XSI Extract generated Ambient Occlusion Maps

[Shirik]

Hello nice people.
So it a easy question, but i didn't get answers from google or anywhere else so here it is:

I created a model, UVmapped it and rendered it with Ambient Occlusion Shader (here is the picture)



I wonder - how extract those "Shadows" into texture file?

[Ich 666]

what format is the file?

[EArkham]

Make sure you're using XSI Mod Tool 7.5 because the earlier versions limit you to 256x256.

1) Select the mesh you want in the AO map. Make sure it has UVs with NO overlaps. Overlaps might cause XSI to crash, or at best render the AO with bad artifacts. Also, if you try to select multiple meshes and render AO, it will randomly pick only one -- you'll need to merge them into one mesh to render AO for all parts. And any meshes that are visible in the scene, even if they're not selected, will cast shadows on the parts that are being rendered, so hide any extra meshes.

2) Go to Render -> Property -> Render Map

3) This panel should be mostly self explanatory, but what you want is:

X Res - change this to whatever scale your texture is
Select your UV map from the drop down (optional, as I think it does this automatically anyway)
Change format to tga
Choose the path to save your file (I usually go with <name of model>_AO.tga)
Change "Surface colour and illumination" to "Ambient Occlusion"

4) Back at the top of the panel, hit "Regenerate Maps". Wait. This can either be very very fast or take a very long time, depending on how big the texture is and how complicated the geometry is. And sometimes if XSI has been running a couple of hours, it'll simply crash. Heh.

5) Bring this AO map into photoshop, and add it as a layer set to "Multiply"

The AO that XSI creates isn't too bad. XNormal creates far better AO, but it requires both high poly and low poly models. I tend to only use the XSI for simpler models or ones that don't have a high poly; sometimes I combine the two and blend in the best of both.

Hope that gets you what you wanted.