New Background Wizard

We have been testing, improving and simplifying the use of background images with IRender nXt.

We decided that what was needed was a good wizard to let you scale and position the background without having to re-render each time to see if it is working the way you want.

(Ir can be tricky to change scale and offset numbers and then re-render to see how they look.)

So we created a new Background Wizard to make this easier.

The Background Wizard makes it easy to scale and position a background image behind your rendering.

How to use it

Download the latest version of IRender nXt
Select Position/Preview from the Background Setup Tab.
See: Background Wizard for examples and advice on settings.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Render Plus on September 6, 2011 at 9:16am

This looks a really useful utility - I just cannot see review button on my menu tab (see below) (64 bit version - windows 7)

We're you trying to load it from SketchUp or after starting a rendering?

It will work from SketchUp - but not yet.

Let the rendering start, or complete, then try it.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on September 6, 2011 at 9:45am

This is really useful - Wizard does not work with HDRI - I presume this correct ? - Its a shame we cannot use HDRI with standard packet render - would be useful to tweak exposure of background to adjust light - could always use self glow I suppose.

We have plans for a similar tool to help rotate HDRi skies. It is a lot of work to enter a rotation, and then have to re-render to see the effect. It would be much easier to just spin the HDRi image.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on September 7, 2011 at 7:53am

I would like to be able to distort the background image, to compensat4e for perspective.

Having the background image perspective the same as model will make the viewer accept the background more readily. (although they probably will not consciously understand why).

We will take a look at this, we would need to distort the image and create a new rectangular image to pass to the renderer - after positioning the Rendered image properly in the new background.

Original Image

Distorted image, with more contrast, saved in a rectangular background

(Note: these distorted images probably will have more problems when reflected)

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on September 7, 2011 at 7:59am

A `horizon\ eye line` visual guide would be useful to position image to current model eye line - another mega important positioning need particularly if there are people in background image. The horizon setting to center is ok if the image falls well to background - but again in anything other than a simple 2 point face on perspective the relevant position of image center is not always correct. I suppose having the ground plain visible would achieve this.

The "auto-horizon in center" idea works well if you create background images with the horizon in the center. We made some images like this by cropping the top or bottom, or adding extra colored area at the top or bottom so that the horizon in the image was a straight line in the center. Then the auto-horizon works well:

Background Image with horizon at center of image.

Your idea of having a toggle button to show the horizon in the rendered image so you can position it manually is a good idea. We could also let you tell us where the horizon is in the background image, assuming it is a horizontal line, and we could have the auto-horizon function line up to a different point in the background.

Turning on the ground plane helps, unless the horizon is not visible in the rendered image. A dahes line with a toggle might work better.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on September 7, 2011 at 8:18am

To have a individual lightness and contrast filter to background image which will work with overlapped reflections\glass in windows etc would be really good - anything to allow the tweaking of image content to match lighting of model is really important. The only way to match the exposure of background image and scene is to balance in tandem - its really hard to visually attempt tone\exposure editing of background image prior to render.

We will see if we can add a couple of filters - at least contrast and brightness - to the background or to both images. Note: reflections from the backgrounds will sometimes have problems. Sine we only have a rectangular background image and not a full 360 degree panoramic image, the reflections will sometimes run off part of the image and have discontinuities. This is especially obvious if you have a reflective curved surface in your model.

In this rendered image the reflection looks pretty good in the mirror - but you can how it is pieced together in the curved egg shape. (If this creates a problem, you will need to find a full panoramic HDRi image to use a a sky)

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Permalink Reply by Boothy on September 7, 2011 at 8:30am

Hi Al

In majority of visuals I produce the left mirror option would be more than adequate - It would be worth it just to be able to filter background - the HDRI option would also be good if we had the same position controls and be able to use the HDRI lighting channel in the standard packet renderer.

I look forward to all this - The background wizard makes implementing integrated backgrounds so so much easier

Thanks

Boothy

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Permalink Reply by Boothy on September 7, 2011 at 12:22pm

Hi Al

Also When I am rendering interior views I am more concerned about creating reflections of the model interior in window to provide realism and and make the viewer aware the glass is actually there - without any reflection the window will look unglazed and therefore less realistic. The accuracy of the reflection image is really secondary to its existance in the first place.

I hope you can get these aspects to work.

Boothy