To create an ambient occlusion map using
the Transfer Map Tool’s default settings
- Load your source and target meshes into
a new Maya scene.
Tip
- You can use display layers or quick select
sets to separate and keep track of your source and target meshes.
- You can use file referencing to bring
high resolution geometry into your scene to be used as source meshes.
- Make sure that your source and target
meshes are concentric. Position them on top of each other in the
scene view, making sure that their centers are aligned.
- Select your target mesh in the scene
view.
- Select
Lighting/Shading > Transfer Maps.
The mesh you selected
is automatically loaded as a Target and all other meshes in your
scene are loaded as Sources.
TipBy default, all meshes
in your scene that are not selected as target meshes are loaded
as source meshes. Hide an unused mesh to prevent it from being included
as a source mesh.
- Click on the Ambient icon
in the Output Maps section to add
an ambient occlusion map.
- The Ambient occlusion map section
appears. In the Ambient occlusion map field,
enter the file name for the map (that is, the name of the texture map
file as well as the location on disk where the map will be saved).
- Check the Use mental ray common
settings option to create an ambient occlusion map using
the default settings. Scroll down to the mental ray Common Output section
of the Transfer Map tool. Expand the
section and change the following attributes:
It is recommended that
this attribute be set to a non-zero value, for example, 1 or 2.
See
Fill texture seams for
more information regarding this attribute.
- You can also modify the following options
in the Ambient occlusion map section
to optimize performance and quality:
Tweak this value to improve
the quality of your results. Increasing the number of occlusion
rays improves quality, but reduces performance speed.
This option determines
the maximum length of an occlusion ray. Rays longer than this value
are not considered for occlusion. This option optimizes performance
and is off by default.
- Scroll to the Connect Output Maps section
to specify how the texture map you are going to create will be linked
to the target mesh. To view the results of the texture map within
Maya, select Connect maps to: New shader / Connect maps
to: Assigned shader.
- Click the Bake button
to bake ambient occlusion map to a low resolution object.