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Tonemapping software?

XoechZXoechZ Posts: 1,102
edited December 1969 in The Commons

Hello!

Some time ago, I have used LuxRender via Reality/Luxus. But I came back to 3Delight because I like it better and the results are more useful for me.

The only thing I am really missing from LuxRender are the tonemapping controls, where you could adjust film speed, f/stop and so on - and different kinds of films. This way you could adjust your render in a really cool way.

Now, is this possible for 3Delight renders too? Is there a (cheap or free) standalone tonemapping software with the same controls? Or can I load rendered images into Luxrender for tonemapping?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Comments

  • TjebTjeb Posts: 507
    edited December 1969

    Have a look at easyHDR Pro.
    http://www.easyhdr.com/download.php
    Meant for creating stunning HDR images taken with your DSLR camera.
    (Basically you set your camera on bracketing and take three shots at different exposure times)
    I used the LDR feature here.

    easyHDR.jpg
    1200 x 1070 - 251K
  • Herald of FireHerald of Fire Posts: 3,504
    edited February 2014

    XoechZ said:
    Now, is this possible for 3Delight renders too? Is there a (cheap or free) standalone tonemapping software with the same controls? Or can I load rendered images into Luxrender for tonemapping?

    Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

    The tonemapping settings in Luxrender work because it uses a physical-based rendering engine where light is calculated as it would be in the real world. Light in 3Delight is far more artificial in nature and can break the known real-world laws of physics such as passing through solid objects. This is important to note because what Lux stores when it's rendering is not a static image, but rather the light information which is hitting the camera. When you use the tonemapping controls it is literally like using similar functions on a camera, because it can treat all of that light as a real-world thing.

    Because of this, there is no way to get a real tonemapping system onto 3Delight. However, as mentioned above, you might be able to fake it using various different filters and effects. You can also create shader cameras which may help in this process.

    Unfortunately, comparing Luxrender to 3DL is like comparing apples to oranges. Both are extremely different in the way they handle materials and lighting, so there's no way you can mix and match the two. Luxrender is an unbiased engine, while 3DL is a biased engine. On the upside, it's for that reason that 3DL can do special effects a bit easier than it would be to do using Luxrender.

    Post edited by Herald of Fire on
  • XoechZXoechZ Posts: 1,102
    edited December 1969

    HeraldOfFire said:

    ]The tonemapping settings in Luxrender work because it uses a physical-based rendering engine where light is calculated as it would be in the real world. Light in 3Delight is far more artificial in nature and can break the known real-world laws of physics such as passing through solid objects. This is important to note because what Lux stores when it's rendering is not a static image, but rather the light information which is hitting the camera. When you use the tonemapping controls it is literally like using similar functions on a camera, because it can treat all of that light as a real-world thing.

    Because of this, there is no way to get a real tonemapping system onto 3Delight. However, as mentioned above, you might be able to fake it using various different filters and effects. You can also create shader cameras which may help in this process.

    Unfortunately, comparing Luxrender to 3DL is like comparing apples to oranges. Both are extremely different in the way they handle materials and lighting, so there's no way you can mix and match the two. Luxrender is an unbiased engine, while 3DL is a biased engine. On the upside, it's for that reason that 3DL can do special effects a bit easier than it would be to do using Luxrender.

    Thanks for the detailed explanation!
    I have worked with both render engines for quite a while, so I know the differences. However, I have never noticed tonemapping as part of the render engine. I always saw it as a kind of bonus feature. But your explanation makes everything clearer.

    On the other side, I have heared and read several times, that nowadays almost every digital production(animation or real) is tonemapped during post processing to get a "filmed by a real camera" look and feel. So I thought this can be done with any image.

  • XoechZXoechZ Posts: 1,102
    edited December 1969

    Ok, I think I have found what I was looking for: http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/
    The software is called Luminance HDR and it is free :-)

    And for all of you who did not know already: When you use the 3Delight standalone renderer (free version) you can save your render as OpenEXR file. So you get a HDR image of your render for tonemapping.

    Unfortunately I had no time yet to install and test it, but it looks very promising.

  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,588
    edited February 2014

    Does 3Delight actually produce HDR output, even when writing to OpenEXR format?

    Perhaps they mean 'Colour Grading' instead of tone-mapping.

    Post edited by prixat on
  • XoechZXoechZ Posts: 1,102
    edited December 1969

    prixat said:
    Does 3Delight actually produce HDR output, even when writing to OpenEXR format?

    Perhaps they mean 'Colour Grading' instead of tone-mapping.

    Hm, good question. I really dont know it, because I had no time yet to test it. But since 3Delight is a render engine that is used for Hollywood productions I think (and hope) it does. On my side it was simply guessing, because OpenEXR is a HDR file format.

    But maybe someone else knows it better.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    As far as I know, it produces a single exposure EXR image, not 'bracketed'. OpenEXR can be a HDR, but doesn't have to be...but, it has all the information, saved to become one, without any kind of degradation that a conversion may introduce. And basically, you'd need 3 renders, minimum, 5 preferably, and Luminance to get an HDR image...and as far as I know, that's what's done in Hollywood, too.

  • TjebTjeb Posts: 507
    edited December 1969

    Ok, I think I have found what I was looking for: http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/

    Luminance HDR has about the same functionality as easyHDR Pro I mentioned earlier.
    So I would say: yes try that, it's free.
    I'm sure it has an LDR feature as well, meaning you can import one picture in stead of three or more.

    For those who are interested:
    https://3delight.atlassian.net/wiki/display/3DSP/Installing+OpenEXR+Libraries

    Have not read it myself yet.

    Tonemapping.jpg
    423 x 960 - 86K
  • XoechZXoechZ Posts: 1,102
    edited December 1969

    I have seen this article, but as far as I understand, you only need this if you want to apply HDR textures on objects in a scene. But not for creating HDR images from a rendered scene.

  • cwichuracwichura Posts: 1,042
    edited December 1969

    The real key as already alluded to is getting 3Delight to export an HDR image with actual HDR content (meaning not just a LDR saved in OpenEXR format). Internally, LuxRender stores the framebuffer as a linear HDR (gross simplification for the purposes of this discussion). Hence, in Lux, you can export to an EXR and do your own tonemapping in an external program. Or you can use its built-in tonemapper, which does a pretty decent job and includes a few extras such as the film response profiles.

  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,588
    edited December 1969

    I noticed a very interesting feature added to 3Delight Version 11 last October is "Relighting"!

    Combining that with the progressive rendering we already have, should give us 'almost live' rendering in DS... eventually.

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