Intro to HDRI Lighting
An interactive real-world approach to CGI lighting
Introduction to image based lighting
High dynamic range images have been used for many years to light computer renderings. It is a mature technology with almost all renderers now supporting fast and efficient rendering using image based lighting. In fact, most real-time rendering software relies on HDRI as the main source of lighting and reflections. But why has HDRI become such an important part of the CG lighting tool kit? The answer is realism.
HDR lighting images capture a lot of useful information that is stored by each pixel as color and brightness values. Surrounding a 3D computer model with this data generates the brightness and color of the illumination coming from all directions and provides all the reflections seen by the 3D model. A bright light in a HDRI creates a bright reflection, and a bright reflection creates bright illumination from that direction - the lighting and reflections are hard-wired together in a HDRI. This is why renderers using photo-real materials, that react in a real-world manner to lighting and reflections, and HDRI lighting can create amazingly realistic results that are photographic and truly believable as real and not computer generated.
Static HDRI environments
Historically HDR lighting has been provided by static HDR images captured photographically with time consuming techniques or using expensive specialist HDR photographic hardware. This made sense as image based lighting has been traditionally used to visualize CG objects in a specific real-world environment - like a CG car being visualized on a stretch of road or in the countryside.
HDR Light Studio - Interactive HDRI
But why should HDRI be restricted to static environments? Could image based lighting evolve and become even more useful, could HDRI lighting techniques become as flexible as CG lighting, so lights can easily be moved and adjusted. The answer is Yes! HDR Light Studio provides a sophisticated real-time HDRI lighting design tool that 3D artists and visualizers can use to quickly design studio lighting or to enhance existing HDRI environments. HDRI has now become interactive, and this provides a totally new way to light your models! If this sounds exciting, then checkout the full list of HDR Light Studio features.
