Renderman

Creating cubeface environment maps for surface reflection


Under construction, this is a preliminary outline.


This page will explain how to create reflection and refraction effects with texture mapping.

This image shows an example of environment mapping to produce refraction in a glass sphere.

The outline of the page is:

1. In Presenter, create a new camera and place it in the center of the object to be environment mapped. Then, in the script window, turn the object off to give the camera an unobstructed view of the surrounding scene.

2. Create six pictures to use for the environment map by aiming the camera toward these directions.


3. Use a text editor to create a RIB file. The RIB file will specify the six PICT files that will be combined to create the environment file.

4. Start Pixar's RenderApp program and start the RIB job to create the environment map.

5. Copy the environment map to the Shaders&Textures folder, in the System Folder.

6. Start Presenter and apply an environment mapping shader to the desired object. In this example, we will use the reflecting sphere environment, and show how to set the shader parameters.



Reflection and refraction effects are limited in Presenter 3D because it does not handle the creation of the environment map automatically. It is probably the major deficiency in the program.

A manually created environment map will work for animation when the camera is doing a fly-through and the objects in the scene are not modified (no movement, scaling, etc.)


HOME

NEW

LINKS

GALLERY

ARTICLES

PLUG-INS

RENDERMAN

Switch to Frame View




Copyright © 1997 by WebNation
All trademarks are the property of their respective holders