What is ambient occlusion from a painterly perspective?

Question

I’ve gone through like 4 different videos explain ambient occlusion and I still have no clear image of what it actually means to add ambient occlusion to an image.

I watch Sinix and he always mentions ambient occlusion but I have no idea what he means when he says that. Someone please explain to me in words less than 4 syllables.

In: 1

Answer 1

It’s a measure of how much ambient light falls on a surface in a scene. Or to be more exact, how much ambient light is blocked (occluded) from that surface.

So if you have 2 people in an outdoor scene, one standing in direct sunlight and the other in the shade under a tree, the second figure will have less ambient light falling on it and so will have to be shaded darker.