what is ambient occlusion? what can it be used for?

[suitaloon]

...and what is Z brush? I've read several discussions on the forum about these two things and still don't get what it's about... It's always good to hear about new methods except when you don't know what the hell it is and what it is good for.
Thank y'all for the help.

[Long John]

www.google.com.

[natty]

[suitaloon]

Now that was funny.
Maybe somebody more serious and knowledgeable than Longjohn (what does this name stands for? I don' t want to know..) can answer my question, that (I know) is easier to ask than to answer..

[RErender]

www.google.com

Teach a man to fish...

[suitaloon]

Okay guys, I give up, thanks for the help.

[natty]

i did a search for you ... http://pixologic.com/index.cgi

[suitaloon]

Ok, I guess I didn't ask the question clearly enough, or maybe there's something wrong with my name too, wtf.. I meant to ask this question to the very respectable and knoweldgeable people using this forum not to get the zbrush website, which i've found through the other discussion, or any non synthetical-technical bullshit website that i've also found through google bout ambient occlusion, but maybe more to have your opinion on the use of this method. But I guess you guys are bitchin' about the fact that I talk about another program than vray on the off topic forum, which reminds me on this discussion about the guys at the brazil forum not wanting any discussion about vray...
Anyway, maybe it is a stupid question, and ambient occlusion is a basic thing that you hear about when you're a kid in the uk, the us or wherever you're from, but here in my country it's not. So if it's just a skylight and that 's it tell me. If it's useful for some reason, more than the GI calculated by vray, I just would like to know. If it's something we're not allowed to talk about on the vray forum, well, I guess we're done with this topic.

[Syclone1]

you are more than welcome to talk about what ever app you want in here, I suspect the reason you got the links, esp the pixel logic is that is the best source for information on the requested topic and rather than taking the time to repost all the info on the subject from the other site its less time consuming to send you to the source.

-dave

[natty]

Syclone1 is right, all discussions are welcome, we thought you was being lazy .. you asked "what is zbrush" just a strange question to ask when you can search quicker on google rather than wait for an answer ?

[suitaloon]

it's more a question about what is cavity shader, ambient occlusion and all that stuff that you guys talked about in the other discussion. i still don't get what it's about, and if I could have any use of this features in my job (architecture illustrator), I'm interested.You remember the image by Percydaman? I really have no clue what to look for and what's so exceptionnal about this image. I don't even get what is question was about.
It's either me being dumb, or my english/3d related vocabulary that's too limited. That 's pretty much what my question was about.

[taboo]

hey i allready asked this and put it under wishlist.
funny isnt it.


i am basicly asking dirtmap kind of thing for vray... that will be great to create some very nice looking stressed surfaces/metals and stuff

check this link.

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/ronchin.bask.../tutorials/AO/

[RErender]

http://www.chaoticdimension.com/foru...hlight=ambient

[cpnichols]

OK... the reason that Ambient Occlusion has its name is the following. It shoots a hemisphere of rays from the object and how many hit an object, and how many hit the environment. That dermins how dark it is. What GI does is go one step further and actually bounce light from the environment after it hits the object. So Ambient Occlusion is just a really really stripped down version of a GI skylight.

Why is it important? It is basically the look that you are looking for when you do fill lights, if GI is expensive (and it is if you don't use vray), and you only wanted to use very limited raytracing, the ambient occlusion pass would get you 90% there. The rest you do with tradition CG lighting. But if you use Vray, ambient occlusion is just childs play. You can bounce light around without a problem.

[Long John]

ok another stupid question.

but how can this (if it works like a fill light) create dirt on a object?