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
- Place a highly reflective chrome ball
(sphere) in the environment (real world or computer generated) that
you want to re-create.
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- Map the image of the environment without
the chrome ball to the image plane’s Image attributes.
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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.