Is there a common term for this?

[7321551]

Hi. I've been trying to search for a type of low spec model that I like but I don't seem to be using the right search terms in Google. I am wondering if anyone in this community knows the common word for it. It's practice of having no lighting, only textures that simulate lighting. In Blender you'd do this by ticking shadeless. But I get a lot of stuff when I search shadeless, only some of it relevant. Toon-shading is also different.

This is common with the low-poly stuff but is logically distinct (you could have a heaps complex mesh and still do this). Personally I find this shadeless stuff more visually pleasing than low poly itself. Megaman Legends did this well. I basically just want to find more of this: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?s=7606580b4b3632f58b292aceea772553&p=1913849&postcount=11041

[Cherno]

If a texture on a model is not affected by lighting, this is commonly called "unlit", at least in Unity (Unlit shader). "Fullbright" might also be used.

[PixelPiledriver]

My girlfriend does 3D art like this:
https://jengy.carbonmade.com/projects/5522151

I think it's what she would loosely refer to as painting "baked" lighting.
Meaning its light/shadow that's a static part of the texture, and not rendered in real time.
Baking lighting can also refer to converting real time lighting into a texture.
And usually its a bit of both.
Before painting, baking on some lights can help you to identify the unwrapped parts of your model on the texture map easily.

If a texture on a model is not affected by lighting, this is commonly called "unlit", at least in Unity (Unlit shader). "Fullbright" might also be used.

I wouldn't call it unlit, because you can apply any sort of shader over the top of this.
The texture acts as a base contrast that makes the object clear under any non perfect lighting conditions.
But you're right, many games with heavy painting style textures use a shader that diplays the texture and nothing more.

[Cherno]

My girlfriend does 3D art like this:
https://jengy.carbonmade.com/projects/5522151

I think it's what she would loosely refer to as painting "baked" lighting.
Meaning its light/shadow that's a static part of the texture, and not rendered in real time.
Baking lighting can also refer to converting real time lighting into a texture.
And usually its a bit of both.
Before painting, baking on some lights can help you to identify the unwrapped parts of your model on the texture map easily.

If a texture on a model is not affected by lighting, this is commonly called "unlit", at least in Unity (Unlit shader). "Fullbright" might also be used.

I wouldn't call it unlit, because you can apply any sort of shader over the top of this.
The texture acts as a base contrast that makes the object clear under any non perfect lighting conditions.
But you're right, many games with heavy painting style textures use a shader that diplays the texture and nothing more.

I would differ in that "baked lighting" refers specifically to textures where the lighting has indeed been baked into the bitmap with the 3d modeling/rendering application, not just by painting shadows and highlights in Photoshop.

[Indigo]

unlit, full-bright, full-ambient, self-illuminated.  I think unlit is probably the best term for it.

[Cherno]

Well, I have to agree with PixelPiledriver that "unlit" does not really describe the texture style itself. It is rather an attribute of the shader that tells the renderer how to render the texture/the material. Now, I actualy don't think there's a term for this because it was just the way textures looked like for about ten years (the 90s) before advanced shading features like bump/normal and specular mapping came into widespread use.

[7321551]

Thanks, that gives me some more search terms to use.

I'm searching for art to inspire me in this direction, and I think the main problem is that there's no terminological distinction drawn between the art and the tech in this case. What I mean is that If I search for unlit, full-bright, baked-in etc. I get user manuals and technical questions, unlike 'lowpoly' where I can find actual art.

I think one of the things that interests me about unlit is you can apply the stuff you learned about color ramps and theory rather than outsourcing it to the renderer. It's an interesting halfway house between illustration and 3d.

PixelPileDriver, tell your girlfriend I like her work.

[Howard Day]

Flat-lit is also a fairly common term. Good luck!

[chiguireitor]

(Registered just to answer this, i don't see the correct response around).

That's Baked Ambient Occlusion with some Baked lighting.

Other terms are Baked AO.

Sorry for necroposting.

[Gil]

(Registered just to answer this, i don't see the correct response around).

That's Baked Ambient Occlusion with some Baked lighting.

Other terms are Baked AO.

Sorry for necroposting.

I'm not sure if that's the full picture. "Baked" means that you render the AO, lighting, ambience, whatever into the texture, so you don't have to do that in the engine (with a lot of drawbacks of course). What 7321551 seems to like seems more like artists drawing the texture with AO and lighting from the start. It's an automated tool versus manual thing I guess. Then again, I can imagine you make the model, with materials, bake a texture and use that as a starting point for your hand-drawn texture, maybe even rebaking some lighting into it, if you think it needs more punch. At some point it then starts to become a back-and-forth between "baking" and hand painting.

So yeah, you're absolutely right that "baking" is related to this and might be good search term, what this thread is about, to me, is not just baking stuff in.