Ambient Occlusion

Ambient Occlusion, in the world of computer graphics attempts to approximate the way light radiates in real life, it especially focuses on non-reflective surfaces. Unlike Phong Shading, Ambient Occlusion is a global method, which means there is illumination at each point. This illumination is a function of other geometry in the scene, however it is a very crude approximation. Ambient Occlusion creates a soft appearance that is similar to the way an object appears on a cloudy day. This method is most often used in games to add realism in the way light works and the environment. it is usually calculated by casting rays in every direction from the surface, these rays reach the background or 'sky' and increase the brightness of the surface. The rays that don't reach the background and hit any other object contributes nothing. This renders all objects surrounded by a larger objects dark.

 Ambient Occlusion can be created a few different ways, one is to hard code it into your code by utilizing the following equation to calculate it:

However you can also create Ambient Occlusion through the use of Maya. You would create your Ambient Occlusion in Maya using an object or model and then combined the resulting ambient  texture with your model's original texture in Photoshop to create a new texture. Then in your game program you can simply load your new texture and your object, and bam, you have Ambient Occlusion in your game. Now this isn't the best way to include Ambient Occlusion in your game since it cannot adapt when you move throughout the game world. 

For anyone interested in learning how to do Ambient Occlusion in Maya you can check out the video below:

AMBIENT OCCLUSION TUTORIAL

Check out these links for more info on Ambient Occlusion:

• Enabling Ambient Occlusion