Steps to set up HDRI background and lighting?

[Jakerlund]

Hi,

What are the steps to set up a HDRI image for both lighting and to show as background?

Thanks

[arquitecto]

Re: Steps to set up HDRI background and lighting?

For hdr lighting:
Add a hemi lamp, no matter where, and add a hdr texture to that lamp. Adjust the intensity...Don't forget to put it gamma corrected.

For the hdr background:
Add a hdr texture to the world tab. Don't forget to put it gamma corrected if it's different from the other.
Open again world tab, enable overrides and slide them to 0.( so the background will not interfere with the hemi)
Play with background slider to have the perfect sky exposure you want.

Enable phisical Camera
f stop at 5.6 will probably be more suitable.

Tip: Peter Guthrie skies should have a very low intensity on the hemi ( 1,6 ) the others hdr are normally much higher.

[Jakerlund]

Re: Steps to set up HDRI background and lighting?

Thanks arquitecto,

I still can't seem to get any visible background.

Could you make a simple test scene with a glossy monkey and some HDRI

I did a test with the first image (Alexs Apartment) from here:
http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html

[attachment=0:3jclj454]HDRI-test.zip[/attachment:3jclj454] (no HDRI included)
This is as close as i get


This is what i get in Cycles.


Thanks

[Seliverstoff]

Re: Steps to set up HDRI background and lighting?

[youtube:bfj1p90r]kLZB0K7FIjI[/youtube:bfj1p90r]

[arquitecto]

Re: Steps to set up HDRI background and lighting?

It's a gamma workflow issue.
Vray has much more flexibility for you to manage.

1.You must put gamma corrected in both textures (world and hemi)
2. You must also put output gamma at 2.2 on general color mapping tab
Then you get this fine gamma balanced result.
[attachment=1:1wlehvt0]vray.jpg[/attachment:1wlehvt0]
Here is the file
[attachment=0:1wlehvt0]HDRI-test.blend.zip[/attachment:1wlehvt0]

Tip: It's great to control de gamma of each texture individually. I love that on vray. You can have sharper shadows on your render just by lowering the gamma of the texture...

[Jakerlund]

Re: Steps to set up HDRI background and lighting?

A huge thank you for the help!
Seeing how a test blend is set up or a video tutorial on how to set it up is so helpful.

Best regards

[Jakerlund]

Re: Steps to set up HDRI background and lighting?

It works and looks like your render.
But each time i open the file i get some nasty red error messages.
I have no cluse what it means.





And this is what the terminal says when rendering