Making a Custom Environment in Showcase There are several tools in development for Showcase to help you create custom environments. This document outlines when to use these tools, and other tips and tricks for getting the job done. There are four steps involved in this process, each building on the last: 1. Change the background image and lighting maps. 2. Create a new environment with built in tools and standard geometry. 3. Calibrate the environment. 4. Edit the dome geometry This document also describes how to create custom dome geometry in Maya and hand edit the a3e file, and provides supplementary workflows and troubleshooting information. Changing the background image and lighting maps This section assumes that you can supply a background image—one with low dynamic range (jpg, png, and tiff) and in Latitude Longitude format. The first thing to do when customizing an environment is to change the background image and lighting maps. Replace the background image For example, suppose that the reflections and lighting of the Exhibit Hall environment look good with a model, but the background image needs to be changed to provide different context. You can do this with the Generic environment, which is editable. 1. Switch to the Generic environment, then right-click on its preview icon and select Properties to open the Environment Properties window. . Figure 1: RMB over the Generic environment to open the Environment Properties window
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Making a Custom Environment in Showcase
There are several tools in development for Showcase to help you create custom environments. This
document outlines when to use these tools, and other tips and tricks for getting the job done. There
are four steps involved in this process, each building on the last:
1. Change the background image and lighting maps.
2. Create a new environment with built in tools and standard geometry.
3. Calibrate the environment.
4. Edit the dome geometry
This document also describes how to create custom dome geometry in Maya and hand edit the a3e
file, and provides supplementary workflows and troubleshooting information.
Changing the background image and lighting maps This section assumes that you can supply a background image—one with low dynamic range (jpg,
png, and tiff) and in Latitude Longitude format.
The first thing to do when customizing an environment is to change the background image and
lighting maps.
Replace the background image
For example, suppose that the reflections and lighting of the Exhibit Hall environment look good
with a model, but the background image needs to be changed to provide different context. You can
do this with the Generic environment, which is editable.
1. Switch to the Generic environment, then right-click on its preview icon and select Properties to
open the Environment Properties window.
.
Figure 1: RMB over the Generic environment to open the Environment Properties window
2. The background image is actually a property of a material assigned to an environment dome. To
change the background image, edit the material properties for the environment dome
geometry.
Click the Wall Material button, and the Floor Material button to edit the material currently
assigned to the wall and floor, respectively. This is usually an Image Map material with the only
editable attributes being the image assigned to it, and the mapping it uses (parametric, planar
etc.)
Figure2: Change the background image by editing the material on the geometry dome.
Changing the background image this way does not change reflections or lighting.
Note: The Wall and Floor Transform buttons are not used in this particular workflow.
Replace the Lighting Map Files (IBL)
1. To change the reflections and other IBL maps, use the Lighting overrides to browse to new IBL
maps. For example, replace the Generic IBL maps with those from the Exhibit Hall.
Figure3: Replace the IBL maps with those from another environment.
Note: The Highlight map is often referred to as a “specular” map.
2. At this point you can also:
Change the overall brightness and color using the Environment Properties’ Lighting
Overrides.
Change the preview icon for the environment by right-clicking on the environment’s icon
then selecting Set image.
Rename the environment.
Save the edited environment
1. First create a new library:
a. In Showcase, press the E key to display the Environment interface.
b. On the Environment Libraries tab, click Manage and select Add Environment Library from
the menu to create a new Library:
Figure5: Adding an Environment Library
2. Save your edits to the environment Library for later use.
Right-click on the environment icon and select Save to Environment Library. The new
environment appears in the Environment Overlay UI section of the library for later use.
Notes on changing the IBL maps
Most of the images that make up environments are HDR (High Dynamic Range). It is common to
encounter HDR images in the following formats: .hdr, .tiff (32-bit per channel), .exr.
The IBL maps are in the Showcase Library are currently in .exr format to save on disk space.
Showcase supports:
.hdr : both reading and writing
.exr : reading only
You can create replacement IBL maps using:
Showcase
HDRShop
Photoshop CS3 extended, or
ATI’s CubeMapGen
Refer to Showcase Help for resolution and aspect ratio requirements for IBL images.
Figure 4: Example of IBL maps-: background, reflect, specular (highlight), and diffuse
Creating a new environment with built-in tools and standard geometry Showcase has a built-in method for importing an HDR image and creating an environment from it.
This method creates the necessary components of an environment:
A3e file and a folder with:
Background image
3 IBL maps
Geometry dome
Thumbnail preview
Import an HDR panoramic image
1. To import an HDR image to be used as a new environment for Showcase, right-click on the
Generic Environment icon and select Create Environment IBL.
Figure6: RMB over the Generic Environment to evoke the Create IBL command
2. Browse to an HDR image. (You might be prompted to create a folder to save the new
environment to.)
The Create IBL button at the bottom of the window becomes enabled when an HDR image is
specified. The image must have a:
2:1 width to height ratio if it’s in latitude longitude layout.
3:4 width to height ratio if it’s in vertical cross layout.
1:1 width to height ratio if it’s in mirrored ball/spherical layout.
HDR images are often very large (for example, 6000 x3000 pixels= 80MB). As such, the image
may take a few seconds to read-in before the Create IBL button becomes enabled.
3. Click the Create IBL button to create the new environment.
Tweak the results of IBL creation
The initial results achieved by the Create Environment IBL can vary greatly depending on the HDR
image used
If the Environment is a little too light or dark, use the built-in controls for adjusting the environment
IBL maps. These are in the Environment Properties Window:
Figure 7: The Environment Properties window Lighting Overrides
These Lighting overrides can adjust the whole environment. You can also adjust individual maps. For
example, it is common to increase only the highlight map (specular map) value.
Note: The attributes in the window are covered further on in this document.
Room Transforms button –Rotates the IBL maps. The effect of rotating the IBL maps is
only visible in reflections. To rotate the visible background, you must rotate the dome
itself.
The IBL contrast slider will have no effect until the contrast midpoint is also changed.
Environment too bright or overexposed
If the resulting environment is obviously way too bright and overexposed, the original HDR image
may need to be pre-processed in Photoshop or HDRShop.
Important Note: All HDR images are not created equal and the results produced by Showcase
will depend heavily on the light value range in the HDR image. For this reason it is strongly
recommended that you set the image’s exposure in Photoshop:
Figure8: Using Photoshop to correct overexposed images
Calibrating the environment After creating the Environment IBL maps, you need to calibrate them relative to the material library
and other environments. To do this, it is helpful to import an object into the scene and evaluate how
the new environment illuminates it. Showcase has a few materials to help with this task. These are
found in the Miscellaneous tab of the Materials Library:
IBL Diffuse Effect
IBL Highlight Effect
IBL Reflection Effect
Calibrate relative to IBL Effect materials
1. When applied to an object in the scene, these materials will reflect only one of the IBL maps,
Diffuse, Highlight and Reflection respectively.
a. Create a new scene.
b. Import a sphere, and duplicate it twice.
c. Translate the spheres so that all are visible.
d. Bake ambient shadow on the spheres (select Scene > Create Ambient Shadows).
2. Apply a different IBL Effect material to each sphere.
Figure9: IBL Effect materials applied to spheres
a. Switch from the new environment to any other (such as the Docks environment).
b. Observe how much the materials appear to change.
Figure 10: Switching to another environment reveals that the new environment (previous
image) is too dark by comparison
3. Return to the new environment and adjust the IBL Lighting Overrides until the change in
materials is appropriate to the background image. This is a subjective task. You are “eyeballing”