HDR image mapped to sun

[sharktacos]

So I'm hoping that we will soon be able to map HDR images to directional and VraySun lights. You can add your "me too" to my feature request here:
https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/...ectional-light

In the mean time I made this little light rig that lets you do it by hooking up a directional light and rect light to replace the boring spec "dot" of the sun with an HDR image of the sun.

You can download the files (Maya and Nuke) and watch a video showing how they are used here:

http://docs.sharktacos.com/vray/sunFlare.html

enjoy!

[sherridge101]

Hi Sharktacos

Thanks for the tutorial. Very interesting.

My only thought is that using this technique, the glare points/arms are curved around the geometry, where as glares tend to have straight lines.

Probably get away with this, in cases with small glares.

Cheers

[piotrus3333]

sherridge101 is right. that does not look correct at all. you would rather want to extract hdr flare from environment map and put it into VFB lens effect filter.

[sharktacos]

Yes, the flare happens because of the camera lens, and so would not bend around an object. More correct would be to just have the falloff around the sun in the HDRI. Using the flare here is more of an artistic cheat which, when done subtly (so the bending is not visible) can look nicer than a dot. But it needs to be done with care, as it is not physically accurate.

Remember that the whole idea of a spec dot is an artistic cheat in the first place. Long term I would hope that things like lens flare would be built into the render, like depth and motion blur are, rather than being a post effect.

[piotrus3333]

true that. if it works - it works. I actually remove the glare from hdris.

[jasonhuang1115]

Thanks for sharing the tutorial and rig, Derek. I like the concept and creative controls you got through that.