Breaking PBR Rule #3: Baking Light into Color (The Hand-Painted Method)
The Golden Rule of PBR is strict: "Albedo (Base Color) must be flat."
It should contain no shadows, no highlights... ..., just the raw color of the material.
If you are making a realistic VFX asset, follow this rule.
If you are making a stylized asset, break it immediately.
The Technique:
Look at World of Warcraft, League of Legends, or Arcane.
They bake lighting information directly into the
Base Color texture to force the look.
Ambient Occlusion:
Bake AO directly into your color map to force depth in the crevices,
ensuring the volume reads even in flat lighting.
Top-Down Gradients: Darken the feet, lighten the torso.
This artificially draws the viewer's eye up to the face,
regardless of the actual lights in the scene.
Painted Highlights:
Paint sharp specular highlights on metal edges
directly in the color map to get that specific "illustrative" pop.
Why? Because sometimes a "physically incorrect" painted shadow looks more appealing than a calculated one.
Stop asking "Is this physically correct?" and start asking "Does this read clearly?
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