Maya Tutorial: Lighting for VFX Part 1 - HDRI Setup & Balance
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- TIMESTAMPS BELOW - This was recorded live without any prep work so will not be fully accurate. The video was created for students with zero prior knowledge of vfx/software.
There are many ways to approach lighting for VFX so there may be better or worse ways to approach it. This particular methodology is fairly similar to the way I've approached lighting when working on feature films and TV shows in the past. In part 2 we will continue the shot further.
00:00 - Intro
00:23 - Shot Overview, looking at the plate and lighting
04:20 - What to do if you do not have an HDRI image to go with your footage
07:00 - Setting up a scene to begin lighting tests (with an HDR/Skydome)
08:10 - How to add a reference plane to your scene (on-set ball & macbeth chart reference)
09:35 - Creating your lighting spheres and adding shaders
11:45 - Tweaking your HDR (We begin rendering and altering the HDR)
17:20 - Using our HDR in photoshop as reference (for adding more lights similar to on-set)
19:30 - Grading our HDRI image in photoshop
22:00 - Dealing with green screen (NOTE* I will key out the green screen on the HDR using nuke in part 2)
24:00 - Adjusting your exposure AFTER grading the HDR
27:00 - Colour correcting our HDRI further within Maya
30:30 - Alternative method to using a colour correction node in maya (mentioned in audio but not demonstrated)
34:00 - Final result after tweaking the HDR colour and exposure
*NOTE * Unfortunately I cannot share the assets publicly (footage/HDR/Shoot reference), these are exclusive to the students I am working with.
For online 1 on 1 tuition video/ screen calls email me at: raycasttutorials@gmail.com
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This was recorded whilst live streaming to students studying Visual Effects and uploaded shortly after so editing is limited.
The videos on this channel are created by a professional Visual Effects Generalist with experience across Films, TV & Commercials.
The channel provides a variety of tutorials based on Visual Effects Techniques such as Modelling, Tracking, Texturing, Lighting, Rendering, Animation & Compositing.
Software that will be covered includes: Autodesk Maya (with Arnold Renderer), Substance Painter, Mari, Houdini (with Mantra), PFTrack, 3DEqualizer, Nuke, Zbrush & Photoshop. - Krátké a kreslené filmy
This video was recorded "on the fly" during a full day of tuition so might be missing information or have some inaccuracies which I've noticed after but the base information is stil there.
For one on one mentoring please email: raycasttutorials@gmail.com
To support the channel and gain other features go to: www.patreon.com/raycast
Amazing tutorial!
Great tutorial sir these is really a much helpful dear mentor
cool!!
You covered very important steps it’s simple but that’s the ingredient 👍
Thank you very much, I'm glad you found it useful.
@@Raycast can u explain, why u need macbeth chart if u already fixed color of hdri ?
@@user-wh7hw4ec5c Hi, I think I forgot to make a CG macbeth chart, I havent watched the video since creating it but essentially its good to have CG vs real life reference. The HDR is the initial light for the ambient light and reflections, so if we started adding further lights and CG to the shots this would impact the reflections and colours in the scene. The macbeth chart is just checking how colours are lit in the real footage vs our CG. Macbeth charts are not always necessary, I use them more in look development work, but for lighting I do know of at least one large company I worked at that required macbeth charts for every shot you submitted (for reviews, not rendered in the CG but on a separate render layer).
@@Raycast thank you fo answer
Best tutorials on HDR. Can you explain if Maya has HDR plugins. Can you these techniques and have these options under a plugin menu?
I've only ever used one HDR plugin which was a long time ago (8 years or more ago maybe) which was called something like HDRI light studio... It was ok for lighting floating solo objects in commercials that needed specific highlights but not useful enough to keep using/ paying for so Ive never used plugins.
So for the grey ball in CG is pretty much 50% grey?
yeah
you have some incorrect information here, your grey ball is at "50%" , but the correct "50%% grey in maya is: r,g,b colour of 0.18,0.18,0.18 (which is the true grey colour)
Hence your grey ball looks brighter than it should.
Also, you should calibrate both Macbeth. + HDR within Nuke , a simple aicolorcorrect is not nearly accurate enough.
Lastly, try to project it back on a set instead of using HDR to lit everything. Because if you think about it, the HDR is apply on a dome and emitting light, however the real enviorment is not a dome.
The reflection / distance is completely off in 3d space if you are solely using at HDR. To solve this, you'd extract / paint out the light source from the HDR map and project the rest map of the on real Geomtry, so you'd get accurate bounce light and reflection. Then you would use the extracted light source and slap them onto an Area light.
I do not claim the video is an accurate way to approach lighting in VFX this video and the majority of the videos on this channel were recorded live for students without any prep work done before hand so I know the methods, workflow and accuracy would not be the same as working in larger VFX studios. The point of this video was primarily to show students (who were watching live at the time of the recording) with zero software/vfx knowledge how they could get CG lighting looking close to their footage as fast as possible. The video was originally private but I was asked to make it public. The video is free to watch and the techniques have been used on short form projects in smaller vfx studios in the past, but if you have expert knowledge please feel free to make your own video as there are not many vfx lighting ones on youtube.