photos for background with a plane

HLEET_3D

Hello, 

I'm looking for a good way to use a background picture for my scene.
* I tried backdrop image : cons -> it's fixed, you can't look around the part you want. You  have to use photoshop like program to be able to crop where you want first. And of course, no deph of field unless you input that inside the image first.
* hdri are great : cons -> you have few mobility possibilities inside the hdri. So if I want something special as a scenery, I have to go with another way. (I don't know how to make my own hdri from an image). I tried some jpg and png files as an environment background, but I don't know why it appears very zoomed and thus worthless.
* back panels with picture as a surface, that's what I'm trying to use but need some advices.

For the last solution (back panel with image), I've seen some posts talking about bent primitives. I've seen also some scene that has kind of double pane : one for the background in a panoramic way, a floor made of a panel with a distorded picture to simulate the floor... and a kind of "sun" light object. How can I do that (for the floor I'm wondering how I can give that impression of ... a floor, like sand of stuff) ? Anyone has some advices of how I can achieve good results with this workflow ? 

Thank you 

Fishtales

Multiplane Cyclorama

https://www.daz3d.com/catalogsearch/result?q=cyclorama

Dartanbeck

Fishtales said:

Multiplane Cyclorama

https://www.daz3d.com/catalogsearch/result?q=cyclorama

+1

Also, Millennium Environment 

Many of the addons for one are also for the other. One of the differences is that Millennium Environment is 180 degrees and some products have maps allowing for 360, but I'm pretty sure that it doesn't have as many plane layers as the Multiplane Cyclorama.

If I'm not mistaken, both base products were made by Stonemason

Dartanbeck

In any case that you try - even pasting onto a standard plane, if you're using Iray, be sure to drag the diffuse map into the emission color surface slot and adjust the luminance value until you get the results you want. Otherwise you'll have to light the thing, and that becomes problematic.

HLEET_3D

Thank you very much guys. That's first time that I hear that thing of : Multiplane Cyclorama.

By the look of the products, it seems quite oldish. But it's in sale today, I will give it a try.

 

HLEET_3D

Dartanbeck said:

In any case that you try - even pasting onto a standard plane, if you're using Iray, be sure to drag the diffuse map into the emission color surface slot and adjust the luminance value until you get the results you want. Otherwise you'll have to light the thing, and that becomes problematic.

Thanks for the tip ! Is there a way also to have the light go thru the plane ? just in case I want a rim light or something a bit farther than the plane itself.

Fishtales

Yes you can. Set the Translucency Weight to 1.00; put the base colour map into Translucency Colour; Refraction Index to 1.00 and I put a Distant Light behind so that it shone through the Moon.

2023-09-19 07:05:10.215 [INFO] :: Total Rendering Time: 12.4 seconds

Click on image for full size.

Dartanbeck

What Fishtales just said works Awesome! 

Eventually you'll discover more and more amazing things that we can just simply by adjusting surface parameters. Fun!

With an image editor, we can create special maps to do specific things - like making a custom emission map, for example. While the main color image might work really well, a little editing might just make it even better - for example. Maybe there are light-colored parts that you don't want to be illuminated. Paint those parts dark on an emission map.

Also, with Fishtales' suggestion of the Multiplane Cyclorama, you'll get extra 'planes' for fog, clouds, or whatever, and they can be animated individually. Many (all?) of the addon packs for that and Millennium Environment would work great for layering background imagery. Layering can add a lot of depth to the background, which is why Stonemason made these the way he did. He is a genius afterall.

For Millennium Environment, I have space scenes, dragon caves, outdoor vistas... and they're all really cool!

HLEET_3D

Thanks for all theses informations.
So I did tried both : cyclorama and millenium. I found millenium a bit complex to use, it has a lot of layers as a background. I don't know how I can use it with my own background.
For cyclorama, it's kind of simple but does the job for me. I can modify the background image in the surface tab and enjoy some interesting scene. 
I wanted to try a new workflow of having midjourney generate an image with a prompt from chatgpt. 
See attached an example from one of my fanart of chunli. But I used some light on scene to make light it up.

To be honest, I don't understand all the options and parameters that you guys are talking about, but I think it might come in handy when I will face some difficulties.

Anyway, cyclorama was indeed what I was looking for :)

Dartanbeck

Bravo! I like the light in there and that background looks great! Very nice render!