the description near the diffuse and reflection shows the way of mixing the levels... in the layer pane in photoshop you can choose the method...
i have done this choice cause it's a 3dsmax tutorial and not photoshop...
as a footnote - if your gonna do two passes in pshop - the common trick is to multiply the ao pass over the orig render BUT try layering the orig beauty pass on top of the ao pass and using soft light. then tweak the levels of the ao layer and you'll prob find you still keeps some nice highlighted areas with the first method of multiplication might kill (ie: glowy areas etc..)
i'll post up an example pic of mine tomorrow - its made a difference to my anim
hmm, i dont need that method to render my ambient occlusion pass, just go to the render elements menu in the render panel, click Add, and select lighting, click ok, and then tick all the boxes you'll see under the export to file text boxes (direct light, indirect light, and theres another one i cant remember lol), tick the on box, and render, and you get the same result as that method without adding shaders.
can you expand what is the Ambient Occlusion render to elements shader is? I m not sure I understand the difference from the picture that stefs posted compared to normal render.
The Ambient Occlusion shader creates the black and white image you see sefs using above. It basically works out the distance rays have to travel to bounce on another object and shading between white and black on the answer. It gives the impression of GI lighting. And it renders quite quickly. MUCH, MUCH quicker than a complex scene with multiple shaders and lights.
Now ... render out the same scene without the plane or AO, just a normal render ... and then combine the images as shown above to give the impression of soft shadows under the car WITHOUT messing around with slow GI.
There are lots of subtle variations you can play with using this method.
You can access the AO shader by creating a new MR material and placing the AO shader (set the sample no higher for smoother effect) in the diffuse slot then instance this material to the material override slot (I think it is render options somewhere, can't remember exactly but it is easy to find) and render your scene. It will create the Black and White pic regardless of where your lights are.
Render to elements means you can output Diffuse, reflect, AO as seperate pics. You can thus just render to AO easliy if you have Max 8.
You can also try using a subtle composition of these effects with a render to texture to create a super fast and realistic plane that has this shadow as a texture I'm just packing to go on holiday - but remind me after New Year and I can post an example scene.
Dave
DMMultimedia HomePage Old School Fords, Max/MR and Schnorbill Texturing/Rendering Tutorials
The Ambient Occlusion render to elements shader is only avialable in Max 8
So, for users of max 7 the other method is the only way.
Dave
lol i use max 7 and i use the render to elements for all my passes (usually lighting, diffuse, some shadow pass, specular and reflection) without changing any of my shaders, its true that it takes longer, but if i had to change my shaders, ive got 50+ materials in a scene and it takes years to open the materials editor, i prefer leaving my scene as it is, only changing the render elements
I was getting confused with the render to texture option. That has AO in Max 8 but not max 7.
But you don't need to change all your textures - you can place an AO material in the material over-ride slot and every texture is replaced by this texture Make this in-active and all the existing textures are back ...
Dave
DMMultimedia HomePage Old School Fords, Max/MR and Schnorbill Texturing/Rendering Tutorials
true, i could do that, but that would mean opening the material editor and thats what i want to avoid, since it takes too long to load all shaders, but ill give it a try thanks
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- but remind me after New Year and I can post an example scene. 
Originally Posted by Dave_3d
but now i will
