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# 2 17-06-2008 , 04:17 AM
Jay's Avatar
Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: UK
Posts: 6,287
Okay lets start from the bottom.

Occlusion is basically designed to yes give shadow but its more a case of detailed shadow where objects meet say at the edges, its designed to be used as a Multiply layer in PS or a compositor of your choice and then have its opacity adjusted to fit the image and your needs. You can render a scene with just occlusion but this gives the feel of a diffused and overcast day. But by adding a key light to the scene it gives you a more directional style of light like the sun or a lamp coming from a certain direction which would cause the main shadow.

render the fur separately, depending on your system spec sometimes Maya has a hard time doing the after render compositing. this will also save on memory.

Occlusion and displacement should work, stick the object with displacement on a render layer with the occlusion preset applied

Pond reflection, just create a new shader for it and stick on a new render layer as mentioned with the displacement above.

Specular hilights, how many do you want in the scene? the spec can be turned off in the lights attribute editor and yes there should be a preset for spec passes. you must put everything that needs spec including lights into the same layer otherwise no light = no spec

Diffuse...yes youve answered your own question


lastly download the new Render Layers Tutorial by RageCGI, he's done a great job on it, and goes thru the whole deal, clear and concise. You'll be up and running in no time!

Hope this helps
Jay