Ambient light color in Cake and Bob Environments?

RenderPretender

Hi -

I noticed that, when using Cake and Bob's Forest-based HDRi environments, they tend to cast an almost greenish hue upon the focal character's skin. It stands to reason that this might occur because of ambient reflections or the like, but I was wondering if there is a way to make the light source whiter so that the character would look more natural without washing out the environment. I'm trying to avoid doing too much color editing in postwork.

Thank you for any suggestions!

Odaa

I believe tone mapping under Render settings might help. There's an option called "white point" or something like that, click on it, and you are given the choice to pick a color instead of white. Whatever color you choose, the render (including Iray preview) will have less of and shift away from, so study the greenish tint on your main character to determine whether it is more blue-green or more yellow-green, and choose a pale version of that color (you want a greenish-white or greenish-light-gray, not a full green) for white point. If it doesn't quite work, keep experimenting until it does.

The other alternative would be to aim a white spotlight very tightly at your character. Again, it will take some experimenting to get the angle and the brightness to your liking.

RenderPretender

Odaa said:

I believe tone mapping under Render settings might help. There's an option called "white point" or something like that, click on it, and you are given the choice to pick a color instead of white. Whatever color you choose, the render (including Iray preview) will have less of and shift away from, so study the greenish tint on your main character to determine whether it is more blue-green or more yellow-green, and choose a pale version of that color (you want a greenish-white or greenish-light-gray, not a full green) for white point. If it doesn't quite work, keep experimenting until it does.

The other alternative would be to aim a white spotlight very tightly at your character. Again, it will take some experimenting to get the angle and the brightness to your liking.

Ah, thank you. This may be immensely helpful! Somehow, I think I missed whitepoint when I was sifting through the controls. I'l definitely try this first because I always try to avoid secondary lighting in outdoor scenes if possible, other than perhaps a weak ghostlight if the unlit side of the character is too dark.

Thank you!

RenderPretender

Odaa said:

I believe tone mapping under Render settings might help. There's an option called "white point" or something like that, click on it, and you are given the choice to pick a color instead of white. Whatever color you choose, the render (including Iray preview) will have less of and shift away from, so study the greenish tint on your main character to determine whether it is more blue-green or more yellow-green, and choose a pale version of that color (you want a greenish-white or greenish-light-gray, not a full green) for white point. If it doesn't quite work, keep experimenting until it does.

The other alternative would be to aim a white spotlight very tightly at your character. Again, it will take some experimenting to get the angle and the brightness to your liking.

This actually worked well, and is a handy bit of knowledge to have if you can retain it. It seems a little counter-intuitive that the offending shade wil be moved AWAY from, but it does seem to work a treat. I settled for an adjustment that seemed to impart a very slight red color component, but that's a shade that can occur in human flesh and bright outdoor light/sun, so I can work with that in post more easily, if needed. Thank you again!

Odaa

Glad it worked!