Looking for a good neutral HDRI for Iray.
kyoto kid
Posts: 41,402
...while I am pretty much back up and running again, one of the items I lost in the meltdown which is hindering me was a really nice neutral HDRI created by Mec4D. It was only offered as a freebie for a limited time back in 2016 and thus is no longer available. I went through all the backups I have and sadly it is not there. I found it extremely useful for proofing skins created in Skin Builder3 since it produced a nice soft neutral white light.
Sadly all I can find (freebie or paid content) are lighting rigs that involve multiple lights and different lighting schemes. Those don't help when it comes to proof rendering to check true skin colour and detail as they usually have different coloured lights for various effects and moods. I also use a simple backdrop prop so often rim lights get hidden behind it (and unlike 3DL, you cant turn cast shadows off). I really don't want ot go to emissive "ghost" planes as emissive lights tend to slow down rendering which impacts workflow when running multiple tests.
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Create a white image with an aspect ratio of 2:1, for example 512 x 256 pixels or so and save it as HDRI. This can be done in Photoshop or HDRShop. You can also use Bryce, set the sky fully white disable the visible sun, create an HDRI from this sky and export it as Spherical HDRI.
Try this, I've been trying to create one myself and settled on this one.
It's on my Deviant Art page: http://fav.me/dd6q8i0
Here ya' go, KK.
KK- can't you use a "close enough" HDRI and then in the Tone Mapping settings, just take out whatever color tint you don't want (say if it's too blue) in the White Point?
...thanks for the downloads will see how they work.
Don't think you need to log in.
...the app on my phone for some reason doesn't let me do very much there unless I am logged in. Also didn't want to download it to the phone and then have to transfer it over to teh workstation.
When I got home, I DL'd, the HDR, installed it, opened the scene, loaded it in and what a difference I am seeing already. Using the default tone mapping (which is what I keep it set at for proofing) and I can see that the character's skin is a bit too pale only a few minutes into the process, whereas with the other HDR I was using it was hard to tell because of the coloured light sources. This is perfect, Thank you.
I'm not sure if you're referring to the quick HDR I created in Photoshop following Horo's instructions, or the one nicstt linked to on DA. Regardless, I was more than happy to create the one. I hope you find it useful.
..apologies. the nicsitt posted on DA. It is very similar to the one Mec4D offered a few years ago. I will try the one you provided as well and compare the two.. Have a few other irons in the fire right now.
I'll have to get the one nicstt posted on DA. I missed out on those Mec4D shared way back when. The HDRI I created is literally just what Horo recommended, 512x256 pure white 32-bit image saved to the HDR format.
@aprilysh included a lighting preset with her christmas freebie that just fantastic.
uses the default iray lighting.
she adds a nice low key bloom filter
Then you can make sure your rendering settings are set up the way you like.
I use this setup ALL THE TIME for testing my pics and setting them up.
I hope you like it and thanks to @AprilYSH for sharing her settings to begin with!!
...don't think I have that freebie. System was down and I was recovering from an accident so I missed a few things back then.
...rendering with both HDRs using the same default tone map settings and then comparing the results in Picassa (Windows Picture Viewer compresses the image somewhat) the lighting in the HDR by nicsitt is just slightly "stronger".
Check your product library for "FWSA Soft Light Probes", it was an in-store christmas freebie a few years ago so you probably have it. Lt Probe 08 is neutral, I use it for developing my materials.
(just remember to turn off the headlamp if you don't add any other lights)
...thank you. Turns out I did have them in the Product Library but they didn't show up in any of the DIM tabs had to manually DL them and then move them to the Install Manager folder so I could install them from with the DIM.
...OK ran a render test again (default tone map settings), and while it did take longer than the other two, the results are the best I've seen. This is what I need for "benchmark" setup. With the other two I now see that I would have to bump down the f-stop and/or shutter speed as the results were darker in comparison.
Strange, I forgot that I made and published a free tool to create a one-colour HDRI with any R/G/B combination and the output level can be set between 0.001 to 1,000,000. It is 34 KB in size and can be copied into any folder or memory stick - no installation needed. Comes with a 3 page PDF. Though I had Bryce in mind (obviously) but the RGBE rle2 spherical HDRI can be used in Studio and Carrara and several other 3D CG applications. On my website, go to Bryce & 3D CG Documents > Programs (PC only) > Light > UniHDRI. Direct link https://horo.ch/docs/progs/zip/UniHDRI.zip (328 KB).
Thanks for this, works great! I just wonder why the Common Level can go up to as much as 1.000.000 as everything already looks plain white no matter what color you choose, even with at setting as low as 20. Is there a technical reason for that?
It depends how the rendering engine processes the HDRI and how much light it gets out of it. Start with the multiplier at 1. If the light you get out of it cannot be comfortably adjusted to suit the scene, set the multiplier to a value so the light output can be adjusted as appropriate. You're right, if course, no matter how high or low the output of an uniform HDRI, the dynamic range is always 1:1.
Thanks. It looks like a multiplier setting of 1 works well with the DS Environment controls.
Thank you for reporting back. Glad you find it useful.
...yeah I used 255 for all RBG values and 2.5 as shown in the example and it completely washed out. Had to reduce the environment intensity to 0.50 to get the correct level.
Went back and created one with the value "1" and nor it looks fine with no adjustment needed to the render settings.
...OK, looks very good but like the FWSA Soft Light Probes, takes longer to render than nicstt's. I don't use Iray view mode because it causes the programme to eventually crash on my system.