Quest for Photorealism

For a while now, I've been on a quest for Photorealism in 3D computer graphics and I'm starting to realize that its all about Lighting. Turns out that if you use a High Dynamic Range Image to light your 3D models instead of normal virtual lights it looks a LOT more realistic... and obviously composites very well onto the scene that the HDR Image comes from. Also, if you render with the Global Illumination setting or Radiosity on (takes a long time!) it can get virtually indistinguishable from reality.

Check out Paul Debevec, he's basically the father of this technique:
http://www.debevec.org/
I think this technique was used in the Matrix.

Download PDF on Lighting Reconstruction for "The Matrix Reloaded"

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