OTOY Forums

I want to light a product with a HDRI but I want a background element and want the ability to move round the object. Is there a way of allowing the HDRI to pass through a closed mesh without hiding it fully?

The way I've been doing it is rendering out with a background, then doing a second render with the background disabled and then overlaying. But this means having to render x2 so more than doubles my render times just for a simple thing.

Would appreciate a reply.

You could try adjusting the visibility of the Octane Object tag of the closed mesh by disabling Shadow Visibility. That might allow the HDRI environment light to illuminate. Maybe.

Hi,
another possibility could be to use a Panoramic Spherical Camera for rendering the closed space, with 2:1 aspect ratio.
Then load it in the Visible Environment node, while the original HDRI is the Primary Environment.
In this way, you can turn around the object with the correct background, and the render will be much faster to be calculated.

ciao,
Beppe

I think I've kind of figured it out with the RAY SWITCH node. I'll add a file...I've not stress tested it in a proper scene yet. The ray switch node is a bit glitchy in that you have to move the sliders round for it to register once you add it to the opacity channel.

It's nice because you can catch reflections on the floor while still lighting with HDRI. It's essentially ONLY visible to the camera but still gets lit by the HDRI.



I've added the file too in case anyone else wants to do this.

I know it's not realistic but I'm a motion designer so sometimes you just need to break the rules..I really want to try Redshift but haven't had the time to pick it up.

Thanks alot for the suggestions, I did try object tag first, but did;t think of the spherical camera idea, I did try that but the problem is you don't get any movement on camera panning..I guess you could add it to a sphere but it still looks a bit weird, definitely going to spend more time in that