mm_Simple_sIBL v 1.00
What is it?
Loader script for the
sIBL (Smart Image based lighting) system developed at HDR Labs. This version does not have the built in browser of the full
mm_sIBL script and will therefore work in the OSX version of Modo.
Installation:
- Download and extract the mm_sIBL_1-00.zip archive.
- Place the mm_Simple_sIBL_v1.py in your user scripts directory:
OSX: /Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/Luxology/Scripts
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Application Data\Luxology\Scripts
Windows Vista: C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Luxology\Scripts
Usage:
Important: Using the mouse, select the Render node in the shader tree - see note below.
Run the script, either by pressing 'F6' or attaching it to a hotkey. A file dialog will open, navigate to a directory containing a sIBL set and load the .ibl file for that set.
Note: There is a bug in the way that Modohandles selection of different nodes in the shader tree and their children. You need to select the Render node in the shader tree with the mouse before running the script or it will fail to load the sIBL set correctly. If this happens or if you get error dialogs while loading that say 'This Shader effect does not exist', use Modo's undo function to reset the changes, select the Render node with the mouse and re-run the script.
How it works:
The script loads and reads the .ibl file for the sIBL set then does performs the following actions:
- Clears out any previously loaded sIBL setup
- Turns off any existing lights
- Creates a sIBL Group item in the item list to hold the sIBL items
- Turns on Global Illumination (if it's not already on)
- Loads the sIBL environment image into the Environment node of the Shader Tree
- Creates A sphere and shader group for the background image, loads and maps the background image. The background image is un-gamma'd to match the environment and reflection HDR files.
- If a reflection image is defined in the ibl file, a sphere and shader group are created for that too
- If a Sun light is defined in the ibl file a directional light is created and placed according to the settings in the ibl file.
Notes:
The script should be viewed as giving a reasonable starting point. It's likely that you will need/want to make slight tweaks here and there to get the lighting exactly the way you require. This can mainly be done using the 'Intensity' property of the Environment node. If you have any reflective materials in the scene and the reflections appear blown out you may also need to play with the Luminous Intensity value of the material layer under the 'Item: sIBL_Reflect' mask in the shader tree.
There were some new sIBL sets posted to the sIBL archive (HDR-VFX Promo Library) which appear to have environment and reflection images that are an order of magnitude hotter than all the other sets. There doesn't appear to be any way to detect this from the .ibl file and the result is that the objects in the scene are completely blown out. If you use any of them and that happens you'll need to tweak the intensity of the environment layer (down to about 1W/srm2) and the luminous intensity of the material layer under the 'Item: sIBL_Reflect' mask (down to about 01.W/srm2).