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How is this picture made? (HDRI question)

ScavengerScavenger Posts: 2,674
edited May 2016 in New Users

I'm about to learn HDRI stuff.

Found this in the store:

It's from DimensionTheory's HDRI Variety Pack 3. http://www.daz3d.com/iradiance-hdri-variety-pack-three

The little experiments I've done with HDRI before gives me chracters floating in the middle of a blurry backgroun, but this has a character casting shadow on the ground..... I get that the in focus backgrond is likely due to a high resolution image on the "dome", but how's there inteation on the ground?

Post edited by Chohole on

Comments

  • BeeMKayBeeMKay Posts: 7,019
    edited May 2016

    Are you using Iray or another render engine?

    Normally, when you load the Variety pack sets, you have a camera and a Background option to load. In the Environment settings of Iray, make sure that you have the ground set to "on".

    (EDIt: A screenshot of your Entvironment settings in Iray would be helpful to solve the riddle.)

    Post edited by BeeMKay on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,865

    Which HDR image are you using? The Ruins that is used by default is pretty low resolution so it is not going to look sharp - the oens in the Dimension Theory sets are much higher resolution and can be used as visible render environments.

  • ScavengerScavenger Posts: 2,674

    I'm not making a picture right now...I'm curious how there's shadow on the ground, using presumply just the HDRI image.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,162
    edited May 2016

    With Dome set to on and Draw Ground on gives you a ground plane for shadow catching. The character may look as if it is standing on the ground but select the character and use Ctrl-d to drop it to the ground to make sure. As you can see in this one the lion's back leg isn't on the ground properly.

    Click on image for full size.

    canned-meat-001.jpg
    1440 x 960 - 786K
    Post edited by Fishtales on
  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300

    Before you buy anything you may want to experiment with the free hi-res HDRi maps available, such as the Pixar Campus. It will allow the same type of character/environment interaction. But, as with all of these, the exact nature of that interaction depends on many aspects of the dome settings, including rotation, and the position and other settings of the camera. Don't expect to just drop a character into an HDRi environment and be able to place that character and the camera just anywhere, without also needing to make many other adjustments. HDRis are not a substitute for sets with actual geometry. 

     

  • OstadanOstadan Posts: 1,128

    Many HDR spheres actually have rather limited dynamic range, and don't cast good shadows.  The DimensionTheory environments are very good in this respect.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    Tobor said:

     HDRis are not a substitute for sets with actual geometry. 

    Exactly...and many times, you will spend more time trying to 'get it right' (dome rotation, camera angle, scaling, etc) than it would take to drop in some real geometry. 

    What I've found works great for many scenes is use a real 'ground' with actual mesh props for near to mid distant details and leave the HDR to do the mid to far 'scenery'.   And if you can blur the transition with trees, shrubs, a building, etc...it's even better.

    Also, the higher the resolution of the HDR the 'closer' you can go...but you still have all the positioning stuff to fiddle with.

    In my sig, is a list of HDRi sites, the Pixar one should be there and a couple of others that are great...HDRIHaven (Greg Zaal) has some very high res freebies, most of his free ones are low res, but are very good for lighting.  For background work, you really want an image at least 8K in the long dimension. (4k images can work with lots of near to mid mesh scenery)

    All the above is also doable in 3Delight, but not with the default UberEnvironment 2 setup...at the very least a shadowcatching ground plane is needed (and one that can 'do' AO, too...so not even a 'standard' shadowcatcher).

  • ScavengerScavenger Posts: 2,674
    Fishtales said:

    With Dome set to on and Draw Ground on gives you a ground plane for shadow catching. The character may look as if it is standing on the ground but select the character and use Ctrl-d to drop it to the ground to make sure. As you can see in this one the lion's back leg isn't on the ground properly.

    Click on image for full size.

    Ah.. so the ground plane shadow catches, and the interaction is happenstance of the image sphering around to have a ground.  Got it! Thanks!

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001

    The shadows sort of 'anchor' the mesh to the image, too.

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