Input: Ambient Occlusion

Node Interface

Example Output

In this scene there is a material on the floor object (actually a Landscape primitive) but not on the sphere. This is the node tree:

And this is the rendered result:

You can see the AO effect as the darker area where the sphere meets the Landscape and there is also a small amount of AO where the furrows in the Landscape generate AO onto itself..

Overview

Function	Adds ambient occlusion to the node tree, giving per-material ambient occlusion (the switch in the cyEnvironment object gives scene-wide ambient occlusion)
Nearest C4D equivalent	Ambient occlusion shader

Settings

Note: a * symbol next to the name indicates the parameter also has an input port. A # symbol indicates that the parameter can only be changed with an input node, not in the node itself.

Samples

The number of samples taken. More samples gives greater accuracy (less grainy result) but a slower render.

Inside

Checking this switch will invert the AO effect. Note that it has no effect on areas where there was no AO before being inverted.

Only Local

Checking this switch restricts the ambient occlusion to that generated by the object onto itself (e.g. as a result of folds or creases in the object). Using the same scene as above, here it is with 'Only Local' checked:

You can see that there is no AO between the sphere and the Landscape now, so the only AO there is the faint effect generated by the Landscape furrows onto itself.

Color*

This is the colour which will be combined with the AO effect and output in the 'Color' output port.

Distance*

This controls the 'spread' of the AO across a surface. The larger the distance the greater the area affected. Note that you may need to turn this value down a lot to see any noticeable effect of reducing the distance value.

Normal*

A vector input for a surface normal.

Output

Color

The colour output result from blending the Color value with the AO.

AO

The AO output only, without colour, as a floating point value. You can then manipulate this further if required.