arblick spule <aspule> wrote:
> Oh, actually, that shadow would be there if there was sky light going on.  All
> that would be needed would be to make the black "sky sphere" white and it would
> all look okay!  Oh how fickle art is.

  The shadows underneath objects produced by the ambient occlusion technique
look realistic in many situations because it simulates what happens in real
life. In real life, even if there is a single bright light source at some
point, light will still bounce from other surfaces, such as walls and
ceilings, and will often cause those darkened areas below and near objects.

  The ambient occlusion technique cuts the middle-man, in this case
calculating how the light coming from the one light source bounces from
walls, ceilings and other objects, and simply assumes that there's light
coming about equally from all directions due to all the reflected light.
The result is not completely unrealistic for most situations, which is why
it works so well.

  (Of course it becomes unrealistic if it's clear that there are no walls
nor ceiling around from where the light could reflect.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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