Mike Baker
18-06-2003, 01:53 PM
Hi there,
I use Brazil rs a lot in my work, but have never bothered to use true HDRI for my renders. I normlly just use a standard bitmap or Jpeg for the skylight to give some basic GI lighting. I have managed to get my scenes looking pretty good like this, but was never quite happy with the lighting. I started to think what difference it would make if I used true HDRI files in my lighting. Would it really make such a difference?
So I decided to do a little test.
First I downloaded the tutorial scene from Splutterfish, and set it up with HDRI lighting and environment. The result is the first image you see below.
The scene uses one HDR image for the background environment for reflections, and one low res HDR image for the lighting.
Next I opened the two images in HDRShop, and saved them as standard JPEG's. I then switched the two HDR images in my scene with the new JPEG's. That is all I changed. Nothing else.
The result is the second image you see below.
As you can see it is a dramatic change and it shows how much I could improve my scenes if I used true HDR images. I was amazed at the loss of detail without the HDR images. Also there's a kind of grey glaze over the second image which I keep getting in my work. Now I know how to get rid of it!
Most of you probably know this already, but I was very suprised by the results and thought I would share it with you! :)
If anyone is using Brazil and hasn't followed the HDR tutorial at Splutterfish yet, I strongly recommend they check it out. I learn't a lot about optimising my scenes when using HDRI too and have cut my render times down by half!
Hope this helps someone!
Mike.
P.s. These images took 11 minutes each to render on a P3 750.
I use Brazil rs a lot in my work, but have never bothered to use true HDRI for my renders. I normlly just use a standard bitmap or Jpeg for the skylight to give some basic GI lighting. I have managed to get my scenes looking pretty good like this, but was never quite happy with the lighting. I started to think what difference it would make if I used true HDRI files in my lighting. Would it really make such a difference?
So I decided to do a little test.
First I downloaded the tutorial scene from Splutterfish, and set it up with HDRI lighting and environment. The result is the first image you see below.
The scene uses one HDR image for the background environment for reflections, and one low res HDR image for the lighting.
Next I opened the two images in HDRShop, and saved them as standard JPEG's. I then switched the two HDR images in my scene with the new JPEG's. That is all I changed. Nothing else.
The result is the second image you see below.
As you can see it is a dramatic change and it shows how much I could improve my scenes if I used true HDR images. I was amazed at the loss of detail without the HDR images. Also there's a kind of grey glaze over the second image which I keep getting in my work. Now I know how to get rid of it!
Most of you probably know this already, but I was very suprised by the results and thought I would share it with you! :)
If anyone is using Brazil and hasn't followed the HDR tutorial at Splutterfish yet, I strongly recommend they check it out. I learn't a lot about optimising my scenes when using HDRI too and have cut my render times down by half!
Hope this helps someone!
Mike.
P.s. These images took 11 minutes each to render on a P3 750.