How do you wire an AO map into a Vraymtl?

[RobH22]

I've searched the web for days and searched here and can't figure out how to wire AO maps that I already have into a Vraymtl. I've found hundreds of tutorials on creating AO maps or using Dirtmaps but nothing on how to use AO maps that you already have from another program.

I want a local material-by-material workflow and not a global one. How's it done?

[joconnell]

How is the map you've generated stored? Is it a bitmap? Normally with ao it's a black and white map so you either use it as a mask to blend between a light and dark version of a diffuse map for example, or just multiply it over the top of your diffuse using something like a composite texture.

[RobH22]

Yes, they are black and white maps (grayscale 0-255). That info is exactly what I was looking for. Since the blending between a light and dark diffuse map leaves a lot of subjective variables at play (how light is light? and how dark is dark?...for example) I'll try the composite workflow first. Then I can CC the AO if necessary but the diffuse is unaltered subjectively.

Thank you...

[joconnell]

Yep - the whole thing about is my material too dark or do I have enough light in my scene is a constant issue unless you start to measure things. When people want to shoot really accurate textures for example, they'll often put a colour chart in the shot beside the texture that they're photographing. You're able to get rgb values for every colour on the chart so you can make a good guess based off those values if your texture is too light or too dark, or at least have something to judge relative to.

[RobH22]

'joconnell' it's working very nicely. Thanks again. You helped me out of a deadline jam and I appreciate the quick response with the tips.

[RobH22]

Yep - the whole thing about is my material too dark or do I have enough light in my scene is a constant issue unless you start to measure things. When people want to shoot really accurate textures for example, they'll often put a colour chart in the shot beside the texture that they're photographing. You're able to get rgb values for every colour on the chart so you can make a good guess based off those values if your texture is too light or too dark, or at least have something to judge relative to.

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. I was an advertising photographer for a number of years and I used that technique before we had digital cameras. At a minimum we'd shoot a gray card in the scene so we could get a base brightness level. It worked like a physical light meter to get 18% gray.

One thing I can't figure out in Max's Slate Material Editor is how to measure values. There is no "Info" picker like in Photoshop. I can always export and load the files in Photoshop and do it there but it would be nice to be able to do it right in front of you as you tweak CC's and other parameters.

[joconnell]

If you pop into your bitmap in the slate, the best thing you can get is go to the bitmap parameters where the path to the file is, in the cropping and placement section there's a view image button - hit that and it'll pop open a small preview of your bitmap where a right click will give you a numerical colour sampler - not perfect but otherwise it's the rendering > View image file button which is a bit inconvenient.

[RobH22]

Ha, you have me sitting here chuckling at myself. I've used Max since it was 3d Studio and Kinetix owned it. I've clicked "View Image" a trillion times. I never knew the right click did anything on that preview nor in the final rendered image. I don't do games and don't ever color match so it's not something I typically need. If what I do looks right, then it is right. I'm a one-man-shop so I never have to hand files off and never have someone else directing me to tweak.

It's amazing the things that I do know about Max and it's as equally amazing the things I don't know about it. And that's what is so incredible about it. It's so deep. I don't think there is anyone who is actually an expert with every little thing it does. Not that this 'right click' to measure images is an earth shattering feature revelation, but it's just a reminder of all the things Max is capable of.

Thank again. I'm getting nice results now.

[joconnell]

I'm the same - started off in 1.2 and there's still plenty of things I've never used - 3d is so vast...