Symbolic Posted September 3, 2007 Share Posted September 3, 2007 Hi, I have tried to create sky dome setups for Houdini before but was not able to do it. I usually ended up using crappy camera projections and things like that. Now I have a camera move that covers a large area and does not let me cheat... or I am not able to figure out how to cheat... How can I create a proper object... that I can later texture? Most of the UVTexturing techniques create strange results... I have tried the camera projection again but it does not seem to work! The texture usually gets distorted. What is the technique?... I think the technique varies depending on the materials... If you are using a stitched image or just painting in Photoshop... Here is the file that I have made some tests: the *.hip files and textures Here are samples of the images that I plan to put together: Here are screens of my setup: What should be my strategy? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edward Posted September 3, 2007 Share Posted September 3, 2007 Instead of Polar, try using Rows & Columns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Symbolic Posted September 4, 2007 Author Share Posted September 4, 2007 (edited) Instead of Polar, try using Rows & Columns. Thanks. That looks much better. I think I have tried that... But something was wrong... now it looks ok. But still you get that distortion at the center-top of the sphere... how it is possible to paint the sky texture from different images... and map it on that sphere without any distortions...?! I guess... if the image is coming from a mirror ball... and it is transformed from a "mirror ball" to "Latitude/Longitude ?!" inside HDRShop... and then mapped to this setup... it should work? or maybe there is a way of just painting the long image with the clouds... without any distortion... and then transfer it to an image that will map on the sphere properly? ...or maybe... one needs a stitched image that is made of lots of separate images and stitched together inside Shake or Realviz Stitcher?... any ideas? thanks. Edited September 4, 2007 by Symbolic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allegro Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 Thanks. That looks much better. I think I have tried that... But something was wrong... now it looks ok.But still you get that distortion at the center-top of the sphere... how it is possible to paint the sky texture from different images... and map it on that sphere without any distortions...?! I guess... if the image is coming from a mirror ball... and it is transformed from a "mirror ball" to "Latitude/Longitude ?!" inside HDRShop... and then mapped to this setup... it should work? or maybe there is a way of just painting the long image with the clouds... without any distortion... and then transfer it to an image that will map on the sphere properly? ...or maybe... one needs a stitched image that is made of lots of separate images and stitched together inside Shake or Realviz Stitcher?... any ideas? thanks. I'm not sure that it's possible to have an undistorted image mapped onto a sphere and not have it be distorted. You'd need to distort your image so that it isn't distorted when on the sphere. Maybe a spherize filter in photoshop could accomplish this to some extent? I use Terragen2 when I make skies as it's relatively quick (rendertime could be better...) to make a really nice sky that maps properly onto a sphere and is HDRI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Symbolic Posted September 5, 2007 Author Share Posted September 5, 2007 ok... i see... thanks... I really need to explore Terragen or Vue then... but... still I i want to use my photos... then I have to find a workflow that will allow me to work un distorted and then distort for the spheric map... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
symek Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Hey Symbolic, check out Gnomon Digital Sets DVD - worth its price! http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/eha04.html cheers, sy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mario Marengo Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 ok... i see... thanks... I really need to explore Terragen or Vue then... but... still I i want to use my photos... then I have to find a workflow that will allow me to work un distorted and then distort for the spheric map... The only projection that doesn't look distorted on the plane is a cube map (because it is 6 different projections arranged on a single image, whereas lat-long and the rest are all single projections). So you might want to paint onto a cube map version of your environment, although you'll have problems when painting across face boundaries (and the layout, although undistorted, is not all that intuitive for painting). If you want to modify your photos, then your workflow will depend on what kind of capture method you're using -- probe, 2 fisheye images, stitched panorama, etc. Here's a nice little project for someone who has the time: write a VEX COP that will pan (re-project) a lat-long, probe, or cube map to any desired orientation. This would allow you to "look at" the section you want to retouch in the least-distorted possible way. Then you can retouch it and pan it back to its original orientation (if needed). Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Symbolic Posted September 5, 2007 Author Share Posted September 5, 2007 Thanks everybody I will be trying and testing these techniques as soon as I complete my current project... For now... I cam up with the following solution... I exported the UV map of the spheric object... and painted in some distorted images using the WRAP in Photoshop... I bended the images so they look distorted in Photoshop... but kind of look ok in the render... Again... Thanks for all valuable advices... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattd Posted September 24, 2007 Share Posted September 24, 2007 I think what you are asking is how do you correct a pinched area in a panoramic image in photoshop - look at using the distort - polar coodinates tool, rect to polar, paint the pinched area, than do the opposite polar to rectangle. flip the imahe vertically, and do the other side. you will then get a map that will stretch properly at the poles when using a rows and columns uv method MD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Symbolic Posted September 24, 2007 Author Share Posted September 24, 2007 Hey! Thanks. This sounds cool. I am kind of away from my Houdini environment right now... struggling with real-life issues but will test and try this as soon as possible... Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dbeing Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 can I ask, are you doing some kind of huge camera move to require it be projected on a sphere? I'm going to guess your dome doesn't have the same dimensions as the earth, and if you want to scale your scene down so that it does, would anyone ever see that little tiny pinch at the top? The other thought is to have 2 or more domes, the inner domes to hold just clouds, the outer most dome just a flat, or ramped would be better, procedural color, then there wouldn't be any pinching. just trying to think outside the sphere... -3db FX TD SF/LA CA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Symbolic Posted September 27, 2007 Author Share Posted September 27, 2007 Hi, Yes it is quite a complex camera move that covered a large area... so I needed to have a seamless and big sky... I have done it... it kind of worked... i will post the results as soon as I complete the project... I did it in an old school way... tried to face a reverse deformation with the wrap tools in photoshop... so when it is mapped on the sphere it looks good... it was a primitive solution... but it worked with the help of motionblur etc... using segments with different textures... different domes is also a good technique... I have been thinking about it... thanks for the ideas... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dbeing Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Still you will never get any parallax in the clouds with a single dome, and with a big camera move it will be all the more apparent. I guess it's whether or not you want it to look real. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Symbolic Posted September 29, 2007 Author Share Posted September 29, 2007 Still you will never get any parallax in the clouds with a single dome, and with a big camera move it will be all the more apparent. I guess it's whether or not you want it to look real. Yes, you are right... there was not much parallax... but it worked (kind of)... will post the final project as soon as it is polished... Will also work on all these suggestions in order to create a proper workflow... just do not have time for this right now... trying to survive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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