A simple and easy way to create normal maps, specular maps,

One can easily create normal maps from a single image by using this tool.

http://crazybump.com/

It is an amazing tool that uses the latest video drivers to your video card to create an ambient occlusion pass, a specular pass, a normal map pass, and a displacement pass. There is no batch encoding but it is very cool and very useful when creating complex shaders in Maya.

Normal mapping is an amazing tool to create complex surfaces without the heavy poly load. Watch this video on youtube for a demonstration - http://youtube.com/watch?v=RSmjxcAhkfE

Essentially it is better than a black and white bump map because it uses 3 lights to calculate the height and distance of the texture. The colors depict the amount of displacement the texture is creating in real world terms. Later when rendering instead of having polys to create a crease in the face, the single normal can create it. Animation and rendering times are greatly reduced by using normal maps in creating animation. The latest generation of gamin g consoles heavily relies on normal mapping to create complex, heavily textured environments.