I have been scouring the web to find a way to make light probes. ever since blender has been able to output hdri’s, I’ve been trying to make my own light probes. But sadly elysiun’s search (and google for that matter)wasn’t able to find what I need.
I tried using a saved envmap. I also tried using a panorama. Neither worked very well at all.
I know there is software out there but I don’t know of anything that’s free besides cinepaint, and doesn’t work on windows (or maybe just my computer).
Also, if anyone knows of any tutorials on using blenders hdr outputs methods, please post them here.
A couple of additoinal tips:
Use a high resolution digital camera. It must have manual settings so you can take multiple exposures with about one f-stop between them. One that can save files in RAW format is better.
If you don’t mind the camera being part of the light probe, then you can skip most of the tutorial cited above. You don’t need to take two sets of exposures and merge them unless you are removing the camera/photographer from the light probe. The important part is in this tutorial
where the sequence of exposures are assembled into an HDRI. For best results, read all the tutorials and read discussion on the HDRShop discussion board, if you have time.
I’m actualy trying to use blender’s internal renderer to make light probes. Although I might one day try making a real one.
so far I have been able to make the light probe in the sense that its the correct shape. But I can’t seem to get the image to output correctly. I tried using radiosity to light a sceene and outputinbg the image as a radiance hdr, but the emiters don’t show up like a real light source would in an hdr.
I will continue to experiment. If anyone has any idea why I am having this problem, please let me know.
I had the same issue. Now I’m trying to render a panorama several times with increasing exposure in the ‘world’ buttons. When that’s done I merge them to a HDR file in Photoshop CS3, but it’s possible in CS2 as well.
I’m halfway now so I don’t know if this is really going to work, but in theory it should.
For what it’s worth, I’ve heard of people using circular fish eye lenses on SLRs to do the same sort of thing without a ball. I realize most people don’t have that sort of lens but it’s an interesting alternative.
First, you find an alien who has been abducting humans for examination and experimentation. Next, you learn to communicate with it and open a channel of trade and educational sharing between our species. Next, you attend their engineering and fabrication courses related to medical devices, specifically nasal/anal-examination probes. Then sign up for a course in industrial fabrication and use their vo-tech resources to construct a working prototype.
, but they have way too many imperfections. You need a nearly perfect sphere.