So, I'm making the big assumption now that all the work Matt did with faking HDR, etc. etc., is now built into AM 13.

So, I'm guessing:

1. shoot the scene(with 3 different exposures if possible)
2. shoot a reflective dome in the scene (with the same 3 exposures)
3. make 2 hdr images (or one of the dome if you couldn't get 3 exposures of the scene)
4. crop around the dome and make image square aspect
5. Save it as an hdr
6. Open AM
7. Load in hdr image
8. Load in photo of scene
9. Go into chor, add photo as camera rotoscope.
10. Make flat plane for model to sit on and make plane a rotoscope front projection target
11. Get rid of all lights
12. Add hdr image into chor as a light probe.
13. Add sky dome.
14. Make material with hdr image
15. add material to dome as environment map.
16. put dome over scene, and add yves 25 light skyrig...
17. Turn on AO if you want
18. render...

Either I'm real close or way off on this, and I need to get this setup for one final image for the image contest.

Thanks for any help gang!

You don't need that one. A normal exposed photo would work just as well for a rotoscope.
Depends on the scene. Generally, you will need more than that. If you are shooting an interior scene, then 3 exposure may be enough.
Only if you transformed your reflective dome image to a light probe. Otherwise, you must select "reflective sphere" as the projection type. I'm assuming you are talking about IBL here.
First, this technique should not be used along with IBL and AO. Your dome needs to be transparent. I don't remember how much transparent (50% plus some technicalities) but it is written somewhere on the HDRI thread. This technique will work well only for scene with low dynamic range. THat is if your light probe can be photographed with 3 or 4 exposures stops max without cliping the light anywhere, then it will work. But if your scene have much higher dynamic range than that, you will need to set your skylight light to cast much more shadow rays and use multitude of passes to get rid of the noise. It all depends on the scene and you will have to experiment. Note that IBL was implemented so that we don't have to use this technique.
If you are using a transparent skydone with a skylight rig, you don't want AO at the same time. If you are using IBL instead, then you must turn AO ON.

Yves, all the light probe images I've seen on the internet look like mirrored spheres. So when a user downloads one for use as IBL, how can he or she know whether to choose "light probe" vs. "mirrored sphere" in the chor properties? How can we tell the difference?

Normally, light probes are labeled as "light probes". If you find HRD images on the Internet and the author doesn't tell if they are light probes or not, then you cannot assume anything but there is a higher probability that they would be light probes since that is "the way". With experience, for some of those images, I can tell, by visually inspecting the image if they are light probes or just spherical mirrors. Spherical mirrors have much more distortions on the edge than light probes. Light probes points to 90° on the side at the middle (0.5) of the radius while spherical mirrors points to 90° at 0.707 of the radius from the center.

Thanks for explaining that.

In the original IBL tutorial, it describes an "Elevation" property that allows you to flip your light probe if it's upside-down. But it seems like that property was removed when v13 came out of beta. Currently, when I use IBL with light probes, my characters always look like they're being lit from below. Is there still a way to flip the orientation somehow?

That is an issue that is independent of the IBL implementation. HDR files have a header that tells how the image is stored. ie the order of the horizontal sequence and the vertical sequence of pixels. The HDR plugin uses this header to decide to flip the image left-right or upside-down. But the problem is that only Radiance will set those bits correctly. HDRShop doesn't and just set those bits to their usual default values. So in the end, the plugin doesn't have a way to tell. Heck, even using HDRShop to convert a light probe to longitude-latitude image, saving it and then reloading it in HDRShop will show the image upside-down. So I will probably have to add a property to image that will allow the user to flip it vertically.

In the meantime you need to flip the image in HDRShop.

The elevation property was in an alpha release but was removed in final release because it did not do what it was intended to do. Two degree of freedom was not enough and adding a third degree of freedom for the user to control made it too complex. So now, the environment map must be supplied parallel to the ground plane. That is up and down aligned with the y axis.

Ah, now it all makes sense. Thanks.

HDRShop only works on PCs, though, so I'll need to work something out. Do you know anything about Photoshop CS2's handling of HDR files?

Check out this Pano Tools for MacOSX. You may need to transform all of your images before creating an HDR file.

Does HDR shop actually turn the reflection off a sphere image into a light probe? If so, then I'm guessing Pano tools does as well...?

Here's what I'm trying to accomplish. Outdoor scene at my house, with a model vehicle in the driveway, and any surrounding objects (trees, house, basketball hoop) reflected on the vehicle.

I want to use IBL as well as AO. I understand that I need to load an HDR (is it best to be a little blurred?) as a light probe. The it comes to creating something for the reflection. Can I add a skydome with the same image used for the light probe (the unblurred version), or is that unnecessary?

Greg

I know that CS2 does handle HDR files. But to what extend and what can it do with them, I don't know since I don't own CS2. Not yet.

Here is a page that might be usefull if you plan to use CS2 though.

In A:M, you will get better results if you transform your reflective sphere into a longitude-latitude map (what we call a spherical map in A:M).

You will need both. Use the environment map along with IBL and AO for the diffuse lighting and then use the environment map on a skydome for the reflections on the car. Blur the environment map according to the surface finish of your car. It is very improbable that your car surface finish would be perfect mirror like so some bluring would be appropriate. Also, bluring the HDR environment map will help with strong HDR effect on pixel aliasing where there are highlights. The only way to deal with highlight aliasing is to use very high number of passes.

Note that you will still need a directional light, especially if your environment is a sunny day so you will need a sun light in your scene in addition to IBL-AO.

Thanks Yves.

Okay, so I have my scene set up, and I took a concave mirrored surface, 4 exposures, made into an HDR, and saved as an exr (or should it be a jpeg?). Should it be kept as the round surface, or flatten it into a cylinder for IBL?
Moving on, I went into my project, and loaded the round one as well as the flat long one (just in case, since I can't seem to find any real breakdown on this...). Went to my chor and selected "insert light buffer" (for some reason, I can do this in a new project with no models, but in one with models, AM crashes...).

Now what?

OKay, I figured I need to load the light probe I made as an exr file (does it have to be that, or portable bit map?). And then under the choreography properties, select the IBL for radiosity, find the image I loaded, set AO to 100...

Did a couple test quick renders and it was looking just fine. Then I had to shut down for a while and go to a party. So I come back, open the project (13h on Mac). Try a quick render and AM quits. Reopne, try a real render. AM quits.

Hmmm.

I am geting confused. Do you use a reflective sphere or a convex mirror like a back-up surveilance mirror?

Depends on what you want to use it for. A camera rotoscope only needs a LDRI so a jpeg would do just fine. But what would be the point of going through all this tedious process of making an HDRI and then converting that into a Jpeg? Just take a normal Jpeg photo to start with.

Again, it depends on what you want to use it for. If you want to map it onto a sphere, then you need a longitude-latitude mapping format. A cylindrical format will produce too much distortions at the poles. If you want to use it for IBL, then any type of mapping format should work.

I'm nt sure what you are trying to achieve with a light bufer. It looks like an unnecessary step to me.

Yeah, I was a bit confused to say the least, but finally figured things out. I used a reflective sphere (in this case a ladle) for the light probe. Shot 4 exposures and turned it into an HDR, then saved as an exr (at first). The shot the scene, and saved it as a targa.

Set up the chor with the scene images as a roto, set the ground as a front projection target, put in the model, loaded the exr and then in the chor properties, turned on image based lighting, selected the exr, set AO to 100. Also put in a directional sunlight in the chor. The fiddled with it and the ambience setting on the AO to ge the ground to match the rotoscope. Did some tests to get the lighting right.

Then I had to go to a pool party. When I got back and fired up AM, did another render test (quick render) AM quit. Tried a few different things, even re-installing AM. Still nothing. Crud. So, I went back to Photoshop and took the exr and made it into a targa. Back in AM, deleted the exr, replaced it with the targa. Then I could render fine. Odd since it worked a-okay before. One for AM reports, but probably not repeatable. Are we supposed to use exr files? Could have been a memory issue (I have 3 gigs of RAM though).


Then rendered. I tried multipass, but it blurred the photo a little, so went with just a final render, no multipass, AO on. Rendered most the night (forgot to check how long it took this morning...doh).

Not bad. Though I think the method I used before for a couple other images I did looked more realistic (the Astrogas garage for one). Would be nice if we had a "digital camera" filter in AM that could be applied to models and leave the background plate alone.

You know, that's something I always have trouble with.

Is there any way to make a front-projection target simply transmit the rotoscope image "as is" wherever it's not being occluded or shadowed?

I have noticed that one can set it as flat shaded - but there is something funny about what kind of light then can cast shadows on the object that is set as front projected, flatshaded - can't remember if they have to be ray traced (or z buffered). Have never tried this with AO. I usually use Klieg as well - so can't remember if works for sun or bulb.

I do this so often, you'd think that I would remember. Nope.

Try a simple ground plane with sphere

Also check out Greg Ward's Photosphere - creates HDR's and panoramas. I've only used the HDR feature.
It also works great as an image catalog - both LDR and HDR
http://www.anyhere.com/

Thanks for the link!

Corvallis huh? Happen to know a guy by the name of Tim Emmerich?