Making an HDRI with Cheetah 3D v8

[ZooHead]

I have been using a member created HDRI called studio-f for a while and
I wanted to see if I could recreate it, as well as make some new ones.

I added a Gaussian blur in PS to soften the edges

The HDRI used in this animation was 2000 x 1000 but it was too
big to upload so I made one 1000 x 500 to play with.

I also included the jas file I used so you can make your own.
Just turn on the Renderer's "Save G-Buffer", and set it to
32 bit, then when you save choose hdr or exr.

 

[ZooHead]

I totally forgot to mention you must set the camera to Panorama.

 

[ZooHead]

I've redesigned my "stage" to better show off the color of an hdri light.

 

[ZooHead]

Here's a free night time hdri on the new stage.
I've only adjusted the Intensity parameter.

 

[ZooHead]

You can find many free hdri's at Poly Haven and HDRI Haven.

I've included the files for the stage model in case anyone wants to play with them.

 

[ZooHead]

During my early observations of cartoon animation, I found it amusing
that a reflection on a balloon was always a window, even outside.

This led me to make a reflection testing stage so
I could make an hdri for something like that.

Here is the setup for the hdri used in the image above.
No "room box", only the emissive objects and lights.

Here's the way the hdri looks. The four lights need to be Area lights set to Visible in Camera.
The camera Background color controls the overall ambient light.

In order to boost the Emissive output, add a color node to the Emissive channel and use the Intensity parameter.

 

[frank beckmann]

There´s a "Solid"-Shader included for that (and other) purpose(s). Just saying.

 

[ZooHead]

Thanks Frank, that's a great tip I haven't tried yet. This is fun stuff.

 

[ZooHead]

The Solid shader works exactly the same without the extra node.

Here's how to access the various shaders within the Node panel.