Click the Load Baker button in the General Tab to initiate The Baker Scroll down to the Bake Meshes group & click the toolbox button that is located to the right of the High Poly slot to load a High Poly mesh. Click the toolbox button that is located to the right of the Low Poly slot to load a Low Poly mesh. Click the toolbox button that is located to the right of the Cage Mesh slot to load a Cage Mesh.

• If you wish to load more than one High Poly mesh you can click the + icon to add more slots as needed
• You can remove previously loaded meshes by clicking the - button next to the slot that contains the High Poly mesh that you wish to remove.

Scroll up to the Global Bake Settings group and set the desired texture size that you wish to use by changing the spinners to the correct value.

Set the Anti-aliasing to 16xAA if you wish to enable anti-aliasing for higher quality bakes (at the cost of a little extra baking time). If you require dilation then ensure that the Dilation On/Off checkbox is checked on.

Press the Pre-Process button to start the mesh processing and initial bake.

If you have loaded a Cage Mesh then you can skip ahead to Baking Ambient Occlusion & Transmission Maps If on the initial bake you chose not to load a Cage Mesh then it is possible that you may need to adjust the projection cage (and possibly the Range Cage too) in order to ensure that it fully encloses the High Poly mesh with no intersections visible in the 3d Preview Window.

In the Global Bake Settings group check the View Cage checkbox and adjust the Push Slider so that the cage engulfs the High Poly mesh while still keeping it as close as possible to the High Poly surface. The projection cage should in most instances completely enclose the High Poly mesh in order to render correctly.

If the defaults for the Range Cage are not sufficient, which can be the case when baking to a plane for example, you can adjust it by selecting Manual in the Search Range dropdown and modifying the slider to a value that more suits your current needs. Range should be set at a distance that is as close to the High Poly mesh as possible, while still being enclosed by it. Setting this value too high can cause unnecessary increases in render times.