HDRIs for photo-real results

As you know, HDR Light Studio let's you put the lights where you want them in a HDRI map. This has been used to great effect with this render of a SLR camera. A small amount of blue was added to the light coming from the right which has given the image a much more 3D feel.

The reason why using a HDRI makes your renders look so real is that the light and reflections are in a perfect ‘union’ as they are being provided by the HDRI environment image. This is just like the real-world where a bright light can also be seen reflected by surfaces, and this is what we call a ‘high-light’.

If your CG materials have been set up with a photo-real approach, so without fake specular highlights, then the high-lights are generated from the reflectivity and roughness values for the shader. This will make your renders much more realistic when using HDRI environment maps, with sharp crisp highlights for glossy smooth surfaces and much more spread out high-lights being created by rougher surfaces.

The Power of HDR Light Studio - Basic

Yes, Basic is the baby of the family... but it is still a very useful part of the toolkit, especially with HyperShot.

For example, take the 6 renders above. It's the same data, materials and camera angle for all 6 shots. All that's in the scene is the car. Everything else comes from HDRI maps made with HDR Light Studio Basic Edition. There isn’t even a floor, just a ground shadow turned on in HyperShot.

No Photoshop was needed at all, just HyperShot and HDR Light Studio Basic.

TIP1: To get the glows behind the car, simply place a weak soft light in to the HDRI design in this visible part of the HDRI. It makes it more dynamic.

TIP2: The advantages of having no floor geometry are: 1) It renders faster not having to think about it and 2) You can place lights in the HDRI that are below floor level so you can then add light anywhere to make the car look good. So you can get a nice reflection in the side of the car with a light placed below the horizon, even if this were impossible in reality. The HyperShot ground shadow beds the car down, so it still looks real.

TIP3: Colour your lights whilst setting up your lighting so you know what light is coming from where. These can be quickly changed back to the colour you wanted once you are happy with light and reflection positions.

Product Design Renders with HDRI

Piotr Kosinski (PK3D.com) used HyperShot to bring his beautiful shaver model to life. Using HDR Light Studio (Standard) to make his own HDRI map, he was able to precisely place and adjust studio lighting around his product, just like a Pro photo shoot.

HDR Light Studio is being adopted by design studios around the world to bring out the best in their product design renderings. Off the shelf static HDRIs are hit and miss, and are not a professional way to approach controlling lighting and reflections in your product design renders. Every product form is different (and every camera angle too) and therefore needs lights and reflections with unique positions, sizes and brightness etc for that shot to bring out the best in the photo-real rendering.

HDR Light Studio let's you start thinking like a photographer and gives you the power to pick your view and then build up the lights where ‘you’ want them in a HDRI map. This HDRI map will represent all your lights and reflections around your design.

Modo workflow video

Boston based Industrial Designer, Adam OHern, has released a short video showing the workflow between HDR Light Studio (Basic) and Luxology Modo. It also includes some great tips on getting useful alpha channels and a shadow layer out of your render setup.

It's great for those learning Modo for product design renders and is a useful little taster of HDR Light Studio.

Check it out on his web site: http://adam.theoherns.com/2010/01/10/hdr-light-studio-basic/

Or on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UamU3FLRWjM

Brendan McCaffrey - amazing HDRI lighting!

Brendan McCaffrey has produced a stunning range of photo real renders of this Trek bicycle model. All lighting and reflections have come from HDRI maps made in HDR Light Studio. We interviewed Brendan to talk about his career and his use of HDR Light Studio, and how it has slashed his render times on hi-res images with V-Ray.

Click here for our interview and see his awesome hi-res images...

Click here for his project posting on cgtalk.com, and see the response he's getting to this amazing showpiece...

Right Hemisphere and Lightmap Introduce Studio Lighting Capabilities for Deep Exploration Authoring Software

Right Hemisphere and Lightmap to Showcase Dazzling New Lighting Capabilities for Deep Exploration Users in Free Webinar on December 15

San Ramon, CA, USA and Leciester, ENGLAND — December 8, 2009 — Right Hemisphere®, the standard for Visual Enterprise solutions, and Lightmap Ltd. today announced a new professional lighting tool for users of Right Hemisphere’s Deep Exploration™ authoring software. Lightmap has an easy-to-use, professional lighting application called HDR Light Studio™ and has developed a plug-in version of it specifically for Deep Exploration 6.0 called “HDR Light Studio Live.” Right Hemisphere and Lightmap are hosting a free Webinar on Tuesday, December 15 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to demonstrate what this tool can do and how straight-forward it is to apply to models and scenes.

Available for purchase in January 2010 from the HDR Light Studio Web site, the software plug-in can create HDRI light and reflection maps for CG renderings and provide instant feedback to users on their rendered scenes. Users create lighting designs by placing light sources onto a 2D canvas representing a sphere map and interactively modify their properties. As users manipulate the lights on the canvas the shape is automatically distorted in real time so they maintain their shape when mapped onto a lighting sphere.

“As much as 80% of the rendering production process is spent on the creation and optimization of lighting,” said Right Hemisphere President and CTO Mark Thomas. “The real-time lighting creation and feedback loop this plug-in enables dramatically reduces the time it takes to create professional quality images that can truly replace traditional photography.”

“Deep Exploration is a fantastic product and its environment maps do a good job of lighting models,” said Lightmap CEO Mark Segasby. “But we saw an opportunity to add another layer of sophistication to it with what we do best. Our software gives Deep Exploration users more control over their lighting and reflections, and allows them to quickly test and tweak their lighting set ups. This is a classic partnership in which everyone wins, particularly the end user who craves perfection in his final renders or has a client who demands it.”

The HDR Light Studio Live plug-in for Deep Exploration 6.0 will be available in two versions: Basic for $299 U.S. and Pro for $999 U.S. To learn more about the new lighting plug-in for Deep Exploration, please register for the December 15 Webinar at http://www.righthemisphere.com/webinars/unreal-realism.

About Lightmap Ltd.

Lightmap Ltd. is at the forefront of HDRI lighting software development for the CGI industry. HDRI has been around for many years but has been limited to using static HDRI images, until now. Lightmap Ltd. saw the opportunity to use HDR technology in a totally new way to provide lighting and reflection information via interactive environment maps, so 3D artists can light their work with the ease and control of existing CG lighting approaches, whilst using the fast render speed and added realism that image-based lighting brings.
The unique world first software, HDR Light Studio, was launched in February 2009 to critical acclaim and has been adopted by hundreds of leading studios around the globe. For more details about HDR Light Studio and the new HDR Light Studio Live plug-in please visit: http://www.hdrlightstudio.com/.

About Right Hemisphere

Right Hemisphere is the standard for Visual Enterprise solutions. The company's software and solutions help Global 1,000 manufacturers to optimize their mission critical business processes such as engineering, manufacturing, service and support, training and sales and marketing. The software does this by unifying visual product information with relevant business data readily available in corporate CAD, PLM, and ERP systems. It then automatically delivers this intelligent product information into commonly used business documents, file formats and even directly into business applications for secure downstream use anytime, anywhere. Founded in 1997, Right Hemisphere is a privately held, venture-funded corporation based in Silicon Valley and Auckland, New Zealand. For more information, please visit http://www.righthemisphere.com/.

The names of companies and products mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contacts:
Susan AustinRight Hemisphere +1-408-266-2322Susan.austin@righthemisphere.com
Mark Segasby Lightmap Ltd. +44 1455 824 835mark@hdrlightstudio.com

Digital-Tutors Announces New HDR Light Studio Training

Recognized as one of the most innovative video-based training solutions in the computer graphics industry, Digital-Tutors, the first training provider for Lightmap Ltd, proudly introduces 'Getting Started with HDR Light Studio,' the first title in a new series of training for the software independent package HDR Light Studio.As a prominent addition to Digital-Tutors online learning library, 'Getting Started with HDR Light Studio' provides project-oriented training for learning how to produce highly realistic studio environments, complete with high dynamic range lighting information, for utilization in creating lifelike product renders with any rendering software.

“We’re very proud to be working with the great team at Lightmap Ltd on the release of our first HDR Light Studio title,” said Kyle Green, Director of Curriculum at Digital-Tutors. “Our decision to create training for this unique application was an easy one as it’s extremely beneficial to a wide variety of artists and provides an unlimited amount of freedom in creating highly realistic studio lighting from scratch. It's with HDR Light Studio that artists have the opportunity to enhance their creative possibilities and achieve their specific lighting needs no matter what rendering software they prefer to use,” added Green.

Key topics and highlights include: adding and repositioning lights, controlling light color and intensity, adjusting bulb placement and light orientation, exploring specialized light controls, using light packs to create highly realistic lighting results, controlling background illumination, and rendering completed environments. For a free preview and detailed description, please visit: http://www.digitaltutors.com/09/training.php?cid=207&pid=218

To access 'Getting Started with HDR Light Studio', select Digital-Tutors Annual Membership plan at: http://www.digitaltutors.com/09/pricing.php

About Digital-Tutors

Digital-Tutors is an innovator and leader in video-based training for emerging digital artists. The award-winning educational solutions and services developed by the team of educators and industry professionals at Digital-Tutors are currently being used by studios, universities, production companies and many other organizations around the world.

Artists everywhere are utilizing Digital-Tutors new online learning library and educational platform that consists of over 8,000 project-based lessons and valuable features including Playlists, Tags, Notes and our exclusive CLIPS Technology; all specifically created to assist professionals in the creation of next generation feature films, commercials, video games, visual effects, and emerging media. Digital-Tutors maintains strategic relationships and partnerships with Autodesk, Pixologic, Houdini, Luxology, Next Limit, Adobe, Pixar, eyeon, and Microsoft in the development of the software and education materials.

Take our interactive system for a test drive and sign up for a FREE Trial Pass today! www.digitaltutors.com.