New plugin : HDR light Domes

Dartanbeck

Yes. Tube lights act strangely, as demonstrated by PhilW (Realism Rendering) and Cripeman and Alberto as well. 

I still tried them in a few scenes, but have since replaced them with shape lights shaped to strips, when I want a tube. Anyway:

 

With a single shape light in a room, I tested the difference doing test renders between the Distance Squared, Logorithmic and Linear falloff settings and, for what I was doing I preferred the Linear falloff because it was easier for me to control where the light dropped off, and the shadows looked good to me.

 

Distance Squared is the setting that is reccomended by photographers and cinematographers for realistic lighting results, but in the end, I just go for whatever gives me the look I'm after.

 

I'm still in the middle of rendering Rosie animations one after the next without any breaks in between, which will still be going on for a while yet. But immediately after that I get to jump back into "Scene" mode, which is when I will Immediately try out the presets that Alberto just uploaded to the LightX thread, and try to figure out how to use those - I think I'll like those a lot, once I know which settings to use. They use entirely different ranges than Carrara lights, so it confused my in my first time - when I had no time to properly try them out.

Mistara

was thinkin to put a few beacons in the scene for lights to point at.  a few around to maximize coverage in a terrain scene

is various light strategies for scifi adventure.  planet side, crew quarters and offices, ship corridors. place halls

this all the fun stuff, but it quickly feels overwhelming without a plan.

for years i only used bulb lights.  its a whole new world in carraraX

Mistara

did a test.  all the dome lights set to 0 shadow.  1 tube light casting the shadow.

first is from platinum pack 2.

i;ve come across several hdri that cast these strange light artifacts.  this one is from the green fields pack.
shader on the plane is a default gray

 

i tried the 3 fall off options on the tube light.  all looks the same to me.

 

Philemo_Carrara

This kind of artefact is normal if you consider a polished, almost reflective surface. You would have the same result if you enable the reflection shader  to a high value (although you would have more colors).

Highlight and shininess are a biased trick to avoid reflection and concentrate on lights instead for performance. In true PBR render engine, there is no distinction.

the defalut grey shader in Carrara is a kind of highly polished plastic. As such, it reflects all the surrounding lights.

If it's not the result you intend, you should consider reducing highlight or shininess, or diminishing the global light in the light dome generation from the default value to someting like 1 (or less if you use an additionnal tube light) or a combibation of the above :-).

Shininess in Carrara is quite tricky because it's not linear, more like a hyperbolic curve with 90% of the linear value done in the first 10%. Shininess (or roughness) is more user friendly in the PBR material because it's linear (20% is twice a shiny as 10%). For Carrara shaders, for non metallic surfaces, 20% shininess is almost a maximim and the vast majority lies between 1 and 10.

With one or two lights, the effect is not bad, but, when you create a light dome, it becomes really visible.

Mystiarra said:

did a test.  all the dome lights set to 0 shadow.  1 tube light casting the shadow.

first is from platinum pack 2.

i;ve come across several hdri that cast these strange light artifacts.  this one is from the green fields pack.
shader on the plane is a default gray

 

i tried the 3 fall off options on the tube light.  all looks the same to me.

 

Mistara

Thanks.

also finding rotating the hdr, even as little as 45 degrees, makes vast changes in the lighting

Mistara

a moon 360 hdr and pbr brick shader  https://www.daz3d.com/moon-360

 

Mistara

ah zo, if a sky atmo is set and an hdri background, the sky shows precedent in the render

Mistara

kitbashing hdr and 3 pt lights.
feeling a lil stalled.  

is it silly to use 3 shape lights?

i set the scene ambient light to 0

BrianP21361

I always set the ambient light to 0. I think it was something I saw in one of PhilW's tutorials. 

I don't use shape lights in a 3-point set up. I usually use them for fill or specialty lighting. However, if they look good, I'd use them!

Headwax

Three percent anbient doesnt hurt

Mistara

is there a way to find if a hdr image is 24bit or 32bit?

Mistara

does a shape light emit light from its entire surface or the hot point?

RuudL

Mystiara said:

is there a way to find if a hdr image is 24bit or 32bit?

One way to do it, without using an application like Photoshop, is to change the filename extension from .hdr to .txt and then open the file with a plain text editor. It will look some what like this:

The 'FORMAT= ......' line will give you the information you are looking for. Don't forget to change the extension back to .hdr

Mistara

oh wow.  i love simple.

Thanks!

SileneUK

RuudL said:

Mystiara said:

is there a way to find if a hdr image is 24bit or 32bit?

One way to do it, without using an application like Photoshop, is to change the filename extension from .hdr to .txt and then open the file with a plain text editor. It will look some what like this:

The 'FORMAT= ......' line will give you the information you are looking for. Don't forget to change the extension back to .hdr

That is so cool, thanks!

@Dartanbeck ALSO, on the UK and US site sfor Affinity Photo, it is 50% off! Hope links work, had to do one with VPN on.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

Their stitiching tool is worth it and you can import PSD files, too.  Other treats on there site too, like fonts, etc.

  Silene

Mistara

Hi Silene,  how fine is their masking tool?  can it mask out an eyebrows, lips? 

SileneUK

Mystiara said:

Hi Silene,  how fine is their masking tool?  can it mask out an eyebrows, lips? 

I just got it and I have PS for everything else like facial feature creation, etc. (ETA I make my own brows and lips)  But stitching for domes or backgrounds is awkward in PS. And I like the HDR friendly features this seems to have.

Stunning HDR

Affinity Photo’s HDR algorithm creates incredibly natural-looking images enabling you to unlock the full dynamic range of the scene. You can work natively with the full 32-bit image, or use extensive tone mapping facilities for beautiful results.

• +Unlimited source images
• +Full tone mapping controls
• +Merge directly from RAW
• +Alignment and perspective correction

There is a trial version of Affinity, but at $25 it's a bargain.      SIlene

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/90-day-affinity-trial/

 

 

Mistara

rhese are some nice lookin hdris

https://www.daz3d.com/bob-callawah