Multi-Platform Clay Wip Renders

[Pacer]

basically an ambient occlusion render is ok for a clay render, though the pure occlusion renders lack some depth and somtimes look quite flat (same goes for the "one skylight only" lightracer renders). I usually add a shadowcasting omni (or area omni) to get some specular highlights and a nice shadow. This gives the renders a lot more depth. BTW you also can set some kind of mood by adjusting the color of the lights.

[flaagan]

Any way of setting this up in xsi 4.2 that you're aware of? I'm not seeing the A.O. node you're mentioning...

[Cryrid]

No, sorry. I jumped straight into XSI 5.0, so I'm not familiar with how it has changed over previous versions. I'm pretty sure it is there somewhere though, perhaps searching for it in the help menu will point you in the right direction?

[Pacer]

just remembered this one

found that years ago when i tried to find info about ambient occlusion or so called dirtmaps. i know nothing about xsi (yet) but i hope this is of some use to you if not never mind

[Enraged]

Originally Posted by Cryrid

Personally I feel a simple ambient occlusion is enough to achieve a clay-like effect in XSI.
All you have to do is select all the objects, and create a new group (as the group's material will override the materials of its members). With the group still selected, give it a new material (doesn't matter if it is phong, lambert, etc). Then open the render tree (7) for the group, and bring in an ambient occlusion node (Nodes> Illumination>Ambient Occlusion), and connect it to the material's surface.
You can adjust the AO node's properties from there (increasing the samples is recommended for a much smoother look, but otherwise I left the colors and the spread at their default values - you can play around with those if you want to control the look a bit more).


An an example with different spread/distance values:

I know this is going to sound crude, but how have you actually managed to get that to work? I tried following your tutorial, and I got a final product that looked nothing like that! The final render looked had only minor differences between itself and the product pre rendering. Have you got a light in there or something, because I'm just not getting that sweet and smooth result.