Difference Between “Mesh Bake Light” and “Mesh Light Mask” (in Asset Texturing)

InstaMAT
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Hi InstaMAT Community

I usually use Mesh Bake Light as a mask to simulate sunburn effects by applying light from above onto my models.

While browsing the MAT library, I came across another feature called Mesh Light Mask.

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As far as I remember, Mesh Light Mask outputs grayscale data (mask information), whereas Mesh Bake Light outputs both color data and grayscale (mask) information.
(This is based on my past experience experimenting with them in the Element Graph, so it’s just a recollection.)

Based on the output alone, I thought Mesh Light Mask would be more appropriate, so I tried using it for asset texturing.
However, I couldn’t visualize the lighting, and in the end, I went back to using Mesh Bake Light as before.

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So I have two questions:

  1. What is the difference between these two features?
  2. When I want a mask that reflects lighting on a model during asset texturing, is it okay to use either one?

Sorry if this is a basic question about functionality.

2

Hello @t0rry,

Thanks for your post!

Mesh Bake Light is used to bake color values, while Mesh Light Mask outputs a mask used for asset texturing to apply custom color values based on the overall light. This is commonly used in texturing for stylized assets.

Currently, Mesh Bake Light provides gizmos in the viewport to control the position of the light. I’ll mention it internally that gizmos are not currently available for Mesh Light Mask.

Thanks again for your questions, and if you have more, don’t hesitate to ask! :smiling_face:

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