Simulate reflections with Env Ball

For more information about this texture, see Env Ball.

To use the Env Ball environment texture, you must map the texture’s Image attribute with the image of a reflective chrome ball in the environment you want to re-create. You should also create an image plane for the camera and map the image plane’s Image Name attribute with the image of the environment without the chrome ball.

To create an image of a chrome ball

1. Place a highly reflective chrome ball (sphere) in the environment (real world or computer generated) that you want to re-create.
2. Place the ball at the exact location (in the original environment) where you want the model to appear (in the re-created environment), and take note of the ball’s distance from any floor/walls/ceiling or large objects.
3. Photograph (or render) the ball using a telephoto lens, and take note of the camera’s elevation (the angle between the camera’s view and the environment’s grid plane), and the camera’s inclination (the angle between the camera’s view and the environment’s YZ plane).

   The photo essentially contains a compressed sample of the entire environment, except for the area directly behind the ball. The highest resolution is in the direction of the camera, so the image provides the best data compression for that point of view.

To re-create environments using environment ball

1. The Env Ball texture can best re-create environments that have no objects in their center (that is, near the chrome ball). For example, rooms and interiors should not contain furniture, and outdoor scenes should not have trees or cars near the chrome ball. (In general, outdoor scenes can contain buildings.)

To use a single image of a chrome ball using environment ball

1. Map a File texture to the Env Ball texture’s Image attribute, and then map the image file of the ball in the environment to the File texture’s Image attribute.
2. Map the image of the environment without the chrome ball to the image plane’s Image attributes.
3. Set the Env Ball texture’s Inclination and Elevation attributes to the inclination and elevation of the camera used to photograph the ball.

To obtain accurate reflections for the environment ball texture

1. For accurate reflections of the re-created environment on the model, set the Env Ball texture’s Projection Geometry attributes to values corresponding to the distance between any floor/walls/ceiling or large objects and the chrome sphere when it was photographed.

To position the image planes’s image for the environment ball texture

1. To simplify positioning the image plane’s Image, set the Env Ball texture’s Eye Space on.

To model background geometry when using the environment ball texture

1. To model background geometry (for example, so you can add shadows, lighting effects, or fog to the scene), set the Env Ball texture’s Reflect attribute off.