HDRI lighting

[vic3d]

Has anyone ever used HDRI lighting for an exterior or interior with an artificially created HDRI image? (an hdri that exactly lights the way you need it to: direction, color, shadow softness, etc.) If so how would I go about creating one?

Thanks.

Vic.

[Arketype]

Hi Vic,

Yes, I have made many custom HDRIs.

Originally these were done for Paralumino, but the products are now defunct.

http://www.arketypedesign.com/ArketypeDesign/HDRI.html

These work really well for exteriors and photo studio style product renderings. HDRI really does not work for interior architectural renderings.

The process is complex if you need shapes that are properly distorted to fit on a spherical environment map.

The easiest way is to simply make a map in Photoshop: Black background with proportions width= 2x height.

Use the "mode" menu to change to 32bit color, then just paint your light sources. Be sure to use values above 1.0 for the lights (values between 4 and 10 work well). Save out an HDR or EXR file for EI.

I have a project which is about half finished where I have light sources (soft boxes, etc.) properly distorted for a spherical map. These are fully editable for position, color and intensity.

If I can get this finished I plan on offering this for sale as a custom HDRI "toolkit".

Let me know if you are interested ;)

I am also happy to help with any questions you have.

Dave

[vic3d]

Thank you so much, I'll give it a shot. The site seems to be down, but i'll visit later. I would love to help you with the project, I don't know if I am up to the task but if you tell me what it is I can help you with, I'll see if I can do it.

Thanks again.

Victor.

[Franky]

Hi Vic,

here's a series of studio setup ones to get you started.

http://zbyg.deviantart.com/art/HDRi-Pack-1-97402522

http://zbyg.deviantart.com/art/HDRi-Pack-2-103458406

http://zbyg.deviantart.com/art/HDRi-Pack-3-112847728

Cheers

Francois