How to Bake Lighting for Web
Lightmap baking: bake static lighting into texture maps for performance — useful for static scenes that don't need dynamic lights.
Baking lighting for web: (1) Set up your scene in Blender with desired lights. (2) Add a second UV channel for lightmap (separate from texture UV). (3) Bake combined or diffuse-only lighting via Cycles. (4) Save as PNG/JPG, optionally convert to KTX2. (5) In Three.js, apply via MeshStandardMaterial.lightMap with proper UV2 attribute. Use case: static architectural visualizations where dynamic lighting cost matters more than flexibility. Time: 4-8 hours per scene. Skip lightmap baking for scenes with dynamic lighting requirements.
Further reading
Three resources I recommend after this guide: the official Three.js fundamentals docs (excellent and underused), Bruno Simon's Three.js Journey (paid, comprehensive), and the React Three Fiber docs if you'll work in React. Beyond that, reading other developers' source on GitHub — search for 'three-js portfolio' on GitHub trending — accelerates learning faster than any tutorial.
Prerequisites
Before starting on how to bake lighting for web, you need: a JavaScript baseline (familiarity with ES modules, async/await, npm), a working local dev environment (Node 18+, a code editor), and a basic mental model of what WebGL renders. You don't need 3D modeling skills — for most tutorials, the assets are provided. Time investment: 2-4 hours of focused work for the basic version.
Step-by-step outline
Step 1: scaffold the project (Vite + Three.js). Step 2: get a basic scene rendering — camera, light, geometry. Step 3: load the asset (glTF). Step 4: hook up animation timeline (GSAP or built-in). Step 5: add interactivity (click, scroll). Step 6: optimize for mobile (device-tier check, asset compression). Step 7: deploy. Each step builds on the previous; skipping leads to confusion later.
Common pitfalls
Three failure modes I see beginners hit: (1) trying to render before assets finish loading — always wait for the loader callback, (2) using full-resolution textures on mobile — always have KTX2 or compressed alternatives, (3) leaving the scene rendering when off-screen — pause the render loop with IntersectionObserver. Each pitfall has a clear fix; the trick is recognizing the symptom.
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