Im writing this topic because I posted a message on HDRLABS forum about Licensing some HDRIS to Octane Render.
Christian Bloch a world famous (I think I can use these words) HDR photographer and admin at HDRLABS answered me.
Here's what I wrote back to Christian Bloch (not the full message)Christian Bloch:
Hey Sam,
Great reel.
Ha, yes, I noticed that the sIBL-Archive got linked in the Octane forum. The renderer looks very awesome, from what I could see from the movie. Wish they had a plugin for viewport integration, or maybe some sort of Firefox plugin. Great tech, really. Trying to twist my head around ways of actually making it useful in production. FBX or some other means of loading/rendering animations would be a first step....
Anyway, thanks for the idea, gonna hit them up.
How do I contact him?
Christian Bloch
Blochi (at) EdenFX (dot) com
So yeah now here's a little explanation of what is smart IBL...Sam:
Thanks Blochi for reading me and answering (...)
But I think Terrence is currently too busy coding to look in details what's sIBL and what are the benefits, im gonna write a feature request in the forum explaining what is smart IBL and how Octane render could benefit of that great technology im sure a lot of people who don't know sIBL will agree that its the next revolution in HDR lighting(...)
The best way to contact him is to make an account in the forum and send a PM (I think you can't send PM until 3 days) or you can use info (at) refractivesoftware (dot) com (...)
(all images and text courtesy of http://www.hdrlabs.com)
Lighting a 3d scene with panoramic HDR imagery has revolutionized computer graphics
Smart IBL take it a step further, into pure awesomeness (that's not from HDRLABS text
)Smart IBL is not a shader or render algorithm, it’s just an idea. It was designed as an open system, completely transparent to artists and developers - flexible enough to power an entire company pipeline, and portable enough to work in every 3d application. And most importantly, it's completely free.
Current HDRI lighting flaws
Every off-the shelf 3d software nowadays includes a Global Illumination (GI) render engine that can be fueled with HDRIs to create photorealistic renderings. However, a common pitfall is that GI takes longer to render, especially when using high-res HDRIs. It takes ridiculously high quality settings to get rid of sampling noise or flickering. That's why, in practice it’s much more efficient to use a blurred low-res image for diffuse lighting, and a high-res image for reflections only.
Another common problem is the sun. It's just too bright, which makes it notoriously hard to capture. It's even harder to render with, because it causes the worst render artifacts. Much more convenient is a regular 3d directional light, allowing more control over intensity and shadow. Such advanced lighting rigs result in better renderings in less render time, but they can be a pain to set up. Aside from preprocessing the HDR images the right way, you have to pull a dozen levers in a 3d application to make it work. Even if you know exactly how to set up an advanced IBL rig, it becomes tedious and repetitive work.
Smart IBL takes the fuzz out of it. It puts optimized IBL setups on a single button again. On top of that, it represents a unified way of organizing your HDR collection into ready-made lighting solutions.
Just pick a preset, and everything falls into place
3 basic ingredients at the core of smartIBL
- a super high res panorama image as camera background
- a high res HDR as specular component for reflection mapping
- a blurred low res HDR as diffuse environment lighting
The idea is to put all these three images together in a folder, and link them together with a description file.
From that point on they are siblings. Together they form a complete lighting set.
We also throw in a sunlight, that matches in color, direction and intensity.
The description file is the key, because here we keep all the relevant setup information. It is in plain text format, easy to parse and well documented. You actually don’t have to care about the individual images anymore. All you have to do is choose the sIBL set you want to load. We even included short notes and a thumbnail image, so you can make an educated choice.
Why smartIBL is better ?
- Everything is still accessible for standard system tools. No database, no fancy file formats, nothing proprietary
- You get sun shadows, and you get tools to place the sun where you want to !
- Less noise when you render, faster renderings, easy to script
You can use HDRLABS SIBL-EDIT to make smart IBL sets from HDR images.
sIBL-Edit is a standalone application. Whatever 3d app you choose for the loader scripts - sIBL Edit is the independent backbone.
A complete toolkit focused on managing and editing your sIBL Collection. And it looks pretty slick, too. It’s divided in three parts, one for each task: Managing, Editing, and Creation.
Its available for Windows and Linux
HDRLABS are also the makers of a really great HDR imaging software called Picturenaut
It has been in the works for four years, with consistent improvements according to user feedback.
It has always been freeware, thus setting the standard for making high quality HDR Imaging accessible and easy.
Here's random key features from Picturnaut page on HDRLABS website
- Plugins originally written for HDRShop integrate seamlessly into Picturenaut as well
- reads EXIF metadata and ICC profiles from the source images
- Automatic image alignment / Exposure correction / Color balancing / Ghost removal / RAW support
Noise level compensation /Full control over camera curve - One local and three global tone mapping operators are built in, all with mind blowing speed due to multicore-CPU support
Smart IBL Archive is the place where every smart IBL set are located. Its a library with a nice way of showing IBL sets.
For each set you get information about how much space it takes, who is the author, where its been shot.
You get a description of the place shot, and informations about the content of the IBL set and the various resolutions.
Read more about Smart IBL
Smart IBL Overview
How sIBL works ?
Smart IBL Archive, all the sIBL in one place !
Smart IBL-Edit / a software to make sIBL
IBL format specifications for developers
Smart IBL forums
Read more about Picturenaut
Picturenaut Overview
Key features
Filters and Plugins
FAQ and user manual
Picturenaut SDK
Picturenaut forums
Hdrlabs also make books / write tutorials / share tools / show galleries
All about making the best HDRIS you can
Thanks for reading, hope you like it (Its mainly copy-pasting HDRLABS text
)Please make some comments and tell what you think about smart IBL
For the curious, there's scripts for Lightwave / 3DS Max / Maya / Modo to use smart IBL in those applications
