Panoramic Sky 360/180

[Thomas Denney]

I am using mental ray to render and i want to use a 180 degree sky but it doesnt seem to want to let the daylight system light through no matter how i position it. Can anyone direct me to a tutorial on set this properly or had similar difficulty and maybe offer some tips? Thanks

[Tom Livings]

Hello Thomas. Look at that, another Chicagoan called Thomas doing 3d on cga. Similarity ends there though, I use Vray and my MR knowledge is patchy.....
However, are you doing still or animation work? If its stills, I would recommend doing the sky in post.
What happens when you try to render> Are you able to render ok without the 360 background?
Are you putting a bitmap onto a geometry dome to serve as a background?

[Thomas Denney]

Hello Thomas. Look at that, another Chicagoan called Thomas doing 3d on cga. Similarity ends there though, I use Vray and my MR knowledge is patchy.....
However, are you doing still or animation work? If its stills, I would recommend doing the sky in post.
What happens when you try to render> Are you able to render ok without the 360 background?
Are you putting a bitmap onto a geometry dome to serve as a background?

1. Just mr sky shader
2. Dome w/ sky bitmap applied.
3. Bitmap of sky in environmental map slot.

I am doing still. When you say "in post" I assume you mean photoshop?

When I render the dome blocks the light from the daylight system, so I have to use a semi dome and rotate is opposite the sun to not block the sun.

[Tom Livings]

1. Just mr sky shader
2. Dome w/ sky bitmap applied.
3. Bitmap of sky in environmental map slot.

I am doing still. When you say "in post" I assume you mean photoshop?

When I render the dome blocks the light from the daylight system, so I have to use a semi dome and rotate is opposite the sun to not block the sun.

Your missing a couple of fundamentals, I would recommend doing some lighting tutorials.
1: is fine.
2: you need to go into the properties of the dome itself and tell it to not cast shadows. I think that will fix it. However, the 'dome' method is kind of the old-fashioned way of doing things.
3: you need to change the mapping style of the map in the environment slot to 'spherical'. In order to do this you will have to drag it from the env slot into the mat editor and edit the map there. All map controls are in the Material Editor.

9 times out of 10 Ill do the sky in post for a still. For animations I usually use the vray physical sky, which is the same as you are doing in your option 1.