Watch Tower

So I still have to bake and to texture but I got most of everything else finished. I wished I could have gotten to finish it but I haven't been able to focus which is not good. I am hoping to go back and finish it when I can properly focus.

This is the Low poly version

Here is the high poly version im am fairly proud of the bricks. It took my a long time to finally get the bricks in the front wall to look right. 

Map Baking Techniques for Games in Maya

Exploding Meshes for Better Baking
This means that you take the smaller pieces out of the main body so that when it bakes it is not in the way of other pieces and getting all messed up.

Setting up Materials for an id mask

An id mask is blocking out color selections for materials. Working on the high res. I make a simple lambart and then assign it to sybolize the metal and brass and wood. 

Baking Out id Maps

The low poly will be the target mesh the high poly will be the source mesh.

rendering mode> lighting and shading>Transfer maps

for and id map just use a defuse amp setting

Baking out Normal Maps

Make sure that everything is in the envelope.

Fixing the Gap

Surface normals is for hard edges.

Geometry normals is for soft edges.

If there still is an issue you have to cut the UVs and bake it out again to smooth or fill the gaps

Fixing Waviness

So the low poly is TOO low poly in this area cuz it is not following the high poly so I went in and made edges loops and baked it again to get rid of the waves. 

Ambient Occlusion map