sIBL for Blender – automated HDR environment generation
sIBL GUI is a standalone application for managing a collection of image-based lighting setups in the Smart IBL format. It uses helper scripts to send lighting setups to 3DS Max, Maya, Softimage, and with this new add-on also to Blender!
Kirk Thibault tipped us about this, he writes:Christian Bloch over at HDR Labs has perfected his sIBL (image based lighting) rig and automated environment set up for Maya and Lightwave over the years and gives away a free HDR lighting environment every month. His latest news post over at HDRLabs gives Blender users something to cheer about – sIBL is now available for Blender.
Cristian Bloch writes:
Thanks to the development efforts of Jed Frechette, Blender users can now enjoy the one-click environment lighting setup that the Smart IBL system is famous for. Integration is done thoroughly, by using sIBL_GUI as browser and central library management hub. If you already use sIBL_GUI in conjunction with 3dsMAX or Maya, the workflow with Blender will be familiar:
- Pick an environment preset
- Pick Blender as setup template
- Click the Send to Software button
Photorealistic lighting (and background integration) couldn’t be easier.
This sounds amazing. Who’s going to share their images that use this technique?
Links
This seems interesting.
Does anyone know where I can download the sIBL GUI Linux binaries?
This is a fantastic add-on. It took me a minute to find the blender template, so here it is for anyone else trying to get this working: https://github.com/jedfrechette/sIBL_GUI_Templates/tree/feature/blender/templates/Blender_Cycles_Standard
Also, here is an archive with a bunch of free hdri maps: http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html
If anyone else is having trouble getting it working, let me know. It takes a minute but is well worth it.
outstanding ,works f’n great first time i dug in . way to go jed
Added! Thanks so much!
I’m glad people are finding my little contribution towards simple decent lighting in Blender useful.
As arenyart notes, getting everything setup right now is a little fiddly but the next release of sIBL GUI will include the Blender template making setup and updates much easier.
Unfortunately, there are currently no binaries of sIBL GUI for Linux, however, it is a pure Python package and relatively easy to build yourself. See the instructions on Github: https://github.com/KelSolaar/sIBL_GUI Most development and testing of this addon was done on Linux so once you get it working you’ll be on the preferred platform. ;-)
Finally, I’ll note that there is also a thread for this addon on Blender Artists:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?305989-sIBL-GUI-for-Blender-Released
ok got it to go first first time through with the give away on the isbl website, but how do you get the ibl sets in the gui, tryied for awhile to get them from thier site but could’nt figure it out. i know it’s obvious to some,but can’t figure it out. cant find enough information out there
I somehow always forget how to properly set up HDR in Blender. If I’m reading this correctly, this little addon will save me both time and asprin.
:)
From what I’m testing – sIBL is pretty easy to combine with QUIP (http://vimeo.com/68952269) I just get some mapping problems on the grid but else from that it works. Try it, with QUIP it looks the same as on the sIBL website gallery:) I mean the big rock guy with shade on the floor (AO shading is great but with QUIP you get the whole idea of shade fixed)
I don’t anticipate having time to do it in the near future, but I suspect it would be fairly straightforward to adapt the basic “Blender Cycles” template to a “Blender QUIP” template that would use the same infrastructure. The modularity is what makes the sIBL GUI approach really nice.