HDRI Out of PHOTOSHOP
richard.chaos_91798ec102
Posts: 0
3DAGE said one could make HDRI Images in PHOTOSHOP! that can be used as lighting in carrara 8 pro. Does anyone know how to go about that. I know one needs to to save as a 32 bite but other than that I have no idea
ME
Post edited by richard.chaos_91798ec102 on
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Have a look at Cripeman's HDRI from Carrara tutorial. Not sure if he explains that or not - but certainly worth a look... Cripeman Rocks!
I've made an Index of Cripeman's Video Tutorials that is good to keep to hand.
Technically you don't have to have an HDRI for an IBL (Image Based Light) in Carrara. Any image, color or color gradient in the scene's background will work as long as the Skylight is enabled in the Render Room. Spherical images will look better if the background is left visible.
BTW, using a sky can also act like an IBL if the Skylight is enabled.
Here's where to find the HDR function in Photoshop. I believe Andy said he had good luck using the exposure setting to manually adjust the "exposure" of an image and save several iterations to combine into the HDRI.
Well 3DAGE did mention something about must be set at 32 bits out of PS but said nothing about the MERGE to HDRI! BUT I did NOT know that any image could be used for lighting. ALSO I am going to rry to have a background inmate being rendered in C8, BUT for the reflections in the cars paint job to look anywhere close to acceptable I am having to turn the gamma all the way up and for what ever reason THAT blows out to Background image so looks like I will have to do some work in photoshop post edit to pull off what I want.
Which I can do I just think one should be able to pull this off in carrara alone
You can pull it off mostly. The chopper picture and dinosaur pictures I posted in your other thread were minimally Photoshopped. Mostly to add film grain and other effects to help blend the 3D elements with the background photo.
I have been watching tutorials on all of this and am at my wits end... HDRIs, IBLs, and one "Creating Realistic Sky And Sun Lighting With Light Domes" , on youtube which was very informative.
Let me just say, Computer POWER is no issue for me and can use any method to get the best results..
AS some of you know I have a car I want to put seamlessly in a background image and to look absolutely real. The shots are to be outside with clear sunny skys.
In the ones I want to do there are OBJECT around the cars such as other cars, and building so Need the reflections on these objects
I thought if I took some images of say a row of small town shoe then textured that onto a single vertex and set it besides my car that it would reflect but that doesn't seem to work.
I have decided I can not do it all in carrara and am going ot have to paste the BG post edit but I can live with that.
Any suggestions. comment, advice. I stopped huffing spray paint so dont even tell me to do that!
HI Rich :)
You can do what you want in Carrara.
you'll probably know some of this info already but,. it's here again for anyone who doesn't.
The simple method :
You can take your main "backdrop" photo, and use that as the reflection map in the scene background, which will give you reflections from that image.
Enable "Skylight" in the render settings an Carrara will also use the colour values from the Background image, to provide some scene lighting. ...not as good as HDRI, but workable with some other scene lights to give direct shadowing.
Or,.
You can take your image into Photoshop, then edit the Exposure, to create a plus 1 and minus 1, version,.. save each of these edits as a named image. so you have three images,. One under exposed, one normal exposure, and one over exposed.
Then you use the "Merge to HDRI" function in Photoshop to create a 32bit HDRI from those three images.
that will give you a basic HDRI which you can load into the Scene "Background",.
Your Main image should be in the Scene "Backdrop"
this locks the image to the Camera "production area", and allows you to set up your scene with shadow-catcher objects.
The reflection image should be in the Scene Background, and will create a Spherical 360 degree environment,..
NOTE: You have options to "TILE" that image map, horizontally or vertically, which will change what's reflected in the surface of your objects.
The first image was done in C6 a long time ago,. using a photo in the Backdrop, and the same photo in the Background, and a Daz Truck with some planes and cubes with shadow catcher shadrs to fake the effect of the vehicle being next to the road edge / sidewalk (pavement in the UK)
The Dragon image was done in C8
Here's a link to Holly Wetcircuit's really cool IBL tutorial, in case you're interested!
Often you'll get the impression that Carrara needs to be maxed out in the render room settings for a great image - which is simply not at all true. Especially for animations.
This is where I am right now! I didn't think too much when I took by background pics but it is what it is.
I decided to dirty it up.
HI Rich :)
Compared to the other vehicles in the pic,. your car has very dark windows,. (maybe that's on purpose) "Tinted glass" but,. there's no visible reflection on the windows either,..
The bodywork of the car,. and the wheels / tyres, could also do with a little bit of chrome or at least a little shiny glossy thaang goin' on
So, there's some shader work which can help increase the reflectivity of the car.
Also,.. look at those other vehicles,. ...not much reflection there either,.
Here's an idea,...
Take your pic into Photoshop, or "any other image editor", and make a new image ...8000 x 4000,.
paste in your pic four times, and arrange them like a panorama.
You could then create a couple of Exposure versions and merge to HDRI.. or...
Flatten the layers,. then change the image "mode" from 8bit to 32bit, then save it out as an HDRI.
Note that this won't have the same lighting values , but the refection is what you're after here.
if fact yo don;t really need it to be HDRI,. just for reflections,. a JPG will do fine.
Having the pic,. repeated several times, in the HDR image you're using in the scene background, should give you more reflections.
Well the windows are armored glass thick and dense but I will work on a lll that. I was looking at so cars in traffic the other day and a lot have some dust and grime starting low on the body then thinning out as the body gets higher.
I noticed that the more DUST and grime the duller the finish of course, SO made a greyscale gradient for the Highlight, shine and reflections layers. but I don't think its working
Okay I have gone through this HDRI thing in photoshop and I must be doing something wrong PLEASE SEE IMAGES! I have watched many tutorial on youtube and still what I get sucks.
Bottom pic is what the image should be
If you're going to use a map for the Highlight and Shininess, try putting the map in just the Highlight as that is what controls the brightness of the effect. Use a numeric slider (1-100 should work) in the Shininess. The Shininess controls the spread of the Highlight. I lower number will increase the spread (or diffusion) and a higher number will make it less diffuse. I would start low at around 10% and adjust upwards until you match the other cars.
Even though the windows are thick, you're still going to need reflections and Highlight/Shininess as well.
No matter what you do, post production is going to be required on some level. Carrara just doesn't generate image noise. The image will also be too crisp, so a slight blur may be in order as well.
I've posted this helicopter before, but I'll post it again. Click it to view the larger size study it. I used no Skylight or any other GI. The background was snapped with a crappy digital camera that uses .jpg compression.
I used the image in my scene backdrop to line up the camera, lights and set my shadows. I then rendered it as a Photoshop file with alphas enabled. I didn't pre-multiply. I combined the background image and the helicopter in Photoshop where I added noise to the helicopter layer only to match the noise in the background photo.
The scene used a few lights, a plane with a shadow catcher and volumetric clouds for the rotor wash. The main light was set up to mimic the sunlight (with soft shadows) and I had a couple lights to simulate the "bounced" light from the sky. I also used a light pointing straight up to simulate bounced light from the ground.
Something you can do to help match the shadows in your picture and what your object casts on the shadow catcher is to adjust the main light's shadow intensity.
Another issue is I wanted to have the front windshield Look like it has had the windshield wiper working so would have some Well you know what I mean!