How to Paint Ambient Occlusion for Digital Painting

Newest Update:

I made a new video tutorial about How to Paint Ambient Occlusion for Digital Painting.
You can download it here: Ambient Occlusion Tutorial

It's affordable and very cheap! ;)

Hey guys! :D
I'm back with my very first Ambient occlusion painting tutorial! :D
This tutorial was inspired by an awesome fan art of Frozen by Jiyu Kaze
can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=604410012982274&set=a.590138841076058.1073741828.505782986178311&type=1&theater
you guys can follow his facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/jkaze0
and Sam Nielson's tutorial
can be found here:
 http://theartcenter.blogspot.com/2010/03/sam-nielson-painting-process.html
follow his blog here: http://artsammich.blogspot.com/

Why Ambient Occlusion or AO painting? Because from what I know, AO is usually a term that is commonly used in 3D software. I use maya myself, and I like AO layer because it will add your 3D object a realistic and solid lighting. So that's why! Solid painting :D
This tutorial is more like explanation on how I do it :)
so, I hope you guys know about basic things like sketching, lighting and shadow, photoshop, shading, AO, etc
So, let's start! :D

1. I always start with sketch! :D

I sketch it in photoshop. I made like a really rough and fast sketch, since I designed her before in my sketchbook. Nothing fancy, just a sketch. A clean and neat line is even better, it's easier for painting the next layer. 

2. Lighting and Shadow

So, I started with blocking the character with light grey color, and in that light grey, I painted the shadow. Try avoiding really black color for this, since you will add that blackness in next layer. So, Imagine that you are painting a clay statue. Analyze the light direction and give the right shadow is important too. 

3. Ambient Occlusion or AO painting

Okay, here is the tricky part. Don't let yourself too carried away in this process, as you may paint the entire shadow again LOL. Just paint the darkest line that the shadow will create! I started with light grey, well almost white color. And I just painted the shadow with darkest black in 30 opacity brush. 

Make your painting looks almost like a 3d sculpt in this process.

4. Combining AO and Shadow layer

So, when you satisfied with your shadow and AO layers, you may proceed to the next level which is awesome. Put your AO layer above the shadow layer in your layer window. And change AO layer from normal mode to multiply mode. Voila, your painting will looks like a 3D render! Amazing right? But this was my first time doing AO painting, so I've made some mistakes, so I usually would go back to both layers to fix that, so it will looks more solid. 

5. Coloring

Actually this process could be done before you start the shadowing. But It's completely fine if you do it after. So, you just decide which colors are suitable for your character. Create another layer for color, and change the mode from normal to multiply. Your color will go down and darker, so it's easier for me to separate each of the color layers, so I can adjust them until the result that I wanted. After you've done with choosing colors, you will shock on how flat the painting would be after you multiply all the color layers. Yes, it's so flat and sucks. LOL, that's why we need to proceed to next step.

6. Tweaking and Subsurface Scattering layer

As you see, the painting would looks flat, so you should add more color temperature on each of your colors. Go back to your color layer and added some textures on the skin or color gradiation on the cloth, etc. My tips is, don't underestimate the power of bounce light. Add a different but believable colors for your painting. For me, I added oranges in neck area bounce, so It will create a subsurface scattering effect on her skin. Try to play with layer mode too, screen and overlay are the best for me in this process. My layer for tweaking is looks like this with no colors on. 

7. Final Image

                   

Here is the final Image. I added light diffusion layer and hair layer to make it looks interesting. Do it for the final, this final tweaking usually takes time too. Actually you should spend more time on the detailing in the area that you wanted the viewer to see. 

8. Conclusion

This method is fun and really technical. You do it step by step instead of just paint. But the result is quite interesting for those who wanted to achieve a solid painting. This is my first time doing the AO painting, so it still took time than my usual painting technique. But I still wanted to develop it. Good luck and Have fun :D

You can ask me anything about this tutorial, I'll gladly answer it :)