HDRI Who is using it really?

[Sketchrender]

Hi

I was wondering if any of you are using it, and how.

Have aby of you actually gone out and bought a steel ball and staff.

Have you gone to site and taken picts.

What do you use to change the format to hdri.

And is it as effective as they say is it , faster to render or is it a fashion trend?

 

I would like to know what the general opinion of it is.

Is it really good enough and cost effecient to use on architectural jobs.

 

 

If you did buy the ball and staff, were did you buy it and what did it cost..

thanks

 

phil

[KiboOst]

Check sachform HDRIbase CDs (http://www.sachform.de), really great quality. And it is indeed usefull in some exterior renderings.

I've also wrote an article on HDRIbase here : http://www.kicrea.com/articles/divers/sachdri/index_us.php3

 

Hope it helps,

 

Kib

[William Alexander]

philip,

 

hdri, really is being embraced by the VFX community, solves a multitude of lighting problems for compositing CG created into real life shots, ani & still. Is becoming the prefered method over the chrome ball.

 

For CGarch, generally it's a cool effect, another tool for greater realism and 'artistic expression'. Guess I'm not seeing an overwhelming shift to hdri based lighting and images. In particular custom site specific ones. Mostly because it's just not a 123 render type process, although purchasing for skys and reflections is a high quality quick solution.

 

The chrome ball has some drawbacks (mostly resolution) but that method is less expensive than buying a decent camera, investing in lenses-tripod and pano rig.

 

To create a HDRI pano, well it's fun really. First off you need a digicam or alot a film. A HDRI needs to be created from usally 5 'bracketed' exposure shot/s, the generic "EV" settings don't always relate well to HDRI conversion. Thus you really should have an SLR digi cam. Also getting good resolution means that a 180 view is not always the best, a series of high 3-6 mb images per bracket is needed and using a pano stitching program like Real Viz's "Stitcher" is needed. Thus one stictched pano per bracket. Adding some time to the project.

 

Mac has a very easy HDRI conversion software, can't remember the name. I've used HDRI Shop, very good but very technical. Exactly related to the camera curve response to light interpretation, another reason to have a decent SLR digicam. It's very difficult to fake in PS or even use generic "EV" settings and return good results.

 

Using HDRI for rendering in a composite setting, new CG building into existing image, Very effective. Generally the time savings comes from trading area lights, or many lights that are CPU intensive to create realistic GI. Depends on the scene. The quality of a high Res HDRI GI can be very good, but does not cast hard shadows. Also getting the dynamic range from ambient (sky) to the actual relative brightness of the sun is the real skill. A key light solves the shadow & sun intensity problems.

 

A good camera, pano rig, software can run from 1500-3500US very easy. This level of set up is average for VFX quality flim & Broadcast- good enough for CG arch for sure, cost effective? Thats up to the CG Artist.

 

 

Cheers

WDA

[Christopher Nichols]

We use HDRI's everyday at work... not as to the extent that people use them in the cg architecture which is as a light source, but it pretty much replaced LDR image from our environments. Keep in mind that HDRI is just as important in diffuse as they are in specular (ie reflections).

 

Creating an HDRI is easy. Creating a good one actually a challenge. The best HDRI collection system I have seen is from companies like Panoscan and Spheron...

 

http://www.spheron.com/

http://www.panoscan.com/HDR.html

 

I don't know much about the panoscan system, but the spheron system is amazing, from what I have seen SO amazing that you almost wonder... is it too much?

 

What these systems are, are VERY expensive.. on the order of $50k US or more. Even people in the entertainment industry have a hard time trying to justify the price.