Mt Coot-tha Sunrise Time lapse

HDR Time lapse with CG elements

The crux of the short film is based on the ability to render 740 individual Image Based Lighting setups in one scene in Maya.

All that I've seen require only one.

For example, if a live shoot is set up inside and is shot for about an hour, only 1 High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI) will be captured. This is because the lighting during that one hour won't change much, especially if it's in a studio with lights.

In Rokk Mann the lighting will change constantly throughout a 12 hour period. This change is from several causes, sun rising, sun setting and cloud cover. Therefore lighting data will need to be captured throughout the entire period.

To do this a chrome ball must be captured along side the time lapse images. Not only does the ball need to be photographed but it needs to be captured as a High Dynamic Image (HDRI). So for every one photo the time lapse camera take, 5 photos at different Exposure Values need to be captured.

Camera and chrome ball setup for the backyard shoot.

 In the above photo the smaller camera is shooting the chrome ball that sits at the top of the stairs 5 times at different exposures. At precisely the same time the larger camera is taking only 1 shot for the time lapse sequence.

With much research I have completed the first, and very rough, HDR time lapse with CG elements.

Liverpool Cathedral HDRI

We visited lovely Liverpool on the weekend and I had the opportunity to get a few more HDR images.

Stamford Brook HDRI

I saw a pretty good sunset over Londons Stamford Brook tube station and thought I'd have a go at another HDRI. It turned out pretty good considering I didn't use a tripod and it was only 3 shots.

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Final HDR image.

HDRI

I've been looking into Image Based Lighting for 3D animation and have been exploring HDR images.
I recently bought the book HDRI hand book (well worth the 20 quid) and have been applying the techniques in there.

Here is a shot of the London underground.

I know, boring shot, but it's all about technique. The method is to capture a range of images with different exposures and then combine them into one image. As you can see, there is a high dynamic range of light. Campare this with the source images and you will notice how much detail can be seen in one image.
And here are the source images....


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