[Openexr-devel] Query: Image Based Lighting and HDRI-enabled cameras

[Mr 'Zap' Andersson]

I have a question....

I am tinkering quite a bit with image based lighting, by shooting a 
reflective sphere and using the image of that directly as both lighting, 
reflectionmap, etc. I currently shoot only "Low Dynamic Range" i.e. using 
a normal DV videocamera.

The cool thing with shooting it with *video*, is that you can easily do 
ANIMATED reflection and lighting. My actual QUESTION is... is there in 
this world ANY camera that shoots HDRI yet 24p and stores HDRI data 
*directly*? (Surely raw CCD's can capture more than 8 bits clamped at 
"white"?!?! Or?)

What would I want to use it for?

Well... I have some examples/tests here of my stuff... this is ALL done in 
LDRI and my software has quite a few "tricks" to get aroudn the LDRI 
problem, but I still think it would turn out better if the imagery was 
HDRI. 

This is the result:

- http://www.kidwars.com/ibl-test-2.mov

This test a couple of models (not made by me, downloaded off of SciFi 3D) 
and all diffuse light, specular reflection and reflections are DIRECLTY 
based on the LDR lightprobe photo seen in the upper right of the frame. 
There is NO lighting or traditional lightsources, ONLY image based 
lighting and occlusion using my own algorithms.

The models are shown on six different backgrounds, and there is NO change 
in any setting between the shots, the ONLY difference between the shading 
is that the respective lightprobe image is fed directly to my shading 
algorithm.

The sixth background is particularly interesting in this case because the 
lighting is CHANGING all the time (my sons disco-ball used, *grin*).

Here is another test:

- http://www.kidwars.com/ibl-test.mov

A spaceship exiting a hangar. Uh. Okay. My garage. *grin*. For the outdoor 
shots one single "normal" lightsource is used to mimic the sun (and to 
cast the sharp shadow), since sunlight doesn't squeeze well in LDRI...but 
all other lighting is based on my occluded image lighting.

For the curious, some more "in context" examples, especially of animated 
reflections, can be seen in my little film "Intermezzo Dualis:

- http://www.kidwars.com/intermezzo/

(It's also pretty funny *grin*)


Anyway. The QUESTION is, is there... or can there be built, a camera that 
works like e.g. the 24p cameras George Lucas used on Episode II... but 
that shot in HDRI *directly*? At full framerate? Is it physically possible 
to get HDR data out of CCD's? At full speed? And if so, how well does it 
work? And is anybody considering making such a beast? Or does it already 
exist?

I am curious in this arena. I still think cameras are locked into the 
thinking "of days gone by" where you get exposure right first, then shoot 
the picture... wheras in a "true" HDRI-capable camera, you could just 
shoot a picture, and "exposure" would be a post-process.

Would that work? Has it been done? Will it be done? 

Curious, I am.

/Z

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Programming, CAD technology, image/audio manipulation, music/video 
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