On 11/30/2011 1:08 PM, Christian Froeschlin wrote:
> 1. This looks great!

Thanks, Christian.

> 2. I don't get it ;)
>
> I have only a vague notion of texture baking. Is the main
> purpose here to render in multiple passes so you can do things
> that would be too slow otherwise, or does it allow you to do
> things that would otherwise be impossible?

If anything, you are able to do *fewer* things with texture baking than 
when just rendering in a single pass. For instance, baking transparent 
textures doesn't work too well... opaque surfaces are best.

But it does speed up the rendering process for many types of features, 
like radiosity combined with focal blur. By baking radiosity into a 
mesh, you can speed up focal blur pass, since all you are doing in the 
end is rendering a mesh without lighting, only a texture. Rendering both 
at once could take a day, but with render baking the process takes much, 
much less time.

> Also, is the fibre structure in the mesh or in the texture?

The texture. I used a (prebaked) proximity pattern to govern the 
behavior of the granite pattern, which lended a grainy, pitted look to 
the mesh.

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