How do I bake a texture in Blender?
Setting Up the Bake
Baking records the result of shading or lighting into an image file. Switch the render engine to Cycles, then open the Bake panel in the Render properties. Choose a bake type such as Diffuse, Normal, or Combined, depending on what you need.
Add an Image Texture node to the material and create a new blank image at the size you want. Make sure this node is selected, since Blender bakes to the active image node. Save the image after baking so you do not lose the result.
- Switch to Cycles render engine
- Choose the bake type in the Bake panel
- Add and select an empty image texture node
- Save the image after baking
Avoiding Common Problems
Baked textures need a proper UV map, or the image will stretch or overlap. Check your unwrapping before baking, and leave space between islands. Extra margin helps prevent seams from showing.
Bake at a reasonable resolution and test with a small sample first. Very high settings can take a long time, and the result may not look better for the effort.
Baking can take a while, so start with a low resolution to confirm your settings. Once the result looks right, bake at the final size. Keep the original scene file untouched so you can rerun the bake if something changes.
Common mistakes
- Baking without a UV map or with overlapping islands.
- Forgetting to select the image node, so the bake writes nowhere useful.
