baking multiple high res normals onto 1 tpage??

Notes

Not quite sure Im wording it correctly buttt.... Pretty much im attending school right now and we've gotten to a point where we need to bake a high poly model/normal onto a low poly model. I've seen this video:

http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/autodesk-3d-studio-max/how-to-bake-a-flawless-normal-map-in-3ds-max/

multiple times and understand it...but what I don't understand how to do is how to do this with more than one object while keeping it on one t-page/uv-page/normal-map etc...

Our class assignment is to model an environment (im doing a kitchen) and I wanted to create various low poly pots and pans while using high level normal maps baked onto them...im sure my teacher will yell the **** out of me if I come in with pots,pans,stoves,etc each with their own t-pages...using max btw

thanks in advance

Vailias

Think of your collection of objects as one big unconnected object.
In fact, if you're in max just attach all the objects together as one edit poly, (or mesh), then unwrap them all into a single UV sheet.
Once your unwrapping is done, apply another edit poly or mesh modifier. Each piece will be its own element. Select each one and detach it till you have your separate objects back. Then export and bake as you normally would.

In game and in max, they'll all just use the same texture sheets and/or material.

knak47

It may be neccessary to combine elements while baking but not while unwrapping. You can select multiple elements and apply a UVW modifier to them (the modifier will appear italicized in the stack).

You can bake the normals seperatley and composite them together in Photoshop. This may prove to be time consuming. So some might opt to combine elements then bake, then if you need to uncombine do so.

Vailias is correct, the key is to have them all reference the same texture sheet.

Notes

thanks fellas...i'll give it a shot