WIP - Playing with HDR

Philemo_Carrara

Hi to all

I've decided to go into plugin development. I've got several wips and I wanted to share one of them.

It's a plugin adding HDR export capability to Carrara.

Here an example based upon a simple scene (DT yosemite HDR + Gazebo from DAZ).

First the PNG straigth from Carrara with and without gamma correction 1.8

Then the picture straight from picturenaut without tonemapping with gamma 1.8

Philemo_Carrara

Now, some tonemapped images with picturenaut. All of them have a gamma correction of 1.8 for comparison

Dartanbeck

Cool.
So, Picturenaut is the name of your plugin?

Philemo_Carrara

Dartanbeck said:

Cool.
So, Picturenaut is the name of your plugin?

Hi Dart,
Unfortunaly not :-)

Picturenaut is a great FREE application from HDR Labs for manipulating HDR images.

My purpose in citing it was to show the HDR output from an external POV.

The plugin has no name yet. I guess HDR will do :-)
I should add that my plan is to have tonemapping as a post render effect. One of the two next plugins in design.

wetcircuit

Philemo said:

Dartanbeck said:

Cool.
So, Picturenaut is the name of your plugin?

Hi Dart,
Unfortunaly not :-)

Picturenaut is a great FREE application from HDR Labs for manipulating HDR images.

My purpose in citing it was to show the HDR output from an external POV.

The plugin has no name yet. I guess HDR will do :-)
I should add that my plan is to have tonemapping as a post render effect. One of the two next plugins in design.

Sounds cool! I always wanted HDR export for Carrara!

evilproducer

So does the plugin you are developing mean that you could create a scene without an HDRI in it, but rather the realistic sky, and then export that as an HDRI? Would it work to make your own spherical images and export to HDRI for use in other software as IBL?

Philemo_Carrara

holly wetcircuit said:

Sounds cool! I always wanted HDR export for Carrara!

So was I. It's the reason why I've eventually decided to do it by myself.

Philemo_Carrara

evilproducer said:

So does the plugin you are developing mean that you could create a scene without an HDRI in it, but rather the realistic sky, and then export that as an HDRI? Would it work to make your own spherical images and export to HDRI for use in other software as IBL?

Yes, It's exactly that. I will post an example soon.
That's one of the two reasons I wanted to do it. The other reason is that, while I think Carrara is a fine renderer, I strongly believe its weak point is the way it goes out of linear space. So, exporting an HDR file is a good way of extracting what is in linear space and use a better way of going out of it.

wetcircuit

Philemo said:

evilproducer said:

So does the plugin you are developing mean that you could create a scene without an HDRI in it, but rather the realistic sky, and then export that as an HDRI? Would it work to make your own spherical images and export to HDRI for use in other software as IBL?

Yes, It's exactly that. I will post an example soon.
That's one of the two reasons I wanted to do it. The other reason is that, while I think Carrara is a fine renderer, I strongly believe its weak point is the way it goes out of linear space. So, exporting an HDR file is a good way of extracting what is in linear space and use a better way of going out of it.

:grrr: I once went into curvy space... it was painful! :ahhh:

Consider me 1st in line for this plugin.... I was considering buying Terragen3 to get 360° enviro backgrounds, but I was balking at buying the full version just to get a spherecam.... Renewed interest in the possibility with a Unity3D plugin that allows IBL..., and also LuxRender...

This is GREAT NEWS! Please keep us informed!

Dartanbeck

LOL

evilproducer

Dartanbeck said:

Talk about your curvy space! What would Rosy say?!? ;-P

Philemo_Carrara

Philemo said:

evilproducer said:

So does the plugin you are developing mean that you could create a scene without an HDRI in it, but rather the realistic sky, and then export that as an HDRI? Would it work to make your own spherical images and export to HDRI for use in other software as IBL?

Yes, It's exactly that. I will post an example soon.
.

Done.
I've generated an HDR environment which is available on Sharecg

It's a 6000x3000 map. The camera is 2m (6ft) hi.
You will need to add a distant light for shadows ans highlight. In the scene, the sun was almost noon.

Here are some examples of render :
I've used A3 and Stinger to show the lighting.

wetcircuit

Wooooo HOOOOO!

evilproducer

That looks like it could come in handy. I've used the spherical camera to make large images and used them for IBLs, but and HDR should look a bit more dynamic.