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| Resolution: |
Dynamic Range: |
Horizon: |
16000x8000 pixels
Enough for background,
reflections and lighting |
Full dynamic range recorded
no need for extra spot light
when using VRay |
Horizon is 100% clean
No unwanted objects in the
horizon, easy to integrate. |
All HDRI Skies are at a resolution of 16000x8000 and comes in equirectangular format which can be mapped spherically.
All skies have the horizon removed, and sky is extended
50pixels below the horizon to make sure the black lower half isn't seen.
The resolution is high enough
for reflections and lighting and in most cases also high enough to be used as a background. Some skies also comes with matching backplates that can be used as background as well.
On all skies the sun or brightest area is in the center of the image, this means it's easy to switch out maps and still have the same lighting direction. |
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Most HDRI skies comes with separate backplates, even though the HDRI file can be used directly for a background the backplates are of a higher quality since they are shoot with a higher focal length, the colors are also a little bit better than the HDRI.
All backplates
are full resolution photos so the resolution is around 20 megapixels. In contrary to the HDRI map the horizon have not been removed, but it's kept in the lowest part of the frame and it's very flat.
For some HDRI's there is backplates that have been stitched from several photos which means the resolution is much higher. |
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When an HDRI is purchased you will be able to download a zip file which contain the following:
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| A folder with a name like: |
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cloudy_sun35deg_0078-05_cg-source
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So if you buy more than one they will be sorted by what type of sky it is follow by the angle of the sun. |
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| The folder contains: |
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render preview
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Folder containing the 24 images used to spin the HDRI image on the details page. |
cloudy_sun35deg_0078-05.hdr
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The actual HDRI map in full resolution |
cloudy_sun35deg_0078-05_sample.hdr
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The HDRI map scaled to 1000pix wide, this is the one that can be downloaded on each details page for testing. |
cloudy_sun35deg_0078-05_colormapped preview.jpg
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This is a 4000 pixel wide version on the sky you see on each detail page on the top, if you have purchased more than 1 sky it might be a good idea to keep all the preview files together in one folder so it's easy to look through them. |
cloudy_sun35deg_0078-05_backplate01.jpg
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The backplate files, there is usually more than 1. |
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All skies are assign to a category, to the right you can see a description for each.
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| Clear |
Cloudy |
Overcast |
Sunset |
Dusk |
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| Primarily a clear sky, a few clouds could be visible though. |
A sky that is fairly cloudy, but some blue sky is always visible. |
The sky is covered almost entirely in clouds. |
The sun is at a very low elevation, could be clear or cloudy. |
The sun have set and is below the horizon. Could also be dawn. |
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On each detail page there is a sample rendering where the HDRI was used for lighting, background and reflections. The scene is very simple and was made using 3DS MAX and V-Ray, below all settings are explained.
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The gamma for 3DS MAX was set to 2,2 |
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First of all the HDRI map is loaded using the VRayHDRI map. Mapping should be set to spherical environment since the HDRI file is in a equirectangular format.
"Flip horizontally" is ticked because if it wasn't the map would be flipped, don't know why MAX/Vray loads them wrong.
"Gamma" is se to 0,9 this is just to give it a little bit more contrast, when making HDRI maps some contrast is lost so it's quite normal to use a lower Gamma to get some contrast back, and it also helps getting the shadow darker, Good values are probably between 0,7 - 1,0
"Overall
mult" is set to 3,5 but this values depends on which HDRI you load, I've made the maps so they are more or less all equal so this number doesn't have to be 0,2 for one scene and 300 for another, most of the time it's around 1-8. This is also the ONLY setting I change when doing the sample renderings, all other settings are exactly the same for all scenes.
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For lighting a V-Ray domelight was used, where the HDRI map was instanced to the texture slot, doing it this way makes sure you get a sharp shadows when you have direct sunlight. |
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The HDRI map was also instanced to the environment slot, this means it's visible in the background of the rendering. |
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The materials used in the scene are very simple.
White material is used on the left sphere and also the ground. It's a VRayMTL with default settings and diffuse color set to 180.
For the middle sphere a default material where the reflection color is set to pure white so it's a 100% mirror.
The sphere on the right is default material where diffuse is black and reflection color is set to white and fresnel reflection activated and the IOR set to 1,1
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Camera used is a VrayPhysicalCamera with exposure control on, so if you need your scene to be brighter or darker it's easy to change the settings, but the most important reason to use a VrayPhysicalCamera is you can change the white balance. All my rendering are with a white color for white balance. But if your rendering are either a little blue or yellow it's easy to change. |
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Global illumination settings are also very simple, Irradiance map for primary with quite low settings since the scene is so simple. Light Cache was used for secondary light |
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My image sample is "Adaptive DMC" with min/max set to 2/8
None of
environment overrides was set since we get all that from max's environment and VRay Light.
Colormapping was set to "Exponential", this gives a nice look to the HDRI map without blowing out the highlights completely as "Linear multiply" has a tendency to do.
If you want brighter highlights it's easy to control with the "Bright multiplier", Reinhard could also be used here.
Gamma was set to 2,2 in order to have VRay do it's internal sampling in the correct colorspace.
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That's it.. If you have any question don't hesitate to email me. |
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