Image based HDRI lightning compared to alternative techniques There are a variety of lighting techniques to use when creating an exterior light source for architectural interiors. Some artists like to use a standard direct light while others prefer a simulated sun and sky, such as the v-ray sun. While both of these methods are effective, I find that the lighting produced lacks the subtle imperfections and variations of reality. The most realistic lighting can be achieved by using image-based lighting.

What are HDRI images and how can they be used in 3DS MAX? High Dynamic Range Images are ideal for this type of setup as they contain the data for multiple cameras exposures within one file.HDR and.EXR are the most common high-dynamic range file formats. What makes these file types so versatile is the fact that they are 32-bit. Simply stated, if pixels are overexposed in the image, the exposure can be lowered and the blown out pixels will contain actual color data for the lower exposures. Pixels can also have values above 255 white, making it possible for bright pixels to have varying intensity.

A short tutorial on how to setup a basic lighting scene with Vray inside of 3DS Max 2014. Check the free plugin Syke from JokerMartini at jokermartini.com/.

This allows for a great degree of control and realism when lighting your scene that simply cannot be achieved with a standard 8-bit image. Most of the time you will find HDRI images that are 360° panoramic photo of the real location. For these images a bunch of photos pointing in all directions have been made from one location in reality and stitched together afterwards. There are different types of panoramic images – most of the time you will find spherical images. Where to download free HDRI-Images? There are many sources for great HDRI photography, however the images can be costly due to the great skill and expensive equipment required to create them. Fortunately, there are some excellent HDRI libraries that offer high quality images for free!

Let’s go over how to light a simple scene using an HDRI image. How to light an architecture scene with an HDRI-image? Please note that this is an intermediate-level tutorial, assuming that the reader knows the basics of modeling, materials, rendering, and navigating the 3DS Max interface. Load up 3DS Max. I am using Max 2014, V-ray 3, and have customized my UI a bit. Your setup may look slightly different but the process will be exactly the same.

The basic idea is that we want to create in our 3D environment a light source which generates the lightning information based on a texture image. Usually you can define the brightness or color of the light in a dialog, but in this case this information should be derived from an HDRI image that contains these information. Add a v-ray dome light to your scene. You can do this through [Create, Lights, VRay, VRayLight].