• Enable All: Enable every item in the list.
• Disable All: Disable every item in the list.
• Invert All: Invert the Gate value for every item in the list.
• Clear List: Remove every item from the list.
• Remove Duplicated: Remove all the duplicated items from the list.
• Remove Disabled: Remove all the disabled items from the list.
• Item Details: Visibility of additional type specific details (read more below)
• Sort Items: Sort the items in the list. Frist by type, and then by scale in ascending order.
• UDIM Bake: Switch between UDIM and Single texture bakes.

UDIM

When working in UDIM mode, almost everything in the Bake List works the same and looks the same. The only difference is in the Bake List items' scale value. More about in the “Bake List” section below_._
Also, there is an additional sub-panel for the UDIM tiles, right below the main list, this is only visible when the “UDIM Bake” option is checked in.

Bake List

The only change in this list is the items' size. Instead of setting the texture’s scale for each item, here it’s multiplier value for the UDIM tile sizes. If a multiplier value set to 2 instead of the default 1, each tile will be created at double the size of the set in the Tile List (original tile size * type multiplier).

Tile List

Make a list of UDIM tiles that will be used for every item in the Bake List, hence every baked texture.

*Duplicated tiles are marked with a reddish color.

Each UDIM Tile item has two main properties:

• Tile Number: UDIM tile number.
• Tile Scale: Image tile size.

Additionally tile labels can be turned on, so each tile can be named in the list, helping keep track of them.

Tile List Operators

Use the + button to add an item to the list. Hold CTRL to add multiple items at once using the pop-up window.

Use the - button to remove an item from the list. Hold CTRL to remove multiple items at once using the pop-up window. Choose from removing all, the duplicated, or the disabled items.

Use the Up and Down buttons to move the items. Hold CTRL to move the active item to the top or to the bottom of the list.

Use the dropdown menu to access additional list modifier operators.

• Load Tiles: Load the UDIM tiles from the selected UDIM image.

  

• Selected to Top: Move the active item to the top of the list.
• Selected to Bottom: Move the active item to the bottom of the list.
• Enable All: Enable every item in the list.
• Disable All: Disable every item in the list.
• Invert All: Invert the Gate value for every item in the list.
• Clear List: Remove every item from the list.
• Remove Duplicated: Remove all the duplicated items from the list.
• Remove Disabled: Remove all the disabled items from the list.
• Tile Label: Enable labels for the UDIM tiles.
• Sort Items: Sort the items in the list by UDIM tile number in ascending order.

Image

The Image panel is where you can customize how your image textures will be named and exported.

Name

Every texture creation begins with setting the name. This panel allows you to control how your textures will be named.

• Prefix: This field allows you to add custom text before the texture type. If left empty, the prefix will be the active object’s name. For no prefix, use double apostrophes ('') or double quotation marks ("").
• Bridge: Custom text to be placed between the texture type and scale. Leave it empty for no bridge text.
• Suffix: Custom suffix to be added after the texture scale. Leave it empty for no suffix.
• Force Name: Use the texture name even if there is already an image with the same name. The other image will be renamed to prevent naming conflicts.

Name Structure
You can also edit the name structure, which will be used as the form to create the texture names. To open the structure editor (like the image below), click on the pen icon, which is next to the panel name.

You can also edit the name structure form, which will be used to create the texture names. To open the structure editor (as shown in the image below), click on the pen icon next to the panel name.

Here, you can fully customize your texture names for both single and UDIM textures. You can switch up the elements, remove them, or add simple text to it.

Format

Image file format settings for creating and exporting the image textures.

• File Format: File extension to use when saving the image.

  

• Use Float: Create images with 32-bit floating-point bit depth.
• Color Depth: Bit depth per channel.
• Compression: Compression amount to use when saving the image.

*Based on the selected file format, other corresponding default Blender image settings may appear or disappear.

Export

• File Path: File path to use when exporting the textures. At the given location, a folder will be created with a name using the prefix used by the textures. This folder will be used to save all the images.
• Subfolders: In the main export folder, other subfolders will be created. Each bake type will be saved into its own subfolder.
• Color Override: Color management settings can be changed for the exported textures.

Settings

Adjust all the bake related settings that are commonly applied to all bake types. This panel includes the margin, selected to active and influence settings.

Margin

Default margin settings, adjust the size and the margin type.

Selected to Active

Default bake settings for source to target bakes, along with an additional 'Selection Helper' sub-panel, which assists in selecting objects if needed.

Sampling

Specify relevant sampling settings for bakes, including sample counts and denoising.

Addon

Control various aspects of the addon's functionality.

Textures

Image texture related settings.

• Pack Images: Pack the baked textures into the .blend file.
• Fake User: Add fake user to the baked texture images.

• Anti-aliasing: Apply scaled anti-aliasing to the baked textures.
  • Off: No anti-aliasing will be applied.
  • Upscaled: Textures will be created and baked at a higher resolution (original texture size * upscale value). Using 200% upscale value is equivalent to 2x anti-aliasing.

    

  • Downscaled: After the bake has completed, the textures will be scaled down to the set downscale value, and then back to their original texture size. This process can be repeated by changing the Iteration value.

    

• Color Space: Set the color space the different type of textures should be baked in.

  

Materials

Create a final, baked version material or control how the Image Texture nodes are placed in the materials.

• Image Textures: Set whether to keep or remove the created image texture nodes from the material after the bake.
• Final Material: A final material is what will be applied to the final object, for this material the image textures are always kept, regardless if the Image Textures are set to be kept or not. It can also be set which texture to use/connect if there are more from a type.
• Apply Textures: For the final material, the baked textures can be automatically connected to their corresponding Principled BSDF node sockets.
  • False: The textures won't be connected.
  • First: The firstly baked texture will be connected from a bake type. To which will be the first depends on the Bake List's item order.
  • Last: The lastly baked texture will be connected from a bake type. To which will be the last depends on the Bake List's item order.
  • Highest: The texture with the highest resolution from a bake type will be connected.
  • Lowest: The texture with the lowest resolution from a bake type will be connected.

  

• Node Tiling: Select how to place the image texture nodes in the materials.
  • Off: All of them at the same location.
  • Grid: Placing them into a grid tile system
  • Single Row: All of them will be placed next to each other in a single horizontal row.
  • Row By Type: Each bake type (Base Color, Metallic, etc.) will be placed into its own row.
  • Row By Type +: Each bake type (Base Color, Metallic, etc.) will be placed into its own row. Additionally, if a type has only one item, those single items will be combined into an additional row instead of using different rows.

  

• Node Labels: Add labels automatically to the Image Texture nodes.
  • Off: No label will be applied.
  • Name: The baked item's custom name will be applied.
  • Type: The baked item's type name (Base Color, Metallic, etc.) will be applied.

  

Objects

Final object settings, and object export settings.

• Final Object: Create a final, baked object from the original object. If set to the final material will be automatically applied to the final object.
• Collection: A collection to put the final object(s). If left empty the final object will be placed in the same collection(s) as the original object is in. The collection's color can also be set.

  

• Keep Name: Choose which object should have the name of the original object. If set to Final, the final object will take the original object's name, and the differentiator will be added to the original object's name. If set to Original the opposite will happen.

  

• Differentiator: A text that will be added to the end of the set (Keep Name) object's name. This is used to avoid name conflicts, and shouldn't be none.
• Location: The location to set the final object to. Can set to copy the original object's location, or to reset the final object's location.
• Location Offset: When the location is set to copy the original object's, an offset can be applied to the final object's location on the set axis.

  

*These settings are irrelevant when Selected to Active is enabled, then the Active object automatically becomes the final object.

Export Object

The final object can set to be exported automatically as all the bakes are finished for that object.

• Export When: Select when to export the objects. Either only when all bakes were successful, or always.

  

• Final Object: Whether to keep or remove the final object after it's exported.
• Clear Transform: Clear object's transform before exporting. The location, rotation, and scale can be controlled individually.
• Restore Transform: If the object's is not set to be deleted after the export, and it's transform were reset, it can be set back to its original transform.
• Export As: objects can be exported as .fbx, .obj, or .gltf/.glb. *Explore the available export settings for each file type by clicking on the file extensions.

  

Bake Items

Control how new items are added or how can they be edited.

• Add New: Choose how many items are added to the list.
  • Simple: Only one item is added at once.
  • Advanced: Multiply items can be added at once.

• Dynamic Scale: Dynamically set the new item's scale.
  • Disabled: The new item will copy the previous item's scale.
  • Enabled: New items' scale will be adjusted based on the previous two item's scale values.
  • Enabled+: New item's scale will be adjusted based on the previous three item's scale values.

  

• Bake List: Choose how and where the list items can be edited.
  • Type (In-Line): Edit the item's type directly from the list.
  • Scale (In-Line): Edit the item's scale directly from the list.
  • Type & Scale (Default): Edit the item's scale and type values from below the list.

  

• UDIM List: Choose how and where the list items can be edited in the UDIM lists.
  • Type (In-Line): Edit the item's type directly from the list.
  • Multiplier (In-Line): Edit the item's tile multiplier directly from the list.
  • Tile (In-Line): Edit the item's tile number directly from the list.
  • Scale (In-Line): Edit the item's tile scale directly from the list.
  • Type & Multiplier (Default): Edit the item's type and tile multiplier values from below the list.
  • Tile & Scale (Default): Edit the item's tile number and tile scale from below the list.

  

Bake Queue

Control the behaviour of the bake queue.

Default queue behavior when both Active Bake and Finished Bake are off.

• Finished Bake: Automatically move the finished bake queue item to the bottom of the list.

  

• Active Bake: Automatically move the active bake queue item to the top of the list.

  

• Next Object: Choose when should the next object in the queue start baking.
  • On-Success: Automatically continue with the next object, unless there was an error with a bake.
  • On-Click: The queue won't be continued until the 'Next Object' button is pressed.
  • Always: Always continue the bake with the next object in the queue.

  

• Confirm Results: Choose when should be the bake results confirmed.
  • On-Success: Automatically confirm the bake results, unless there was an error with a bake.
  • On-Click: Won't confirm automatically, always waits for manual confirmation.
  • Always: Always confirm the bake results, ignoring any errors.

  

Miscellaneous

This panel holds different type of properties, including alerts, confirmation windows, etc.

• Confirm Popups: Actions like starting and stopping the bakes have popup confirm windows. These can be turned off here.

  

• Start Popup: A collected of settings are shows in a popup window before the bake starts.

  

• Export List: When starting a new bake session, determine how to handle non-exported images from the previous session.

  

• Text Alerts: Turn off alerts at certain parts of the addon. This includes red explanatory texts that indicate when something goes wrong, such as failed bakes or incorrect settings.

  

• Reports: Auto Bake sends reports of certain actions during the bake session. Notifications of these events can be controlled here separately.

  

• Subfolder Name: Control the subfolders' names. Enabling this setting will include the prefix in the subfolders' names. Otherwise, the subfolder will be named using only the type of the bake.

Check out the addon's public roadmap on Trello for upcoming features, bug fixes and more!