HDRI & Animation

[Geoffc]

I have a project coming up, where in addition to a number of single fixed angles, I'll be doing some sort of exterior flyaround animation. I was hoping to obviously use the same model/max file for all output.

 

I was thinking that instead of constantly playing with the skies and lighting, I might be well served to set up an HDRI spherical map for realistic coloring, skies, etc.

 

Couple quick questions, since I have no experience with doing this (yes, I have the gnomon dvd, but havent had the time to finish it yet! ):

 

-Will an HDRI be even useful for an animation in the first place?

 

-And for a "universal" HDRI setup for all my shots and animation, I'm guessing I'll be looking for a 'spherical map' type of HDRI, and also creating a half dome to map it to for the environment image.

[DavidR]

Go here:

http://www.cgarchitect.com/upclose/VI/default.asp

and 2/3 down, check out "a little background info". It's a pretty good series -read 'em all!

[Geoffc]

David,

 

Thanks for the heads up, I've seen that very helpful series, but somehow missed that background one.

 

And, after posting, I was able to try a few quick test animations and it seems to work quite well. I think this HDRI solution might really work well for this project!