NEWBIE - lighting question

[whcraft]

I am still new to Keyshot and learning my way around.  I am still a little behind the curve on lighting techniques.
I am trying figure how to light one of my company's products.  We support the construction and mining industries.
I need to figure out how to better light the inside of the attached excavator bucket.  Any help, suggestions or tutorials
will be appreciated.  Also, my HDR Light Studio plug-in gives me an error when I try to use it.

thanks

[guest84672]

You can rotate the HDRI and also change the "height" in the environment tab.

Additionally, you could place an area light inside the shovel and hide it in the camera, shadows and reflections.

Not sure about HDRI Light Studio, we don't really support the product.

[whcraft]

thanks for the suggestions.  I've experimented with the rotation and height thing but I'm not really sure on how to add an area light.
Is that in the edit HDRI and placing pins?

[guest84672]

No. From the edit menu import a cube/sphere/plane and place it inside the shovel. Then double click on that object to edit the material. In the type pulldown you will see 3 light materials. Select area light diffuse, and adjust intensity and color, and then hide it using the advanced options in the material to make it invisible to camera, doesn't affect shadows, etc.

If you have Pro with the HDRI editor, you could place a pin by selecting "place highlight", and click right inside the shovel. Then adjust the pin's shape, color, falloff and brightness accordingly.

[whcraft]

thanks again. I do have Pro and will see what I can do with your suggestions.

[guest84672]

Also - take a look at some of the quick tips:
https://www.keyshot.com/learning/quicktips/

And this webinar on lighting:
https://youtu.be/LbutzHVbE_Q?hd=1&fs=1&autoplay=1&rel=0

[whcraft]

thanks again for the info...

[whcraft]

I'm still not getting it.  I've tried the sphere route but get hot spots.  I have pro so I can edit the HDRI and have tried the pin thing with 'add highlight'.  I have no clue as to where the pin is in to relation to the model.  I guess I just need a remedial tutorial of putting a light inside of a box that will give smooth even lighting to the interior.  I am also using the 'all white' HDRI as my default.  Any help is greatly appreciated.

[guest84672]

When editing the HDRI use "set highlight" to place a pin. Click on the model using CTRL + Click to place the highlight. Then adjust the position by dragging it directly on the surface, adjust intensity and highlights.

If you set a physical light make sure that you control the intensity and position to control hotspots. Maybe a plane gives better results.

[whcraft]

I can click on the model to place the pin but that still does not tell me where in relation to the model the light is.  I can do a front view and place the pin in the center of the the bucket but that doesn't tell me where the pin actually is.  Is it inside of the bucket like I intended or is it just centered in the view and is somewhere out in space.

[guest84672]

It is placed on the hdri. change tho color of the pin so you can see its location (since you are doing white on white)

[hpvd]

just one question to this topic: is there a color picker for adjusting the color of light of a new pin to the color of background (lights)?

[hpvd]

btw:

Not sure about HDRI Light Studio, we don't really support the product.

[guest84672]

Yes it is part of the color tool.