I already knew about the Ambient Occlusion, however, I wasn't aware of some of the tips, tricks and terminology associated with it. This post is two tutorials in one so this is really here just to remind me of what can be done with Maya. High Samples Low Samples Right, so basically samples are the quality of your Ambient Occlusion if you have a lower sample rate your image will appear grainy, however, if you have a high sample rate then the picture will be very smooth. No Spread Restricted Max Distance High Spread Max Distance and Spread do kinda fall under the same category, the spread indicates how much the ambient occlusion spreads and the max distance is how far the occlusion goes. Units Whenever Ambient Occlusion mentions anything about units, it's describing the measurement for a distance in Maya, roughly the same size as a single square on the grid. How to turn on Render Layers Render Layers Render Okay, so I was awa...