VFX Tasks

HDR Lighting

High Dynamic Range Imaging is a method to digitally capture and edit all light in a scene. It is used to conserve accurate intensity scales as well as color. Surrounding a 3D scene with a HDR environment literally brings natural light into the virtual world.

Application in CGI

Most 3D programs need an image that looks like an unfolded world map. This file can be called “Equirectangular”, “Spherical”, “LatLong” and also a “Latitude Longitude” file. Vertical Cross, Horizontal Cross, and Cubic HDRs - these are all just six 90-degree views of a scene or panorama. They just happen to be place together in a certain shape (vertical or horizontal cross) or saved as six separate cube faces as six different files.

Image-Based Lighting (IBL) is kind of a paradigm shift. IBL will not come off traditional methods, they can get totally mixed in. It's just that with HDR lighting, photo-realism is the starting point instead of the goal.