Baking normals - (noob) having problems

HannahDickson3D

Hey guys, I've made a basic metal barrel in Maya (low and high poly), but running into some issues when baking its normals via the Maya Transfer Maps.

Firstly, when I bake using the 'Geometry Normals' (Advanced settings), the normals are all jagged.

Then, when using 'Surface Normals', the normals come out clean and straight, but with some parts missing - in my case bits of the small lid at the top of the barrel.

Any idea how to resolve this? I'm new to the whole high-low process, not sure what I'm doing wrong. Thanks a lot

http://s29.postimg.org/yzoqjv5zb/polycount_model.jpg
http://postimg.org/image/xz97q4n4f/
http://postimg.org/image/pw0z7spef/

EarthQuake

This should be explained here: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81154

HannahDickson3D

Thanks for the reply and link - I was unaware of the need for smoothing groups, and averaging of the normals. Very useful link thanks a lot