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Quick Tip: Ambient Occlusion In xNormal

Quick Tip: Ambient Occlusion In xNormal

on Jul 19th 2012 with 10 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Software: xNormal
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Estimated Completion Time: 30 Minutes

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

In today’s Quick Tip, Chris Tate will show us a quick and easy method for rendering out an Ambient Occlusion map using the free program xNormal. AO maps are relatively easy to setup and implement into your texturing work-flow and the benefits can be enormous.. Add another level of detail and realism to any model with this simple, yet effective technique! Let’s take a look…

Republished Tutorial

Every few weeks, we revisit some of our reader's favorite posts from throughout the history of the site. This tutorial was first published in January of 2011.

Video 1

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Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

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By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

A long time Cgtuts+ author, Chris has recently moved into the role of co-editor at Cgtuts+. Chris has nearly a decade of experience working with 3D studio Max and has authored many in depth tutorials for Cgtuts+ as well as other websites. A generalist by definition, Chris spends most of his time modeling, but has many years of experience in the area's of UVMapping, Texturing, Lighting and Rendering. On rare occasions when he's not wasting away in front of his computer, Chris enjoys playing hockey, skateboarding, watching movies and playing games. You can find more of his work over at christateonline.com.  

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  • haqzaf

    Thanks Chris Tate,

    Thanks,

    Please check.

    Video provided do not present your tip.Some mix up happen.

  • DJ

    very usefull Chris Thks

  • haqzaf

    Hi,Chris,

    As I, mention in my previous post regarding dificulty in viewing it online, I clicked the video download button and it plays the correct tutorial this time.Problem solved.Thanks

  • seppeh

    Very useful indeed, thkx!

  • mastazeko

    Nice tip! I’m using a Textools for my AO maps but i will sure try this one too.

    Textools is a nice set of tools for max users so check it out.

    http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/

  • http://www.ryanscottlee.com Ryan

    Hey Chris,

    Thanks for the awesome tutorial! I typically use Maya’s Mental Ray AO > Bake to Textures but this seems to be almost an easier way to go.

    I had a question that doesn’t exactly pertain to the tutorial…
    What program do you have installed that allows for the Apple-style GUI on your desktop? Just curious, looks great and could be really useful.

    Thanks!

    • http://www.christateonline.com Chris Tate
      Author

      Hey Ryan,

      Thanks man! Glad you liked it.

      I used to use 3ds Max’s ‘render to texture’ option with Mental Ray to bake out my AO maps. I’m not sure how fast Maya is for baking, but I found Max to be super slow and it often caused me some major problems with errors. So xNormal definitely seems to be a good option, especially on high-res meshes, as it never actually draws the HP mesh (which is genius!)

      As for the Apple-ish nav bar. It’s a free program called Objectdock. It’s heavily customizable as far as esthetics and you can pretty much get rid of your desktop icons altogether. You can find it here:

      http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/

      Cheers!

  • http://www.nufftalon3d.blogspot.com Gary Calhoun

    Hey Chris. I had a couple of questions. I was wondering before I export my objs from 3ds max do I need to attach them or group them or how does that work exactly? Also in zbrush for my hi poly do I need to merge all my subtools done and export as hi poly obj file? Thanks for the help

  • ken

    Good to see back

  • ken

    fore some reason my father before he passed away left me with a whole bunch of monkey wrenches
    and 20 packages of beet seeds
    I thought you might find some humor in that