Using HDR Images for 3D Lighting in Maya
By Jon Tojek
Course info
Course info
Description
This tutorial is a guide to using HDR panoramic images for lighting with Maya and mental ray. Throughout the tutorial, we'll cover all of the hidden details that are needed to use HDR imagery for lighting in Maya. We'll start with physically based lighting, world scene scale, color management, proper render preview and verification of valid floating point linear color images. Once the rules for using HDR images are clearly laid out, we will take a look at how you can create your own HDR images at home using a DSLR camera, tripod, nodal head and software. Lastly, we'll go over examples of using and editing these images for a variety of indoor and outdoor lighting situations as well as covering light extraction and making HDR looks from an HDR photo of a light. Software Required: Maya 2012, Nuke 6.3v1, Photoshop CS5, PTGui v9.0.
About the author
Clearly the Visual Effects lifestyle has been a lifesaver for Jon Tojek.
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Section Introduction Transcripts
Introduction and Project Overview
[Autogenerated] Hello there. My name is John Ta Jack, and I'm a long time the effects generalised supervisor lighter and look Development worker. Right now I work international freelance V effects on films such a Super 8 2012 Avatar, Happy Feet and others at I'll, um, Sony Psyop Animal logic, hydraulics and many more. A big place like Sony or i'il Um, they have their own software. Like Catanha Xeno. They use uber shade er's ah full pipeline with tools and scripts to help the lighter a staff of programmers standards to make sure all in foot and output to the renderers, consistent in orderto accurately do light in color work. These are the kinds of details we could be missing at home, and this becomes painfully true when we begin using HDR imagery for lighting. That brings us to the topic of this tutorial, creating and using HDR panoramic images for three D lighting. I will cover linear color management and Maya physically correct lighting, how to shoot in HD our panoramic and how to set them up and use these images inside Maya. With that said, let's begin