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Ambient Occlusion for Render Pass

Keeping it NeilKeeping it Neil Posts: 53
edited December 1969 in New Users

Hi all

I'm throwing myself into the world of render passes to gain more control in post, and I've found a couple of excellent tutorials to get me started, but I have one question I can't seem to find the answer to. It might be because I'm using the wrong terminology so I'm hoping you guys can help.

Basically it's the ambient occlusion pass. How do you get the 'grey scale' look for this pass? (all items in the scene white with shadows) Am I missing a setting or do you need to apply a new texture to everything in the scene to make it white? Any advice would be more than welcome, or if anyone knows of any downloads I need or a tutorial I can use I will be most grateful.

Thanks in advance.

Neil'

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,771
    edited December 1969

    Which application (and which render engine, if there is a choice)? How are you generating your passes?

  • Keeping it NeilKeeping it Neil Posts: 53
    edited December 1969

    Hi Richard

    Sorry, I only gave a small fraction of detail you need, still getting my head round it all. It's Daz3d and I'm using the 3Delight renderer (although I'm looking at the Iray renderer and am very tempted). I did download the ReLight plugin but have since found out it won't work in the latest version of Daz (this is before I have even tried it and after I created this post). Any alternatives would be appreciated.

    Many thanks again.

    Neil

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,771
    edited December 1969

    OK, there are probably more efficient ways to get an AO render but - assuming you have an AO light loaded, or have used PW Surface 2 and set it to AO, all you need to do is turn off the other lights (if your AO is generated by an ambient light) and set the diffuse colours to white, no textures.

  • Keeping it NeilKeeping it Neil Posts: 53
    edited December 1969

    Perfect, thank you so much. I'll give it a try.

  • KaribouKaribou Posts: 1,325
    edited December 1969

    Make sure you adjust all specular and ambient colors to black, or set those values at 0 or you'll get a strange render pass. Sometimes SSS materials also require adjusting.

  • algovincianalgovincian Posts: 2,636
    edited December 1969

    keepingitneil said:
    Hi all

    I'm throwing myself into the world of render passes to gain more control in post, and I've found a couple of excellent tutorials to get me started, but I have one question I can't seem to find the answer to. It might be because I'm using the wrong terminology so I'm hoping you guys can help.

    Basically it's the ambient occlusion pass. How do you get the 'grey scale' look for this pass? (all items in the scene white with shadows) Am I missing a setting or do you need to apply a new texture to everything in the scene to make it white? Any advice would be more than welcome, or if anyone knows of any downloads I need or a tutorial I can use I will be most grateful.

    Thanks in advance.

    Neil'

    Hi Richard

    Sorry, I only gave a small fraction of detail you need, still getting my head round it all. It's Daz3d and I'm using the 3Delight renderer (although I'm looking at the Iray renderer and am very tempted). I did download the ReLight plugin but have since found out it won't work in the latest version of Daz (this is before I have even tried it and after I created this post). Any alternatives would be appreciated.

    Many thanks again.

    Neil

    I always render 7 passes in my current workflow, one of which is an ambient occlusion pass. If you are inclined/interested, I would suggest using Shader Mixer to design networks for whatever passes you want. The effort to learn Shader Mixer (along with some scripting to apply your networks) will definitely be worth it, as it will give you complete control.

    DAZ has provided an ambient occlusion brick which can be used to make an AO pass simple & fast (especially if you don't need to support displacement).

    - Greg

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