This tutorial is for all my 3d artist friends out there & it’s all about using ambient occlusion in 3ds max with the help of just mental ray.

In this series we will explore maya each and every available light. This tutorial cover Ambient and Directional light.

This tutorial goes through a method of setting up a Ambient occlusion pass in Maya to add more depth and realism to 3d graphics. Ambient occlusion is a way of faking Global illumination with comporable results but faster rendering times.

In this tutorial we will try to teach you how to use the Ambient Occlusion shader combined with caustics to create a fake global illumination effect.

Here I'll show you how to change the ambient color using photofilter. You can use this technique to fix old orange photos.

Tutorial which describes the new 'Ambient Occlusion' method. This method is basically rendering out an occlusion pass(which is a grayscale or a tinted image based on environment map) and then overlaying this image over a flat lit diffuse pass..

In this tutorial I will try to cover everything you need to know about occlusion pass in 3 simplified parts.

Another thing that a new user should not ignore is the beauty of area light. Area lights cause specular scattering on objects and blend with its diffuse area, creating a very soft look with beautiful soft shadows.

Ambient light is one of the most important parts of creating a realistic rendering becuase it sets the time and mood of picture that you are trying to create.

This tutorial covers the basics of how to setup and bake ambient occlusion maps in Maya 8 with a focus on game-art. The process is similar for previous versions of Maya only the menu names will be different.