Guys, im creating a skin shader but i dont know exactly where i should place the map of AO. I have to mix with Diffuse map with mix node?? Some help plz:eyebrowlift:
Thanks!
Wherever you think it looks good, or nowhere. Cycles does not use ambient occlusion for actual lighting calcuations, see this article for some info on how AO is meant to be used: http://mentalraytips.blogspot.com/2008/11/joy-of-little-ambience.html
Since Cycles uses pathtracing and actual lights, it does not have an “ambient” lighting, thus there is nothing to occlude (indirect lighting is properly occluded automatically) So the only use for AO is as a stylizing effect. AO tends to highlight corners and crevices, so it can be a good way to mimic the effect of dirt. You can do this by multiplying it over the diffuse map, for example (use the mix RGB node for this). Oftentimes, if you want effects like this it’s better to just mix it into the diffuse map ahead of time, since you’re not really using it as lighting information, but rather color info.