Faking a cloudy day

[Bwana Kahawa]

Hi,

I'm wanting to create a scene simulating a cloudy but bright day. I don't want to use the sun as it would be obscured by the clouds, but I want a degree of soft shadows.

 

My HDRI maps aren't much use as their resolution is too low, and the good ones I do have are all bright, sunny days.

 

I've heard a trick is to use a large emitter to diffuse the light, but I'm having trouble getting a realistic colour and shadow strength. Has anyone tried this? Any idea of good emitter settings? I'm also not sure how big / far away to make the emitter.

 

Cheers for any help!

 

Derek

[Tommy L]

Do a little reading about the behaviour of light, you will benefit alot.

Your hdri maps do not have to be high resolution, especially for an overcast day. The only time you'll need a sharp HDRI environment is for reflections and getting crisp shadows with pure hdri (very difficult). HDRI's are usually blurred intentionally and lower res to reduce render times, with virtually no quality penalty.

[chiquito]

try an ambient color to match the cloudiness you are looking for. From there you could use colored lights in order to get nice depth.

[numerobis]

here are some free hdri's from evermotion - some overcast skies too

 

 

http://www.evermotion.org/index.php?unfold_exclusive=84&unfold=exclusive

 

they are 4000x2000pix - not very big

don't know if the quality is high enough...

[Bwana Kahawa]

Cheers folks - I'll spend a bit more time on the HDRI option I think...