hey G

Thanks, its going pretty well, I get the whole theory behind the normal map thing but my version of Maya doesnt allow it to be displayed in realtime, so thats where my confusion lay as I thought I was doing something wrong, but it was version 7 upwards that allows for all that stuff.

Im not sure about final output for game engines right now, though Im doing my research as it seems to differ from place to place. Looking in Character Modeling 2 book the stuff for 'Gears of War' is mostly quad with what looks like tris in reduced poly areas and around the joints.

I've got two more characters I'd like to do after this, one is a cliched chick with a gun type and the other is one of those big bastard space armoured warrior types (like 'Gears') but I really want to get back to Outlaws this week and kick some ass on that as the chapter is coming to a close and I want to get on with the main story

Cheers for now
Jay