World AO cycles how to ?

Artistic Support Lighting and Rendering
1

any short tut on world AO in cycles ?

showing the effects on objects ?

and not useful at all and have to use dirt map instead ?

thanks
happy cl

2

good explanation in an answer to this question here - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/51751/emphasizing-cycles-render-ambient-occlusion

3

so cannot simply do what you see with AO in N panel in viewport ?

and almost need to do with the compositor

happy cl

4

next post with pics if needed

happy bl

5

Yeah, i don’t think the World AO is flexible enough for proper ambient occlusion effects.

I always just multiply my AO pass with the render using mix color in the compositor, sometimes blending the AO and shadow pass together and then multipying the result back with the render can produce nice AO effects too.

6

can you show a nodes set up

still wondering why this was added in world panel if not useful !

so easy to do in N panel and viewport

thanks
happy bl

7

I’m away from my computer atm, no access to blender. but i will post up a screenshot as soon as i get home

8

Usually though, i just use colour mix -> multiply with AO in the top slot and shadow in the bottom, then multiply that with the original image using colour multiply again. With the raw image in the top slot and the AO/Shadow in the bottom slot.

Theres probably better ways that give more control, but i find this method is efficient enough for the effects i need :slight_smile:

You can modify the values of the AO and shadow passes with color ramps too, if you want to darken or lighten shadows, or use the color ramps as a sort of “Levels” control.
Sliding up the low end for harder shadows, or raising the low end values for softer shadows etc

edit: from what i see from world AO, it just seems to add homogeneous lighting accross the whole scene… like a pure white background layered over your lighting… i might be wrong on this, but that is what it looks like it does