VRayLightMeter

[jasonhuang1115]

Hi,

Not sure if this is requested in the past (not mentioned in Maya forum in my quick search). Is it possible to add the VRayLightMeter into Maya for exposure and incident illumination measurements?

Thanks.

[vlado]

Yes, it has been requested and it is on the "to do" list.

Best regards,
Vlado

[RockinAkin]

+1!

Any ETA on this? - It's a great tool I've gotten used to using on the 3ds Max side, and I need it for a Maya project I'm currently on.

Thanks!

[jasonhuang1115]

Hi Akin, do you actually use it for calibrating your lighting? I have read the workflow mentioned by John and haven't got time to try it out. Would love to hear your user experience.

[vlado]

+1!

Any ETA on this? - It's a great tool I've gotten used to using on the 3ds Max side, and I need it for a Maya project I'm currently on.

Thanks!

It's been in the nightlies for a couple of days now. What do you use it for?

Best regards,
Vlado

[jasonhuang1115]

Great job! Vlado and the team. Thanks!

It's been in the nightlies for a couple of days now. What do you use it for?

Best regards,
Vlado

[RockinAkin]

It's been in the nightlies for a couple of days now. What do you use it for?

Best regards,
Vlado

Awesome! Great timing! Thank you!

I'm using it to experiment with calibrating my scene / HDRI to match the light meter readings I've taken on a corresponding set.

Jason, I might have missed that post/workflow - could you share the link?
I'm still experimenting with the results and trying to iron out a solid workflow, but I'd be happy to share my findings. Likewise I'd love to hear about your findings!

[jasonhuang1115]

Akin, please refer to this threadhttp://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthr...photogrammetry for more info.
I had some discussions with John and have been trying to try out the workflow for more of an "absolute" lighting calibration. Currently I still stick with gray ball and color chart to do "relative" lighting calibration for HDRI that are used for look-dev. It has been cutting for me but still I am interested in knowing how implementing light meters will improve the results.

As a side note, remember reading an fxguide article about DD's work on Real Steel where it specified they have moved away from taking gray ball ref images on-set. I fiind that interesting and valid in my tests but I want to dig deeper and see if implementing light meters into the workflow would solidify lighting calibration.

Would be really great to learn what you find.

[jasonhuang1115]

By the way, Akin, what light meter are you currently using?

[RockinAkin]

By the way, Akin, what light meter are you currently using?

I'm using a Sekonic L-758DR - http://www.sekonic.com/products/l-758dr/overview.aspx - for both incident and spot meter readings of the set.
An "absolute" lighting calibration is exactly what I'm trying to develop, so as soon as I have some solid findings I'll be sure to let you know.

Vlado - I just installed the Maya 2015 snow leopard stable release from Feb 09... but cant seem to find the VRayLightMeter. Any hints where it is?

[jasonhuang1115]

I'm using a Sekonic L-758DR - http://www.sekonic.com/products/l-758dr/overview.aspx - for both incident and spot meter readings of the set.
An "absolute" lighting calibration is exactly what I'm trying to develop, so as soon as I have some solid findings I'll be sure to let you know.

Vlado - I just installed the Maya 2015 snow leopard nightly stable release from Feb 09... but cant seem to find the VRayLightMeter. Any hints where it is?

Thanks for the info, Akin. Guess I will try John's cheaper iPhone workflow first...

I installed the Feb 10 x64 build vray_adv_30504_maya2015_x64_25540 and saw the VRayLightMeterShape node under Utilities....

[vlado]

Where all the other V-Ray things are: create > v-ray > create vraylightmeter.

Best regards,
Vlado

[joconnell]

Bertrand Benoit did a sneaky thing in his recent photorealism tutorial and came up with a very elegant way of getting the correct light value for skies, or at least a very close one. He'd point his camera up in the air and take a photo of just the sky on auto. If the sky was the only thing really filling the frame, it'd expose properly for this. Then he'd take the photo into nuke or photoshop or whatever and get an average RGB value for the sky. In 3dsmax, you can put in a dome light, or your hdr of the set or whatever, make a physical camera using the same shutter, iso, aperture and white balance as you took your reference shot with, then gradually adjust the brightness and colour of your hdr or dome light until you end up getting a similar RGB value in your vray frame buffer - then you know your dome light is in about the right place to have correct brightness.

[RockinAkin]

Where all the other V-Ray things are: create > v-ray > create vraylightmeter.

Best regards,
Vlado

I think the nightlies for Maya 2015 OSX might not have been updated recently enough - I'm not seeing the VRayLightMeter.

The latest nightly build I'm seeing available for Maya 2015 OSX is vray_adv_30504_maya2015_mountain_lion_x64_25481 from January 20th.

Is there a later build available? or could it be compiled? Thanks!

[vlado]

Ugh Mac. Right, will try to run nightlies from more recent sources.

Best regards,
Vlado