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Placing HDRIs inside spheres

RexRedRexRed Posts: 1,377
edited September 2020 in The Commons

Yesterday I did a test... I placed an 8k HDRI image inside a sphere and stretched the sphere out until it enveloped my scene.

The difference was like night and day!

When I loaded the HDRI image into the infinite skydome I had a few settings only! Intensity and environment map which appear to both do the same thing.

While, when I added the HDR image into the scaled sphere I had over 20 settings!

Very vital settings like opacity, luminosity, temperature, and the ability to add color shades.

What is also great is you are able to see the HDRI image in the non Iray mode where with an hdri image in the infinite sky it is black.

I am now thinking to myself, why would I ever use the infinite sky when I get much better results by simply using a large sphere?

Which sky would you rather use in a scene?

The light colored one is the infinite sky and the deep red one is the sky inside an uberbase sphere...

The light colored one has nearly no parameters with which to change the hue, luminosity, temperature, shade and the dark colored one has many parameters with which to refine the environment.

There is a certain procedure getting the HDR to work inside a sphere but it is worth it 100%! 

Please also consider that both of these images are iray viewport renders and not full final renders. So the red one looks a little grainy where this grain completely disappears after a full render. 

HDRI Infinite Sky.jpg
3843 x 2074 - 1M
HDRI Sky inside a sphere.jpg
3845 x 2161 - 2M
Post edited by RexRed on

Comments

  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,748
    RexRed said:

     

     

    no parameters with which to change the hue, luminosity, temperature, shade 

     

    Those settings are under Tone Mapping.

  • RexRedRexRed Posts: 1,377
    edited September 2020
    3Diva said:
    RexRed said:

     

     

    no parameters with which to change the hue, luminosity, temperature, shade 

     

    Those settings are under Tone Mapping.

    Thanks 3Diva for your comment, I thought of that but, tone mapping is global so it affects everything in your scene including your figures.

    The settings for the sphere only affect the sphere image..

    Post edited by RexRed on
  • RexRedRexRed Posts: 1,377
    edited September 2020

    I just tested it out and you can also put HDRIs on a plane...

    This means you can move the plane closer and further from your subject and the moon/sun will scale to the size you want it.

    If you want the same color scheme from the HDRI to surround your scene you can place the same image on the infinite sphere.

    Post edited by RexRed on
  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,162

    You are basically creating Skydomes which have been around since 3DLight.

  • RexRedRexRed Posts: 1,377
    edited September 2020
    Fishtales said:

    You are basically creating Skydomes which have been around since 3DLight.

    Thanks for your comment Fishtales! They work very well in Iray too! :)

    Post edited by RexRed on
  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,162
    RexRed said:
    Fishtales said:

    You are basically creating Skydomes which have been around since 3DLight.

    Thanks for your comment Fishtales! They work very well in Iray too! :)

    Not without a certain amount of work. Because they are geometry they block the light coming in from the outside i.e. the Iray Dome or any Distant or other lights in a scene.

  • AllenArtAllenArt Posts: 7,172

    I find using an HDRI on a sphere in DS gives a weird look to everything and causes the scene to be too dark IMVHO. But your mileage may vary :)

    Laurie

  • RexRedRexRed Posts: 1,377
    edited September 2020
    AllenArt said:

    I find using an HDRI on a sphere in DS gives a weird look to everything and causes the scene to be too dark IMVHO. But your mileage may vary :)

    Laurie

    Hey Allen Art, I am not sure if you are turning the sphere into a light or not.

    Change the base color to your image,

    Then load the same exact image into your emissive and change the emissive color to white from black. (You can use emissive colors other than white but pure black is off)

    Then the sphere image becomes a light and it will illuminate your scene to the degree you raise your luminosity level. 

    The same also works on a plane, a lot of images do not take well to being mapped on the Interior of a sphere (it gives them the fisheye look) but sometimes a cylinder is a better option.

    Make sure you scale the plane, sphere or cylinder to the size you need to encompass all of your cameras and scene objects and also make sure it is far enough away so your scene does not cast shadows onto it and it is unaffected by your scene lights.

    If you use a sphere or cylinder then turn your scene environment to "scene only" to save overhead redundant processing.

    Post edited by RexRed on
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