Iray, the sky and the ground (again)
jas_va_26
Posts: 74
in The Commons
Ok I have messed with settings and read every post I could find.
Why can't I simply have IRAY just render the sky and look normal? Like blue with clouds. No matter what I do I get this weird looking soft backdrop that glows some color or another and doesn't look natural, is there a decent tutorial I missed?
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Comments
Can you upload a screenshot, and description of what your doing
Sounds like you might have the Ruins HDRI switched on still. If you go to your Render Settings tab, then to the "Environment" section, check to see if you still have an image in the Environment Map channel. If so, then thats whats causing the soft coloured backdrop. Click on the image map and change it to 'none' in the drop-down menu.
Daz doesn't have a 'sky generator' like other applications, you put in what you want yourself. Beyond a basic 'sky color, ground color, sun.' You can also use environment maps, but, as many folks have pointed out, lighting is often disappointing.
There are tricks to using skydomes or extra light sources in the forums. For example, you could use a high resolution sky image for the environment map, and then add a giant spotlight and line it up carefully with the sun in the sky image.
A REALLY high quality HDRI of the sky will provide natural lighting with good shadows in the environment map. Most images, HDRI or otherwise, don't have proper dynamic range to provide good lighting.
So yes, still had the ruins thing on there, trying to figure out how to get a natural looking horizon, that isn't just all white now.
wow, alot of new options, that people talked about and I never saw.... LOL well time to learn to render the enviornment again I guess.
The Iray sky is a pretty basic sky so an all white, flat horizon and blue sky is pretty much all you get unless you add in an HDRI with a good quality image in place of that Ruins thing I told you to remove (the Ruins HDRI is really just for its lighting information - there are others out there with lighting and proper scenery).
http://hdrmaps.com/
Check them out for some freebies.
One thing to watch for, is the size of the HDRI; the 077 image is only about 30MB, yet the tanke02 is over 200MB, both are great for lighting, but the larger image is also suitable to use as a backdrop, as it is large enough not to pixelate. 4000x2000 versus 10500x5300; small can be used, but there can be issues, the larger an image is, the more likely it will be useful as a backdrop.