own evironment jpg

[Robert V.]

Hi all,

I made my own environment (360-180 spherical) of my kitchen... (no hdr)

However, when I enable the 'ground-shadows" I get a black floor and much of the reflections become black as well.
Even when I use a backplate, I get a black circle~ish floor.

Is it possible to get the normal soft shadows in these jpg environments?


(ps, the reflection option doesn't seem to work at all when I use my own environment.)

[guest84672]

Yes- it as jpeg, and it is a non-spherical image. And you won't get any lighting.

[Robert V.]

sorry, do you mean that I have to make a non-spherical image? Or that I have to make spherical image of my jpg, and how do I add lighting? (is there a special program for that? where I can implement my own jpg to convert it to a *.hdr.)

[waters]

Following up on this thread, can someone CLEARLY spell out the relationship between environment and backplate? I think I get the HDRI thing. The important part is converting my spherical image to 32 bit and then saving as .hdr ( I think ) So, the spherical panorama I made in PTGui can now be used as an environment in Key Shot and should exhibit the same spherical projection as other HDRI environments already available. ( This is all somewhat theoretical ) The next part is the backplate, which according to my understanding has the ability to catch or exhibit more lighting than an environment, but as the instructions are nonexistent, this is all conjecture! How do I create a backplate to match my environment? Maybe some examples of a scene with environment and a scen with environment and backplate.

Thanks!

[Chad Holton]

Hi waters,
The backplate is basically a picture that your rendering is placed on. A backplate doesn't effect lighting or reflection - that's what the environment is for. I usually do product renderings without any backplate using the alpha channel. But sometimes for fun, I'll do one using a backplate. Not only so I don't have to put a "background" in later with a photo editor but to match perspective, brightness, gamma, etc. with the backplate. You are in an idea situation where you have control of your own environment and matching backplates.

[waters]

Cholton:

Thanks for your reply. If I have an environment ( let's say a spherical panorama I have imported ) the backplate would need to match whichever view I render in, i.e. if I rotate the view then the backplate would need to change to match the new view?
Thanks

[Chad Holton]

You can easily match the backplate to your environment by toggling the backplate off and on with the "b" button, so you can have your shadows in the right spot. But to be clear, you can not rotate your backplate along with the environment. Good thought though! But for now you may want to pick your favorite backdrops from your panoramic picture to use as a backplate and match the environment accordingly. I hope I'm being helpful - I was confused at first when using backplates and environments too.