SMAK version 1.0 is a multi-purpose 3d modeling utility. It can:

* Bake hi-res models down to lo-res with diffuse, AO and normal maps

* Bake AO maps for standalone meshes

* Load and save multiple file formats

among other things. The advantage of SMAK is that it's very fast and easy to use, and lets you preview the model as the map generates. The price is $30 and you can get it on the website:

http://getsmak.net/

This video demonstrates exactly how easy it is to generate maps with SMAK:

I'd love to hear what you guys think about the tool, any feedback gets "fed back" into the development of the tool. Thanks!

Thanks! My plans are to expand it in the future to be able to load and save a variety of different file formats.

I wrote a new tool called SMAK that loads obj and sia files and generates quick and easy AO maps. Here's the website: http://matreyastudios.com/smak I designed it to be very fast (it takes less than a minute) and simple to use. It uses hardware-accelerated shadow mapping to get the job done, which is why it's so fast. There's a video on the website demonstrating it. Here's an example:

<img src="http://matreyastudios.com/smak/front-side-ship.png">