(HEY! this is my very first instructable so please give me good feedback and some things i can improve on.) In this tutorial you will be learning how to change your lighting from normal lighting (with a lamp) to ambient occlusions (without a lamp). Before i get to in-depth with this ambient occlusions adds more of a soft lighting effect and not such a hard lighting. So let's get started.

Step 1: 1st Part of Scene

First you are going to need to make a scene to test your ambient occlusions settings on. So first make a simple cube and size it out by 5 and size it down on the z axis by pressig s and then z and then size it down till it is like the picture.

Step 2: 2nd Part of Scene

when you have finished making your floor and changing it to whatever color you would like then add a sphere and grab it untill it is just above the floor. Then click on the editing tab and click on the set smooth.(to add colors just go to the shading tab and then to the matireal button the both look like little spheres in the menu)

Step 3: The Lighting

so you inside of the shading tab you want to click on the world buttons then click on the window where it says Amb Occ (Ambien Occlusions) the click on the ambient occlusions button click the drop down menu and click on Approximate this is where the lighting changes from a hard lighting to a soft normal lighting. You will have to of deleted your lamp to a activate Ambient occlusions. There is a picture of the lamp in the pictures for this step.

Step 4:

your done and when you press F-12 to render it should come out as a soft lighting rather than every material looking like plastick. I hope you like it and please remember this is just the first tutorial in many to come blender tutorials on Instructables. Please comment :D :D :D