which app produces the best ambient occlusion bakes?
polycount lvl 666
I have heard good things about vray bakes, but don't know a lot about it
I generally use xnormal, but was curious what everyone else was doing.
my issues with AO bakes are that often they are a lacking the finer details.
If you add a ground plane then you get a bit more, but then its a very top down directional bake, which is not always what you want.
also is it always best to get ao from the highres/low res or can you get away with a solution that utilizes the low poly+normal map?
I generally use xnormal, but was curious what everyone else was doing.
my issues with AO bakes are that often they are a lacking the finer details.
If you add a ground plane then you get a bit more, but then its a very top down directional bake, which is not always what you want.
also is it always best to get ao from the highres/low res or can you get away with a solution that utilizes the low poly+normal map?
Replies
I have tried many different kinds over the years, including cavity maps, but I recently saw some really nice vray stuff whiah was awesome, but can't find the link now
suppose the main choices are
vray dirt,
vray complete map( a lighting map?)
mental ray AO,
3dsmax light tracer
xnormal
You should, and you can also use an ambient light and move it around for some shadow/details/contrast, a domelight in some cases is also cool.
Don't forget that an AO map is the hardest thing to render, but once mastered it pays off really well.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ambient+Occlusion&oq=Ambient+Occlusion&gs_l=youtube.12..0l10.18013.18013.0.20003.1.1.0.0.0.0.80.80.1.1.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.76QvQrs10l8
Source the script ,and run it by putting domeGI; in your MEL command line
I always leave the settings at default,then hit the "Let there be Light" button at the bottom.Group all of the created dome and lights,so you can move the thing around easily,then place your object in the center of it(i Saved out a scene with the dome ,so i can grab it whenever i want),and bake!
Oldie but a Goldie!
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/script/domegi-mel/description#tabs
I personally use XNormal - it took me a while to find my favorite settings, but now that I have them I don't need anything else. Will post more info later ...
But if you want to control the shadow details of AO yeah, I stick to the sandwich or dome method but its too clunky and a hassle.
xNormal in a pinch, but I find modo gives much nicer results.
EOT. =P
It makes quite a difference to the results from the default, in my experience.
If I'm painting my own normals, I just use nDo2. Same thing with xNormal, I just create a normal, cavity, and AO, which nDo2 lets you adjust them as well. nDo2 has the best normal > cavity/ normal > AO I've worked with.
Sometimes I'll use the xNormal PS plugin too for some simple stuff, usually just generated from a texture.
yeah Nick, my settings are already on 0.0001 may be 1 more zero actually.
I do get nice enough bakes from xnormal, but even mudbox seems to have a really nice clean looking bake, similar to the one I saw for vray
leleuxart - don't you find though that the more bakes you have to do, the more you have to rebake if you have to correct a mesh, then also the more you have to composite in pshop. can be a real time killer.( I tend to correct my meshes a lot as part of my working process)
It would be good to get a nice bake from the final low poly + normal map , which you can do with vray and also mental ray. can't do this with the scanline in max though
This way you can avoid having to bake out everything separately but I guess the quality would not be quite as a good or clean as a geometry bake ie hi lo geometry.
It looking more like a 'lighting map' than a proper AO
Pior that would be cool, if someone could suggest maybe 1 techinal looking model and then 1 organic, maybe a face or some cloth.