[tom]

Could you replicate the problem in a newly created empty scene?

[Mihai]

What if you render to MXCL instead of in the Studio viewport? With the Env settings in your screenshot you should get the HDR showing up in the background.

But keep in mind it's not a good idea to render a background together with the render, it's much better rendering an alpha and compositing a background later. You can place it exactly like you want, color correct it or the render so the background matches the render. If you later want to change the background, you have to re-render the whole scene...
There are free or much cheaper alternatives to PS and it's not a big operation to composite in a background.

[lebbeus]

I'm a bit confused since you haven't shown any renders, just screenshots of studio: is the issue that it's not showing up in the studio window, or that it's not showing up in the render???

was the scene imported to studio without going through one of the plugins? Did the scene come in upside down?

have you tried rotating the HDR map?

[Newell Design Studio]

Reply to Tom, Mihai & Lebbeus,

Thanks to the three of you. I've been exporting to Studio through the ArchiCAD plugin. No, it does not matter if I have rendered in Studio or MXCL. I've tried using various backgrounds but alll renderings result in black (or physical sky) backgrounds. My models come into Studio in true to life scale and everything, so I'm really confused as per why I can't get it to work.

BUT ULTIMATELY, I just want to make the renderings properly (I didn't buy Maxwell because I want to be an amateur). Just because I think that I should be able to include the background in the rendering itself doesn't mean that it's the best way to go (Mihai, I really appreciate you pointing this out).

So on that note, would someone please point me to where I can find a decent free program for OSX 10.5+ that will help me complete my renderings. I'd hate to purchase photoshop only for the purpose of inserting backgrounds.

Thanks again, -Jeremy

[Bubbaloo]

Seriously, you should be able to do what you want to do in Maxwell. I have done it before (though not since 1.7). I think there is something not working right for your scene.

[tom]

Jeremy, doing what you say is completely possible in Maxwell Render and Brian is right. I think there's something missing with the settings so, could you please send me a simple failing scene?

[lebbeus]

GIMP is a free image editor that runs on a Mac:

http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/

[Newell Design Studio]

Tom,

I opened a blank project in Studio. I really don't think that my problem has anything to do with the models that I'm importing. Could you give me a list of the boxes that I should have checked / unchecked?

Lebbeus,

I've got gimp running. Can you give me some simple tips for using the alpha channel to import a site photo?

Thanks again,

-Jeremy

[tom]

Jeremy, please download and watch the following movie:
http://www.divshare.com/download/5248985-9bd

Also, I guess you are not using the latest 1.7.1 version

[Newell Design Studio]

Thanks Tom,

I carefully followed along with your video. Unfortunately I've still got nothing. It's almost like the "sky for disabled channels" button overrides my background channel even when it is not disabled. Yes, I'm still running 1.6.

I have been waiting to update to 1.7... because I've been waiting for ArchiCAD 12. It has just arrived, so I'm going to be updating a few things next week. I'll run another test scene after all that and I'll tell you how it goes.

-Jeremy

[frosty_ramen]

Newell,

I think I have the solution for you, Go to "Edit" on the toolbar and about half way down on the drop menu there is an option called "Environment On/Off"
Select that and that should completely fix it.

or i could be wrong

dan :oops: