HDR Lighting & Shadows Technique

[noelyone]

Hi Guys,

Please help!

First of all please excuse the basic image, this is used purely for testing purposes.

Here's the problem, I am struggling to get dark shadows on my renders using a hdr for my environment. I have adjusted all the options and this is the best I can get! I have even brightened the intensity of the hdr until it is completely white and still the shadowing doesn't improve.

In the skindigo options, I am using

GAIN: 1
TYPE: Spherical

and have also adjusted the intensity of the brightness in the hdr file itself.

PS. I've converted the hdr file to an exr file in order for indigo to recognize it.

Basically, I want to my final renders to have:

1) a sweet sky in the background using the environment map

while at the same time, have

2) nice dark shadows that are created from the hdr file itself.

Any advice would be much appreciated - I've looked on numerous forums but am still at a loose end.

Cheers

Noel

[OnoSendai]

Hi, check out this tutorial by Zom-B:

http://www.indigorenderer.com/forum/vie ... =19&t=5088

[noelyone]

You're a star! Thanks for you prompt response, much appreciated!!
Best,
Noel

[noelyone]

Just had a browse on the link - it seems like quite a drawn out process just to get darker shadows.... Surely there must be a better way??? Or is this something that will be resolved in the next edition of Indigo?

[CTZn]

Hi Noel

Indigo being an unbiased renderer, the resulting shadows are directly inferred from the light sources used.

Darker shadows would require a weaker sky, or a stronger sun; that is, a stronger contrast between these two hdri elements. Therefore, editing the hdri gamma will lend better results than raising it's overal brightness wich acts equally on the whole image.

Here's a quote you will find in the linked thread:

The sun pixels should be something like 30000 to 100000 times brighter than other pixels

Now, Indigo has recently acquired the ability to render using the skylight+environment map at once but the feature is not yet implemented in every exporter (wich, IDK).

[noelyone]

Ctzn,
Many thanks for your advice - I will have a play tonight with the contrast between sun and sky within the hdr image.... hopefully this solves the problem!
Cheers
N