Skew Map
Paint to correct skewed bake detail
Also known as: Marmoset Paint Skew · Toolbag skew · Skew painting · Skew map bake · Fix skewed normal map
Definition
A skew map is a map painted in Marmoset Toolbag that bends the direction of the baking rays in specific areas, fixing skewed or stretched detail on the baked normal map. It is used where the cage is not enough, for example on curved surfaces, where a high-poly detail is swept to one side or where a thin part leaves stretched lines. Skew painting is a Toolbag feature and one of its most loved for fixing bakes.
In production
Bake first, find the stretched areas, and then paint skew on the low-poly with a brush that pulls the rays so the detail straightens, and rebake. Skew is a correction, not a substitute for a good cage and a clean low-poly. Use it sparingly, since heavy skew can distort neighboring details, and check the result in a lit preview.
Tools that use Skew Map
See also
Baking
High-poly detail → low-poly texture
Marmoset Toolbag Bake Artifacts
Streaks and skewed detail in a Toolbag bake
Normal Map
Per-pixel surface detail
Bake Cage
Envelope mesh that controls ray distance
Bake Group
Pairs a low-poly with its high-poly in Toolbag
Tangent Space
Local coordinate system for normal maps