hdr light studio 3.0 user guide

HDR Light Studio 3.0 Contents

Contents

Whats New in 3.0 Page 3

Main Interface Overview Page 4

Getting Started Page 5

Synthetic Lights Page 6

Picture Lights Page 15

Color Page 16

Background Settings Page 24

Render Settings Page 27

LiveLight Page 28

Project Menu Page 35

Help Menu Page 36

Keyboard Commands Page 37

Whats New in HDR Light Studio version 3.0GeneralIts all real-time a far more interactive experience! Every setting in HDR Light Studio 3.0 now updates the HDR canvas in real-time. Adjust a light color, the background gradient, HDR background rotation or brightness and instantly see the results without waiting to press OK.HDi project les now have an icon in Windows, and can be double clicked to open them in HDR Light Studio.

Main InterfaceRe-name lights double click a light in the list to re-name it.Picture Lights are given their Picture Light name but can be re-named afterwards.Click and drag lights up and down the light list to easily re-order them.Hover over a light in the list and a cross appears on the HDR canvas showing the location of that light, making it easier to identify your lights.The light visibility states are now saved in the HDi project les.

Synthetic Light PropertiesNew Custom fall-off setting. Create advanced fall-off curves with cosine, bezier, at and bar interpolation.Additional log transform helps with ner control of the darker areas of the fall-off curve.Synthetic lights can now have a gradient ramp of color that follows the fall-off shape.

New Light Blending ModesAmp amplies (increases) the exposure of the underlying content. Its like shining a light at the underlying content. If the light is colored, it is like shining a colored light.Col just colors the underlying content with the color of this light. Intensity driven by wattage.Sat - increases the saturation of the underlying content. Intensity driven by wattage.These modes can be used with the INV button to inverse their effect (was the Dark button in HDR Light Studio version 2.0). These modes also affect the underlying HDRI background in Pro, allowing advanced selective adjustment of existing HDR environments exposure and color, especially powerful when used in conjunction with the new custom fall-off.

Picture Light PropertiesLights can now be colorised with a gradient ramp of color. This ramp can also be used to change the fall-off brightness from the centre to the edge of the light. Ideal for controlling a soft box fall-off.

Advanced Lightmap Color PickerA totally unique color picker designed by Lightmap - specically for the needs of lighting artists. Select a color on a Hue Saturation square and make adjustments to your selection on our 7 x 7 color tune grid. The grid can be set at a variety of color range resolutions. Its a unique way to explore and rene your colors (all in real-time). The new color picker offers many ways to choose your colors by matching colors from HDR images, LDR images and Color Temperature (Kelvin).

HDRI Background SettingsFine tune the HDRI rotation with both Degree and Minute precision.Colorize your HDRI background ideal when used with studio background images to create any background color from a single grey-scale HDRI.Flip - now you can ip the referenced HDRI horizontally.

LiveLight EnhancementsLiveLight is now faster with an enhanced render engine.Added support for loading Collada les into LiveLight - including multiple cameras.Select your camera views from .mi and Collada les containing multiple cameras.Metallic reection mode has been added.Floor Shadow grounds a model giving it a more realistic feel, without the need for importing oor geometry that blocks light and reections from the HDRI.Choose an image (JPEG, TIF, BMP) or a solid color for the LiveLight background.Tone-mapping has been replaced with a gamma setting.Models are loaded with the Load Model Button on the LiveLight control panel - not from the le menu.

HDR Light Studio 3.0 Whats new in 3.0

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Createrectangularsyntheticlight

Deleteselectedlight

Cloneselectedlight

LightList HDR Canvas

Selected Light Properties

Createroundsyntheticlight

Createhexagonalsyntheticlight

Create andchoose apicture light

Backgroundsettings

Open renderdialog window

Increasecanvasexposure

Decreasecanvasexposure

Lat-long orcubic guideson canvas

Undo & Redo

Show/hidelights

OpenLiveLightwindow

HDR Light Studio 3.0 Main Interface Overview

Main Interface Overview

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Getting Started - The Basics

The HDR Canvas represents a latitude-longitude sphere map.

Click on any of the light buttons to create a new light in the centre of the HDR Canvas.

The currently selected light is highlighted orange in the Light List and has an orange circle at its centre on the HDR Canvas.

The properties of the currently selected light are displayed in the Light Properties panel at the bottom of the main window.

Numerical properties of the light (wattage, latitude etc.) can be changed using either the sliders or via its corresponding edit box.

The location of the currently selected light can be changed by clicking at a new position directly on the HDR Canvas. Lights are positioned using their centre location.

Select a light by either clicking on the light in the Light List or using the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard to move through the list.

Drag and drop lights within the Light List to change their order on the canvas.

The Canvas Exposure controls can be used to change the exposure of the HDR Canvas. This allows for easy inspection of the complete dynamic range of the HDR design and does not effect the brightness of any generated HDR image.

Your lighting design can be saved and reloaded at any time using the Project menu.

To generate a HDR image for use in your rendering software, use the Render button to select the image size and le format, then browse for a le location and give it a le name.

Tip: Once you have rendered a HDR image, you can press CTRL and click the Render button again to immediately re-render with the same settings as last time, this will overwrite your last saved render.

HDR Light Studio 3.0 Getting Started

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Bulb length 50%Bulb length 0% Bulb length 100%

Bulb length 50%Bulb position 0%

Bulb length 50%Bulb position 25%

Bulb length 50%Bulb position -50%

Synthetic Light Properties

Light Brightness and Color

The currently selected light brightness is controlled by the Wattage slider (or numerical input).Its color can be changed by clicking on the RGB square next to the Wattage numeric input and usingthe color picker to select a new value.

Bulb Length %

Allows you to adjust the bulb from a point source (0%) through to a tube-light the full width of the light shape (100%). Light is at its maximum brightness along the bulb length and falls off away from it.

Bulb Position %

Allows you to adjust the bulb position within the light from the top (-50%) through to the bottom (50%).

Fall Off %

The light is at its brightest where the bulb is, which by default is in the middle of the light. The light gets darker as you move away from the bulb and clamps to a minimum value as specied by the Fall Off % value. When this is set to 0%, the edge of the light is totally dark and thus the edge is soft. This is great for a spotlight effect. Values above 0% will result in a hard edge.

Opacity %

Adjusts how transparent the light source is. Can also be useful for ne adjustment of a lights brightness/effect.

HDR Light Studio 3.0 Synthetic Lights

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Out button Off

Fall Off inside lights boundary Fall Off outside lights boundary

Fall Off stopsbefore it reaches

the corners leavingcorners with at

brightness

Out button On

The Fall Offcontinuesright intothe corner

Bulb length: 0% Bulb length: 50% Bulb length: 100%

Bulb length: 0%Bulb position: 50%



Out setting

By default the Fall Off for the light nishes at the edge of the light shape, allowing round soft lights with a Fall Off % setting of 0. By selecting the Out setting the Fall Off nishes at the corners of the light. This provides a more realistic soft box effect where the light falls off across the entire surface of the light.

How the Out setting works in conjunction with the bulb width and position

The diagrams below show a rectangular light with the Out button On.

The red dotted line shows where the Fall Off value is reached and describes the Fall Off shape. The small red squares and thick red lines indicate the intersection of the minimum Fall Off value with the edge of the light shape. The black line shows the outside shape of the rectangular light, this is the part that can be seen in HDR Light Studio.

With the Out button On, the Fall Off value is reached outside or on the edge of the light shape. The Fall Off occurs symmetrically away in both axis from the bulb.

Out On Examples

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With the Out setting Off the Fall Off generally nishes inside the light shape.

Once again, the red dotted line shows where the Fall Off value is reached and describes the Fall Off shape. The small red squares and thick red lines indicate the intersection of the minimum Fall Off value with the edge of the light shape. The black line shows the outside shape of the rectangular light, this is the part that can be seen in HDR Light Studio.

On the next page are more examples as you would see them on the HDR Light Studio canvas. These begin to show how powerful these combinations of simple settings can be in creating a wide range of lighting effects.

Inv

The Inv setting inverses the lights effect. This can be used to remove light from the underlying lighting. The effect on Inv depends on the chosen blend mode.

Half

This removes the bottom half of your light with a clean hard edge.








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Out Off Examples

Fall Off modes

No Fall OffThe light maintains its Wattage brightness right up to the edge - providing a block of uniform brightness.

Linear Fall OffLinear transition from Wattage to Fall Off %.

Cosine Fall OffCosine transition from Wattage to Fall Off %. The best choice for soft box effect with the Out setting On.

Custom Fall OffCustom Fall Off allows users to precisely control how the lights brightness changes across the light. When using Custom Fall Off, the Fall Off % setting is ignored and only the custom values are used.

There are 4 different interpolation modes inbetween points on the ramp: Cosine, Bezier, Linear and Flat.The most useful is Bezier which enables the user to create very smooth curves.

Double click on the fall off ramp to add a new point. Adjust a points value using the slider on the left. The fall off design is vizualised on the graph. You cant interact directly with the graph... it is generated by the ramp below which is where you select and control the position of the points. We created the graph view to better illustrate the speed and smoothness of the fall off ramp. All adjustments to the fall off are updated on the HDR canvas in real-time and fed into LiveLight. Delete a selected point by pressing delete.


Cosine

Complex and perfectly smooth fall off ramps can be created.

Bezier Linear Flat

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FALL OFF RAMP

VALU

E S

LID

ER

VIZUALISATION OF

FALL OFF CURVE

THE RESULTING LIGHT AS SEEN ON THE HDR CANVAS

Log Transform


With log transform off - the fall-off curveis used as you see it in the graph curve.

Turn log tranform On and the darker parts ofthe ramp are made even darker. This allows usersto create a very bright light at the center yetstill have subtle control over the dark end of theramp. Important to smoothly blend inlighting effects.

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Log Transform Off

Log Transform On


Light Blending Modes

Add Add

Inv

+

Shown here a white light with Add modeWhite light sits on top of theunderlying content with the fall offaffecting transparency towards the edge.

Using the Add mode with the Inv buttonOn, the light adds dark values to theunderlying content.

Solid Solid

Inv

+

Solid covers everything under the light.This is default mode for Picture Lights.The fall off just affects the brightnessand not transparency.

In this case the edges are dark andthe middle of the light cant go any darker.

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Amp Amp

Inv

+

Amp intensies the brightness of theunderlying content. It reacts much morelike a real light source illuminating theunderlying content.

A colored light with Amp mode intensiesthe brightness of that color in the underlyingcontent - so here its like shining a majentalight into the background HDRI.

Shown here a white light with mp modeand the Inv (Inverse) button selected.The light now takes light away fromunderlying content.

Color Color

Inv

+

Use colored lights to colorize theunderlying content. The brightness isnot affected. You can use this to warmand cool areas of the underlying content.

Using the Inv setting, the opposite coloris used.

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Sat Sat

Inv

+

The light increases the saturation ofthe content underneath. The color of thelight is ignored in this mode.

Using the Inv setting, the saturationis removed from the content underneath.

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Picture Lights

Click the Picture Light button to open the Picture Light Browser. You will be presented with all installed Picture Lights. All Picture Lights contain HDR information and include an alpha channel that describes the lights outline or transparency. Picture Lights enable very realistic light sources to be included in HDR Light Studio that have been captured photographically. Picture Lights also allow very complex effects to be created.

Picture Lights have many of the same controls as the Synthetic Lights. Once a light has been chosen, you can simply change the light for another whilst maintaining all of your settings, just click on the Change light source... button.

You can also colorize a Picture Light by ticking the Colorize box and then selecting the color you would like by clicking the colour swatch that appears.

A list of available lights contained within the installed HDRI Light Packs.

Preview of thecurrently selectedlight.

HDR Light Studio 3.0 Picture Lights

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1. Hue & SaturationArea

7. Color Slots

3. Color TuningGrid

5. Color Tuning GridMagnication

6. Value Slider

2. Color MatchingTools Launch buttons

4. Color Tuning Zone

HDR Light Studio 3.0 Color

Main Color Window

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The HDR Light Studio color selection system is an innovative new way to choose and explore color. All color selections and renements update on the HDR canvas in real-time, providing the instant visual feedback lighting artists need to make important color decisions.

Using the Color Window

The workow for the color selection is to select a starting color and to use the color tuning grid to make a more accurate selection of the nal color.

A starting color can be selected directly on the Hue & Saturation area (1). This selection is then placed at the center of the Color Tuning Grid. You can decide the range of colors shown in this grid by adjusting the magnication using the buttons on the right (5). The range of this color tuning grid is displayed on the Hue & Saturation area. Rene your color by picking a color from the grid. The selected color is highlighted with an outline and is the selected color.

Adjust the brightness of the color using the Value Slider (6). This is often not required because this only reduces the brightness of the light - which should be controlled using the wattage. Only Hue and Saturation are important when choosing the color of light!

Drag and drop a color from anywhere on the grid into one of the color slots at the bottom (7), this saves that color to use later in your project. The colors in the color slots are also saved in the project le.

The zone on the left side of the Color Window contains buttons to launch Color Matching Tools (2) that help the user to pick starting colors.

Choose the color mode -Solid or Gradient.

Use OK to accept chosen color/gradient.

Press CTRL for Saturation lock (vertical lock)when using the Hue & Saturation area

Press SHIFT for Hue lock (horizontal lock)when using the Hue & Saturation area


Gradient Color for Lights

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Synthetic Lights - Gradient Color

Select the gradient tab in the Color mode & Selection panel to apply a color ramp to a synthetic light. The color gradient will follow the shape of the fall off which is controlled by the Bulb Position, Bulb Width and the Outside setting.

Picture Lights - Gradient Color

When colorizing a Picture Light, select the gradient tab in the Color mode & Selection panel to apply a color ramp as the color. The gradient ramp will fall off from the centre of the light to the outer corners of the light. You can also use the brightness of the color to control the fall off of the Picture Light. For example, this is ideal for controlling the appearance of soft boxes to give them greater contrast.

Using the Color Gradient Ramp

At the side of the Gradient Ramp, click on the End sqaure once to select it, the outline will appear a little thicker to show it is selected.

Double click anywhere on the ramp itself to add a new Point. This creates a new point on the ramp and automatically assigns a value inbetween those above and below it. This new point on the ramp will be shown as a triangular arrow. This arrow can slide up and down the ramp and be positioned where you decide, even very close to another point. Click on the triangular arrow once to select it and you can then change its color.

Select a point and press delete to remove it.

End

End

Point

Kelvin Slider

Color temperaturepresets


Kelvin Color Matching Tool

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Use the Kelvin Color Matching Tool to select a preset color temperature and use the slider to select your own.

The selected temperature is displayed on the slider bar at the top.

Selected color

Numeric Color Matching Tool

Colors are entered numerically in either sRGB, HSV, CIE-XYZ or CIE-LAB formats. If the color entered is out of range of the gammut, you are informed and the nearest color is selected and used.

Numeric

Kelvin


Solid Lights Color Matching Tool

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Solid Lights Color Matching Tool allows the selection of color from another solid light already in the lighting design. Simply click on a light in this list to match its color.

Lights


Backplate Color Matching Tool

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The Backplate Color Matching Tool provides an innovative tool set for both selecting colors from your loaded HDR background images and exploring HDRIs to reveal their true color content.

HSV Mode

This view shows the HDR image in the mode you are familiar with - with its Hue, Saturation and Brightness values. The problem is, you cant see the entire range of the brightness values because it is too large to t on the computer display. Therefore the only way to see all the colors in the HDRI is to adjust the exposure using the slider - this makes the area you want to see the correct expsoure.

You will notice the Hue and Saturation area in the main Color Window now only displays the colors used within this HDR image. Helping the user to understand the color content of the HDRI.

Selecting a color from the image.

There are 3 ways to select a color from the HDRI. Use the cross to select the color at a point, using the rectangle selection provides an average of the colors within that area, as does the free-form area selection that allows you to draw your own shape.

HSV

Only shows colors used in the HDR background image

Rectangle selection Free-form selection

HDRI

Color

Dominance


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Color Mode

Reveals the true color content of the HDR image. All brightness values are ignored and the Hue and Saturation values only are used for this view. You can now see the real color information that was previously hidden. Every pixel has a color and this color of light effects the color in your nal renders.

The colors you see in this mode are infact the colors being selected by the color picker. Because we are a lighting tool - we do not want to select the brightness of these pixels, this is the job of the wattage of the light itself.

Dominance Mode

Use the Dominance mode to reveal the true color within the brightest areas of your HDR image. These bright areas are dominant in their lighting effect. This view will help you understand the main colors of light that will be lighting your 3D scene. Revealing these dominant colors means you can now choose the colors for additional lighting to match the existing lighting pallete.

When making a color selection in this mode only the colors shown (not the ones covered with black) will be included in the selection - either point selections or area selections, even if the area drawn goes into the black.

Only shows colors in the HDR image

Only shows colors revealed bythe Dominance view

Coverage


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Coverage Mode

Reveals the most used colors within the HDR image - ignoring their brightness. Use the slider to reveal the most popular colors. It provides another way to explore the color information within the image.

Only shows colors revealedby Coverage view


Image Color Matching Tool

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The Image Color Matching Tool provides exactly the same feature set as the HDR Backplate Color Matching Tool, but lets users load their own HDR and LDR images for color reference - it supports:HDR, EXR, BMP, JPEG and TIF le formats.

Image

Only shows colors in the image loaded

HSV Mode

Color Mode

Dominance Mode

Coverage Mode

HDRI Background

Select the HDRI tab in order to load an existing .HDR or .EXR le into the background of the lighting design. The le can be any size, but the ratio of the width to the height must be 2:1, for example 5,000 pixels wide x 2,500 pixels tall. A le that does not comply to this ratio will be rejected by HDR Light Studio.

The Rotation slider and numeric inputs are used to rotate the image in the Longitude direction. It provides degree and minute accuracy.

The Brightness% numeric input is used to change the brightness of the image in your lighting design.

Selecting Flip Longitude will ip the HDRI horizontally.

Selecting Colorize HDRI will remove color from the HDRI making it a black and white image, then use the color swatch to color the image.

Click OK to use the HDRI you have chosen as your background.

Important Note: When it comes to rendering a lighting design that contains a HDRI background, the render resolution is fixed to the size of the HDRI background image being referenced. This produces pixel perfect results compared to the original file.

HDR Light Studio 3.0 Background Settings

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Gradient Background

Select the Gradient Tab (this is HDR Light Studios default background setting) to create a background HDRI gradient. This tab will always contain a set of default settings until the user creates their own.

There are 2 vertical gradient ramps - a Colour Ramp and a Luminosity Ramp. Both ramps have small squares at the top and bottom to control the values at each end of the ramp.

In the Colour Ramp, click on the little square once to select it (1), the outline will appear a little thicker to show it is selected. You can now select the colour at this point on the ramp.

On the Luminosity Ramp, instead of a colour picker appearing, a Luminosity Picker appears. This value is used in conjunction with the Peak Wattage value to determine the brightness of that point on the ramp.

If a value half way is selected in the Luminosity Picker, and the Peak Wattage is set to 1000W, the value at this point on the ramp would be 50% of 1000W, so 500W. The advantage of the Peak Wattage setting is; it allows the overall brightness of the Gradient background to be controlled with one setting, rather than having to adjust each point on the Luminosity ramp.

Adding a new point on the ramps - Double click anywhere on the ramp itself to add a new point (2). This creates a new point on the ramp and automatically assigns a value between those above and below. This new point on the ramp will be shown with a triangular arrow at its side. This arrow can slide up and down the ramp and be positioned where you decide, even very close to another point. Click on the triangular arrow once to select it and you can then change its colour. The same principle applies to the Luminosity ramp.


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1

2

Transparent Background

Select the Transparent Tab to have a transparent background when the lighting design is rendered as a .exr le. The .hdr le type does not support alpha and therefore will render the background as black in your nal render.

The HDR Canvas in HDR Light Studio will display as black with this setting, so you can see your light placements.

By providing a transparent background option, it is possible to use the output and then composite it using a tool a photo editing tool, eg. Adobe Photoshop. You can then perform other manipulations on the design to ne tune, or add effects that are not possible in HDR Light Studio.

Please note: The .exr support in Photoshop will pre-multiply the alpha in an .exr le and will open the image with a black background. Here at Lightmap Ltd we use a Photoshop plug-in called ProEXR by Brendan Bolles to open our EXR output with a transparent background. It is possible using this plug-in to interpret the alpha channel as transparent. This will provide the expected result when opening the le.


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Above is the dialog box for the ProEXR Photoshop plug-in.It allows alpha to make the image transparent.Used with HDR Light Studio .EXR output, you can seethe result here on the right in Photoshop. So nowHDR Light Studio users can utilise the power ofPhotoshop to enhance and tweak their lighting designs.

Render Settings

Press the Render button to bring up the render settings window.

First select the type of le you would like to render. There are 3 settings; EXR (ILM), HDR (Radiance) and Live. With Live selected, a le location is not required and the render is sent to be used in the LiveLight window. It allows users to use a more accurate and high quality representation of their lighting within LiveLight. This becomes more important when using HDRI background images in your design. They appear at a low resolution when used in real-time with LiveLight. The low quality is noticeable and better quality lighting is needed to provide a more accurate impression of the lighting design.

If an .EXR or .HDR le type is selected, the user also needs to browse to a location and give the le a name before they can save the le.

If a HDRI background is used in the lighting design, the render resolution is xed to the size of the HDRI being referenced. Otherwise please select a resolution from the presets available (dependant on the edition of HDR Light Studio being used). This can be selected from the drop down menu, or alternatively, the user can click directly in the size preview area to select a size.

The render settings window also includes three tick boxes:

Show Guides will show the lat-long guides from the viewport in the rendered image. This can be useful for orientating your HDRI within your 3D scene in your main render application.

Fast Preview reduces the samples per pixel and renders much faster with lower quality results. This is great for a test render.

Flip Longitude will ip the render horizontally when it is rendered. Different 3D renderers use IBL maps in different ways and some map them to the inside of the sphere and some to the outside. By including this ip feature users will be able to use the output correctly in any renderer.

To render again with the same settings, simply press the CTRL key whilst pressing the Render button. This will re-render immediately with the same settings.

HDR Light Studio 3.0 Render Settings

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Live Light - real-time rendered preview

LiveLight is a real-time render view that displays your 3D model lit using the HDRI lighting design direct from the HDR Light Studio main application. Move a light in HDR Light Studio and see the render update instantly in LiveLight. This real-time feedback provides an extremely fast and intuitive way to light a 3D model. Lighting designs can be developed with HDR Light Studio and then saved as a HDRI le to use in your main 3D application. Some tweaking will be required as different render engines respond to light in different ways. However, LiveLight will get you 95% of the way to your nal lighting, and fast!

LiveLight uses CPUs only, so no special graphics card is required. The more processors/cores you have in your machine, the faster LiveLight will come to a nished result. With the 64bit version of LiveLight really huge models (1GB and larger) can be loaded for lighting - the only real limit is your computers RAM and the time you are willing to wait to see the lighting refresh. LiveLight brings real-time to the most time consuming part of the visualisation process, the lighting. By working with LiveLight you can breathe new life into your existing hardware and 3D software investment, working in real-time for lighting design and using your existing software and hardware to produce the nal renderings.

HDR Light Studio 3.0 LiveLight

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Not available in HDR Light Studio Live plug ins. With Live plug-ins your 3D application provides the rendered preview

LiveLight Settings

When LiveLight is opened a default 3D model of a kettle is loaded. If you want to create a lighting design without loading your own 3D model, then the form of this kettle is very useful in providing feedback on the locations of the lights within the scene.

Loading a 3D model

Load a 3D model by pressing the Load Model button or by dragging and dropping your le into LiveLight.LiveLight is only interested in the geometry and cameras in your le. All other content is ignored.

LiveLight supports the following file formats:OBJ les - these do not contain camerasMI les (Mental Images) - these can be saved from Maya, 3DS Max and SoftimageDAE, Collada les

Please note LiveLight supports Polygons and Nurbs, but not subdivisional surfaces.


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Reection only mode Reection and illuminationIllumination (diffuse) only mode

This area changesdepending onthe chosenLiveLight mode

These controlsare alwaysvisible


Floor Shadow

Use this button to turn on the oor shadow. This oor is automatically calculated as being at the lowest point in the 3D model. It helps to give a more realistic impression by grounding your object. It also removes the need to import oor geometry which can obscure the lighting and reections from the HDRI, thereby limiting your lighting choices.

Please note: Floor shadows can signicantly slow down the LiveLight view.

Up Direction

Before loading your model, please set the up direction using this toggle button.

Choose a Camera

A list of cameras in your 3D le will be shown whenpressing this button. Choose one to change your view.

Gamma and Brightness

Use the Brightness slider to control the brightness/exposure of the view. The gamma setting can be used to match the gamma setting you will be using in your render. Remember to use a linear process when using HDR Light Studio. Use background HDRIs with no gamma correction to maintain their integrity as lighting images.There is no concept of gamma in HDR Light Studio - all content is linear.


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Y

Gamma 1.0 Gamma 1.6 Gamma 2.2


LiveLight Background settings

LiveLight has 3 background modes: HDR, Image and Color.

HDR

The HDR lighting environment can be seen in the background.

Image

Press this button to load an image. JPEG, TIF and BMP les are supported. This means that a photogrpahic back plate can be loaded to work in conjunction with your HDR environment.

Color

Use this mode to select a color for the background. This can be useful to allow rim lighting of an object without the distraction of seeing the light sources in the HDRI behind the object.


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Grey background color used here - no more distractingbrightness above the kettle

Rim light in HDR can be seen in background


LiveLight is not designed to produce a nal render. It has been created to enable users to load their own 3D models and interactively design a unique image based lighting design. This design is then saved as a HDRI and can be used in any 3D rendering software.

LiveLight has no concept of materials - users can view their model in 3 modes: Reection only, Illumination only and Reection and Illumination combined. These lighting modes reveal the true contribution of the lighting environment to the 3D object. This approach allows users to focus on the light placement and its shape, size, color and brightness.

Reflection Mode

There are 3 types of surface nish available for the reections. The intensity of the reections is controlled with the Reectivity slider.


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Refelction only mode Reection and illuminationIllumination (diffuse) only mode

GlossyPerfectly smooth reections with a mirror like nish.

SatinThe surface has roughness and this spreads the reections, making them blurred.

MetallicThe base layer has a metallic particle effect. The top coat is a smooth gloss layer with a mirror nish.


Illumination Mode

This mode reveals the effect of the lighting from the HDR lighting design. Any color in this view is created by the color of the light sources within the HDRI. The Luminosity slider controls the tone of the material from white through to black.

The user is able to make a more informed decision about the color of the lighting design, without the distraction of colored materials.


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Combined Mode

The reections and illumination can be seen together in this mode. Use the Reectivity and Luminosity sliders to balance their levels within the rendered image.

Please note that Combined mode is signicantly slower than the other modes, especially when used with Satin and Metallic reection nishes. It very much depends on the power of your PC.


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HDR Light Studio 3.0 Project Menu

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Project Menu

New Project, Load Project, Save Project and Save Project As

A HDR Light Studio project is saved as a HDi le. This contains all of the settings for the lighting design - the light sources, background settings and the referenced 3D le and background image used in LiveLight.

Clear Lighting

Use this option to Clear the lighting and reset to the default gradient background with no lights. By clearing the lighting, your LiveLight state is not altered or reset.

Project Assets

Select Project Assets from the menu to view and update le locations for referenced Backplate Image in LiveLight, 3D Model le in LiveLight, and the Background HDR le in your lighting design. (these les are labelled above)

If a HDR Light Studio project (HDi le) is opened and these referenced les are missing, the referenced les can be updated using by double clicking on the le location in the Project Asset Dialog and using the Browse button to locate your les or select new ones.

3D Model

Background HDR

Backplate Image

HDR Light Studio 3.0 Help Menu

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Help Menu

Help Launches the online Help web page.

Keyboard ShortcutsOpens a PDF le listing all Keyboard shortcuts for HDR Light Studio.

License ManagementOpens a dialog window showing the license status of HDR Light Studio and Light Packs.

Licensing Help Launches the online Help web page with instructions for enablingHDR Light Studio with a license key.

Open License DirectoryOpens the directory on your computer where your user and license key les are stored for all HDR Light Studio software and Live plug-ins.

renderrender

+

+

+

+

= Undo

= Duplicate selected light

+ = Moves selected light left one unit.

+ = Moves selected light right one unit.

+ = Moves selected light up one unit.

+ = Moves selected light down one unit.

= Select previous light in list (or last if no light is selected)

= Select next light in list (or rst if no light is selected)

= Delete selected light

= Redo+

+

+ = Moves selected light up the light list order.

+ = Moves selected light down the light list order.

+ = Renders with last settings & le name

General

Move Light

Select Light

Light Order

Light Visibility

Color - Hue & Saturation area

left

left

left

First time = Hide all other lights

+ Second time = Show all lights

HDR Light Studio 3.0 Keyboard Commands

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Press CTRL for Saturation lock (vertical lock)when using the Hue & Saturation area

Press SHIFT for Hue lock (horizontal lock)when using the Hue & Saturation area

hdr light studio 3.0 user guide

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