What is the concept of baking textures in 3D design?

Baking textures in 3D design is the process of transferring surface details from a high-poly model to a low-poly model, preserving visual quality while optimizing performance. - **Core process**: Renders details like lighting, shadows, or surface roughness from a detailed high-poly mesh onto a simpler low-poly mesh, generating texture maps (e.g., normal maps, ambient occlusion maps) to replicate original complexity without high computational cost. - **Key applications**: Essential in game development, real-time rendering, and 3D visualization, where balancing detail and performance is critical. To apply it, start by baking normal maps from a high-poly sculpt to a low-poly base mesh for both visual fidelity and efficient rendering.