Creating interior HDRI help

miniature_doll_goddess_3d01aaa170

When I found I could use Iray on my older computer, I was delighted. The problem was the render time! Then I found HDRI's and was even more delighted. Topping it all off, I found out I could make my own HDRI's... while the exterior ones look amazing and work nicely with the characters, the interior ones turn out faaaaaaaaar too big! It's more like Jack and the Beanstalk inside the giant's castle! I'm quite sure there's a trick to making the interior HDRI render settings fix it so when it's made into an environment map after rendering it looks more proportionate to the characters. I've only gotten away with using forced perspective tricks and trick camera angles so far, but the whole idea of using an HDRI for me was to be able to render the scene at any angle without the background bogging down the computer or getting in the way. Clearly, there's a correct set of dimensions I can put in the render settings to make this work, because I've seen interior HDRI's in the DAZ shop! Clearly they wouldn't be there if they had the whole Jack and the Beanstalk problem mine have.

I've since tweaked the settings for unlimited render time, but overall, this is the video I've followed to create HDRI's: 

For my 4-year-old computer, HDRI's are a major blessing, despite taking 2 1/2 days to render. If there's a better way to make HDRI's in DAZ, I sure haven't found it. I love making my own because they don't slow down the computer and I already have the lighting the way I want it, meaning I can focus on camera and character setups for my comic book scenes without lights and background getting in the way.

So, any idea what dimensions in the render settings would fix the problem for making interior scenes into HDRI's?

Leonides02

This is really interesting, but does it really save much time?

outrider42

Using an HDRI instead of a full 3D environment will save a massive amount of time. You can render say, a scene where you have a few people in a HDRI livingroom in a fraction of the time it takes to render those same people on a full 3d prop livingroom. Its not even close.

There was a recent thread about creating your own "fake" HDRIs. You should totally check that out.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/189166/make-your-own-hdris/p1

Leonides02

outrider42 said:

Using an HDRI instead of a full 3D environment will save a massive amount of time. You can render say, a scene where you have a few people in a HDRI livingroom in a fraction of the time it takes to render those same people on a full 3d prop livingroom. Its not even close.

There was a recent thread about creating your own "fake" HDRIs. You should totally check that out.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/189166/make-your-own-hdris/p1

Yeah but you need to render the living room first, and if you want your people to move around in that living room it won't work. Right?

outrider42

Leonides02 said:

outrider42 said:

Using an HDRI instead of a full 3D environment will save a massive amount of time. You can render say, a scene where you have a few people in a HDRI livingroom in a fraction of the time it takes to render those same people on a full 3d prop livingroom. Its not even close.

There was a recent thread about creating your own "fake" HDRIs. You should totally check that out.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/189166/make-your-own-hdris/p1

Yeah but you need to render the living room first, and if you want your people to move around in that living room it won't work. Right?

It depends on your situation. You can get living room HDRI in the store, or you could prerender one from your scene if you want. You still save time because you would be rendering just the livingroom without the extra people in it, plus the bonus of being able to use that HDRI as a background in other scenes later. Or you could make a 360 panorama from your own livingroom if you have the means to create a fake HDRI, or just find 360 image on the net that can be legally used. There's plenty of options. And you can move around in a HDRI to a degree. You can move the space around with the environment settings tab. And like I said, it depends on what you require, maybe you just have people standing around talking, a HDRI can handle that. You could also get away with a prop or two if you are careful. For example, a bar. You could maybe have a 3d bar with 2 people in a HDRI room if things are positioned well.