GIDome 2 the HDRI set

Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 1104 Location: Brazil

HI people this is just to let all know that my new GIDome is in the stores. This time its a set of HDRI images to be used in your indoor renders, yes thats right! This set was created for internal environment mood.
The idea is to mimic some studio light setup.

http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=7559&cat=421&_m=d

Posted:Thu Aug 21, 2008 2:42 pm

This goes on the list, IMHO, as a must buy. Great set.

Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 154

Is this for Carrara or DAZStudio. I get a bit confused when looking at the online shop. I look for Carrara thingys - but often it says;

Required Products
DAZ Studio .... and when looking at the larger previews sometimes on the picture is a stamp "render in Carrara" ??

... is this just to confuse types like me, or ? I would really LOVE to get more HDRI files

Helle Cool

Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 1104 Location: Brazil

Hi HelleM its for Carrara.
I dont know if will work with DazStudio.

Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 154

great, thanks...

Whenever I look for extras for Carrera I seem to find twice as much stuff for DS. Am I blind, or is this true? I'm looking hard for HDRI backgrounds...

Helle Smile

Posted:Thu Aug 21, 2008 7:53 pm

HelleM wrote:

great, thanks...

Whenever I look for extras for Carrera I seem to find twice as much stuff for DS. Am I blind, or is this true? I'm looking hard for HDRI backgrounds...

Helle Smile

If you have software than can convert .hdr to .tif, in theory you could use them with DS if you have the Advanced Environment Shader plug-in.

As for twice as much for DS. In most cases what works in DS, unless it is listed as DS only or is a DS plug-in will also work in Carrara after adjusting the shaders. And of course DS needs more plug-ins than Carrara just to get within shouting distance of Carrara. Smile

Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 154

thanks I did not know this...

Helle Smile

Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Posts: 181

This looks promising.

But I have a question. How exactly is it used in an indoor lighting context. I know it sounds like a strange question, but I have been having real difficulty creating realistic, indoor, ambient lighting, how would this set help me achieve this.??

Indeed any pointers on setting up good indoor lighting, i.e. a room that is being illuminated with daylight coming in through a window from outside would be really appriecated.

cheers,

SK.

Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 489 Location: UK

I'd like to echo this question and ask really what does GI Dome actually allow me to do? I mean is this a set of light presets? Or what?

Appologies for my ignorance.

Also, is there an outdoor set?

Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 1104 Location: Brazil

swordkensia - this set mimic studio lights, so you can use to light products showcase. In many cases to light a room you will need to turn some pieces of this room invisibel or just deleted from the scene so the HDRI light can work.

Eddie_Elche - The HDRI file format have all information to light a scene as a light setup (yes you still can use additional lights in the scene to get better mood). When rendering using GI Carrara take the color values in the HDRI image and use as light sources. IN this case this HDRI images try to mimic studio lights, you can find here at Daz more HDRI that mimic beach, landscapes and other natural environments.

Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 1104 Location: Brazil

Hi BetterThanLife, I just dont use daz Studio...so I dont know how the HDRI file can be converted to it.

Posted:Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:56 am

GKDantas wrote:

Hi BetterThanLife, I just dont use daz Studio...so I dont know how the HDRI file can be converted to it.

You might ask Sadot. I don't know how much time and effort it would require but he has done it for some of his sets. I just know what the file format DS requires. Smile

Poser can also, in theory, use them. But again I am not sure the size and format requirements.

Bryce requires spherical HDRI (.hdr format) that are square. Smile

Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 154

just found these links - if anybody needs them

a few free hdri
http://www.debevec.org/probes/

how to:
http://backingwinds.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-create-professional-hdr-images.html

Helle Smile

Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 1104 Location: Brazil

Great tutorial And yes theres a lot of free HDRI images that you can get in the internet but you need to get the right "format", Carrara use something like panoramic HDRI images and Bryce, Lightwave use the spherical that I can convert here...

I will talk to Sadot that is a good friend about the Daz Studio files and will look to convert it to Bryce too.

Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 1104 Location: Brazil

Hi people, I just finish to convert the HDRI files to the Probe format, so it can be used in Bryce and looks that will work in the new ahEnvironmentLight Version 2.0... someone out there that use this plugin that can test it for me?

Joined: 06 Nov 2005 Posts: 402 Location: Valley of the Sun

Here's a render with the new light set, the Marie texture and head morph, and the Bio Form outfit by Aery Soul.
Nice work on the lights GK :)

Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 489 Location: UK

Are there any tutorials specificly on the GI Dome lights? I'd like to see how they are used... Also, what is the big advantage of using HDRI? Sorry for the question... new to this bit...

Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 1104 Location: Brazil

Hi, you can see my tutorial for the first GIDome that will work the same way:

http://www.vimeo.com/1196541

The HDRI advantage is that you really dont need any source of light in the scene since the HDRI iamge will provide such information to the render engine, this way you can use a natural ambient light to light your scene.
HDRI images are used in almost every movie that you see on thiaters now. When they have a scene with CG they grab the light from the real scene using a spherical camera and use this images to light the CG, so it can match both images in the final composition very well.
Hope I could explain better but my english is a little poor...

Posted:Sat Aug 23, 2008 7:02 am

Eddie_Elche wrote:

Are there any tutorials specificly on the GI Dome lights? I'd like to see how they are used... Also, what is the big advantage of using HDRI? Sorry for the question... new to this bit...

It is a quicker though not exactly full Global illumination. Much easier on the computer for calculations. It is a subset of global illumination with the added advantage that you can use real world lighting from a real world location in your scene. (Without spending hours setting it up.) In Carrara you can use it in conjunction with Global illumination to get some very realistic real world lighting. Also notice that most real world photographers when they set up their lights for portraits don't have shiny spots on your face. The lighting in the studio is complex. (Even in your local Wal-Mart.) Go take a look at a book on photographic lighting and see the number of tools that are used. With an HDRI map someone has done the calculations for you and you don't have to build the light set. Smile

(Or you did them yourself and used a camera on a very good tripod to get the lights. Smile

)

You can use a set like this one instead of setting up your full photography set of lighting. (6 spots, a pair of soft boxes etc.) then if you need a specific highlight add a spot. For example this picture was done using this set by itself.

Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 1104 Location: Brazil

Very cool image Discoseven! Just one tip (I had the same problem in an image for a contest before) look at the reflections in the wall, you wil not see the roof. I know that is because you need to delete it for GI wirk inside the scene BUT you can make the walls a little tall or the camera a little up so you hide your trick.