Bake Pass

The Bake Pass node selects what kind of data to bake and holds any options specific to that choice. It accepts any number of Mesh inputs (add a link to a filled input socket and a new empty one appears below it), which can come directly from a mesh-input node or via an Auto Sort Meshes node. Its single Color output feeds an Output node, a Channel Map, or one of the Post nodes.

Choosing a pass is a two-step process: pick a Group (PBR, Blender, or Wrangler), then pick a Pass within that group. The node’s label updates automatically to show the selected pass. The complete list of passes, grouped and described, is in Bake Pass Reference — this page covers the options around that choice.

Samples override

By default a pass uses the sample count from its Pass Settings. Turn on Override to give this specific pass its own sample count instead — useful when one pass (say, a noisy AO or curvature bake) needs more samples than the rest of the recipe.

Advanced options

Click Advanced to reveal:

• Use Masking — generates a second, black-and-white image alongside the bake, where white marks the UV islands this bake actually covered. This mask is used automatically when writing to the final output so that pixels outside the bake are left unchanged. This lets you layer several passes (or several objects) into a single output image, as long as their UV islands don’t overlap. The extra time cost is negligible.

• BG Color — a background fill color specific to this pass, overriding the Pass Settings default for gaps between UV islands.

• Pass-specific fields (only shown for certain passes — see below).

• Normal map fields — shown for any normal-related pass (Texture Normals, Coat Normals, Object Normals, Billboard Normals, the Blender Normal pass, and the Wrangler Bevel Normals / Bent Normals passes): choose Space (Tangent or Object) and which axis (±X/±Y/±Z) is written to each of the R, G, B channels. Texture Normals additionally has a Use Subtraction toggle, which subtracts the object’s geometric normals from the material’s shading normals to isolate just the material’s contribution — this gives correct tangent-space rotation but can be less clean than the alternative.

Pass-specific fields

Only the fields relevant to the currently selected pass are shown.

Pass(es)	Fields
AOV Node	Name of the AOV node to read, and whether to take its Color or Value output.
Bevel Mask, Bevel Normals (Emit/Norm)	Radius and sample Count for the bevel detection.
Cavity/Edges	Edge Mode toggle (inverts to detect edges instead of cavities), over-sample count, search Distance, and a Gamma curve applied to the result.
Thickness	Over-sample count and search Distance.
Curvature	Values assigned to Flat, Convex (and its max), and Concave (and its min) points along the curve.
Height (OSL)	Search Distance, sample count, Mid Level, and a Void Color used where no matching surface is found within range. CPU only.
Vertex Color	Name of the Layer to bake from (blank uses the active layer).
Material ID	Use Viewport Color toggle — uses each material’s assigned viewport display color instead of generating one from its name.
Bent Normals (OSL)	Search Distance and sample Count for the ambient occlusion used to bend the normals.
Vector Displacement	A Scale factor applied to the calculated displacement vectors.
Multiresolution	Sub-pass Type (Normals or Displacement) and Method for choosing source/target subdivision levels (Max to Min, from the modifier’s current values, or Custom target/source levels).
Combined, Diffuse, Glossy, Transmission (Blender group)	Direct / Indirect / component toggles controlling which lighting contributions are baked — see Bake Pass Reference.

Validity

A Bake Pass is only valid to bake once it has: a Pass Settings source (pinned or connected), at least one connected and valid mesh input, and — if it’s the pass you clicked bake on directly — at least one connected and valid downstream output. See Troubleshooting for what the specific error messages mean.