HDRI help please

[treed]

You can use the skylight built into max 5 and you can use HDR images with by using an environment. There is also an issue of 3d world, I forgot the issue #, but they talk about how you can use HDR images. Also there are two websites that talk about HDRI.

www.debevec.org
www.xenomorphic.co.uk

[suttercane]

check this thread out.




http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41476

[Fede]

Hey Guys

Thank you very much for the tips and links.

Treed, you say i can use hdri with the max 5 sky light, but i can't seem to find hdr or hdri anywhere in the help file, why is that? do i need a plugin?

thanx

[mouj]

Howdy Fede !

have you downloaded the Hdri loader from Splutterfish's site ?
If not i doubt that Max5 lets you import any hdr files, i mean i don't think it's there right from the start.

http://www.splutterfish.com/sf


hope it works !

mouj

[PeteDraper]

you don't need to use .hdr files or plugins. simply convert the .hdr files to floating point tiffs in hdrshop and use them in max's skylight. The info isn't on my site yet as the copyright on the article hasn't reverted back to me yet, but if anyone's interested in the steps, please give me a yell or reply to this thread (not doing it now as it's 4am..)

cheers

pete

[Fede]

Hi Peter

Thank you for the reply.

It's not often that i get 3d world in South Africa but when i do e absolutely love it. Your articles are a great help and hope to read many more.

If you wouldn't mind posting an article or mini tut or what ever you like, i appreciate it.

Thanx

[ian_foster]

You might also want to have a read of the HDR article here too:

http://www.trinisica.com

[basecoat]

Hey Pete, u :airguitar :buttrock: (rock) so if u could give us the steps, I would be very pleased. Love your work. Been following all your tuts and articles, and they are very helpfull.

[PeteDraper]

ok... here's the lowdown on how to use hdr images in max.

if you haven't done so already, load a hdr lightprobe image into hdrshop (normally a photo of a gazing ball - you can grab samples from paul debevec's site www.debevec.org) and convert to longitudinal so it can be wrapped around a sphere (for example). Save as a floating point tiff .

In max, load the tiff into the materials editor and set it's mapping to Environ - Spherical Environment. Copy the tiff to another slot and set the copy's blur offset to 0.1 to blur it slightly.

Create a new skylight (new light in 3ds max 5) and drag the copied & blurred tiff to the skylight's map slot. Open the render > environment panel and copy the original tiff to the environment's background map slot.

In advanced lighting, enable light tracer. Add a bounce if required (this will increase render times a fair bit)

And that's about it. As the background, lighting and any raytraced reflections within the scene are utilising a high dynamic range image, the environment's exposure settings can be tweaked accordingly and this will correctly amend the resulting render. One tip though, if you're using this for an animation, use logarithmic exposure as the other types are automatic and may cause flickering if an object passes in front of a light source as the exposure is automatically calculated on a per-frame basis. But if this is what you want, then go for glory :)

here's what this quick setup can produce: http://www.aoog91.dsl.pipex.com/images/hdri_bot.JPG

cheers

pete

[treed]

Hey Pete, could you tell me the material you used on the spheres?

[ToddD]

Not to go off topic, but, PeteDraper, is the robot Modeling tutorial from that issue of 3dworld(or was it computer arts?) online anywhere? I'm in the U.S, and I made the foolish mistake of not buying that issue the first time I saw it, needless to say those magazines are impossible to find here, and I missed my chance. Tight modeling job..... and a great render!
:thumbsup:

[treed]

I followed your tutorial on HDRI and when I render it's all grainy, but when I turn the skylight off, it's all fine except for the spheres that have the material applied to them.

[Fede]

Pete Draper you rock dude :buttrock: :buttrock: :buttrock:

Haven't had the chance to try it yet but will be doing it soon.

Oh, about the sky light, are we ment to turn it off?

later.

[fred_bock]

Nice !! have to try this !! :beer:

Tbonz816, i have the tutorial, in CA, but the french edition , can mail you :shrug:

[PeteDraper]

the material on the spheres is from the raytrace material library - white chrome. No refection maps or anything applied - the reflections are raytraced and are taken from the environment and other geometry in the scene.

you keep the skylight on.

the graininess is caused by the number of light samples. if you up the sampling rate (and the filter size a little) it will remove the blotchiness at the expense of render times. also, ensure you've dropped the blurred copy of the map into the skylight, not the unmodified original one.

might post a scene later on.

p

[silv]

maybe this will help. it is the best hdri tut i ever found online:
http://www.visualart.ro/tutorials/hdri/hdri_e.htm

[PeteDraper]

Originally posted by silv
maybe this will help. it is the best hdri tut i ever found online:
http://www.visualart.ro/tutorials/hdri/hdri_e.htm

the point I'm making is that you can do all this without having to use a 3rd party plugin as max handles floating point images (as of v5)

p

[DerPapa]

check also out:

http://www.sachform.de

:-)
Michael

[Fede]

Thanx for all the replies guys.

I have really grasped so much.

Pete Draper - I that Robot sub d or NURBS?

Later

[PeteDraper]

sub divided polys

nurbs are evil

evil evil evil

evil I tells ye :D

well, they are in max anyhoo...

[PeteDraper]

Originally posted by Tbonz816
Not to go off topic, but, PeteDraper, is the robot Modeling tutorial from that issue of 3dworld(or was it computer arts?) online anywhere? I'm in the U.S, and I made the foolish mistake of not buying that issue the first time I saw it, needless to say those magazines are impossible to find here, and I missed my chance. Tight modeling job..... and a great render!
:thumbsup:

the robot tutorial was from computer arts - issue 77. it's not online ... yet, but should be in a few months once the copyright has reverted back to me (about June / July time methinks)

...well, I say June / July... all depends on two things: whether or not I've got any space left on my server, or if I've decided to pull the entire education section because of some eeediots who keep sending me crap and saying I should support them 24/7, even when this is a free resource and all the info is there. sheesh. If this carries on the way it has, then I'm gonna pull the lot and/or start charging for it's use, cos I don't need the aggro.

or convert the lot to video training... anyone got any views on this???

p

[Fede]

Pete, i would hate to see you pull that part of your site, it really rocks and as i've said i don't get the magazine here and i can't afford to dish out for the 6 month magazine subscription. The Pound is like 15 to 1 against the Rand, our currancy.

Video is allways cool but it's a laborious task and will your server handle?

later

[sireel]

I would personally love to see video on how you do some of this stuff Peter but something tells me that there will always be eeediots bugging you.

[PeteDraper]

I'm looking into dedicated servers & pricing at the moment. As it may be a fair amount for bandwidth & hardware I may have to charge a little for access to the video server (also helps pay the rent as I'll have to dedicate a lot of time creating them). Would people be prepared to do this? I'm not just thinking about the odd one or two training videos but an entire series, covering pretty much everything in max, about an hour each.

cheers

pete

[Fede]

Pete

I'm very keen to pay for the videos if, they are not for beginners as i feel there is enough info for them, i know cause i was there recently.

Also i would like to see, obviously, stuff that ain't out threre already. Totally new stuff not available.

Then yes i'll pay.

Ho and i must be able to download them as the internet in this country is sloooooowwww.

Later

[silv]

hdri without plugins in max?
u funny.

i think you will begin to say taht max suports (wthout plugs) sss as well :)

[PeteDraper]

Originally posted by silv
hdri without plugins in max?
u funny.

i think you will begin to say taht max suports (wthout plugs) sss as well :)

well I've been known to tell a gag or two in my time...

max doens't officialy do sss, no, but you can do a relatively convincing fake using the translucency shader (as long as the object is relatively thin)

p

[PeteDraper]

what I'm thinking about is not the base beginner level, but a few up from that. As each lesson progresses it gets gradually harder and harder. I might even couple this with online tutoring (say a 6 week intensive course), exercises, grading, analysis of work done by the student, online private forum etc etc etc, all for one set cost. Something similar to Eni Oken's excellent texture workshops (www.oken3d.com) but with the video training included (or cd's mailed out if your bandwidth is a bit on the low side)

if I get a positive response from this, then chances are I'll make a go of it and see what happens.

p

[Fede]

Pete, i'm in and you :buttrock:

I suggest that we plug this in the main 3Dmax forum or speak to Little Dragon or Sheepfactory to get this around.

Or since pretty much every 3Dmax user knows you, just plug it in and see what happens.

What do you think it would cost?

A small suggestion would be, to create something that could be added to a portfolio since time is so limited as it is during the day that all time used should be fully constructive, what do you think?

Later

[PeteDraper]

just posted a message to the main max board... see what develops...

cheers!

pete

[giantrobot]

Originally posted by PeteDraper
ok... here's the lowdown on how to use hdr images in max...


pete

Pete-

I did exactly as you said and it worked GREAT!

But...how can I make, say, the White Chrome material translucent? I tried a bunch of stuff... but I can not get the chromey stuff to be translucent. It is all totally HDRI reflecto.

Thanks

[PeteDraper]

the reason it's most likely still very reflective is because the reflection spinner setting is cranked right up. If you reduce this, you should be able to see the other material effects.

Must admit I haven't tried hdri within max with translucency yet. let me know how you get on

p

[Silmar]

Im kind of following so far, but I am really confused regarding getting another colour to show through. Do I need to make a composite material and map the raytrace and a colour to it.

Where do I find the reflection spinner?

Thankie

[PeteDraper]

if you're using a raytrace material, you need to amend the map or colour controlling the raytrace intensity. If you're using a standard material with a raytrace map in the reflection slot you just amend the value next to that slot.

It's all in the manuals.

cheers

pete

[Silmar]

Thanks very much, starting to look like something now :)

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