How to Bake Ambient Occlusion in Blender

Baking ambient occlusion (AO) in Blender converts contact shadows and soft ambient lighting from a 3D model into a 2D image texture. This map can be used in game engines or real-time renderers to add depth and realism without incurring extra computational costs. This guide walks you through the step-by-step process of preparing your mesh, setting up the material, configuring the Cycles engine, and saving your final AO texture.

Step 1: Switch to the Cycles Engine

Blender requires the Cycles render engine to bake light maps.

  1. Open the Render Properties tab (camera icon) in the right-hand panel.
  2. Change the Render Engine from Eevee to Cycles.

Step 2: Unwrap Your Model

Your 3D object must have a clean, non-overlapping UV map so the shadow data maps correctly to the image.

  1. Select your object and press Tab to enter Edit Mode.
  2. Press A to select all vertices.
  3. Press U and select Smart UV Project (or manually unwrap if preferred).
  4. Ensure there is a small margin between UV islands to prevent shadow bleeding.

Step 3: Create a Destination Image Texture

You need an empty image node in the material shader to receive the baked data.

  1. Open the Shader Editor window while keeping your object selected.
  2. Press Shift + A and select Texture > Image Texture.
  3. Click New on the node.
  4. Name your image (e.g., AO_Map), set the desired resolution (e.g., 2048 x 2048), and uncheck Alpha.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Important: Keep this new Image Texture node selected (highlighted with a white/yellow border). Do not connect it to any other nodes yet.

Step 4: Configure and Execute the Bake

  1. Return to the Render Properties panel.
  2. Scroll down and expand the Bake section.
  3. Set the Bake Type to Ambient Occlusion.
  4. Set the Margin (under the Output section) to around 16px to extend the pixels beyond the UV borders.
  5. Click the Bake button at the top of the Bake section. A progress bar will appear at the bottom of the window.

Step 5: Save the Baked Image Texture

The image is stored temporarily in Blender's memory until explicitly saved to your computer.

  1. Switch one of your editor panels to the Image Editor.
  2. Select your baked AO image from the drop-down menu at the top center.
  3. Click Image > Save As in the top menu bar.
  4. Choose a file location, set the format (such as PNG or JPEG), and save the file.