<--sketch loosely based on Chris "Telekinetic Frog" White, who recently hopped aboard the Vigil train
Still not clear on what ambient occlusion is. As far as I can tell, it's like sharper definition directly around edges mixed with some soft shadows...? Guess this is shit I need to learn if I'm going to roll with the big boys...
Thanks to local artist Jim Perry for passing the tutorial along, and of course to its author Adam Ford -- open source at its awesome-est.
3 comments:
Well, in games anyway Ambient Occlusion was just fancy talk for what they used to call a Shadow Map. A texture map that 'occludes' or 'blocks out' the ambient light. Thus re-enforcing the little tiny dark shadows cast under ridges and surface detail that wouldn't actually be in the geometry. Makes a vertex lit object look better when not directly lit by a light source. Pure ambient makes things look flat - kind of revealing the painted-on-ness of the diffuse texture maps. Sorry to blab on. It's my OCDnerdness.
No, that's actually exactly what I needed to know. Thank you!
I just finished a painting using most of his methods too, it turned out to be really useful and it was quicker than my usual lack-of-focus approach.
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