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About this lesson
Improve the realistic look to your 3D images with Image Based Lights.
Exercise files
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Quick reference
Topic IBL: Image Based Lights
Improve the realistic look to your 3D images with Image Based Lights.
When to use
Set up your 3D scene with Image Based Light to replicate the complex dynamics of real light. This is so simple and the results so great, that it should be considered criminal.
Instructions
Load in, or create, the 3D objects
- Make sure the properties panel is active (Menu/Window/Properties).
Load in, or create, the 3D objects
- Make sure the properties panel is active (Menu/Window/Properties).
- In the properties panel you should see the IBL section.
Load in an image for your light source
- To the right of the IBL thumbnail is a folder icon.
- Click and navigate to the image that you want to load.
- Adjust the IBL image with the sphere in the middle of the canvas.
Adjust the IBL image
- Click on the IBL folder icon again and choose ‘Edit Texture’.
- Anything that you add as solid white will effect the image like a light box.
- Save edited texture and re-render the 3D scene.
- 00:04 Hey everyone.
- 00:04 One of my favorite revamped features of Photoshop CS6.
- 00:08 If you can't tell by some of my previous videos, is 3D.
- 00:11 It's fast, it's powerful, and it's full of new features.
- 00:15 But there are a few features that some users just have no idea what they do.
- 00:19 Such as image based lights.
- 00:21 Let's take a look at how image base lights or
- 00:23 IBLs, can drastically improve your images.
- 00:27 In short, using an image base light, adds a real life environment to your scene.
- 00:31 Which really helps add realism to the end result.
- 00:34 Let's take a look at how this works.
- 00:36 With your 3D layer active, select your environment within the 3D panel.
- 00:40 Once you have the environment properties visible in your Properties panel,
- 00:43 you should notice the IBL option towards the top of the panel.
- 00:47 This is where we can add or create an image based light.
- 00:50 Clicking on the folder icon to the right will allow us to create a new texture or
- 00:55 load in a texture.
- 00:56 For this example, as we want the pool balls to appear as if they are in a bar or
- 00:59 a pub, let's go ahead and load in an image of a lounge.
- 01:03 When the image had been loaded in,
- 01:04 you should clearly see your selected image fill the entire canvas.
- 01:08 It's essentially wrapping itself around a 360 degree virtual scene.
- 01:13 This way all sides of your 3D objects will benefit from the IBL.
- 01:17 And don't worry if you lose the ability to see the layers that were behind your
- 01:20 3D objects.
- 01:21 Once you switch away from your environment properties,
- 01:23 you'll regain that visibility again.
- 01:25 You may also notice that there's a sphere in the middle of your document.
- 01:29 This is the image based lights handle.
- 01:31 Just like you can rotate a standard light, you can also rotate an IBL,
- 01:35 just in case you want a certain area of the image displayed in the reflections.
- 01:39 The important thing to note,
- 01:41 is that your image will look much more realistic when rendered.
- 01:44 Because rendering a scene like this can take up to 20 minutes,
- 01:47 here's what the completed Render, after we add an IBL looks like.
- 01:50 You can definitely see if we compare it to what we had before and what we have now,
- 01:54 it looks a lot more realistic because we now have an environment.
- 01:58 Now, well, sometimes assigning an image as an IBL may be enough, but
- 02:01 if you fancy stronger reflections, here's a neat tip you may wanna try.
- 02:05 Back in the Environment properties, click on the folder icon and
- 02:08 choose the Edit Texture option.
- 02:10 This will allow us to create faux light boxes.
- 02:13 Which is really gonna add nice strong reflections on your objects.
- 02:17 Once you have the texture open go ahead and
- 02:19 place solid white objects to act as your light boxes.
- 02:22 In this case, I chose to use white circles to act as overhead lights.
- 02:27 Now once the light boxes are in place, save the texture using your Cmd or
- 02:30 Ctrl+S shortcut key to update your 3D document.
- 02:34 Once you render your new scene,
- 02:35 you should now see the new reflections that you added.
- 02:37 So if you're looking to add a little bit more realism to your 3D
- 02:40 scene in Photoshop,
- 02:41 definitely consider using an IBL to take your projects to the next level.
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