Hey All,
Sorry for the incredible wait in getting this Monday Movie uploaded. YouTube was down for a while, and my original encoding crashed so I had to do it twice.
This week we’re looking at how you can use 3d Studio Max Ambient Occlusion either on its own or as part of a mix map. It’s a quick and easy way to add some shadowing directly to your model, and helps make your details pop. I’ll cover some of the parameters of the Ambient Occlusion map (which I don’t think I’ve done in detail in the past). I’ll also demonstrate how to use ambient occlusion as a mix controller to blend two other maps (or materials) together.
By red pill junkie April 29, 2009 - 1:30 pm
Nice! I’ll be thinking about using Ambient Occlusion in one of my projects.
I wish you could make a Monday Movie about the problems that arise from exporting 3d models to Max. One of my architectural models is giving me hell lately—I model in Autocad (ver. 2008) and export it to 3ds Max ve. 2009
And I’m not talking about the usual flipped normals you sometimes have to tweak once in Max. Right now my big problem is that I’m trying to render this model with mental ray using a daylight system set with an mr Sun & mr Sky, and for some confounded reason I can’t explain (Arrrgh!) the shadows that strike from the right side of the model are rendered perfectly, BUT the shadows that strike from the left side show all horribly jagged, as if I were using a really low shadow map. I’ve changed the lights, re-exported the model, everything! and the only thing that eliminates the problem is switching to the normal scanline render 🙁
This problem is upsetting me more than the swine flu epidemic —and I live in Mexico city!!
By Hooper April 29, 2009 - 6:07 pm
Good one!
The one thing that always ‘weirded’ me out about max and the mat. editor was it’s complexity.
i.e.
You can have a mix map within a mix map within a blend and on and on etc.
By Bluesummers April 29, 2009 - 6:56 pm
You’re right Hooper, it can get pretty nutty. I’ve always thought of it as one of Max’s strengths. You’re able to stack small changes up quickly by making mix maps that are controlled by elegant procedural like Cellular or Ambient Occlusion, or even by masks from Photoshop.
Back before I started playing video games again, I used to spend time building up deep layers of procedural materials in all the different map slots of a raytrace material to make cool “alien skin” materials. 😀
By Bluesummers April 29, 2009 - 6:57 pm
Red Pill: you can always send me the file and I’ll have a look at it (MrBluesummers@MrBluesummers.com). 😀
By 3D Models June 22, 2010 - 11:28 am
Thanks for sharing your great ideas Thanks…
By Will July 20, 2011 - 1:39 am
This doesn’t seem to work in 3DS Max 2012, I followed the same steps but it doesn’t give that shadow effect using just the material.