HDRi-locations free sample questions/renderings

[suurland]

As some you might have seen in the news section here: http://cg-cars.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5786 I have released a free sample from http://www.hdri-locations.com The thread quickly turned into how to use the files, and I was suggested to post in here instead so there was a place for people to ask questions about how to use the files and setup a scene.

Here is a few of my renderings:





There are more examples on the site.

To start with I can tell a little bit about how I made these renderings.

First of all I knew from the start I wanted the car to be black, as I have done any of that for awhile, And to make black cars you need something where the sun is very low or it has already set. For example a black car in full sun very rarely looks any good.

For the renderings I used max9 64bit and vray 1.5 I didn't use any LWF or color mapping. So backplates are just gamma 1.0 and the hdri is gamma 2.2 So it's loaded in the scene using the color correct plugin with the gamma adjusted to 0,45 to compensate. I use the normal bitmap loader and not the vrayhdri map since the vray version use its own memory space which is limited, so it runs out of memory very fast, especially as the hdri file is 11500x5750. But when you use the the normal bitmap loader it actually flips the hdr map, so if you want things to match in the scene then you have to set the tiling to -1 in the U direction, if you don't do that it's never going to match.

For lighting I just put the hdri map in a vray dome light, and I'm NOT using any GI.

Materials are very simple, the black paint is just a vraymtl with the diffuse almost totally black, think it was 10,10,10 or something, and then just reflections with falloff/fresnel. Black plastic is just black with some glossy reflections, and glass is just transparent with reflections with falloff/fresnell.

I should also mention that I cheated, I actually boosted the contrast of the hdri map using the colorcorrect map, this is something I almost always do when working with hdri maps. Might not be physically correct, but to be honest I don't give a damn as long as it looks good


Anyway, if you have any questions regarding the free sample, or have any renderings showing how you used the files then feel free to post in here.

have fun!

/Thomas

[P2sta]

Thanks a lot man, this will definitly help lots of members, me too

will post some result soon

[digitaleyes]

Thank you, I will certanly need these tips. However, good to know these pictures are rendered and not real photography :P

I didn't work much with hdris so I am not sure what do you mean with this: "So it's loaded in the scene using the color correct plugin..." I will google it around though.

[P2sta]

Originally Posted by digitaleyes

Thank you, I will certanly need these tips. However, good to know these pictures are rendered and not real photography :P

I didn't work much with hdris so I am not sure what do you mean with this: "So it's loaded in the scene using the color correct plugin..." I will google it around though.

check this site, I found with in hdri-location.com FAQ

http://www.cuneytozdas.com/software/.../#ColorCorrect

when you will install it you will see it as map when you will try to load somethnig to a map slot

[P2sta]

so here is my first test, I have problems with taillight, but will fix it. Then it is low setting render, so there is lots of fleckts and noise

so, do you have any suggestion how to make it better?

[sm@rt]

P2sta, I like this render. My suggestion will be: try to add some contast. Render looks washed out a bit.

[suurland]

You stole my car :P

But I agree with Smart, add more contrast to the hdri, and give the black rubber parts around the windows and tires some reflections, they are almost 0,0,0

/Thomas

[P2sta]

Originally Posted by suurland

You stole my car :P

But I agree with Smart, add more contrast to the hdri, and give the black rubber parts around the windows and tires some reflections, they are almost 0,0,0

/Thomas

heh, no it is my A3, yours is better modelled ok, will try it

[RobPhoboS]

Thomas, many thanks for starting this thread for the Q&A, as I had a few that I wanted to ask about as I've just started using your LOVELY files

I'll be back later today to fire a couple of quick questions, but just got a new camera + big lens to play with first

[trianglefx]

Spend all day playing with, but can't get good looking image. The HDRI itself is superb just my lame skills can't show the beauty of it. Anyway here it is what i've got.