Ambient Occlusion

[@(...:.:...)@]

Ambient Occlusion is a nice effect which you can use (in theory) to create shadows/dirt masks for models.

Here is a nice tutorial for a normal 3d viewport render: http://www.everflow.com/support/tutorials/AO/Everflow_AmbientOcclusion1.html

Using it with render to texture is a bit trickier. Here is a thread discussing several ways to do it, but all of them result in a black render for me. :/ http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=205378&highlight=ambient%2Bocclusion

If it works for you, this is a great way to simply add some nice shadows to a skin.

Here is an example w/ the stairs:

This on top w/ multiply blend mode & ~ 50% opacity


Normal color render (ignore odd shadows on plane :p )


Combined =

[Kalti]

It looks great, but "if it works for you"