COLOR

LIGHTING

  • HDRI shooting and editing by Xuan Prada and Greg Zaal

    www.xuanprada.com/blog/2014/11/3/hdri-shooting

     

    http://blog.gregzaal.com/2016/03/16/make-your-own-hdri/

     

    http://blog.hdrihaven.com/how-to-create-high-quality-hdri/

     

    Shooting checklist

    • Full coverage of the scene (fish-eye shots)
    • Backplates for look-development (including ground or floor)
    • Macbeth chart for white balance
    • Grey ball for lighting calibration
    • Chrome ball for lighting orientation
    • Basic scene measurements
    • Material samples
    • Individual HDR artificial lighting sources if required

    Methodology

    • Plant the tripod where the action happens, stabilise it and level it
    • Set manual focus
    • Set white balance
    • Set ISO
    • Set raw+jpg
    • Set apperture
    • Metering exposure
    • Set neutral exposure
    • Read histogram and adjust neutral exposure if necessary
    • Shot slate (operator name, location, date, time, project code name, etc)
    • Set auto bracketing
    • Shot 5 to 7 exposures with 3 stops difference covering the whole environment
    • Place the aromatic kit where the tripod was placed, and take 3 exposures. Keep half of the grey sphere hit by the sun and half in shade.
    • Place the Macbeth chart 1m away from tripod on the floor and take 3 exposures
    • Take backplates and ground/floor texture references
    • Shoot reference materials
    • Write down measurements of the scene, specially if you are shooting interiors.
    • If shooting artificial lights take HDR samples of each individual lighting source.

    Exposures starting point

    • Day light sun visible ISO 100 F22
    • Day light sun hidden ISO 100 F16
    • Cloudy ISO 320 F16
    • Sunrise/Sunset ISO 100 F11
    • Interior well lit ISO 320 F16
    • Interior ambient bright ISO 320 F10
    • Interior bad light ISO 640 F10
    • Interior ambient dark ISO 640 F8
    • Low light situation ISO 640 F5

     

    NOTE: The goal is to clean the initial individual brackets before or at merging time as much as possible.
    This means:

    • keeping original shooting metadata
    • de-fringing
    • removing aberration (through camera lens data or automatically)
    • at 32 bit
    • in ACEScg (or ACES) wherever possible

     

    Here are the tips for using the chromatic ball in VFX projects, written in English:
    https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bellrodrigo_here-are-the-tips-for-using-the-chromatic-activity-7200950595438940160-AGBp

     

    Tips for Using the Chromatic Ball in VFX Projects**

    The chromatic ball is an invaluable tool in VFX work, helping to capture lighting and reflection data crucial for integrating CGI elements seamlessly. Here are some tips to maximize its effectiveness:

     

    1. **Positioning**:
    – Place the chromatic ball in the same lighting conditions as the main subject. Ensure it is visible in the camera frame but not obstructing the main action.
    – Ideally, place the ball where the CGI elements will be integrated to match the lighting and reflections accurately.

     

    2. **Recording Reference Footage**:
    – Capture reference footage of the chromatic ball at the beginning and end of each scene or lighting setup. This ensures you have consistent lighting data for the entire shoot.

     

    3. **Consistent Angles**:
    – Use consistent camera angles and heights when recording the chromatic ball. This helps in comparing and matching lighting setups across different shots.

     

    4. **Combine with a Gray Ball**:
    – Use a gray ball alongside the chromatic ball. The gray ball provides a neutral reference for exposure and color balance, complementing the chromatic ball’s reflection data.

     

    5. **Marking Positions**:
    – Mark the position of the chromatic ball on the set to ensure consistency when shooting multiple takes or different camera angles.

     

    6. **Lighting Analysis**:
    – Analyze the chromatic ball footage to understand the light sources, intensity, direction, and color temperature. This information is crucial for creating realistic CGI lighting and shadows.

     

    7. **Reflection Analysis**:
    – Use the chromatic ball to capture the environment’s reflections. This helps in accurately reflecting the CGI elements within the same scene, making them blend seamlessly.

     

    8. **Use HDRI**:
    – Capture High Dynamic Range Imagery (HDRI) of the chromatic ball. HDRI provides detailed lighting information and can be used to light CGI scenes with greater realism.

     

    9. **Communication with VFX Team**:
    – Ensure that the VFX team is aware of the chromatic ball’s data and how it was captured. Clear communication ensures that the data is used effectively in post-production.

     

    10. **Post-Production Adjustments**:
    – In post-production, use the chromatic ball data to adjust the CGI elements’ lighting and reflections. This ensures that the final output is visually cohesive and realistic.

    , ,
    Read more: HDRI shooting and editing by Xuan Prada and Greg Zaal
  • 3D Lighting Tutorial by Amaan Kram

    http://www.amaanakram.com/lightingT/part1.htm

    The goals of lighting in 3D computer graphics are more or less the same as those of real world lighting.

     

    Lighting serves a basic function of bringing out, or pushing back the shapes of objects visible from the camera’s view.
    It gives a two-dimensional image on the monitor an illusion of the third dimension-depth.

    But it does not just stop there. It gives an image its personality, its character. A scene lit in different ways can give a feeling of happiness, of sorrow, of fear etc., and it can do so in dramatic or subtle ways. Along with personality and character, lighting fills a scene with emotion that is directly transmitted to the viewer.

     

    Trying to simulate a real environment in an artificial one can be a daunting task. But even if you make your 3D rendering look absolutely photo-realistic, it doesn’t guarantee that the image carries enough emotion to elicit a “wow” from the people viewing it.

     

    Making 3D renderings photo-realistic can be hard. Putting deep emotions in them can be even harder. However, if you plan out your lighting strategy for the mood and emotion that you want your rendering to express, you make the process easier for yourself.

     

    Each light source can be broken down in to 4 distinct components and analyzed accordingly.

    · Intensity
    · Direction
    · Color
    · Size

     

    The overall thrust of this writing is to produce photo-realistic images by applying good lighting techniques.

    , ,
    Read more: 3D Lighting Tutorial by Amaan Kram
  • The Color of Infinite Temperature

    This is the color of something infinitely hot.

    Of course you’d instantly be fried by gamma rays of arbitrarily high frequency, but this would be its spectrum in the visible range.

    johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2022/01/16/the-color-of-infinite-temperature/

    This is also the color of a typical neutron star. They’re so hot they look the same.
    It’s also the color of the early Universe!

    This was worked out by David Madore.

    The color he got is sRGB(148,177,255).
    www.htmlcsscolor.com/hex/94B1FF

    And according to the experts who sip latte all day and make up names for colors, this color is called ‘Perano’.

    ,
    Read more: The Color of Infinite Temperature
  • Photography basics: Solid Angle measures

    http://www.calculator.org/property.aspx?name=solid+angle

     

     

    A measure of how large the object appears to an observer looking from that point. Thus. A measure for objects in the sky. Useful to retuen the size of the sun and moon… and in perspective, how much of their contribution to lighting. Solid angle can be represented in ‘angular diameter’ as well.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_angle

     

    http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/steradian.html

     

    A solid angle is expressed in a dimensionless unit called a steradian (symbol: sr). By default in terms of the total celestial sphere and before atmospheric’s scattering, the Sun and the Moon subtend fractional areas of 0.000546% (Sun) and 0.000531% (Moon).

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_angle#Sun_and_Moon

     

    On earth the sun is likely closer to 0.00011 solid angle after athmospheric scattering. The sun as perceived from earth has a diameter of 0.53 degrees. This is about 0.000064 solid angle.

    http://www.numericana.com/answer/angles.htm

     

    The mean angular diameter of the full moon is 2q = 0.52° (it varies with time around that average, by about 0.009°). This translates into a solid angle of 0.0000647 sr, which means that the whole night sky covers a solid angle roughly one hundred thousand times greater than the full moon.

     

    More info

     

    http://lcogt.net/spacebook/using-angles-describe-positions-and-apparent-sizes-objects

    http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/glossary/def.php.s=topic_astronomy

     

    Angular Size

    The apparent size of an object as seen by an observer; expressed in units of degrees (of arc), arc minutes, or arc seconds. The moon, as viewed from the Earth, has an angular diameter of one-half a degree.

     

    The angle covered by the diameter of the full moon is about 31 arcmin or 1/2°, so astronomers would say the Moon’s angular diameter is 31 arcmin, or the Moon subtends an angle of 31 arcmin.

    , ,
    Read more: Photography basics: Solid Angle measures

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