[tennet]

Hi,

I have tried to find answers here on how to use HDR environments using the Cinemaxwell plugin. Hope someone can help me with this.

Attached is a test I did using a default white Lambert material (rgb 242) for the backdrop and then a HDR-image in the in the Cinema 4D "Luminance channel" and the same HDR in the "reflection channel" (textured on the Sky-object). I have set the intensity of the reflection and luminance to be "1" (since default "100" gets too intensive). At SL 14 the render is still very noisy (even at SL 16, which it has reached now). If I create some emitters and use them instead of the HDR, then it doesn't get noisy at all.

Any ideas am I doing wrong with the HDR or why it gets so noisy? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

// tennet

[jespi]

Hi Tennet,

I think that could be related to HDR itself. Is it a homemade HDR?, I would try blurry the HDR a bit within photoshop because the noise could be produced by sharp lighting source within HDR itself.

Hope that makes sense,

josé

[tennet]

Hi Jespi,

Thanks for the info. I don't know how this particular HDR is made, but I have got the same noisy effect when using some homemade (photographed) HDR's.

So, if I blur the HDR used in the luminance channel for lighting, should I then load a "sharp" version of the same HDR in the reflection channel? This HDR is pretty highres, should I use a lower resolution for the lighting HDR's?

Thanks again!

// tennet

[jespi]

Hi again Tennet,

I would start switching off all the channels but the luminance's (the one you've blurred), also if the resolution is very high I would downsize it a bit and make a render. If the problems are still present download a bit more and apply more blur. I think that workflow will work for you.
Once you get the result you are looking for, stop the render and reload all the channels with the sharp version and the same resolution you have in the luminance channel.
Let me know if that work.

josé

[tennet]

Thanks Jespi, I will try this and post my new results here. I am actually trying to create a HDR of one of our studio setups right now, but I'm not sure if it will work to use for lighting. We are using a 8mm FishEye-lens with a Canon digital SLR camera and it captures a complete 180x180 degree image. We have shot 20 different exposures like attached images and then we'll try to use them to create the HDR.

Does anyone here know if it is possible to stitch these 180x180 circular images in any program to get complete 360x360 HDR's (see attached ref Fisheye-image)? The "unwrapped" version is made using Photoshop's "Polar cordinates" filter and this is what the HDR image will look like right now.

Hope someone have some more info about this. Thanks again.

// tennet

[jespi]

Take a look at this link http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... hp?t=20199
Let me know if that make sense to you.

[jespi]

Also if you have photoshop CS4, I will try using the new enhanced blend capabilities.
Take a look at this link http://www.csfour.com/files/auto_blend.html