newbie Ambient Occlussion questions

Akai

Hi to every body!, is long time that i have been watching your works and the most part that i see here is amazing I wish become an artist like you, but nowadays I'm starting in the world of 3d graphics. I'm trying to understand an Ambient Occlussion map. I'm trying to do an Ambient occlusion bake of a box, and i dont know why 3 sides becomes black. I thought that AO works like a cloudy day, and without a direct light source. Instead of that i think that my bake is more like one spot light poining to the front face of the box.

If some one could told me a tutorial or some tip for solving this issue it would be perfect.

My software is 3dmax 2011

Thank you very much for your time.

Wonkey

Need more information and/or pictures!

Are you rendering to texture? Is there other objects around the box?

throttlekitty

It sounds like you are baking scene lights or lighting based on camera view?
What software/method are you using?
Most of us are using xNormal to bake the AO. Also, if you are baking a straight-up cube, ambient occlusion won't be present. It collects in corners/crevices, or between close geometry. (like a cube floating a few inches above a plane)

r_fletch_r

Post pictures.

Mark Dygert

Look at the actual files it outputs not the "render preview window" that pops up. That will always be a full render of the scene including scene lighting, it then breaks apart that render into its separate pieces and saves out the individual files, you need to go dig up those files and check them out.

If you're trying to get AO on just a cube there is a really good chance you won't get much of anything, you should add some other geometry some indents and some pieces that jut out so there is something to occlude.

Pogo

Try this:
http://www.laurenscorijn.com/articles/ambient-occlusion-baking

As said above, check the output files, since the preview shows a full render using scene lighting.

AnimeAngel

have you read this
http://wiki.polycount.com/AmbientOcclusionMap?highlight=%28\bCategoryTexturing\b%29