The newest version of HDR Light Studio is out, adding in support for Collada and a fancy new light-blending system. Lest you think they’re just adding features for the sake of feature bloat, check out this quote:
“Usually, when you’re updating software, you’re disappointed by a lot of features that are totally useless. But with HDR Light Studio v3.0, the team is really listening to what the users are saying,” explains Piotr Kolus, Lead 3D artist at Ars Thanea. “All the new options are boosting your lighting process. From simple changes to advanced new features – all of them are more useful than I expected.”
One of the biggest features in this version is the new light-blending system that enables a dodge-and-burn type effect for HDR backgrounds, allowing seamless and fast editing of HDR backgrounds and custom falloff curves opening new worlds of possibilities.
LightMap has released HDRLightStudio 2.0 with lots of new features across the board. I personally love the new feature called ‘Livelight’ which adds some great interoperability with the Autodesk packages (3dsMax, Maya, and Softimage) with MI import and camera syncing.
.MI (Mental Images) files are easy to save from Autodesk 3DS Max, Maya or SoftImage software packages. These files include both the 3D geometry and the camera position so, using LiveLight, users are looking at the same view. Lighting designs can be saved as a HDRI file and used as the environment in the 3D software program. The lighting and reflections seen in LiveLight perfectly match those in the final renders.
If you get the Pro version, that means you can build your scenes in your tool of choice and then use HDRLightStudio’s impressive collection of over 100 light kits and HDR maps to light it.
They have a free trial (render disabled) available, and you can buy it from their store for £399 (Standard) or £599 (Pro).
HDR cameras are nothing new, with the Spheron VR camera probably leading the way. However, what if you can’t afford the pricey HDR camera but happen to have some old stereoscopic equipment laying around. A new video from Soviet Montage takes two Canon 5Dmk2′s and a Beam Splitter rig, and combines it into live HDR video (although only at two exposures).
This video highlights several clips we’ve made using our new High Dynamic Range (HDR) process. Video is captured on two Canon 5D mark II DSLRs, each capturing the exact same subject via a beam splitter. The cameras are configured so that they record different exposure values, e.g., one camera is overexposed, the other underexposed. After the footage has been recorded, we use a variety of HDR processing tools to combine the video from the two cameras, yielding the clips you see above.
SPHERON-VR will be back at SIGGRAPH this year showing an updated version of their prototype HDR video camera cable of 50x EXR fps, with each frame containing 20 f-stops of range. To generate some buzz, they’ve released a video of some life-action shot with the camera and show how you can dynamically adjust the lighting settings to get the desired result.
‘Throughout Spheron VR’s successful growth, we have always focused on being at the cutting edge of research into digital imaging technology’ said Spheron’s founder and CEO Mr.Gerhard Bonnet, ‘showing this content publicly is yet another important milestone in our company’s history of achievements’
The video shows several ‘stare at a bright light’ tricks, along with true motion blur in HDR and other stunts. The results are impressive, although I think Vimeo somewhat crushes the amazing range. See the video below, and the ‘real thing’ at SIGGRAPH Booth 1011.
You might think that’s an image from a clever video game or rendering engine, but you would be wrong. It’s actually an HDR photograph of downtown Tokyo, and over at Geekiz magazine they have a great collection of 80 such images.
A new press release from SpheronVR announces that Double NEgative, the VFX provider for films like Iron Man 2 and Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, has chosen the SpheronHDR 360-degree HDR camera.
‘Following evaluations, its was clear the cameras ability to automatically capture HDR lighting environments and to record 3D data was a compelling advantage. said Double Negative’s VFX Producer Fay McConkey. ‘This technology will become a key component in our equipment resources for future productions.
Users of Deep Exploration 6.0 have a new plugin to check out, HDRLightStudio Live. The new plugin allows for real-lighting manipulation using theri HDR Lightmaps.
“As much as 80% of the rendering production process is spent on the creation and optimization of lighting,” said Right Hemisphere President and CTO Mark Thomas. “The real-time lighting creation and feedback loop this plug-in enables dramatically reduces the time it takes to create professional quality images that can truly replace traditional photography.”
WMG has announced a pair of HDR video technologies aimed to redefine modern video: the world’s first true HDR video camera and the world’s largest HDR display. But their advances don’t end there, as the special HDR camera is capable of 20 f-stops, 1080p resolution at 30fps, which generates a whopping 42Gig per minute of footage. That’s far too much for any modern system to manage, so they created a new compression algorithm they call “goHDR”:
goHDR has developed a powerful encoding algorithm. The algorithm provides:
Substantial compression of more than 100:1
Preservation of high quality details, allowing high quality compressed digital negatives (important for the cinema industry)
Very fast decompression method using the power of modern Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)
Technical details are light, but they have a bit of information on their site.
A new company is selling HDR renders in SIBL format (Smart Image Based lighting) for the low price of $9.99, excl VAT. Each purchase comes with an 8k (8kx4k) JPG background, 4K (4kx2k) spherical HDR for reflection, lowres lightmap, thumbnail, and sIBL document.
All 9 spherical renders (exposures) at JPG at 11K (11.700 X 5850 pixels). These extra renders are all exposures that were made to generate the HDR. So you can make a bigger HDR at 11k by yourself if you need it. Or you even can exposure blend / enfuse the images. This means that you are very flexible in post production.
The initial offerings are a cooperation between HDRLabs and Bob Groothuis.
The newest version of HDR Light Studio is out, adding in support for Collada and a fancy new light-blending system. Lest you think they’re just adding features for the sake of feature bloat, check out this quote:
LightMap has released HDRLightStudio 2.0 with lots of new features across the board. I personally love the new feature called ‘Livelight’ which adds some great interoperability with the Autodesk packages (3dsMax, Maya, and Softimage) with MI import and camera syncing.
SPHERON-VR will be back at SIGGRAPH this year showing an updated version of their prototype HDR video camera cable of 50x EXR fps, with each frame containing 20 f-stops of range. To generate some buzz, they’ve released a video of some life-action shot with the camera and show how you can dynamically adjust the lighting settings to get the desired result.
Here’s today’s pixels:
A new press release from SpheronVR announces that Double NEgative, the VFX provider for films like Iron Man 2 and Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, has chosen the SpheronHDR 360-degree HDR camera.
Users of Deep Exploration 6.0 have a new plugin to check out, HDRLightStudio Live. The new plugin allows for real-lighting manipulation using theri HDR Lightmaps.
WMG has announced a pair of HDR video technologies aimed to redefine modern video: the world’s first true HDR video camera and the world’s largest HDR display. But their advances don’t end there, as the special HDR camera is capable of 20 f-stops, 1080p resolution at 30fps, which generates a whopping 42Gig per minute of footage. That’s far too much for any modern system to manage, so they created a new compression algorithm they call “goHDR”:
A new company is selling HDR renders in SIBL format (Smart Image Based lighting) for the low price of $9.99, excl VAT. Each purchase comes with an 8k (8kx4k) JPG background, 4K (4kx2k) spherical HDR for reflection, lowres lightmap, thumbnail, and sIBL document.
VizWorld.com 
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