++ Dome and ground plane from panoramic ( spherical/equirectangular) photos

mCasual

it's the first version

the sphere is probably ok as is, the ground-disc will have other versions which are easier to use

in the video, i used 0.4 Vertical tiles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQs9ht31tuE

the 2 props in obj format

https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts4/spherical

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i'll possibly publish the script i wrote that generated them -
because you can specify the distance pf the camera from the
ground plane, the size of the ground plane, the size of the sphere

mCasual

Happy with this result !

the recipe

dome loaded with import scale = 100%
floor loaded and parented to the dome

dome scaled down 60%

applied the Circus Backstage spherical panorama from http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html
Circus_Backstage_8k.jpg

dome moved to -90 40 30

dome rotated 250 degrees

exported to Blender using mcjTeleblender

changed the dome surface from Diffuse BSDF to Emission , strength 1

changed the image texture of the dome to Circus_Backstage_3k.HDR

rendered with cycles

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You can see that the fround disc/floor fits perfectly but n this case it's not useful
and runs across the table

the ground-disc is mostly for situations where the ground is mostly empty, like a plaza
or a big room where all the furniture are near the walls
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fig 2 - Daz Studio hardware render ( no ground plane )

mCasual

soon i'll post the script which was used to re-UV-Map a 100ftx100ft primitive plane so that is accepts spherical panoramas

the big advantage of having a ground plane like this is that Amy's shadows can be cast on it !

instead of having her float 100 ft in the air

and, you can move the camera away from the center of the sphere and the ground will NOT seem to slide under her feet

the moderately high polygon count for the floor is needed to avoid warpings

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the script that remaps the ground will also be usable for cubes and cylinders and in fact any shape !
many free objects found on the net have unusable UV maps, and a spherical UV mapping often gets you acceptable results

if you're looking for UV remappers, dont miss the mcjBoxUV script found here : http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/36930/

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note that the beach would look more credible if you spent a few minutes ( well an hour maybe )erasing the trees and their shadows from the image map and replaced them with "real" ones

mCasual

see? shadows on the floor

the 100x100ft spherical-compatible plane is not in its final state but it works as seen below

i added it to the spherical web page : https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts4/spherical
under the name ground_XZ_100ft_Y165cm it's a zipped .obj

i loaded it in daz with an import scale of 100%

i moved it up to 592.84

the mcjSphBall e was also imported at 100% then scaled 25% rotated 270 degrees

the floor texture tiling is a bit bizarre : -1 vertical tiles ... the final version wont require t his

the dome texture was set to -1 Horizontal tiles

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in Blender i set the dome emissive with the EXR version of the map ( the HDR was completely blurred tsk tsk )

i was lucky, the strength-3 sun light brought the floor luminosity to the same level as the dome

in the dome's object properties i set the shadows off in the "ray visibility" sub-section

and i blackened the external environment

so Amy is lighted by the dome's texture and the sunlight

mCasual

new Dome and ground plane and a Video to show them in action !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud_bwuNRXg0

https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts4/spherical

mCasual

the ( upcoming for DS 3/4 then for DS 4.5+ ) tool used the project the dome and ground plane's UV Maps on spherical maps

was used here to re-UV the bodycon (dress),

i'm not sure yet if there will be an option to leave the UV network intact ( so you could import the UV map using DS's built in tools )

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the bottom line is, you could take an object with no UV map or an unusable UV map and give is a somewhat usable UV map

reminding you that there's already mcjBoxUV for cubic mapping

and there will be planar mapping and cylindrical mapping ... someday

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and you know what other trick, one will be able to do ?

well .... if we can project the spherical image on a ground plane

we could also project it on a standing plane

or on many ground planes

or ... on a model of the warehouse ... see? ... yeah

mCasual

note that for large diameter domes, the Daz Studio primitive spheres are already UV-Ready to accept "spherical" / "Equirectangular" panoramas

for smaller spheres the distance of the shot camera from the ground level becomes a source of problems

RAMWolff

Casual said:

new Dome and ground plane and a Video to show them in action !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud_bwuNRXg0

https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts4/spherical

That is so darned cool Casual!

OK... off subject. WHAT MUSIC IS THAT?? It's gorgeous. I must have a copy of that! OMG!

mCasual

RAMWolff said:

Casual said:

new Dome and ground plane and a Video to show them in action !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud_bwuNRXg0

https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts4/spherical

That is so darned cool Casual!

OK... off subject. WHAT MUSIC IS THAT?? It's gorgeous. I must have a copy of that! OMG!

thanks!

the music is

Ethereal Awakening
from the album: Divinity
by Project Divinity
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5
http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/18229/ethereal-awakening

i always write this in the video description but i forgot !

in other news, a Spherical UV (re-)mapper script is nearing completion,

(athe dress shown below was in fact re-UV-mapped with it

fig 2, tried photoshop skin smoothing

mCasual

by increasing the mesh resolution of the sphere from
64x32 to 128x64 we reduce distortion near the poles
the defects seen here were part of the image itself

the second image map was perfect

fig 3 - doing through a test scene to see if the upcoming mcjSphericalUV script has what it takes for shadow-catching

fig 4 pretty seamless ! the 2 primitive planes blend in with the gigantenormous environment sphere

fig 5 but you have to consider the point of view

RAMWolff

I can not believe they give all their music away. OMG. Thanks!

OK, so can I ask.... do you have a shadow catcher set up on this. I mean your setup seems pretty simple, a UV'd sphere and plane. I looks very 3D what ever you did. Or they are just really excellent photos! lol

mCasual

RAMWolff said:

I can not believe they give all their music away. OMG. Thanks!

OK, so can I ask.... do you have a shadow catcher set up on this. I mean your setup seems pretty simple, a UV'd sphere and plane. I looks very 3D what ever you did. Or they are just really excellent photos! lol

in daz studio 3advanced and up you can place your character in the center of the environment sphere and add ground shadows using
the method outlined by Carnite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo2OVy9tf8E

in the warehouse image that had Amy's shadows,
i was in Blender
i used a ground plane which had been spherically-re-UV mapped using my upcoming script
the environment sphere was made a source of light
the floor was matte
i added a sunlight so amy's shadow was cast on the ground
and i made the environment sphere not cast shadows (else the sunlight wouldnt get in )
i was lucky because the floor plane blended well with the sphere

mCasual

due to camera angles the ground image quality is good for a radius of around 12 meters

RAMWolff

Very cool. So I could switch out of my UV'd sphere's for yours and get a much better environment. I shelved that project because I was just not into it and the UV's pissed me off too much. Be nice to have things look the way I imagine.