Occasionally its nice to be able to use a HDRi environment together with a vraysun, for when you want stronger shadows than the HDRi supplies. The trick is in aligning the sun with the HDRi so that the shadows from each match up. You can do this through trial and error, but if you want to change the rotation of the HDRi then its a pain. Rather than try to explain the steps involved, I thought it would be quicker doing a video tutorial. I’m afraid it turned out to be 13 mins long, but hopefully it will help.
The code for the wired rotation is:
radToDeg(Z_Rotation/360)
.hdri w/ VRayHDRI map, the wired rotation code appears to be:
” -(Z_Rotation-1.57079633) ”
FYI: - 1.57079633=90 degrees in radians
Thanks, Peter
great, looking forward to trying it out!
OMG! I want to cry….this is so great!
Thank you very very much!
amazing work! pretty clever way to match both suns.
I believe ronen has another way of incresing the intensity of the sun by editing the map in PS (http://www.ronenbekerman.com/hdr-image-based-lighting-3d-scene-setup/).
But I think using your way has a better control over lighting and shadows, which is important if you have to match this with a photo for a photomontage.
Thanks!
Love the tutorial, just a brief query. If I load the HDRI map in the Vray HDRI loader I get shadows from the HDRI map but it won’t rortate with the dome as illustrated in the tutorial with the magic code. If I use the bitmap loader the sun and map link up and rotate together but I don’t get any shadows from the HDR, I only get them from the sun. Any ideas? Many thanks
Hello Peter!! =)
Thanks for your tutorial!!!
Yors results are very beautiful!But I have a big problem! I always do with vray sun+sky..without HDRI. At the moment I trying use yours hdr 1725! My render is very pale, not contrasting, not saturated. Vray sun mult =1, dome mult= 1, hdr output amount=1.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/404/38832899.jpg/
please, help! I want use hdri.
My problem is same as mariuslangehanenberg’s problem….
Help me please!..
@henry Hi Henry! You’re right, I have had similar problems with the vrayHDRi loader, and even queried it on the chaosgroup forum (to no avail). So if I use a HDRi with a vraysun, then I just use the normal bitmap loader. Otherwise I prefer the vrayHDRi one.
@sergey I normally add contrast back using the curves in the vrayFB. Easy
(in other words, you’re render looks fine, and nothing to worry about)
Hi peter
i was doing the same thing as ur tutorial but i am not getting sharper shadows with sun. i have 2 3 HDRIS of yours but all giving very blurred shadows. My vray sun size is also set to 1 so that i get sharper shadows but the shadows look very very soft and blurred. whys is that? rest all i was able to follow. also do u enable gamma to 2.2 in max- customise -preferences?
please see the shadow problem here
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/844/shadowsissue.jpg/
Hi peter
i am trying to follow your tutorial and everything worked well except i am getting very soft and blurred shadows in my scene.i am using one of your HDRIS only. i have tried everything but i am not able to figure out why is that ? can u please see the following image and lemme know whats wrong.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/252/shadowsissue.jpg/
also in ur gamma and LUT settings inside max preferences are u using gamma as 2.2 ?
merci beaucoup!