perhaps you missed one of my earlier postings... Here is a free download (pc application) of a tool (HDRshop version 1) that can convert between the different environment map formats. http://ict.debevec.org/~debevec/HDRShop/download/
here is documentation for all versions. http://gl.ict.usc.edu/HDRShop/documentation/HDRShop_v3_man.pdf Only version 1 is free, but that is all you need for format conversion. On Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 3:17 PM, Nancy Jacobs <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks to both Nicholas and Stephen again, that explains a lot more and > sounds like a great idea.... So you can only use this Pano2VR for the > transform back and forth? I visited their website -- they have a watermark > on the free version. Apparently it costs $93 -- that's pretty steep for my > uses, considering I don't need all their other functionality. Doesn't > photoshop or some other tool do this conversion? I just signed on to Adobe > Creative Cloud...they ought to have something in all that software that > would do this, you'd think? > > On Aug 1, 2013, at 2:57 PM, Stephen Davidson <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I have use both sphere and cross (or cube) mapping for reflections. > Both work fine, and have advantages and disadvantages, depending on the > specific situation. > The fact that an environment is a "cube" is not an issue. > It is simply a different way to map the environment. > The fact that it is a cube is not apparent in the resulting > rendered image. I understand your concern, but it > looks just fine. It is just easier to paint out the polar "pinches" > in this format. Nicholas is correct in that you can just > turn the change the format of the environment map and > you loose nothing. > > make both a equirectangular and cube format environment map > and choose what works best for you. I think you will see there is no > difference, except when painting out the pole pinches. > > > On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 5:15 PM, Nancy Jacobs <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Thanks, Stephen and Nicholas for the information on cubical projection. >> Frankly, I'm partial to spheres... I've always found them better as >> background environments -- cubes never seem right, the edges tend to be >> apparent. especially because this is a scene in a 360 space and i don't >> want to have to avoid the camera looking at the edges of the cube. But I >> also don't want to have to avoid the poles of a sphere. But I've never >> tried the cubical projection in Softimage, is it better somehow? You're >> right, Nicholas, it would be easier to paint out the distortion in PS. But >> I don't want to do all that work on creating a cubical projection and have >> it not read well in the render. >> >> Have you used it effectively when you need 360 degree correctness? >> >> Thanks! >> >> On Jul 29, 2013, at 4:39 PM, Stephen Davidson <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> Exactly. Then use the cross version (Pano2VR creates a horizontal cross) >> setting Softimage's environmental mapping to horizontal cross. >> Is this not working for you, now? >> >> >> On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 2:54 PM, Nicholas Breslow < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> The basic workflow I’ve used for this in the past is to convert the >>> equirectangular panorama to a cubical projection. Then you can paint out >>> the nadir (poles) on the top/bottom of the cube in PS/other to get rid of >>> the distortion. You can use Pano2vr >>> http://gardengnomesoftware.com/pano2vr.php for the conversion. After >>> convert it back to equirectangular. Very similar to the Polar method >>> mentioned before.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> Hope that is what you were going for – just glanced and thought I would >>> share this.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> *Nicholas Breslow* >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> *From:* [email protected] [mailto: >>> [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Nancy Jacobs >>> *Sent:* Sunday, July 28, 2013 6:25 PM >>> *To:* [email protected] >>> *Subject:* Re: Environment sphere issues**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> Thanks for this info, Stephen, but I really need the spherical >>> environment for a seamless space experience. **** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> Now that I've got the implicit projection working, it does a better job >>> rendering the image at the poles, but still not good enough. Guess ill have >>> to drag a sphere into Mari and try painting out the distortion. That >>> plugin you linked me to gives some cool vortex effects at the poles, maybe >>> ill find a use for that! But I still wonder why it's working for your >>> images and not mine. Maybe it's in the type of image and what is happening >>> visually near the bottom and top of the image.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> >>> On Jul 28, 2013, at 1:19 AM, Stephen Davidson <[email protected]> >>> wrote:**** >>> >>> Here is a nice article on creating cubic environment maps from stitched >>> panoramic photos, using Blender.**** >>> >>> very clever:**** >>> >>> http://www.aerotwist.com/tutorials/create-your-own-environment-maps/**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 9:42 PM, Nancy Jacobs <[email protected]> wrote:* >>> *** >>> >>> Stephen, this plugin really didn't work for me. It way overdid some kind >>> of smearing, spiraling algorithm. Looks a lot worse than the original. I >>> wonder what he's thinking, or what went wrong here... Any ideas?**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> Thanks for the link, however. I was really stoked when I thought it was >>> going to solve this problem. Maybe something in Softimage mapping is trying >>> to solve this and doesn't quite do it, so this plugin overcompensates?** >>> ** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> I still think implicit mapping would help, as the help files indicate, >>> if I could get any image to show up on the sphere.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> Thanks again,**** >>> >>> Nancy**** >>> >>> >>> On Jul 27, 2013, at 8:18 PM, Stephen Davidson <[email protected]> >>> wrote:**** >>> >>> If you have Photoshop, here is a link to something called spherical >>> mapping corrector:**** >>> >>> http://www.richardrosenman.com/software/downloads/**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> No 64 bit support, I believe.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> here is the install and use docs:**** >>> >>> Spherical Mapping Corrector - v1.4, © 2008 Richard Rosenman Advertising >>> & Design. Release date: 03/15/03, Updated 09/28/08.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> INSTALLATION:**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> Simply unzip "spheremap.zip" and copy "spheremap.8bf" to your >>> "\Photoshop\Plug-Ins\" folder, or whichever plugin folder your host program >>> uses. Load your program, open an image, go to the plugins menu and select >>> the plugin.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> DESCRIPTION:**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> This filter produces texture map correction for spherical mapping.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> When projecting a rectangular texture onto a sphere using traditional >>> spherical mapping coordinates, distortion ('pinching') occurs at the poles >>> where the texture must come to a point. Given the different topology of a >>> plane and a sphere, it is impossible to avoid this, or any kind of >>> distortion. However, by properly distorting the texture map, it is possible >>> to minimize and even compensate for the polar distortion.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> Special thanks to Paul Bourke for allowing his algorithm to be ported to >>> this plugin. For more information, please visit Mr. Bourke's site at >>> http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> Sub-Sampling: Specifies what type of pixel sub-sampling to use. (Nearest >>> Neighbor being fastest, Bicubic being best.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 6:46 PM, Nancy Jacobs <[email protected]> wrote:* >>> *** >>> >>> Greetings, >>> >>> I'm using the old-style environment spheres with an HDR image wrapped to >>> light the scene, but invisible to rendering, and a beauty image visible to >>> the render. The problem is the very visible distortion near the poles of >>> the sphere. I need 360 degree visual acceptability. I am using a background >>> which I've made seamless in both directions, a 2:1 rectangle. It seems this >>> worked in renders at one point years ago in another software. Perhaps even >>> XSI....I don't recall. >>> >>> I'm also trying to substitute this arrangement by using both an >>> environment (using the HDRI), and 'Spherical Mapping' (using the beauty >>> image), in the Pass Shaders. But I'm getting very strange results, so not >>> sure if this is the way to go. Also, it's difficult to line them up >>> properly so that the light in the HDRI is coming from the same place as the >>> equivalent visible areas in the beauty image -- which of course one can do >>> easily in the wrapped spheres. But in the pass shaders, they don't seem to >>> use the same rotation systems... >>> >>> Any advice on getting an undistorted, seamless image going here? With >>> proper orientations? >>> >>> Thanks, >>> Nancy**** >>> >>> >>> >>> **** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> -- **** >>> >>> Best Regards, >>> * Stephen P. Davidson** ** >>> **(954) 552-7956* <%28954%29%20552-7956>* >>> * [email protected]**** >>> >>> *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic*** >>> ** >>> >>> >>> - Arthur C. Clarke**** >>> >>> [image: cid:] <http://www.3danimationmagic.com/>**** >>> >>> >>> >>> **** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> -- **** >>> >>> Best Regards, >>> * Stephen P. Davidson** ** >>> **(954) 552-7956** >>> * [email protected]**** >>> >>> *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic*** >>> ** >>> >>> >>> - Arthur C. Clarke**** >>> >>> [image: >>> http://www.3danimationmagic.com/3Danimation_magic_logo_sign.jpg]<http://www.3danimationmagic.com/> >>> **** >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> >> Best Regards, >> * Stephen P. Davidson** >> **(954) 552-7956 >> * [email protected] >> >> *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic* >> >> >> - Arthur C. Clarke >> >> <http://www.3danimationmagic.com> >> >> > > > -- > > Best Regards, > * Stephen P. Davidson** > **(954) 552-7956 > * [email protected] > > *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic* > > > - Arthur C. Clarke > > <http://www.3danimationmagic.com> > > -- Best Regards, * Stephen P. Davidson** **(954) 552-7956 * [email protected] *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic* - Arthur C. Clarke <http://www.3danimationmagic.com>
