Global Money Transfer (Remittances) Market Report Essay

For more details on the content of report and ordering information please visit: http://www.aarkstore.com/reports/Global-Money-Transfer-Remittances-Market-Report-2012-Edition-70275.html Remittances are an important source of income for households, particularly in developing countries. Remittances are gaining importance in the economic planning of all major developing economies of the world. With globalization and growing socio-political activities, more and more people from underdeveloped or developing economies are working outside the countries of their origin. Remittances are being considered as an important financial resource for development as well as a social change by financial planners in developing economies. The worldwide inflow and outflow of remittances is rising constantly since past several years with the exception of 2009, which was characterized by global economic slowdown. The developing nations which include both low-income and middle income countries account for the majority of the global remittance inflow with majority contribution from India, China, Mexico and Philippines, due to their large emigrant population. The largest source of remittance flow to developing regions is high income countries including the US and Western Europe, with the GCC countries fast developing as an important source. The companies operating in the global remittance market are faced with strong competition with few large competitors and numerous small and niche competitors. The leading money transfer organization like Western Union, Money Gram, Euronet, and other independent players compete on the basis of technology, price and quality of service offered to remitters. The report analyzes the global remittances market with focus on India, China, Mexico and Philippines. The key trends observed within the market include exchange rate, fluctuating remittance cost, regional employment or unemployment affecting remittances, number of RSPs and cost variation across India and China and dominance of cash prices over the remittance market. The global remittance market faces several challenges which include the taxes which are imposed by the government on remittances and numerous legal and regulatory hurdles. The major factors which will contribute in the growth of the industry include growing international migration, rising employment rate and global economic growth. By combining SPSS Inc.’s data integration and analysis capabilities with our relevant findings, we have predicted the future growth of the industry. We employed various significant variables that have an impact on this industry and created regression models with SPSS Base to determine the future direction of the industry. Before deploying the regression model, the relationship between several independent or predictor variables and the dependent variable was analyzed using standard SPSS output, including charts, tables and tests.

Will We Save the Earth in Time?

The Earth's atmosphere has changed from the beginning of time. Just over the most recent 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of chilly development and withdraw, with the sudden end of the last ice age around 7,000 years back denoting the start of the advanced atmosphere period — and of human progress. While different planets in Earth's close planetary system are either searing hot or intensely frigid, Earth's surface has generally placid, stable temperatures. Earth values these temperatures on account of its environment, or, in other words layer of gases that shroud and ensure the planet. The atmosphere has changed when the planet got too much daylight because of unobtrusive moves in its circle, as the climate or surface changed, or when the sun's vitality shifted. However, in the previous century, another power has begun to impact Earth's atmosphere: mankind. The vast majority of these atmosphere changes are ascribed to little varieties in Earth's circle that change the measure of sun-based vitality our planet gets. The present warming pattern is of specific caliber in light of the fact that the vast majority of it is to a great degree likely to be the after effect of human action since the mid-twentieth century and continuing at a rate that is extraordinary over decades to centuries. â€Å"Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate† (Callery). Raw data collected over the years and we can tangibly see. One is the data in which the NASA representative, Sellers, shows Leonardo DiCaprio at one hour and eighteen minutes. He's shows DiCaprio a model simulation of the earth via satellites that have taken renders of the Earth over the years in different aspects. Clouds, sea surface temperature, carbon dioxide. All of these plugged into seeing the change in climate of the Earth as a whole. The warmth catching nature of carbon dioxide and different gases was shown in the mid-nineteenth century. Their capacity to influence the exchange of infrared vitality through the environment is the logical premise of numerous instruments flown by NASA. There is no doubt that expanded levels of ozone depleting substances must be the reason for the Earth's warming. The trading of approaching and active radiation that warms the Earth is frequently alluded to as the greenhouse effect in light of the fact that a greenhouse works similarly. The documentary talks about the rain forests and the way they are being burned and destroyed, causing harm to our climate and our planet. Lindsey Allen, at forty-six minutes, explains what happens to trees when they are burned. The carbon that they gather from other creatures such as humans is stored within the tree and when those trees burn, all of the carbon is released into the atmosphere, setting off a chain reaction of greenhouse gases. At forty-six minutes and twenty seconds she states, â€Å"It acts like a carbon bomb and releases massive carbon emission back into the atmosphere† (Monroe). The greenhouse effect, joined with expanding levels of ozone harming substances and the subsequent an unnatural weather change, is relied upon to have significant ramifications, as indicated by the close general agreement of researchers. â€Å"Currently, some scientists are investigating how to re-engineer the atmosphere to reverse global warming. For example, theories published in the journal Science in July 2017 by lrike Lohmann and BlaÃ… ¾ Gasparini, researchers at the Institute of Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, proposed reducing cirrus clouds that trap heat.† (Lallalina) During the conversation that DiCaprio had with President Barack Obama he states at one hour and twelve minutes that the Paris treaty is creating the architecture that allows us to finally start dealing with this problem in a serious way. However, it does not matter if every country does not actually do it and within the slim time limit that the earth has. Numerous researchers concur that the harm to the Earth's air and atmosphere is past the final turning point or that the harm is close to the final turning point. â€Å"I agree that we have passed the point of climate change,† Josef Werne, a partner teaching at the division of geography and planetary science at the University of Pittsburgh disclosed to Live Science. The impact of accrued surface temperatures is critical in itself. However, heating can have further, comprehensive effects on the earth. Warming modifies downfall patterns, amplifies coastal erosion, lengthens the season in some areas, melts ice caps and glaciers, and alters the ranges of some contagious diseases. A number of these changes are already happening though. that of Greenland's top layer melting away completely. The guide and representative that showed DiCaprio around the surface of Greenland states at eighteen minutes, â€Å"This was a hose that went down thirty feet, and now it's melted out† (Monroe). All within five years an entire thirty-foot layer melted away from Greenland as a whole. The climate isn't the sole factor global warming will impact: rising ocean levels will erode coasts and cause a lot of frequent coastal flooding. Some island nations will vanish. The matter is severe since up to ten percent of the world's population lives in defenseless areas less than ten meters higher than sea level. â€Å"Between 1870 and 2000, the sea level increased by 1.7 millimeters per year on average, for a total sea level rise of 8.7 inches. And the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. Since 1993, NASA satellites have shown that sea levels are rising more quickly, about 3 millimeters per year, for a total sea level rise of 1.89 inches between 1993 and 2009.† (Levy) As temperatures rise, ice will soften all the more rapidly. Satellite estimations uncover that the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets are shedding around 125 billion tons of ice for every year—enough to raise ocean levels by 0.01 inches every year. In the event that the liquefying quickens, the expansion in ocean level could be altogether higher.

Correctional Subculture Essay

The correctional subculture has various ethical questions pertaining to a correction officer and his duties. According to Thomson and Wadsworth (2005), when an officer makes the decision to reprimand or write a disciplinary report, he is playing a role in the Criminal Justice System (p. 316). A disciplinary committee also has a dilemma because he, or she must decide on what punishment should accrue towards the offender. This may be a temporary loss of privileges, or he may have his sentence increased (p. 316, para. 2). A correctional officer in uniform is an authority figure, which implies reasonable and rational control over the incarcerated. Moreover, he has the full range of coercive control over inmates; excessive force, loss of liberty, and his power may be defiant; taught through his subculture (other correctional officers’). According to Thomson and Wadsworth (2005), many correctional officers have (deontological) exceptional knowledge and practice professionalism. While others tend to use (teleological) coercive, control against offenders gain advantage (pp. 317-318). A correctional officer must engage in ethical behavior. He must act professional; show respect for the incarcerated; be consistent; maintain integrity and honesty; and act impartial (p. 318). The subculture of a correctional officer has similar aspects of police subculture. However, cover-ups and wrongdoing is apparent in both. According to Thomson and Wadsworth (2005), a correctional officer will travel to administer aid for another officer. Again, as police officers, correctional officers will not cooperate in an investigation if it pertains to a fellow officer (blue code). One would not embarrass another in front of an offender because this may jeopardize an officer’s effectiveness. A fellow officer does not indulge in a white hat. This pertains to showing emotions towards an inmate or his family. A main similarity between correctional and police officers is that both engage in solidarity, against all outside groups (pp. 320-321). In conclusion, few officers endorse and publicize subcultural values, whereas the majorities, who are silent, privately believe in different values. In fact, his morals tend to make judgments on their own. This can be based on  his religion; what is good or bad based on what is morally wrong, utilitarianism; a bad action turning into a good deed (a selfless act), natural law; universally acceptable and ethical formalism; the intent of good will. According to Thomson and Wadsworth (2005), correctional officers are faced with these dilemmas on a daily basis. Moreover, the difference between morality and justice comes not from the difference between actions and consequences (as between morality and influence ethics) but from the difference between motives and actions (pp. 325-327). Therefore, when a C.O. does not practice morals and does not follow the ethical code; he may drift into relativistic egoism. He may believe he should receive benefits for his trouble, and he does not think of the latter consequences to his actions. References Axia College of University of Phoenix. (2005). Chapter 11: Ethics in Crime and Justice, Ethics for Correctional Professions. Retrieved October 6, 2008, fromAxia College, Week Eight reading AXcess, ADJ 235- Ethics and the Administration of Justice

Contemporary & Future Challenges in HRM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Contemporary & Future Challenges in HRM - Essay Example It is the responsibility of HRM personnel to find ways to develop effective programmes that meet this challenge. Information used by HRM in decision making is provided by the human resource management information systems (HRMIS), which is an integrated system based on technology for organizational use. To transform the way HRM delivers its activities, the use of â€Å"workforce technologies† has grown rapidly in the last decade. These pertain to most human resource activities such as recruiting, training, addressing grievances, legal work, performance appraisals, pensions and benefits, and other areas. An HRMIS can significantly improve the efficiency of the HRM operations, raise profit levels and perform risk management for the organization. Future challenges in human resource management can be met with potential applications of HRMIS, as in training management, risk management, and overall cost reduction of human resource management activities. Human resource management (HRM) is a function of organizational systems to ensure that â€Å"human talent is used effectively and efficiently to accomplish organizational goals† (Mathis & Jackson, 2006: 28). Most organizations have physical, financial, intangible and human assets. The human asset or the human capital constitutes the combined value of the skills, capabilities, knowledge, life experiences, and motivation of an organizational workforce. The contemporary and future challenges faced by human resource management are: the â€Å"globalization of business, economic and technological changes, workforce diversity, organizational cost pressures and restructuring† (Mathis & Jackson, 2006: 28). There is an ongoing transformation of HR roles by technology and outsourcing and also by the need for HR to become a more strategic contributor. HR technology in the form of Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) helps to improve administrative efficiency levels and present increased information for strategic

Critically Analyse the Legal and Political System of England Regarding Assignment

Critically Analyse the Legal and Political System of England Regarding the Case Study - Assignment Example The Financial Services Authority and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills are the two bodies monitoring the enforcement of the Companies Act 2006 in UK (Cahn 2010, p.19). It should be noted that the Companies Act 2010 contains strict rules in regard to a series of issues, such as ‘the involvement of directors in the trading of their companies’ securities’ (Cahn 2010, p.19) or the approval of critical transactions by the shareholders (Cahn 2010, p.19). However, the key mission of the above Act, as of company law in UK in general, is ‘to facilitate the operation of market forces’ (Hicks and Goo 2008, p.12). This trend is made clear in the following fact: privatization of companies in UK is continuously developed, mostly through the increase of employee share schemes across UK (Hicks and Goo 2008, p.12). The pressure on companies for aligning their activities with existing laws can be differentiated, under the influence of contradicting int erests (for example, the interests of employees as opposed to those of shareholders) and the need for securing competition. 1b. UK law and employee relations One of the most important characteristics of the legal framework of employee relations in UK is its inability to secure employee rights; the fact that the existing laws focusing on employee relations in UK are limited, compared to other countries, is considered as the key reason for the above phenomenon. Moreover, the laws related to employee relations seem to favour rather the employer, an assumption verified through the following fact: traditionally, the length of employment period has been a key term for deciding the right of employees across UK to ask for compensation in case of unfair dismissal (Hollinshead, Nicholls and Tailby 2002, p.519). Even employees in fixed term contracts are often asked to waive their rights to claim compensation in case of dismissal because of redundancy (Hollinshead, Nicholls and Tailby 2002, p. 519). Moreover, for the UK labour law, the rules related to employee relations can be applied only in cases of employees who work on the basis of a contract (Countouris 2007, p.78). This means that the UK labour law does not protect employees who work without an employment contract. In most European countries, employees’ rights are protected even if there is no employment contract; for instance, certain social security rights are recognized to employees who work without employment contract (Countouris, 2007, p.78). On the other hand, there is a series of legal texts addressing various employee relations’ issues; for example the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Wages Act 1986 (Countouris 2007, p.78-79). When evaluating the decision of Marks and Spencer to announce the closure of its stores in France just before the meeting with the employees’ representatives, reference should be made to the following fact: indeed, Marks and Spencer is primarily bound by the UK labour law. The application, though, of the labour laws of the host country, France, where the firm’s stores are located, cannot be excluded especially at the level that the local laws would be in opposition with the UK relevant legal rules. Marks and Spencer operates globally. This means that

Vignette Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Vignette - Essay Example These workers who are mostly Mexicans and Hispanics have not been arriving to the north. It is pointed out from the article that the mass-production farms are feeling the crunch of the increase in local small farms. Because of the decrease in the source of cheap labor, their produce is becoming more expensive than the local farm produce which used to be more expensive. It is cited in the article that â€Å"local farm sales are becoming more stable, predictable and measurable† (Johnson, 2012). The growing trend is that the Hispanics, who used to be low-wage laborers, are now becoming farm entrepreneurs through the support of training programs for beginning farmers. These farmers are not only provided with the agricultural know-how but also given guidance with regards to the distribution and marketing of their produce. Several economic concepts and implications can be derived from this article about small-scale farmers. One concept is about the risk that an entrepreneur takes in making an investment (Adomait & Maranta, 2011). It can be observed that the low-wage Hispanic farm laborers are taking a risk in becoming an entrepreneur. They are investing their time and effort at farming although they are not sure if the investment is worth it. It is a risk to be working on one’s own when one has no experience at being an entrepreneur. The laborer is taking this risk in the hope that he can benefit from its expected return. Like the Hispanic farmer, Narendra Varma, the former Microsoft manager described in the article is also taking a risk. He invested $2 million from his savings to a 58-acre project of small plots and new farmer training near Portland. Since this venture may be a high risk investment for him, he obviously expects a higher rate of return, maybe higher than if he just invested his money in the bank. One thinks that if the trend towards entrepreneurship continues, the economy will be

Rich Pictures Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Rich Pictures - Article Example It was developed by Peter Checkland as a Soft Systems Methodology for gathering information about a complex situation (Checkland 1981, p. 37). Structure, processes and concerns are the main components of any Rich Picture diagram. Use Case method analyses the expectation of a primary actor with the proposed system. Actors are the stakeholders of the system, e.g. end users and other systems that are supposed to use the system. They are not considered as a part of the system, only their interaction with the system is taken in to consideration while developing the system. Use Case modeling is extensively used in software application modeling process and object oriented programming. A clear understanding of Use Case is necessary for using UML and other modern software development process. This dissertation will critically evaluate Rich Pictures and Use Cases as a requirements analysis tool. It will also compare and contrast adoptability, advantages and shortcomings of these analysis methods. With the help of a case study based on a Children Support Agency and analysis of its requirement using both methodologies it will highlight the usability of these methods to different situations. Soft System Methodology (SSM) deals with problem situations in which there is a high social, political, and human activity component (Checkland, 90). The SSM is effective in dealing with "soft problems" that are difficult to define but comparatively easier to solve as presented in Children Support Agency case study. Examples of problem situations where SSM is more effective includes socially more complex but technically easier problems such as dealing with homelessness, illiteracy and distressed young people. SSM as defined by Checkland (1990) is composed of seven stages from, finding out the problem situation, expressing the problem situation through Rich Pictures (i.e., representations of organizational structure and processes pertinent to the problem situation), viewing the situation and produce root definitions, building conceptual models of what the system must do for each root definition, comparing the conceptual models with the real world, identifying feasible and desirable c hanges, to making recommendations to improve the problem situation. Expressing the problem situation through Rich Pictures is a major phase of Soft System Analysis. Rich Pictures are most effective in analyzing the complex organizational structures, functions and processes. Rich Picture diagrams as illustrated by following figure are one of the best and most flexible ways for communicating systematic planning process. Following Rich Picture for the complete Children Support Agency environment outlines all major structures, processes, different stakeholders and their concerns. Figure 1: Rich Picture Diagram for CSA Management Information System. The above rich picture modelling gives a broad picture of the situation. It shows clearly the expectations of different stakeholders from proposed Management Information System. Development of rich pictures gives a systematic understanding of all questions and observations about the problem situation. The above representation of the scenario can be very helpful in identifying

Modern definition of success in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Modern definition of success in America - Essay Example Black Americans have been able to establish different expectations and attitudes compared to their white counterparts. This has accrued from the historical evolution of the American society (Lipsitz 371). This essay will focus mainly on the African-Americans because they have been known to face the most humiliation and discrimination as compared to other races namely Hindu and Hispanic. The most common form of prejudice was slavery which entailed slaves being owned as properties with no legal rights whatsoever. They could be bought, sold to clear debts and even leased to interested parties. Statistics in the 19th Century showed that the African- Americans comprised of the largest number of slaves who were immigrants of African descent that had crossed the Atlantic sea. Slavery was used as a means of getting slave laborers to produce certain goods for the world market namely sugar and tobacco by working in large plantations (Moon 234). The living conditions of slaves were intolerable at best therefore leading to a number of deaths of African-Americans. The causes of death were mainly poverty and sickness and in some cases, thorough beatings by their masters (Moon 234). Despite this, many Africans still came to the western hemisphere with hopes of a promising future only to be disappointed in the long-run. Slavery died with the Civil War but there was still existence of slaves in various States up to 1840. This the period whereby the one-drop rule came into being which mentioned that any individual who had any level of African ancestry was a negro namely black. Children who had mixed parentage were automatically considered to be black because they had â€Å"one drop of negro blood†. The man behind this rule was known as Thomas Jefferson although historical records have found that he bore children of mixed race with his slave known as Sally Hemings. This

CASE STUDY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 5

CASE STUDY - Essay Example The organization has expansive plans to increase the state coverage as well as the concentration of its services in the seven states. In this regard, the organization has set up new hospitals in the states and also has plans to set up more health facilities. An example is a proposal to construct a modern health facility at Fort Collins. The move is aimed at increasing Banner Health presence and also bringing quality healthcare closer to the people. Banner Health has partnered with institutions of higher learning to expand its services on cancer treatment (Banner Health, n.d). Specifically, Banner has engaged University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to increase accessibility to cancer treatment for its patient. Under this partnership, Banner has built its cancer treatment center in Arizona. The organization has plans to increase its cancer treatment centers across the states where it has operations. The growth plan of Banner Health also includes opening of new health clinics in the country. The ANA anticipates that the demand for health care will increase significantly in the next decade. As such, bigger health institutions are likely to be overstretched. As such, clinics that are closer to the population are will be ideal for early detection and commencement of treatment. Also, clinics are important in primary care. The efforts to consider and address future needs makes Banner Health more prepared for future health needs. The American Nursing Organization has stipulated that the country will experience nurse shortage by 2020. The reason for the shortage includes lack of admission slots for new nursing students and nurse turnover. Banner health is cognizant of this issue. As a result, the Banner Center for Health Careers provides a long-term strategy of gathering details of qualified nurses and other medical professionals. The organization can then replace nurses from the pool or recruit new nurses

Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 16

Philosophy - Essay Example Adopting the average worshipper’s premise, this paper assumes the supposition that this Higher or Perfect Being is clothed with the qualities of omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence and is the creator of everything and that the goal of praying is to affect in some manner the object of the prayer, whether to express gratitude, ask forgiveness or solicit a favorable response to a request. Various methods and manner of praying exist, each claimed to be the correct method by their users. The orthodox method of praying follow the tradition prescribed by established doctrines of respective churches and faiths. This may consist of rote and memorized prayers, chants and hymns. A gregarious and an expressive way of praying is through dancing and singing of catchy tunes. Another modern way is to compose one’s prayer spontaneously and share it out loud with the rest. Then there are the worshippers whose prayers are solely kept to themselves, their praying manifested only by the solemnity of their countenance. of endless praising and extolling of virtues, if scrutinized closely, can be said to be useless and even denigrating to the object of worship. Seen from the same perspective, formulaic and memorized prayers will seem to suffer the same fate. Taking into consideration the infinite qualities of the worshipped object - it is almost certain that He knows exactly who He is and to tell Him who He is and what wonderful things He has done over and over is useless and accomplishes nothing. Not only is it futile but also insulting. On the contrary, those who engage in this kind of praying could have their motives cast with aspersion. It could be one of two things, none of which are noble: first; endless praises and flatteries may be used to advance a position through ingratiation, and; second, constantly reminding another of his good deeds may

Genocide and Sri Lankan Tamils Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Genocide and Sri Lankan Tamils - Essay Example The Official Languages Commission set up by the Sri Lankan government in 2005 provides figures for the ethnic divide in Sri Lanka. The Tamil speaking minority in the country make up twenty-six percent of the population, which consists of thirteen percent Sri Lankan Tamils, six percent Tamils of recent Indian origin, and seven percent of Muslims. Though the Tamil speaking minority constitute more than a fourth of the population, their presence in government service is a mere 8.31 percent. Such a situation has arisen from Sri Lankan actions since the gaining of independence by using language as a weapon. Thus language has remained a key element in the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka (Reddy, 2007). While the roots of the ethnic divide in Sri Lanka may be ascribed to the colonial past, when the British imported a large number of Tamils into the country from neighbouring India, actions of the Sri Lankan government since independence are the more definitive cause for the violence in the country. Since independence successive governments have taken measures to ensure that the Tamils were denied equal opportunities to professions and the public sector. Such actions interacted in a complex manner with the already existent Sinhala Buddhist exclusivism that slowly led to the persisting animated ideology in the Sri Lankan State. Two legislative actions were to cause the cleavage and subsequent decades of violence and the rise of the LTTE as a terrorist organization to take the lead against the Sri Lankan government. The 1956 â€Å"Sinhala Only† act, which removed English as the official language and replaced it with Sinhala, was to make the Tamils disadvantaged, leading to prote sts from the Tamils. The subsequent legislation in the early 1970s, which created communal quotas for entrance to universities thereby denying meritorious Tamils admission, was to inflame the Tamils and lead to violence and the call fro a

Outline of the Tea Party Platform Essay Example for Free

Outline of the Tea Party Platform Essay Believe that heavy taxes are a burden for those who apply their personal liberty to work hard ? Need for government to protect the freedom of citizens with interference of the government that has exceeded its necessary size or scope. 2. Eliminate National Debt ? there is a need to have fiscal conservative policies at all levels of government ? narrow down the national debt for the good of the average American 3. Protect Free Markets ? Allow free markets to prosper without the infringement of the national government ? Belief that free markets should be protected and are the backbone of the U. S 4. Abide By the Constitution of The United States ? Belief that the U. S Constitution is the supreme law and should be held as so ? Constitution but be upheld in all areas, levels and branches of government 5. Promote Civic Responsibility ? Citizen involvement should be upheld ? Belief that citizen inolment directs the behaviors of the representatives both on a local and national level 6. Reduce the Overall Size Of Government ? Belief that a â€Å"bloated† or overcrowded bureaucracy leads to uneconomical spending ? Reducing the size of governement will than in turn help eliminate inefficiencies that result in deficit spending 7. Believe In The People ? Guaranteed freedoms for the American people will cause then to thrive and grow in a democratic, capitalist enviroment which allows individuals to achieve and go after achievements 8. Maintain Local Independance ? The strength of the Tea Party movement is the ability of citizens at the local level to establish their own platforms ? Belief that each citizen’s voice should be heard

Youth from broken families are susceptible to join gang

Youth from broken families are susceptible to join gang The typical age span for people to join gangs today is twelve to twenty five years of age, but some members are joining as young as the age of eight years old. (Larry et. al. 77) This brings one to ask the obvious question of why. Why are these children choosing to live such a life of violence and crime? There are many factors that apply to this question. Lonely juveniles who suffer from depression are likely to join gangs. Children who are often picked on are looking for acceptance and through a gang they get exactly that. Youth who come from poor, broken families are also susceptible to join gangs. Most of these juveniles are simply looking for acceptance because they are not getting enough of it where it should be coming from. Although Youth gangs are predominately male, recent research reveals that the number of all female gangs is rising rapidly (Clark, 285). There may be a number of females connected with a certain specific gang, but they generally function as auxiliaries or branches of male gangs. They are time and again expected to assist the male gang totally, but they are seldom able to befall official members (Siegel, Senna, 274). Females attached with male gangs are usually used to carry arms and ammunition, afford alibis, act as lures and spies, and become a source of sexual pleasure for male members (Spergel, 178). Racism is a large factor for juveniles joining a gang. When people, especially young people are denied certain things because of their race, they are apt to join an anti-establishment group and rebel against their racial enemies. (Fagan, 650) When young people find they are targeted or have a social disadvantage because of their ethnicity they tend to find others who feel the same way, thus creating organizations. Since young people are easy to manipulate, it may not be a difficult task to get them to join. Juveniles may also choose to join gangs for poverty factors. Many teenagers living in poverty are likely to feel hopeless about getting products they want and need and often turn to this violent life style in order to get these things. Young people living this lifestyle find it extremely difficult to live any kind of productive life because they have no money to do so. An easy resort of earning money is joining a gang that is highly involved in drug trades. (Fagan, 651) These gangs are trafficking large amounts of illegal drugs and are making extreme amounts of money. Juveniles thrive off having nice things and flashing large amounts of money around. They are blinded by the notion of easy money and dont see or dont care about the risks or violence involved. Usually with poverty also comes a large lack of a support network. It is very possible that these juveniles are looking for a surrogate family. These teens joining are obviously lacking understanding, affection, and affirmation in their households. It is likely these youths feel highly neglected and alienated where they are supposed to feel the most comfortable. When needs for love are not met, these young people are apt to join these gangs to feel involved. It is extremely important for parents to stay involved in their childrens lives in order to lead them in the right path. Love, compassion, and caring are essential when raising children to be productive members of society. This may also make them decline from participation in drug activities. All behavior is regarded as communication, transmitting interpersonal messages (Clark, 290). Within a family system, communication occurs continuously through both verbal and nonverbal interactions. (Conly, et. al. 34) The media does not help when it comes to juveniles joining gangs. Between television and movies, teens are exposed more and more to this violent lifestyle. Movies like Scarface starring Al Pacino glorify gang life and make it look fun to be a part of. They portray drugs and violence as appealing and something to strive for. Music, especially rap also discusses violent gang activities in their lyrics. This is the music our children are listening to and taking in each and every day. Before young people are able to establish their own beliefs and values the media promotes negative behaviors including sex, violence, and the intake of drugs. (Clark, 291) When we think of gangs we often think only of young males joining. This is not the case. Small amounts of people know that many young girls are joining these brutal gangs also. Although male juveniles are way more likely to join groups, it doesnt mean girls arent doing the same. It is highly likely that the eighth graders estimate are more accurate than the police considering they see what is going on among their peers each day. In Chicago, Illinois alone they have clearly identified 100 female gangs with an estimated 1,000 members. (Conly, et. al. 34) Female members are usually younger than male gang members. Because they are girls, that does not make then any less violent. Some of the statistics are truly shocking. Seventy eight percent of female gang members have been in a physical fight, 65% reported carrying a weapon, and 39% are said to have attacked someone with a weapon. (Siegel, Senna, 273) The most common reasons for these girls to become members at such a tender age is to create a bond with other girls and to be protected. Adolescent girls who join gangs are also likely to have been a victim of sexual abuse, especially within their households. Also, a large majority of these girls are sisters of or dating established male gang members and a large majority of female gang members are likely to get pregnant. They get to develop their social skills because they are meeting new, different gang members all the time. They also get a large amount of personal responsibilities and self-esteem from joining these organizations. (Broderick, 192) These young people are receiving companionship, love, respect and commitment from their fellow gang members. These are all things that can be extremely influential on the young community and it is our job as a society to provide these things in a positive manner. Many cities in many states are trying to convince and persuade our youth not to join these notoriously violent gangs. Community and family is a large factor in gang prevention. They are crucial in a childs physical, emotional, and social growth. If family and friends are providing this, children are not forced to look for it in other places. Education also plays a large role. We must educate children in the classroom about the dangers of gang membership. Young people who complete their education are less likely to become involved in gang activity. (Spergel, 178) It is unfortunate how our society has allowed these violent gangs to continue in our country, but now it is our job to try to abolish them. Through education, positive reinforcement, and a strong sense of discipline we can encourage our youth to live positive, successful lives rather than the violent circumstances that go along with gang memberships. Work Cited Broderick, C. B. (2003). Family process theory. In J. Sprey (Ed.) Fashioning family theory: New approaches (pp. 171-206) Clark, C. M. (2004). Deviant adolescent subcultures: Assessment strategies and clinical interventions. Adolescence, 27, 283-293. Conly, C. H., Kelly, P., Mahanna, P., Warner, L. (2004). Youth gangs: Current knowledge and strategies. Fagan, J. (2007). The social organization of drug use and drug dealing among urban gangs. Criminology, 27, 649-652. Larry J. Siegel, Brandon C. Welsh, Joseph J. Senna. Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law, Ninth Edition 2006. Siegel, L. J., Senna, J. J. (2006). Juvenile gangs in the United States. In Juvenile delinquency: Theory, practice, and law, (2nd ed., pp. 253-276). St. Paul, MN. Spergel, I. (2003). Youth gangs: Continuity and change. In N. Morris M. Tonry (Eds.) Crime and justice: A review of research (pp. 177-179). Chicago.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Ambient Occlusion Shader

Advantages and Disadvantages of Ambient Occlusion Shader This dissertation is to simplify the ambient light in contact shadow using Maya embedded language (MEL) which can be useful for all lighting artists to get a global illumination effect in simple steps and to reduce process of render time and they can connect and disconnect the ambient shader and adjust using GUI (graphical user inter phase) all the buttons will be in GUI itself. These are simple techniques but if one needs the old fashioned moves he’s got to go to the control set up tools. But these are simplified here and all can be achieved in simple clicks which is easy to navigate. All actions present in the GUI area all are present in my interface and one reason its better as its simple. This has been focused in a manner to anticipate all professional or not its easy to all. This helps all and even helps to navigate better through the GUI controls better. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Ambient Occlusion is a lighting technique that which is used to cast shadows on objects. This is a technique used in lighting which is misunderstood as this method casts shadows on objects where light does not reach. This method gives out a good render to the object with normal modes in the output. Ambient occlusion creates or casts soft shadows around the object which gives out a molded look. In technical terms ambient occlusion is a global illumination method and is commonly referred to as a cheap trick for alternative method of global lighting method. To be more specific in answering the above is each person has his means of working and all processes differ from one another. This is where ambient occlusion comes into being as some calculate the intensity of the light setup for every work file but most don’t and the best way to overcome is to use ambient occlusion where this does all the calculation and gives a better quality render more than we can accept. On aspects to other global illumination methods ambient occlusion does calculate in it manner but regarding other properties in the scene file. Where it has to go according to all shapes in the scene file to calculate the light setup to generate a global light effect which seems less complex than the regular lighting aspect in the software. This specialty makes ambient occlusion very well accepted among game developers and level designers and in various levels of production animation. Here I am going to simplify the Ambient Occlusion shader to get ambient light in all contacted shadows. Connecting the ambient occlusion to all the shader is a big process as we have a number of shader in a single scene file. I am going to develop a separate user interface in Maya for the user to manipulate my tools. By using my tools all the shader can be connected to the ambient shader with the single click and also can disconnect all the ambient shader in a single click. 1.1.AIM To simplify the ambient light in contact shadows using Maya embedded language (MEL) 1.2.OBJECTIVES Study the advantages and disadvantages of ambient occlusion shader To study about the real world light properties To implement natural lights using software Developing a MEL for simplifying ambient occlusion shader Developing an user interface in Maya for user to manipulate the tool(GUI) 1.3.STATEMENTS OF THE PROBLEM To connecting the ambient occlusion shader to all the other shader is a big process if there is number of shader are available in single scene file 1.4.RESEARCH QUESTIONS What is ambient occlusion? What r the different techniques for creating indirect lighting How shadows variation in time what are the advantages and disadvantages in ambient occlusion texture How to simplify the ambient occlusion texture node 1.5.SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY When we are connecting ambient occlusion texture to number of shader most of them are facing the problem like connecting with shader one by one some time we may miss some shader while connecting and also it will take time to connect to lot of shader Here am going to do this dissertation for solving these problems. Here I am going to simplify the ambient occlusion texture by MEL script 1.6.Hypothesis The hypothesis of this project is to simplify the ambient occlusion texture using Maya embedded language (MEL) Chapter 2 Literature Review 2.1.Literature: Mastering Maya 2009 Eric Keller, Eric Allen and Anthony Honn 2009 This book speaks about how ambient occlusion forms form indirect light rays and ambient occlusion effect can bring from Final Gathering and it will take more render time when u create in Final Gathering The above information help to get some knowledge and information about ambient occlusion. 2.2.Literature: Mental ray for Maya 3ds max and XSI Livny Boaz Ambient occlusion adding realism and produce more details in the output and render will be fast when we compare to Final gathering and Globule illumination how ambient occlusion works and explain detail about ambient occlusion attribute and also tell about what are the different between occlusion and ambient occlusion 2.3.Literature: Introducing Maya 2011 Dariush Derakhshani We can take ambient occlusion as separate render pass that to help add more depth in models and later we can adjust in compositing. Ambient occlusion give great contact shadows 2.4.Literature: Maya Visual Effects: the innovator’s guide Eric Keller Ambient occlusion is the easy and quick way to get Global illumination and tell how ambient occlusion note works in texture. Ambient occlusion produce soft shadows as like real world. when two models are placed near certain amount of light will be block and u will get soft shadows at the corner of the object 2.5.Literature: Rendering with Mental ray 3Ds Max Joep Van Der Steen There are different types of shadow in 3ds max like normal 3ds max shadows and ray trace shadows .but normal shadows wont work in mental ray. If u need to get accurate shadows go for ray trace but render time will be increases when compare to normal shadows. Bounce light gives u realistically feel as like real life lighting. In real life light wont stop travel when its hits the ground it will hit and bounce for certain distance till its die and ambient occlusion also the one form of creating bounce light or indirect lighting for the scene but ambient occlusion wont be physically correct lighting when compare to FG(Final Gathering ) and GI (Globule illumination ). Ambient occlusion give reflective occlusion where we wont get in normal occlusion. 2.6.Literature: Writing Mental ray shader: perceptual Introduction Andy Kopra This book tells about how ambient occlusion rays are calculating in the scene and tell about how Technically ambient occlusion works in MEL scrip this book gives me clear idea how to develop my scrip in MEL 2.7.Literature: Rendering Techniques 2006 Tomas Akenine-Mà ¶ller   Ambient occlusion shadow produce form ambient light. Ambient light emits form all direction and produce soft shadows. Most of the production companies using ambient occlusion for lighting for time saving in lighting and rendering. 2.8.Literature: Maya: secrets of the pros John L. Kundert-Gibbs, Dariush Derakhshani Ambient occlusion techniques in production are used in two ways are backing of ambient occlusion texture and taking of ambient occlusion passes in render. In backing of ambient occlusion we cant tweak while compositing but In ambient occlusion render pass we can tweak and bring new effect in compositing. 2.9.DVD:Digital Tutors Mental Ray Nodes Library This Tutor helps me what are the uses of the ambient occlusion how to connect ambient occlusion texture node in shader and explain clearly about the Attribute Editor of ambient occlusion to get good output. Chapter3 METHODOLOGY This document consists of a quantitative and qualitative method by Survey and gathering information from Internet, Books, tutorials , articles, books, paper and videos. 3.1.POPULATION: The people who are suitable for this population is texturing artist, lighting artist, rendering artist. They were questioned regarding the ambient occlusion shader and its uses in production field. The population of this research work carries the production experienced person. 3.2.SAMPLING: Judgment Sampling 3.3.SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS: This research is limited to the ambient occlusion shader. Chapter 4 Lights in CG 4.1 Overview 4.2 Types of lighting Chapter 5 Indirect lighting in CG 5.1Introduction 5.2 Final Gathering (FG) and Global illumination (GI) Chapter6 Ambient occlusion 6.1 overview 6.2 How it works 6.3 Advantages of ambient occlusion Chapter 7 Rendering 7.1 Mental Ray rendering 7.2 occlusion render over mental ray Chapter 8 MEL 8.1 Introduction to MEL 8.2 Creating GUI Chapter 4 Lights in CG 4.1.Introduction Lightning in computer graphics (CG) is nothing but giving special effects to the scenes to improve the quality of animation. Lightings available for all kind of occasions, all we need to do is just adjust the parameters. Most of them will not give more importance for lighting while creating there images or animations. Lighting plays very important role in computer graphics (CG), we can easily find the talented and untalented person in computer graphics (CG) by looking at the light effects given in the image or animation .Though we already know something about lightings in photography, film and video. We are just trying to bring the reality to computer graphics (CG). Lighting is used for creating a 3D effect by differentiating the foreground from background or else we can combine both to create 2D effect. This effect (Lighting) is mainly used to impress the viewer. Lighting is the most powerful tool in the computer graphics because this is the only tool which makes the viewer to feel. If your lighting perfectly fits for your image or animation then the final output will be much good to impress the viewer. Lighting can be expressed in two ways by being illuminated and a process of illumination. Lighting is defined globally by means of object which can be visible through the source illuminant application. Bouncing off lights or shiny objects can be made by the manipulation of light. If natural light is unavailable artificial lights can be used instead. Lighting is used everywhere and anywhere. Light is never said to be the same because of its variability, so lighting also changes. The natural sun light that we see in day to day life varies in a short period of time but the quality does not vary. The term state of lighting could in term mean intensity, its direction, its texture and form. This means something emotional. lighting is also a process of purposeful planning and design in which the light is to illuminate in an object. When lighting is necessary, the ligh ting position and placement are to be in considering, once deciding the intensity. Lighting process also refers in analyzing the light quality as it strikes the subject. 4.1.ADDING LIGHT SOURCES: Adding lights to the scenes can be done in several ways and also different kinds of lights available in lighting effects. Some kind of lights are used to highlight the background, foreground, character etc., we must choose the light which is highly suitable for the cases so that the people could not able to find which effect is used. There are several types of adding lights effects available POINT(OMMIDERECTIONAL)LIGHTS SPOTLIGHTS DIRECTIONAL LIGHTS AREA LIGHTS Site accessed on 27th sep Pixel Cinematography: A Lighting Approach for Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 96 Course 30) SPHERICAL AREA LIGHTS FLAT AREA LIGHTS LINEAR LIGHTS MODELS SERVING AS LIGHTS 4.2.1POINT(OMMIDERECTIONAL)LIGHTS Point lights are also called as omni or omnidirectional lights, because it transmit in all directions, like any other lights e.g. bulb, sun etc The main thing in giving this effect is checking the shadows it should not spread in all directions. In real life, u can see more uniformly omnidirectional lights. Most of the times point lights are similar to real light bulbs for example, bulb lights spread allover the particular empty place, if a opaque thing (metal, wood etc.,) is kept in that place the shade will form behind that thing and side and size of the shade is depend on the location of the bulb. Though it is likely as omnidirectional we can spread it by using throw-pattern that is uneven. if you want to focus more light on some particular direction then you must do this action texture map to the light else by grouping the light with 3D object that produce shadows This light rays stimulated out from one infinitely small point in space, Its illumination and shadows passes out form the light in all direction. It is difficult to find a light which is uniformly omni directional in nature. Many light sources emit some amount of light in some directions. Uneven point lights can be used as a throw pattern, like a real bulb to emit more light in some direction rather than in other direction. This is done by applying a texture to the light or else by grouping the light with the 3d object which will cast shadows. 4.2.2.SPOTLIGHTS: Spotlights is the major light effect which is commonly used in computer graphics (CG).This light effect is used by major computer graphics (CG) specialist because it can be used to focus on a specific target. Spotlight is also similar to point light sometimes but it slightly differs in pointing the target there are some limitations for spotlights are it should not exceed.we can determine the focus aim by rotating the spotlight. You can also fix a target for your focus so that the focus will always on that particular target. Spot Lights are the most used light in the lighting design of computer graphics. Most of the popular artist prefer spotlights to light a scene because, this light can be controlled in any times to aim light at a selected target. The emition of spotlight is light radiation from a point, same as like the point light. The illumination in the spotlight is controlled through a cone angle or a beam of the light. The rotation of the spotlight will determine where the beam is aimed. Objects can also be linked to light to stay in the same orientation position. A spotlight has more controls and options which is not found in other type of lights, some options like projecting a image map from the light, creating fog, etc†¦ With the help of spotlight the falloff which is the softness of the cone, allows the intensity of light diminish more gradually in the edges of the beam. 4.2.3.Directional Lights Directional light is an infinity source of illumination from a distance. These lights are variously known as distant, direct or infinite light. This light sets a single vector for its entire illumination object from the same angle, doesn’t matter the object’s position. The shadows emitted by the directional light are in same direction and they are orthogonal projections of each 3d object’s shape. The matter in placing the directional light is which way it’s pointed. The directional light is not so easy in aiming to a preferred local area like point and spot light. A set of lights constituting from different angles can be used to produce fill light, even in the individual lights in all angles in a low intensity. These lights can fill very large areas with illumination appearing as ambient, like filling the daylight from the sky giving a quick effective global ambience. it deals with the light position where it is placed and it is all about the direction of the object, shadow and lit falls depend on the light location. However the sunlight is the major source of light we need some more light effects to impress the viewer most probably directional light is used. The directional light which needs some specific angle to present a proper lighting so that the person should concentrate more on angles. 4.2.4.Area Lights The lights like point and spot emits light from a infinity source into space, which is not simulating the size of physical light source in real life. Point light cannot be scaled in any dimension. To get more accurate simulations of the real light, this area light have definable scale, so the all the rays of light are not emitted exactly from the same point. If the light is scaled small, the illumination will appear similar to a point light. The larger scale of area light, make the light appear softer, shadows appears to soft and the illumination in nearby objects. The amount of shadows and light achieved with area light makes the scene excellent in realistic rendering. The source of the light comes from some long gap like windows etc, is said to be area lights. This effect is important when the image or animation dealing with the room setup for example if there is a room there might be some windows so we must implement the area lights. It matches the situation than any other lighting techniques 4.2.5.SPHERICAL AREA LIGHTS: Spherical area light is also like area light it will spread in all directions. It is also called spherical light, spherical region of space is the source for the spherical light, this is mainly used in the case where the large light source. The spherical light has omni directional so the light does not have effect on our output. you can also replace the spherical light to point light when the illumination needs more concentration on light to cast soft edged shadows 4.2.6.FLAT AREA LIGHTS: Area light also available in flat shapes such as discs and rectangles. Light emitted from two dimensional areas can use less rendering time than three dimensional areas. The number of samples used to adjustable either approach. A rectangular area light is same as illuminated ceiling panel, a plane width and height that illuminates with naturally soft, diffused light. Light from ceiling is the major use of flat area light simulating the reflected illumination brightly lit walls and ceiling providing a soft. Aiming or rotating light changes your result, light from the edge of the flat area light is same as creating sharper shadow and also dimmer. 4.2.7.LINEAR LIGHTS: Linear light has same functionality as florescent tube and also scaled in one-dimension.it has a length soften the shadows and extend its illumination in one direction. How linear light affects the output. The shadow objects along the length of the light are very soft, but shadows from the end of the light are focused. We can use linear lights from fluorescent tubes, laser blasts. Line shape is not specifically needed, linear lights and it is used for general soft lighting scene they will not add as much as you’re rendering time as other types. It is similar as spherical area light . 4.2.8.MODELS SERVING AS LIGHTS: Light effect by model serving as lights is a 3dimensional model in your scene sort of area light source. By using this model we can make a nontraditional shape of light like neon sign, it is also used as a true light sources, as shown in figure. However, bright looking objects can be made by rendering the neon sign,and also by positioning other kind of light to the surface rounding area. Chapter 5 Indirect lighting in CG 5.1Introduction The indirect illumination simulates caustics, global illumination and final gathering.the specification of light energy is required. To allow color the light energy is as a RGB triple. But the values of the RGB are usually much higher than the range for color. In the preprocessing step the number of photons stored from the light source is determined by STORE and the number of photons emitted is determined by EMIT. The photon emission stops when either of the limit is reached. Using the power law of 1/r(exp) energy from the light source decreases as the square of the distance increases from the source. The physical correctness is lost when the exponent is other than 2. During caustics preprocessing The number of caustics photon stored can be specified by the caustic photon value which controls it. Likewise global photon value can be specified for global illumination. The value ranges from 10,000to 100,000.by increasing the value the accuracy increases and the bluriness decreases. In i ndirect lighting the lights sources are invisible by default. As the number of visible lights are increased the performance is reduces. 5.2 Final Gathering (FG) The estimation of global illumination is done by a technique called Final gathering. It can be illuminated by either sampling a number of direction over the hemisphere or by averaging the total final gather points nearby. To improve the quality of global illumination final gathering is used. Without final gathering computation on a diffused surface is made by the photon intensity near that point. With final gathering the new rays of light is are made to hit the sample hemisphere for the determination of incident illumination. Using illumination from the globillium photon map and the illumination at the points of diffused surface is computed. Some rays hit a specular surface and their contribution for final gather color is zero. Tracing each ray utilizes lot of time so it is done when it is necessary. For purely diffuse scene final gathering eliminates low frequency noise and dark corners. As the final gather averages over many values of direct illumination fewer photons are needed. F inal gathering can support only a single bounce. And multiple effect have far less impact on the image. The final gathering can perform these if the shaders can adjust the trace depth, otherwise it will be performed by photons by default. To control the photons coming from distant source of light final gathering is used and is good for film production. For CAD related applications photon mapping is used. Final gathering can be turned on or off in the options. In each final gathering the number of ray shot can be changed. The maximum distance at which the ray can be used depends on the scene extent. Decreasing the scene extent can reduce the noise but increase the render time. 5.2.1.Global illumination: Global illumination simulates the light bouncing of an object. It has two steps process. the photon emitting light emits photon in to the scene. A photon map is created to store the intensity and place of the photon in three dimensional space. Then the surfaces are illuminated. It is based on the intensity of the photon. In global illumination diffusive value is a must. In the second part of the image the actual process is rendering of the image. The energy value is averaged and these values are interpolated to get the image as the light is bouncing of the diffused surface. After perfecting the in this method, the photon map can be saved and reused. Thus we can save the time of rendering each frame, provided the scene is static. This is the calculation of more complete light transfer model said to be global illumination. This accounts for the indirect reflected light transfer in the scene. There are two types of global illumination, one simulates the behavior of the light of perfect specular light, and the second behaves in perfect diffuse light. These are most commonly referred to ideal specular, which hold ray tracing. Perfect diffuse reflections are called an ideal diffuse reflection, which is calculated using radiosity. This technique was developed in enhancing the realism in computer images in mimicking the light transfer. In periods it developed like image synthesis (photorealism) to simulation (photo accuracy). The radiosity is computed first and the ray tracer is computed to calculate the direct illumination the same way the reflection and refraction. 5.2.3.Local Illumination This is the direct illumination from a light source, this means a method of lighting which come form the direct visible source. This will not take full light in account; it only shows how the light affects the object that it calculates in the scene. Local illumination neglects the reflections and light propagations as its’ bounced around the environment. The light transfer simulation in local illumination computes the light only produced from its light source itself to the object that it illuminates and stops there. In a sense an incomplete light transfer’s model because it computes only the effect of direct light and cheats by the environmental lighting settings as glow to make it as reflected.[9][10] Local and Global 5.2.4.Ambient Light This is a light with constant intensity setting on the scene which serves as the sum of all in the direct illumination reflections in the scene. When describing this in effect ambient light is a kind of self-glowing illumination that mimics the object-to object light reflection. It is an independent intensity for all the objects in the scene. This light was invented to fake the direct illumination interobject reflection so the image will not be dark. This setting is adjusted globally through a scene parameter or per object. The preferable setting for ambient light in most scenes in set to be zero or low unless the object is producing light. This setting makes the fill light and the secondary lights influence in your scene more visible. Site accessed on 19th oct [http://:jmsoler.free.fr//tutor/lumiere_cornell_en.htm] Chapter 6 Ambient occlusion 6.1.Overview: Ambient Occlusion is a lighting technique that which is used to cast shadows on objects. This is a technique used in lighting which is misunderstood as this method casts shadows on objects where light does not reach. Ambient occlusion creates or casts soft shadows around the object which gives out a molded look. In technical terms ambient occlusion is a global illumination method and is commonly referred to as a cheap trick for alternative method of global lighting method. This technique is to get ambient light in all contacted shadows. This is where ambient occlusion comes into being as some calculate the intensity of the light setup for every work file but most don’t and the best way to overcome is to use ambient occlusion where this does all the calculation and gives a better quality render more than we can accept. 6.2.How ambient occlusion works: Ambient occlusion is a technique which adds visual realism to the image without being physically correct. The ambient occlusion result can be used to darken concave areas, which human eye perceives as indirect illumination shadows, or  contact shadows. The advantage of ambient occlusion is its computational speed. As it may be computed with very short rays and as no additional shader evaluations are required, the performance may be significantly higher than for  final gathering. 6.3.Ambient occlusion gains render time: Ambient occlusion is enabled by default. However, no actual computations will happen until requested by further settings or by shaders. The ambient occlusion cache is set  off  by default. In this mode, only shaders which  call for ambient occlusion  values will initiate computation on demand. If no such shaders exist in the scene, there is no overhead compared scenes rendered with ambient occlusion turned off. In case the ambient occlusion caching is enabled then mental ray will perform some computations before rendering starts, to fill the cache. The global defaults for ambient occlusion settings can be specified as  scene options  or on the mental ray  command line. Most of these values can be overwritten by a shader. The  ambient occlusion caching  may be enabled for the current rendering to gain overall speed. In this case, several preprocess passes will be computed. In the first pass, some ambient occlusion points are created on a coarse grid. Subsequent passes refine the grid adaptively. The density of the grid is determined by the  ambient occlusion cache density  setting which gives the  upper bound to the number of ambient occlusion points per pixel. Site accessed on 19th oct http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2009help/mr/manual/ao.html 6.4.Results better than indirect light: Ambient occlusion is the easy and quick way to get Global illumination and tell how ambient occlusion note works in texture. Ambient occlusion produce soft shadows as like real world. when two models are placed near certain amount of light will be block and u will get soft shadows at the corner of the object Ambient occlusion adding realism and produce more details in the output and render will be fast when we compare to Final gathering and Globule illumination Ambient occlusion refers to a type of shadowing that occurs when the ambient light in an environment is occluded (blocked) from reaching a surface by other nearby objects or other parts of the same object. You can see ambient occlusion effects in the photograph .The darkness that occurs in the cracks and crevices in the plaster design on an overcast day are a perfect example of ambient occlusion. Ambient occlusion effects are seen in many renders created using Final Gathering. that the ambient occlusion that occurs in a Final Gathering render lacks a certain amount of detail. Unless you increase the number of Final Gathering rays, detailed ambient occlusion shadows are difficult to achieve, and the more rays you emit into a scene, the longer the render time will be. This latter method is the most common approach and offers the most flexibility: the occlusion pass can easily be modified in the compositing software. Eliminating the need to re-render the entire scene if a change needs to be made. In this way you can use the ambient occlusion texture to augment the shadowing of a render pass that uses Final Gathering or as a substitute for rendering with Final Gathering Literature: Mental ray for Maya 3ds max and XSI Livny Boaz Literature: Maya Visual Effects: the innovator’s guide Eric Keller Literature: Mastering maya 2009- Eric Keller Chapter 7 Rendering 7.1 Mental Ray rendering Mental ray rendering is capable of producing a realistic and quality image. It can render just with a single processor machine. It is achieved by advanced and proprietary acceleration technique. It achieves better performance using parallelism on multi processor machine and also on network machines. Mental ray can be used on wide range of application, such as in full length movies, games, architectural design and on virtual models. Mental ray rendering is used as a standalone application for efficient rendering on local machines and as a software library on 3D content creation and CAD systems. Mental ray has a number of standard shaders which range from basic illumination to typical materials for architectural and design, car paint to physical sun and sky lighting. Mental ray has a built-in standard models for best rendering performance and quality cover. 7.2.Rendering Ray tracing is an option on mental ray. Ray tracing is used for rendering very complex lighting. Ray tracing software is based on ray tracing architecture which allows for the flexible implementation of lighting effect. It includes reflection, global illumination, refraction. To speed up the ray intersection calculation it uses advanced tree algorithms. From an on-demand loading of geometry it can adjust to dynamic scene manipulation. Ray trace is used to produce shadows of an object. Without the ray trace is turned on there will be no shadows. In ray tracing, the light path is tr Advantages and Disadvantages of Ambient Occlusion Shader Advantages and Disadvantages of Ambient Occlusion Shader This dissertation is to simplify the ambient light in contact shadow using Maya embedded language (MEL) which can be useful for all lighting artists to get a global illumination effect in simple steps and to reduce process of render time and they can connect and disconnect the ambient shader and adjust using GUI (graphical user inter phase) all the buttons will be in GUI itself. These are simple techniques but if one needs the old fashioned moves he’s got to go to the control set up tools. But these are simplified here and all can be achieved in simple clicks which is easy to navigate. All actions present in the GUI area all are present in my interface and one reason its better as its simple. This has been focused in a manner to anticipate all professional or not its easy to all. This helps all and even helps to navigate better through the GUI controls better. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Ambient Occlusion is a lighting technique that which is used to cast shadows on objects. This is a technique used in lighting which is misunderstood as this method casts shadows on objects where light does not reach. This method gives out a good render to the object with normal modes in the output. Ambient occlusion creates or casts soft shadows around the object which gives out a molded look. In technical terms ambient occlusion is a global illumination method and is commonly referred to as a cheap trick for alternative method of global lighting method. To be more specific in answering the above is each person has his means of working and all processes differ from one another. This is where ambient occlusion comes into being as some calculate the intensity of the light setup for every work file but most don’t and the best way to overcome is to use ambient occlusion where this does all the calculation and gives a better quality render more than we can accept. On aspects to other global illumination methods ambient occlusion does calculate in it manner but regarding other properties in the scene file. Where it has to go according to all shapes in the scene file to calculate the light setup to generate a global light effect which seems less complex than the regular lighting aspect in the software. This specialty makes ambient occlusion very well accepted among game developers and level designers and in various levels of production animation. Here I am going to simplify the Ambient Occlusion shader to get ambient light in all contacted shadows. Connecting the ambient occlusion to all the shader is a big process as we have a number of shader in a single scene file. I am going to develop a separate user interface in Maya for the user to manipulate my tools. By using my tools all the shader can be connected to the ambient shader with the single click and also can disconnect all the ambient shader in a single click. 1.1.AIM To simplify the ambient light in contact shadows using Maya embedded language (MEL) 1.2.OBJECTIVES Study the advantages and disadvantages of ambient occlusion shader To study about the real world light properties To implement natural lights using software Developing a MEL for simplifying ambient occlusion shader Developing an user interface in Maya for user to manipulate the tool(GUI) 1.3.STATEMENTS OF THE PROBLEM To connecting the ambient occlusion shader to all the other shader is a big process if there is number of shader are available in single scene file 1.4.RESEARCH QUESTIONS What is ambient occlusion? What r the different techniques for creating indirect lighting How shadows variation in time what are the advantages and disadvantages in ambient occlusion texture How to simplify the ambient occlusion texture node 1.5.SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY When we are connecting ambient occlusion texture to number of shader most of them are facing the problem like connecting with shader one by one some time we may miss some shader while connecting and also it will take time to connect to lot of shader Here am going to do this dissertation for solving these problems. Here I am going to simplify the ambient occlusion texture by MEL script 1.6.Hypothesis The hypothesis of this project is to simplify the ambient occlusion texture using Maya embedded language (MEL) Chapter 2 Literature Review 2.1.Literature: Mastering Maya 2009 Eric Keller, Eric Allen and Anthony Honn 2009 This book speaks about how ambient occlusion forms form indirect light rays and ambient occlusion effect can bring from Final Gathering and it will take more render time when u create in Final Gathering The above information help to get some knowledge and information about ambient occlusion. 2.2.Literature: Mental ray for Maya 3ds max and XSI Livny Boaz Ambient occlusion adding realism and produce more details in the output and render will be fast when we compare to Final gathering and Globule illumination how ambient occlusion works and explain detail about ambient occlusion attribute and also tell about what are the different between occlusion and ambient occlusion 2.3.Literature: Introducing Maya 2011 Dariush Derakhshani We can take ambient occlusion as separate render pass that to help add more depth in models and later we can adjust in compositing. Ambient occlusion give great contact shadows 2.4.Literature: Maya Visual Effects: the innovator’s guide Eric Keller Ambient occlusion is the easy and quick way to get Global illumination and tell how ambient occlusion note works in texture. Ambient occlusion produce soft shadows as like real world. when two models are placed near certain amount of light will be block and u will get soft shadows at the corner of the object 2.5.Literature: Rendering with Mental ray 3Ds Max Joep Van Der Steen There are different types of shadow in 3ds max like normal 3ds max shadows and ray trace shadows .but normal shadows wont work in mental ray. If u need to get accurate shadows go for ray trace but render time will be increases when compare to normal shadows. Bounce light gives u realistically feel as like real life lighting. In real life light wont stop travel when its hits the ground it will hit and bounce for certain distance till its die and ambient occlusion also the one form of creating bounce light or indirect lighting for the scene but ambient occlusion wont be physically correct lighting when compare to FG(Final Gathering ) and GI (Globule illumination ). Ambient occlusion give reflective occlusion where we wont get in normal occlusion. 2.6.Literature: Writing Mental ray shader: perceptual Introduction Andy Kopra This book tells about how ambient occlusion rays are calculating in the scene and tell about how Technically ambient occlusion works in MEL scrip this book gives me clear idea how to develop my scrip in MEL 2.7.Literature: Rendering Techniques 2006 Tomas Akenine-Mà ¶ller   Ambient occlusion shadow produce form ambient light. Ambient light emits form all direction and produce soft shadows. Most of the production companies using ambient occlusion for lighting for time saving in lighting and rendering. 2.8.Literature: Maya: secrets of the pros John L. Kundert-Gibbs, Dariush Derakhshani Ambient occlusion techniques in production are used in two ways are backing of ambient occlusion texture and taking of ambient occlusion passes in render. In backing of ambient occlusion we cant tweak while compositing but In ambient occlusion render pass we can tweak and bring new effect in compositing. 2.9.DVD:Digital Tutors Mental Ray Nodes Library This Tutor helps me what are the uses of the ambient occlusion how to connect ambient occlusion texture node in shader and explain clearly about the Attribute Editor of ambient occlusion to get good output. Chapter3 METHODOLOGY This document consists of a quantitative and qualitative method by Survey and gathering information from Internet, Books, tutorials , articles, books, paper and videos. 3.1.POPULATION: The people who are suitable for this population is texturing artist, lighting artist, rendering artist. They were questioned regarding the ambient occlusion shader and its uses in production field. The population of this research work carries the production experienced person. 3.2.SAMPLING: Judgment Sampling 3.3.SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS: This research is limited to the ambient occlusion shader. Chapter 4 Lights in CG 4.1 Overview 4.2 Types of lighting Chapter 5 Indirect lighting in CG 5.1Introduction 5.2 Final Gathering (FG) and Global illumination (GI) Chapter6 Ambient occlusion 6.1 overview 6.2 How it works 6.3 Advantages of ambient occlusion Chapter 7 Rendering 7.1 Mental Ray rendering 7.2 occlusion render over mental ray Chapter 8 MEL 8.1 Introduction to MEL 8.2 Creating GUI Chapter 4 Lights in CG 4.1.Introduction Lightning in computer graphics (CG) is nothing but giving special effects to the scenes to improve the quality of animation. Lightings available for all kind of occasions, all we need to do is just adjust the parameters. Most of them will not give more importance for lighting while creating there images or animations. Lighting plays very important role in computer graphics (CG), we can easily find the talented and untalented person in computer graphics (CG) by looking at the light effects given in the image or animation .Though we already know something about lightings in photography, film and video. We are just trying to bring the reality to computer graphics (CG). Lighting is used for creating a 3D effect by differentiating the foreground from background or else we can combine both to create 2D effect. This effect (Lighting) is mainly used to impress the viewer. Lighting is the most powerful tool in the computer graphics because this is the only tool which makes the viewer to feel. If your lighting perfectly fits for your image or animation then the final output will be much good to impress the viewer. Lighting can be expressed in two ways by being illuminated and a process of illumination. Lighting is defined globally by means of object which can be visible through the source illuminant application. Bouncing off lights or shiny objects can be made by the manipulation of light. If natural light is unavailable artificial lights can be used instead. Lighting is used everywhere and anywhere. Light is never said to be the same because of its variability, so lighting also changes. The natural sun light that we see in day to day life varies in a short period of time but the quality does not vary. The term state of lighting could in term mean intensity, its direction, its texture and form. This means something emotional. lighting is also a process of purposeful planning and design in which the light is to illuminate in an object. When lighting is necessary, the ligh ting position and placement are to be in considering, once deciding the intensity. Lighting process also refers in analyzing the light quality as it strikes the subject. 4.1.ADDING LIGHT SOURCES: Adding lights to the scenes can be done in several ways and also different kinds of lights available in lighting effects. Some kind of lights are used to highlight the background, foreground, character etc., we must choose the light which is highly suitable for the cases so that the people could not able to find which effect is used. There are several types of adding lights effects available POINT(OMMIDERECTIONAL)LIGHTS SPOTLIGHTS DIRECTIONAL LIGHTS AREA LIGHTS Site accessed on 27th sep Pixel Cinematography: A Lighting Approach for Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 96 Course 30) SPHERICAL AREA LIGHTS FLAT AREA LIGHTS LINEAR LIGHTS MODELS SERVING AS LIGHTS 4.2.1POINT(OMMIDERECTIONAL)LIGHTS Point lights are also called as omni or omnidirectional lights, because it transmit in all directions, like any other lights e.g. bulb, sun etc The main thing in giving this effect is checking the shadows it should not spread in all directions. In real life, u can see more uniformly omnidirectional lights. Most of the times point lights are similar to real light bulbs for example, bulb lights spread allover the particular empty place, if a opaque thing (metal, wood etc.,) is kept in that place the shade will form behind that thing and side and size of the shade is depend on the location of the bulb. Though it is likely as omnidirectional we can spread it by using throw-pattern that is uneven. if you want to focus more light on some particular direction then you must do this action texture map to the light else by grouping the light with 3D object that produce shadows This light rays stimulated out from one infinitely small point in space, Its illumination and shadows passes out form the light in all direction. It is difficult to find a light which is uniformly omni directional in nature. Many light sources emit some amount of light in some directions. Uneven point lights can be used as a throw pattern, like a real bulb to emit more light in some direction rather than in other direction. This is done by applying a texture to the light or else by grouping the light with the 3d object which will cast shadows. 4.2.2.SPOTLIGHTS: Spotlights is the major light effect which is commonly used in computer graphics (CG).This light effect is used by major computer graphics (CG) specialist because it can be used to focus on a specific target. Spotlight is also similar to point light sometimes but it slightly differs in pointing the target there are some limitations for spotlights are it should not exceed.we can determine the focus aim by rotating the spotlight. You can also fix a target for your focus so that the focus will always on that particular target. Spot Lights are the most used light in the lighting design of computer graphics. Most of the popular artist prefer spotlights to light a scene because, this light can be controlled in any times to aim light at a selected target. The emition of spotlight is light radiation from a point, same as like the point light. The illumination in the spotlight is controlled through a cone angle or a beam of the light. The rotation of the spotlight will determine where the beam is aimed. Objects can also be linked to light to stay in the same orientation position. A spotlight has more controls and options which is not found in other type of lights, some options like projecting a image map from the light, creating fog, etc†¦ With the help of spotlight the falloff which is the softness of the cone, allows the intensity of light diminish more gradually in the edges of the beam. 4.2.3.Directional Lights Directional light is an infinity source of illumination from a distance. These lights are variously known as distant, direct or infinite light. This light sets a single vector for its entire illumination object from the same angle, doesn’t matter the object’s position. The shadows emitted by the directional light are in same direction and they are orthogonal projections of each 3d object’s shape. The matter in placing the directional light is which way it’s pointed. The directional light is not so easy in aiming to a preferred local area like point and spot light. A set of lights constituting from different angles can be used to produce fill light, even in the individual lights in all angles in a low intensity. These lights can fill very large areas with illumination appearing as ambient, like filling the daylight from the sky giving a quick effective global ambience. it deals with the light position where it is placed and it is all about the direction of the object, shadow and lit falls depend on the light location. However the sunlight is the major source of light we need some more light effects to impress the viewer most probably directional light is used. The directional light which needs some specific angle to present a proper lighting so that the person should concentrate more on angles. 4.2.4.Area Lights The lights like point and spot emits light from a infinity source into space, which is not simulating the size of physical light source in real life. Point light cannot be scaled in any dimension. To get more accurate simulations of the real light, this area light have definable scale, so the all the rays of light are not emitted exactly from the same point. If the light is scaled small, the illumination will appear similar to a point light. The larger scale of area light, make the light appear softer, shadows appears to soft and the illumination in nearby objects. The amount of shadows and light achieved with area light makes the scene excellent in realistic rendering. The source of the light comes from some long gap like windows etc, is said to be area lights. This effect is important when the image or animation dealing with the room setup for example if there is a room there might be some windows so we must implement the area lights. It matches the situation than any other lighting techniques 4.2.5.SPHERICAL AREA LIGHTS: Spherical area light is also like area light it will spread in all directions. It is also called spherical light, spherical region of space is the source for the spherical light, this is mainly used in the case where the large light source. The spherical light has omni directional so the light does not have effect on our output. you can also replace the spherical light to point light when the illumination needs more concentration on light to cast soft edged shadows 4.2.6.FLAT AREA LIGHTS: Area light also available in flat shapes such as discs and rectangles. Light emitted from two dimensional areas can use less rendering time than three dimensional areas. The number of samples used to adjustable either approach. A rectangular area light is same as illuminated ceiling panel, a plane width and height that illuminates with naturally soft, diffused light. Light from ceiling is the major use of flat area light simulating the reflected illumination brightly lit walls and ceiling providing a soft. Aiming or rotating light changes your result, light from the edge of the flat area light is same as creating sharper shadow and also dimmer. 4.2.7.LINEAR LIGHTS: Linear light has same functionality as florescent tube and also scaled in one-dimension.it has a length soften the shadows and extend its illumination in one direction. How linear light affects the output. The shadow objects along the length of the light are very soft, but shadows from the end of the light are focused. We can use linear lights from fluorescent tubes, laser blasts. Line shape is not specifically needed, linear lights and it is used for general soft lighting scene they will not add as much as you’re rendering time as other types. It is similar as spherical area light . 4.2.8.MODELS SERVING AS LIGHTS: Light effect by model serving as lights is a 3dimensional model in your scene sort of area light source. By using this model we can make a nontraditional shape of light like neon sign, it is also used as a true light sources, as shown in figure. However, bright looking objects can be made by rendering the neon sign,and also by positioning other kind of light to the surface rounding area. Chapter 5 Indirect lighting in CG 5.1Introduction The indirect illumination simulates caustics, global illumination and final gathering.the specification of light energy is required. To allow color the light energy is as a RGB triple. But the values of the RGB are usually much higher than the range for color. In the preprocessing step the number of photons stored from the light source is determined by STORE and the number of photons emitted is determined by EMIT. The photon emission stops when either of the limit is reached. Using the power law of 1/r(exp) energy from the light source decreases as the square of the distance increases from the source. The physical correctness is lost when the exponent is other than 2. During caustics preprocessing The number of caustics photon stored can be specified by the caustic photon value which controls it. Likewise global photon value can be specified for global illumination. The value ranges from 10,000to 100,000.by increasing the value the accuracy increases and the bluriness decreases. In i ndirect lighting the lights sources are invisible by default. As the number of visible lights are increased the performance is reduces. 5.2 Final Gathering (FG) The estimation of global illumination is done by a technique called Final gathering. It can be illuminated by either sampling a number of direction over the hemisphere or by averaging the total final gather points nearby. To improve the quality of global illumination final gathering is used. Without final gathering computation on a diffused surface is made by the photon intensity near that point. With final gathering the new rays of light is are made to hit the sample hemisphere for the determination of incident illumination. Using illumination from the globillium photon map and the illumination at the points of diffused surface is computed. Some rays hit a specular surface and their contribution for final gather color is zero. Tracing each ray utilizes lot of time so it is done when it is necessary. For purely diffuse scene final gathering eliminates low frequency noise and dark corners. As the final gather averages over many values of direct illumination fewer photons are needed. F inal gathering can support only a single bounce. And multiple effect have far less impact on the image. The final gathering can perform these if the shaders can adjust the trace depth, otherwise it will be performed by photons by default. To control the photons coming from distant source of light final gathering is used and is good for film production. For CAD related applications photon mapping is used. Final gathering can be turned on or off in the options. In each final gathering the number of ray shot can be changed. The maximum distance at which the ray can be used depends on the scene extent. Decreasing the scene extent can reduce the noise but increase the render time. 5.2.1.Global illumination: Global illumination simulates the light bouncing of an object. It has two steps process. the photon emitting light emits photon in to the scene. A photon map is created to store the intensity and place of the photon in three dimensional space. Then the surfaces are illuminated. It is based on the intensity of the photon. In global illumination diffusive value is a must. In the second part of the image the actual process is rendering of the image. The energy value is averaged and these values are interpolated to get the image as the light is bouncing of the diffused surface. After perfecting the in this method, the photon map can be saved and reused. Thus we can save the time of rendering each frame, provided the scene is static. This is the calculation of more complete light transfer model said to be global illumination. This accounts for the indirect reflected light transfer in the scene. There are two types of global illumination, one simulates the behavior of the light of perfect specular light, and the second behaves in perfect diffuse light. These are most commonly referred to ideal specular, which hold ray tracing. Perfect diffuse reflections are called an ideal diffuse reflection, which is calculated using radiosity. This technique was developed in enhancing the realism in computer images in mimicking the light transfer. In periods it developed like image synthesis (photorealism) to simulation (photo accuracy). The radiosity is computed first and the ray tracer is computed to calculate the direct illumination the same way the reflection and refraction. 5.2.3.Local Illumination This is the direct illumination from a light source, this means a method of lighting which come form the direct visible source. This will not take full light in account; it only shows how the light affects the object that it calculates in the scene. Local illumination neglects the reflections and light propagations as its’ bounced around the environment. The light transfer simulation in local illumination computes the light only produced from its light source itself to the object that it illuminates and stops there. In a sense an incomplete light transfer’s model because it computes only the effect of direct light and cheats by the environmental lighting settings as glow to make it as reflected.[9][10] Local and Global 5.2.4.Ambient Light This is a light with constant intensity setting on the scene which serves as the sum of all in the direct illumination reflections in the scene. When describing this in effect ambient light is a kind of self-glowing illumination that mimics the object-to object light reflection. It is an independent intensity for all the objects in the scene. This light was invented to fake the direct illumination interobject reflection so the image will not be dark. This setting is adjusted globally through a scene parameter or per object. The preferable setting for ambient light in most scenes in set to be zero or low unless the object is producing light. This setting makes the fill light and the secondary lights influence in your scene more visible. Site accessed on 19th oct [http://:jmsoler.free.fr//tutor/lumiere_cornell_en.htm] Chapter 6 Ambient occlusion 6.1.Overview: Ambient Occlusion is a lighting technique that which is used to cast shadows on objects. This is a technique used in lighting which is misunderstood as this method casts shadows on objects where light does not reach. Ambient occlusion creates or casts soft shadows around the object which gives out a molded look. In technical terms ambient occlusion is a global illumination method and is commonly referred to as a cheap trick for alternative method of global lighting method. This technique is to get ambient light in all contacted shadows. This is where ambient occlusion comes into being as some calculate the intensity of the light setup for every work file but most don’t and the best way to overcome is to use ambient occlusion where this does all the calculation and gives a better quality render more than we can accept. 6.2.How ambient occlusion works: Ambient occlusion is a technique which adds visual realism to the image without being physically correct. The ambient occlusion result can be used to darken concave areas, which human eye perceives as indirect illumination shadows, or  contact shadows. The advantage of ambient occlusion is its computational speed. As it may be computed with very short rays and as no additional shader evaluations are required, the performance may be significantly higher than for  final gathering. 6.3.Ambient occlusion gains render time: Ambient occlusion is enabled by default. However, no actual computations will happen until requested by further settings or by shaders. The ambient occlusion cache is set  off  by default. In this mode, only shaders which  call for ambient occlusion  values will initiate computation on demand. If no such shaders exist in the scene, there is no overhead compared scenes rendered with ambient occlusion turned off. In case the ambient occlusion caching is enabled then mental ray will perform some computations before rendering starts, to fill the cache. The global defaults for ambient occlusion settings can be specified as  scene options  or on the mental ray  command line. Most of these values can be overwritten by a shader. The  ambient occlusion caching  may be enabled for the current rendering to gain overall speed. In this case, several preprocess passes will be computed. In the first pass, some ambient occlusion points are created on a coarse grid. Subsequent passes refine the grid adaptively. The density of the grid is determined by the  ambient occlusion cache density  setting which gives the  upper bound to the number of ambient occlusion points per pixel. Site accessed on 19th oct http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2009help/mr/manual/ao.html 6.4.Results better than indirect light: Ambient occlusion is the easy and quick way to get Global illumination and tell how ambient occlusion note works in texture. Ambient occlusion produce soft shadows as like real world. when two models are placed near certain amount of light will be block and u will get soft shadows at the corner of the object Ambient occlusion adding realism and produce more details in the output and render will be fast when we compare to Final gathering and Globule illumination Ambient occlusion refers to a type of shadowing that occurs when the ambient light in an environment is occluded (blocked) from reaching a surface by other nearby objects or other parts of the same object. You can see ambient occlusion effects in the photograph .The darkness that occurs in the cracks and crevices in the plaster design on an overcast day are a perfect example of ambient occlusion. Ambient occlusion effects are seen in many renders created using Final Gathering. that the ambient occlusion that occurs in a Final Gathering render lacks a certain amount of detail. Unless you increase the number of Final Gathering rays, detailed ambient occlusion shadows are difficult to achieve, and the more rays you emit into a scene, the longer the render time will be. This latter method is the most common approach and offers the most flexibility: the occlusion pass can easily be modified in the compositing software. Eliminating the need to re-render the entire scene if a change needs to be made. In this way you can use the ambient occlusion texture to augment the shadowing of a render pass that uses Final Gathering or as a substitute for rendering with Final Gathering Literature: Mental ray for Maya 3ds max and XSI Livny Boaz Literature: Maya Visual Effects: the innovator’s guide Eric Keller Literature: Mastering maya 2009- Eric Keller Chapter 7 Rendering 7.1 Mental Ray rendering Mental ray rendering is capable of producing a realistic and quality image. It can render just with a single processor machine. It is achieved by advanced and proprietary acceleration technique. It achieves better performance using parallelism on multi processor machine and also on network machines. Mental ray can be used on wide range of application, such as in full length movies, games, architectural design and on virtual models. Mental ray rendering is used as a standalone application for efficient rendering on local machines and as a software library on 3D content creation and CAD systems. Mental ray has a number of standard shaders which range from basic illumination to typical materials for architectural and design, car paint to physical sun and sky lighting. Mental ray has a built-in standard models for best rendering performance and quality cover. 7.2.Rendering Ray tracing is an option on mental ray. Ray tracing is used for rendering very complex lighting. Ray tracing software is based on ray tracing architecture which allows for the flexible implementation of lighting effect. It includes reflection, global illumination, refraction. To speed up the ray intersection calculation it uses advanced tree algorithms. From an on-demand loading of geometry it can adjust to dynamic scene manipulation. Ray trace is used to produce shadows of an object. Without the ray trace is turned on there will be no shadows. In ray tracing, the light path is tr