Thought I should do a quick tutorial on how I use these HDRi Skydomes I’m selling. Note that this is just one of many possible workflows, and there are probably lots of tricks I’m missing and even things I do completely wrong. I should also say that I work mostly with still images, not animations.
1. Here is a typical architectural scene. It is a model I made of Waro Kishi’s Fukaya house in Japan that never really went anywhere.
2. I use a gamma 2.2 workflow together with reinhard color mapping, so not strictly LWF but shares some of the advantages. I don’t want this to turn into a LWF tutorial or discussion, but this post on cgpov.com pretty much sums up how I feel a gamma corrected workflow helps us as visualisation artists.
The reinhard color mapping helps to control burnt out (overexposed) areas. Screenshot of my color mapping set up: The burn value of the reinhard color mapping typically ranges from .75 for an exterior to 0.05 for an interior. You need to experiment with the value until you gain control over the burnt out areas. Here is an example with a camera pointing at the HDR sky:
For the final render, I use the Vray Frame Buffer, and add a slight s-curve to the output to compensate for the lack of contrast that the gamma corrected workflow introduces:
3. Add a vray dome light and load the exr/hdr using the max bitmap loader. Set the mapping type to environment/spherical. If you are using .hdr files, you can use the vrayHDRi loader instead. It makes no difference whether you use the bitmap loader or the vrayHDRi loader, the vrayHDRi adds a bit more control in that you can control the render multiplier independently from the viewport multplier. Set the output of the .exr to 1 and the vraylight multiplier to 1. If your hdr/exr has no alpha channel it seems you can save quite a bit of memory while rendering (approx 200mb in my case) if you load the exr/hdr as realpixel float rgb rather than the rgba option. (NOTE: ONLY applicable to 3dsmax 2009)
EDIT: Please don’t pay too much attention to the 3dsmax 2009 realpixel hdri loading option, it just saved a little bit of memory which is why I mentioned it. I now use a later version of max and no longer have this option either.
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4. To rotate the HDR you need to enter a U offset value from 0-1, so to rotate 180 degrees with would enter 0.5, 270 degrees 0.75 etc.
5. Add a vrayphysicalcamera, and set the aperture and shutter speed to something that would work for a typical outdoor scene, like F4, 1/200th & ISO 100. Remember that you are in effect using a completely manual camera, there is no ‘P’ or automatic mode so you need to experiment with different exposures until you get a good result.
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6. Hit render and see what you get. If it looks too dark/bright I tend to adjust the bitmap’s output rather than the vraylight multiplier, so that I can have a couple of ready setup HDRi’s ready to drag and drop onto the dome light. In the examples below I use an output value of 1.5.
Hello Peter! I just bought one of your maps.
In this tutorial, you do not explaini whether you turn on the Gamma Correction settings in max Preferences or not. Can you clarify that perhaps?
gamma setup is really up to personal preference, i’ll leave that up to you!
hi peter. this’s a great tutorial thread. i want to know the house which you modeling.
@tuanlam thanks. It’s the Fukaya house by Waro Kishi.
Hi Peter, i have an .exr file, but when i open it with the bitmap loader, the EXR configuration window doesn´t seems like your, in fact i dont have the realpixel option…
i have 3dmax 2012…do you know something about it?
One more thing… how do you do to show the .EXR as background?…or its just a jpg?
you are such an inspiration Mr. Guthrie! thank you for posting! i deeply enjoy reading your tutorials!
Awsome tutorial!! just one question, does the use of hdri’s affects on noise leve of images?? it happens to me, try the setup, adjust it, but always noisy images, no matter if i change subdivs o DMC settings…
thank you Peter for this useful tutorial … but how to use this with the SketchUp Vray i tried but every time i render the light is to much i can’t see the clouds .
I have the same problem as nachetz, very noisy images… any solution ?
спасибо за статью!
неистово плюсую, сейчас попробую может получиться)))
Hello Peter, I have a question. When I open a vrayhdri map into de Material editor and then i charge one hdri image from you, in the map preview it look really overexposed, but in the render looks natural. How come is that in the material editor looks that weird? Thank you
It really doesnt matter, but its because the exposure of the sky suits a physical camera at real-world settings. If you want, you can use vrayHDRi map instead and adjust the multiplier to 0.01 and the render multiplier to 100
Hello Peter, with overall multiplier 1,0 and render multiplier 1,0 I see overexposed the map in the material editor but in the render with a vrayphysicalcam the render looks ok, it is just a problem of the preview in the material editor, it makes unconfortable when you put the vrayhdri as an environment map as background because you do not see in the viewport how it is the final result.
I do not understan why you say to put the render to 100 because with 1,0 the render looks ok.
One more question, when I open the exr in photoshop i can not unlock the layer is it normal?
Thanks a lot
@nacho the preview in the mat editor is like a render not using physical camera. If you are really concerned about seeing it correctly in the mat editor, then try what I said about vrayHDRI. A multiplier of 0.01 brings the hdri down to the right range for the mat editor, a render multiplier of 100 takes it back to 1 for the final render (so it is in effect, unaffected, as 0.01 x 100 = 1.
Personally I’m not bothered how it looks in the mat editor as I know it will look good in the final render.
32 bit editing is very very limited in photoshop, so you cant do much i’m afraid.
Hi Peter,
this might be a dumb question but maybe that means there is a quick answer to it.:)…
How do you change/decrease the exposure of your hdr in mental ray (maya2011)?
Thanks,
m
Thank you, I’ve recently been looking for info about this subject for ages and yours is the greatest I have discovered so far. But, what about the conclusion? Are you sure about the source?
HDRI is the best technology for making picture and through this we can make our picture with better quality.
Hi Peter,
I’ve just purchased one of your hdri’s which looks great!…but I’m getting a lot of noise in the render when i assign it to the v-ray light dome as recommended. I don’t have this problem if I use the hri in the environment map. I just wondered what i was doing wrong?
Thank you
Hi Peter,
I was not adding enough subdivisions to my v-ray light dome!
Resolved!
Thanks
1. Do You load HDRI via Material/map browser > VRayHDRI or Material/map browser > bitmap?
2. What is HDRI own gamma? Do You load HDRI with its own gamma or set it to 1,0?
3. Do I need to place my HDRI as Max Enviornment? I can see HDRI as enviornment loading it via VRayLight (Dome)?
Thanx in advance
@Mike
1. doesnt really matter, usually I use bitmap
2. HDRi own gamma should always be 1, or sometimes less than 1 if you want to try and get stronger shadows
3. I ALWAYS load HDRi in a vraylight (dome)
Thank You for help.
ad. 1. But “Material/map browser > VRayHDRI” doesnt have “Output>output amount” controler.
ad. 3. Yes, but only this way? Dont You use Max Environment slot at all?
4. Loading HDRI via VRayHDRI I set “spherical mapping type, but do I have to pay attention to Coordinates rollout is it textur eor environment?
5. Do You use VRaySun with VRayHDRI to light the scene and do You link them together?
6. Is it good idea to light interior scene with VRayHDRI via VRayLight (Dome) supported by VRaySun?
I’m waiting for the answer to Mike, thank you!
@mike & @maxi
1. No but it has an overall multiplier and a render multiplier.
3. no
4. just set to spherical
5. see my most recent tutorial, these days i mostly just use vrayhdri and no vraysun, however:
6. sometimes for interiors it does help clear up noise a lot if you use a vraysun as well
@ Peter
Thank You
hello peter, your tutorials are very goods !!! and learn me a lot of all !!!
but i have one question … how do you (if theres is a way to do) hide the hdri to after render could use another backgroud -letting it iluminate and been reflected- (sorry about my english … its not my mother tongue)
and thanks a lot for all your teachings !!!
im a very newbie in thats things ………………. and found the answer by playing …. just MAKE THE LIGHT INVISIBLE !!!! sorry about the previos post …. feel free to not post it !!!!
and again thanks about all the thigs you make for people like me how try to make the things better !!!!!!!!!!
hi peter,
is it possible to use your hdri also in maya?
would be very pleased about your answer.
thanks.
Hi Peter,
I’m having trouble getting similar results to you using your settings, if I increase the render or output multiplier of the HDRI map in the material editor slot, it washes out and has no clarity to the sky, similarly i have to have extremely low settings on the vrayphysicalcamera (eg. f2,shutter 5) and still the results are not remotely close to yours… what do you put in the environment map from the rendering->enviroment menu? do you instance the HDRI map or use vraysky or just a bitmap?
any advice would be greatly appreciated!
People must read before talking of a lot of…
anyway Peter i wanted to know just a point , i usually use more or less yours configuration but my question is: if you have to rotate around an object seeing the sky, of course you must have a max bright point when you are in front and something between wash and not brillant when you are behand the sun, how do you do? where is the fall? i don’t think to change exposure in compositng, so how?
Your blog is so nice. HDR dome images of landscapes suitable for any kind of advertising.
HDR dome
If i want to have night visualisation, what i mast be change, picture hri or vray camera?
@hayk Usually both, although you could adjust the multiplier on the hdri so that you dont need to change the exposure on the vraycamera (thats normally what I do to minimize the number of cameras I need)