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IBL- Image Based Lighting question on how-to...


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SO- once again I am exploring IBL... I know that Stian used it quite nicely and had a tut out there showing how to... that I can't find.

 

I have a choreography where I have disabled all of my lights... I bring in an image like the one attached (I have tried many...) and I select IBL in the choreography properties, and assign the image. I get only a black image indicating there is more to it than that... what am I missing?

 

Kinetics Parkinglot.jpg

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Answering my own question... again. Looks like IBL utilizes A:M's proprietary AO... so that needs to be activated ON in the render settings... NICE!

what version? If you just want to use IBL in 17g - you don't need to use AO as well - does not need to be ON in render settings.

 

However, there does seem to be a glitch, in changing images to use for IBL, and doing quick screen renders (and maybe final renders) for testing. This glitch/bug has been there forever.

 

What I do when wanting to experiment with different images: I toggle the % in AO setting (change to 1) and then put it back to 0% - then the new image will take effect.

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Stian had a project file up on the forum.....or at least a tutorial with the ecto- car from Ghostbusters.

 

He had it set up with a "Dome" stamped. The trick is getting the settings on the HDRI IMAGE correct if I remember right.

 

You must choose the light type choice. Sphere, Box, Coordinate.....I think there are 3 choices.

 

Seems like I made two separate renders. Characters and background.

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He had it set up with a "Dome" stamped. The trick is getting the settings on the HDRI IMAGE correct if I remember right.

 

You must choose the light type choice. Sphere, Box, Coordinate.....I think there are 3 choices.

In A:M/ chor:

 

One uses Global Ambiance type = Image based lighting, with an environment map (any ol' image you want to use, HDRI or otherwise) and a mapping type: latitude-longitude, light probe, mirror sphere, cube map (cross). Depends on how/what the image is that you are using has been created. I usually select lat-long and use any image that has the right coloring that I like. But I don't go for physically based lighting. light probe images, mirror sphere images are usually physically based.

 

Regardless of image being used for IBL, environment map (no dome):

 

You set the Ambiance Intensity % (optionally also can set exposure, azimuth, I never do)

 

and can optionally use Ambiance Occlusion (or fakeao or ssao). If you want to use A:M native Ambiance Occlusion, then yes, you must set chor/camera/render options/Ambiance Occlusion = ON. For just Image based lighting IBL (no occlusion) - it can be OFF, and Ambiance occlusion =0% in chor.

 

It's not that hard. Very easy.

 

Not necessary to make separate renders for characters and background. You can use whatever background (camera roto, or dome with image mapped to dome) you want in A:M. The image used for background can be different from image used for environment lighting (IBL). If you want to use different background (can't decide) and composite later, then yes, make 2 renders - character and background.

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  • 1 year later...

I continue to struggle with the feedback on A:M's IBL feature, I find it best to make changes and then save and reopen the project. Also, there is an 'exposure' setting that helps to push-up a little bit... default is zero, but somewhere around 1 to 2 pumps-up the image's lighting value.

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Global Ambience, whether one "global color" or "image based", is the illumination that AO (Ambient occlusion) is occluding.

 

You need both.

Not so sure... I have it working without A:M's AO feature... which is SOOOO render costly. Here is a sample frame from AManda, rendering quite swiftly... I have the IBL set at 80% and a light off near camera at 20% and adding shadows and specularity. I am using the SSAO feature, but I don't think it needs it for the IBL to light the scene. Learning a LOT, I like IBL!

 

The 1st image (eyes closed) Has no AO of any variety, yet the IBL still lights it up nicely... and you can see what the SSAO brings to the table, defines details like the hair nicely. (I was also playing with DOF in the 1st image, 5 passes- the 2nd image is the standard non-multipass renderer, much quicker.)

aaa_9.jpg

aaa_8.jpg

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The ground is the standard ground plane with roughness and size added... the background is fog with camera color set to black. AManda has ignore fog set to ON.

 

I intend to upload the mdl and prj to the AManda forum whence I finally am satisfied with an animation render loop.

 

You have me wondering about the ibl/ao relationship... i might need to do some tests to see if it really works as you mentioned, and then to see if I can somehow speed-up the render. If I was only doing a still image I wouldnt care, but I need to chugg-out 300 frames (or more) overnight (using 8 NetRender cores) and cant abide by more than 5min per frame @1280X720

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I shall test that, then. I sort of got the look I was after (moving ibl lights) by using an image and keyframing it's 'azimuth' setting in the chor dialogue.

 

Another 'forget about it' feature when using IBL lighting... Sub-surface scattering (SSS) even if you have minimal IBL amount and plenty of scene lights.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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