For this you can plug it in to the Self-Illumination color. So select one of the default materials and scroll down to the Basic Parameters. This ambient occlusion is going to be applied as a map to a new material. So go up to Rendering>Material Editor>Compact Material Editor. The first thing you'll need to do is open up the Material Editor in 3ds Max. If you want to learn more about Ambient Occlusion and how it works be sure to check out Understanding Ambient Occlusion.Īs with most other 3D applications you can setup an ambient occlusion pass through a shader, so let's walk through that method first as it's probably the easiest of the two.

Whatever you decide to use it for, you'll learn step-by-step the different methods for setting up an AO pass in this article. Rendering ambient occlusion is a vital technique to master because it can serve many different purposes. Not only is it great to use in conjunction with other rendering passes but it also looks pretty great by itself and can often be used to represent a model's wireframe. Rendering Ambient Occlusion (AO) is a key component in your final render and is often part of the many rendering passes.

3ds max render