Ambient Occlusion Tutorial, Max 2012

[lionheart]

Yep, Tom is on it.

Make the Material first in the Material Editor, then click the Enable ticker, then drag and drop the new AO material onto the wide rectangle button.

 

[jtanabodee]

Thanks for the reply. I was confused for a while.

 

[RicherSims]

Is there anyway to add AO to materials that have been imported into MAX?
For example an .SKP or .3DS import from Sketchup?
My resulting .tga files do not mach the layout of my materials at all.
The AO looks completely wrong when using "Use Existing Channel" and of course using "Use Automatic unwrap" causes Max to choose its own layout all together.

I'm assuming it has something to do with the coordinate mapping of the materials, but adding a UVW Map does not solve the issue.

Not sure what I'm doing incorrectly.

 

[Tejal Bernardo]

it's the way have been textured, basically it would have a render to texture map, and be uvunwraped for the texturing work, being those objetc Dae files make this more complicated.problably all the ao map will be overlapped.

 

[lionheart]

Is there anyway to add AO to materials that have been imported into MAX?
For example an .SKP or .3DS import from Sketchup?
My resulting .tga files do not mach the layout of my materials at all.
The AO looks completely wrong when using "Use Existing Channel" and of course using "Use Automatic unwrap" causes Max to choose its own layout all together.

I'm assuming it has something to do with the coordinate mapping of the materials, but adding a UVW Map does not solve the issue.

Not sure what I'm doing incorrectly.

Tejal is on it.

Yes. If you have already mapped your plane, you can add Ambient Occlusions to the textures.

Note that an Ambient Occlusion is usually burned into its own texture and added to a 'layer' in Photoshop. There it is made into a Multiply layer 'Blend'. This way, the white background is 'invisible' and only the gray zones will appear (which appear as shading).

Note 2. Each part must be done separately. Takes a while, but not that long, to go through all the parts that need shading in this way.

Note 3. If you map a part with its backside sharing its front side, and its against a wall, it will not map properly in the AO rendering. It will have the shaded side 'also' using the lighted side. So you must have pipes and cubes all mapped in their own surfaces, not dual/mapped, like mirror mapping for both sides of an object. Doesnt work. Simply create backside mappings for the parts, 'then' you can burn their AO Maps.

You 'should' be able to burn Ambient Occlusions in Blender. I know you can burn renders. I could be wrong though.

Note again, your AO render will be a separate 'shading layer' which you will place in a layer in your texture.

 

[RicherSims]

I think I'm having different problems to do with the layout of my materials and the import itself. When I figure out how to explain my problem more effectively I will be back with a better question, most likely in a new thread. Thanks for the attempt at helping.

 

[jtanabodee]

I think it is very useful in airplane making.
But for scenery, buildings etc bigger than airplane, do you have any recommendations for the setting. I change the spread up to 5-10 meters already but the shadow still faint.

 

[fsfox]

My way of doing this in 3ds max 2009/2010/2011/2012 32bit.

As I think it is more shorter and much more efficient way using V-Ray 2.2

Render Setup:

Method 1. V-ray Dirt.

For this method you need Vray renderengine, at least v1.50.

Set your renderengine to Vray.
Go to Vray Global Settings rollout, and disable Lights and Default Lights by unchecking the tickbox next to it. (very important, results are wrong if you don’t).
Open the Adaptive Subdivision image sampler tab, and set the Max rate to 1 instead of 2, for a speed increase without noticeable quality loss.
Create a white standard material. Add a VrayDirt map into the self-illumination slot.
Go to the Vray Global Settings rollout, and enable the override material tickbox. Drop an instance of your material into the slot that became available. (this step is optional, you can also assign your material to your object the standard way).
Render a VrayCompleteMap element to texture. (if you do not use the Vray-specific completemap, Max will crash as soon as you hit render, keep this in mind).
This method is actually the fastest one I know. It’s not really accurate however, since it’s not full occlusion as it only looks at geometry and doesn’t do any raytracing like the previous methods. I think it’s one of the most straightforward ones to render, yet you still have all the extra control over quality that Vray offers.

______________________


Method 2: Vray Irradiance Map.

This one also requires Vray. It’s quite difficult and long to set up compared to other methods.

Set your renderengine to Vray.
Go to the Global Settings rollout and disable Lights and Default Lights by unticking the tickbox next to it.
Open the Adaptive Subdivision image sampler tab, and set the Max rate to 1 instead of 2, for a speed increase without noticeable quality loss.
In the Environment rollout, enable the GI environment override by checking the tickbox. Change the color from the default lightblue to pure white by clicking the color.
In the Indirect Illumination tab, turn on Indirect Illumination by checking the tickbox.
Set the secondary bounces GI engine to none by selecting this option from the dropdown.
Open the Irradiance Map rollout, and change the preset to Low.
Check the “show calc phase” tickbox so you have something to look at during rendering and can judge progress.
Change the Hsph. subdivs value from 50, to 30.
Finally, enable the Detail Enhancement setting by checking it (without this, the renders are useless).
All these settings determine quality, play around with them to find out what works. Medium together with detail enhancement is my preferred method for final quality.
Now, create a white material. Nothing else to change except for the color.
Go to the Vray Global Settings rollout, and enable the override material tickbox. Drop an instance of your material into the slot that became available. (this step is optional, you can also assign your material to your object the standard way).
Render a VrayCompletemap element to texture. (not a standard Completemap or it will crash).
This method is my preferred way for full quality renders. A huge advantage is that it actually takes normalmaps into account when rendering your AO, making for much more correct AOmaps.
It is however slower than all the others, yet allows full control over pretty much everything. Unlike the scanline and MR methods, you can change every setting. This method is also not limited to using Irradiance Map as the primary bounce engine, you can try and use other ones just as well, there’s a lot of stuff there to use.
Over All a I prefer to use VrayShadowMap instead of VrayCompleteMap.

Now !

One AO texture for every Object (Building) without losing the detail of texture that I UVW mapped/tiled, or so. The best is to map seamless texture because of tiling. How to create seamless texture is another story (easy).

Load the baked AO texture (TGA, BMP, JPG what ever) in to the Adobe Photoshop (CS3,4,5,6) ( you don't need to be experienced Photoshop artist here)
Unlock the layer by double clicking on it then name if you wish and hit ok.
Go to the menu find Image > Click Calculations and window will open.
In that window find Blending drop down menu and Chose "Add". Play with Offset values from -200 to 200 what ever suits your needs.

Before hitting OK< check that Result goes in New chanel. That will be alpha channel. Now hit OK.

Go to the Channels tab in Photoshop and disable RGB then make Alpha visible and select.

Go to the main menu bar and find - Image > Adjustments > Invert. Or just Ctrl+I. This because Alpha Black is invisible and Alpha white is complete visible. everything between is semi-transparent.

Now nearly done. Make Alpha invisible and turn on RGB.

Save the texture as DDS using Nvidia Plugin. In the Save Options window tick "Save Flipped Vertically" make sure it is DXT5 RGBA Hit OK.


Now 3ds MAX !

Open the material Editor, go to your texture slot with FlightsimX material and in the "Flight Simulator Extended Params" tab find "Other Texture Info" box. There is a button for detail map where your baked Ambient Occlusion goes.

You won't see it the viewport and no Render will make it visible for you, but as soon as you've saved the X file open it in MCX.

Enjoy your ambient detail.

To make this tutorial easier to follow - print it out and keep in front of your eyes or use 2nd screen if you have.

Any Questions just PM, as I wont follow this thread

 

[lionheart]

A note for those on doing this. Paul Domonique has brought it to my attention that 'Material Override' in my tutorial in the first part is not required. So you can skip that if you like. I had good reason at the time for using it, so I am leaving that in my tutorial, but feel free to change it as how you like. So many ways to do things. Please continue to add your own unique ways to this on this thread. Great to see other ways of doing things.


Bill
LHC

 

[lionheart]

I found yet another new way of burning Ambient Occlusion maps yesterday by a simple tutorial on YouTube.

This is the basics;
* Create a 'basic' Standard/Skylight
* Open 'zero' 0 selection (Render to Texture setup window) and create a new Map to render called 'Lighting Map'
* Adjust the Skylight Parameters / Multiplier (brightness power) until your light is sufficient. In my instance, its at 30,000. Up from 1.0 to 30000.
* Set the background of the map that you burn so that it has a white background instead of black. Preset is black.
* Burn that, set into top layer in Photoshop PSD file and set as Multiply layer.
...done...

I never bake. I always make the textures as stand alones and add them into the layers in PSD into my textures.

You can nicely adjust the darkness of the map more easily. Also note that you can stack your AO maps (double them up, and tune one as semi transparent to throttle it) to increase your shading effect.

Here is the basic tutorial I learned this from yesterday. He uses the basic Renderer, not MR or the others. (Probably scanline?) Adjust to your system where needed.

 

[lionheart]

A couple of screenshots with the first part to have this, the interior cabin shell of this experimental. I am pleased with it. I can make it darker or lighter via the Multiplier of the Skylight settings. I also experimented with stacking of the layers. Remember to set the background of the map for pure white if you try this. The leather texture below had to have 2 maps for it to show because of the color. I am sure I could also use temporary dark colors on the objects (seats and cross members) to get a better effect of shading. Black might be interesting as an interactive shade enhancer for making the cabin shell AO map. (Lighting Map).

NOTE... This is a LIGHTING MAP creation that is being used as a Ambient Occlusion map in Photoshop (Multiply layer setting).

 

[lionheart]

Well, after doing some research on this technique, I find that it has some issues and side effects;
* Doesnt shade up to the edge
* Cannot adjust photon rays
* Tends to look hazy, not good quality.

Good side of it, it renders VERY FAST!

Side by side, AO is better then Lighting Maps. Just have to do more tweaking with AO.

This one has Lighting Map done to the cross member tubes. Note that there is a light zone around the join area where the tube goes into the cabin shell?

On this one, this is an AO Map on the cross members. note the dark zone at the join point where the tube meets (butts up against) the cabin shell. Much better.

I do not think the seats need an AO map. Lighting is probably good enough, though I think I will do it anyways (AO map).

I redid the cabin shell as well. I think it looks better. Its darker.

AO is so.... complicated... If only we could adjust it a little more. I know there are settings but none do what I want it to do. At least with Lighting maps you can adjust the darkness on it better then with AO maps...


NOTE: Above, in those two photos, I have a dark cabin on the top photo. I experimented with using dark textures for 'surrounding objects' to cause/enhance a greater shading effect. I dont know if it worked that well. The rendering system for AO and light ray bouncing might sidestep that, though they do tell people to use bright gray or white objects when doing AO maps...