Testing out the maps.

The best feeling after doing all this is seeing the end result. After all, this class was specifically geared towards creating characters for games. so how it looked in real-time was important.

Sesslyth running in real-time via Maya's view port. 

With all normal and AO maps applied, the model begins to take life. It's amazing the amount of detail that can be achieved on such a low-poly mesh with normal maps.

A side by side comparison of Normal and AO Maps turned on and off.

Above you can actually see the difference.. The model itself is pretty low-poly, only containing the basic shape and silhouette of my hi-res sculpt. The Normal and AO maps are what bring the details out, and most importantly, they do so at very little cost to performance.