Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
are willing to pay. For the most part, excellent-quality images can be rendered by using free images and a
little creativity.
For a good start, look to the Outdoor environment presets that install with modo. These images are made
up of both spherical images as well as image probes and are moderate in quality. Delete the default Direc-
tional Light or hide it, and load one of these images for a good, quick light setup, as shown in Figure 11-36 .
Depending on the environment image, the Intensity may need to be adjusted (in the Environment proper-
ties). This example has the Intensity set to 3.0.
Figure 11-36: An HDR environment from the Outdoor environment presets
Lighting without Textures
When looking for a lighting solution, it is often helpful to render without visible textures. To do this,
simply select the Base Material (located at the bottom of the materials in the Shader Tree) and drag it
up to just under the Base Shader. Any materials that you still want to see (for example, the grass) can
be placed above the Base Material (still under the Base Shader). This will allow you to see the lighting
unencumbered by the visual differences between materials.
To further enhance the speed and quality of the rendering, you need to think about the way that lighting
with HDRs actually works. With the environment image wrapped around the scene, light is calculated
based on high and low values in the image and then directed toward the scene. If the background image is
2000×2000 pixels, there are a total of four million possible variations in lighting. For the sake of reflections
or use as a backdrop, this kind of resolution is valuable, but for lighting it is definitely overkill.
The easiest solution is to create an alternate image for lighting and use the higher resolution for the re-
flections and, if need be, for the backdrop. You can lower the image's resolution by increasing the Minim-
um Spot value. Alternatively, you can create a duplicate of the image in Photoshop, reduce the resolution
(256×256 pixels works well), and blur the image a bit (5-10 pixels). Either of these methods works, but us-
 
 
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