Hi everyone,
I was wondering if it's possible to get Ambient Occlusion connected to a Standard Arnold Shader that has texture files connected to it? Basically would like to get the dark shadow AO added onto my textured environment.
Is there any way to achieve this?
There's a material called aiLayerShader that lets you composite materials on each other. This would be the way to go if you want to mask the entire material and all components... diffuse, specular, SSS, etc.
Another way to go would be to send the AO to the Weight inputs of each material component such as diffuse or specular.
Still another way to go, depending on the results you want, would be to install the AO Light Filter. It's a secret magic Arnold plugin that is not included with the installation. There's no good reason this isn't available. It's super useful. You can get fake GI by disabling all Diffuse rays, adding a Skydome without shadows, and then adding the AO Light Filter to the Skydome.
If somebody else wants to use that with Arnold 4 ...
"is that any different from comping over an AO pass with the same settings?"
Depends on how much comping you want to do. If you saved the skydome illumination out as its own light group AOV render pass, then multiplied that with the AO pass, then yes, you'd get the same result ... transparent objects notwithstanding. If you did have transparent objects, then you'd need to create a material override for those so they wouldn't capture the AO pass. Using the light filter makes the whole job way easier.
Thanks for that! Seems to have a similar effect as the shadow controls Renderman had for years.
However, maybe I'm missing something but is that any different from comping over an AO pass with the same settings?
Would you also have the source for that filter?
Thanks Zeno, I know how to use a mix shader but what do you mean by layered? Just want to improve.
You can use a mix shader with the AO shader connected to the mix parameter, or you can use a layered texture shader and mix the AO shader on top of the diffuse only.
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