Originally posted by ben hobden hi Donnie. I wanted to give this a go, but Im no expert with the connection editor and maya utilities. Ive just gone to connect the rgb to luminance utility the amb_occlusion, and I cant see the 'out value' on the rgb to luminance side of the connection editor, but no 'value' on the amb occlusion side. Am i doing it wrong? Actually, you don't even have to use the connection editor if you don't want to! Okay, get an mib_ambient_occlusion node (in mental ray nodes), and then the RGB to Luminance Utility. Then, in your hypershade workspace, double click the RGB to Lum to open its att. editor. You should see VALUE as the only input. Next, with the hypershade on one half of the screen and the att. editor for the RGB node on the other, DOUBLE CLICK and HOLD on the amb_occlusion node, then DRAG AND DROP right on the word VALUE of the RGB to Lum utility. Connection made! Then, double click on your blinn (or whatever you're using for your material). Do the same thing (double click and drag) from your Luminance node onto top of the word DIFFUSE in your blinn's att. editor. Connection made. You'll have to play around with the amb_occ settings until you get the look you want (increase your Samples and then play with Max Distance), and make sure there's some kind of ambient light in your scene. ALSO, make sure RAYTRACING is turned on in your mental ray settings (Render Settings>Features>Raytracing. I think that should do it. If you can't get it hit me back =) -D