Lookdev lighting question

obloquy

Hey, I've got a question about lookdev and lighting.  When lookdeving a character, how do you make sure your textures are working in all lighting conditions?  

Do you exclusively use hdris for the lookdev testing stage and adjust the textures to make sure they're 'working' with multiple hdris?  Or do you use 3point lighting?  Just wondering whats best practise to achieving a realistic lighting situation, pretty much like Alexandre Arpentinier's Miles Morales piece below

oglu

In production HDRIs are used.
But they are all calibrated. Not the crap from the internet.

As a starting point use the one from Pixar.
https://renderman.pixar.com/piper-look-dev

obloquy

@oglu Ahh I see, thats really helpful to know! I'm guessing the guy who did the Mile's art piece was just using something from the net

oglu

You can deffinitly do that. But you have to match the light intensity by hand or find some good HDRIs.

obloquy

Cool thanks for the tip! Would the pixar ones be a good to lookdev with only because theyre calibrated?

Another quick question if thats ok - I see a lot of Macbeth charts with the chrome and grey balls used in lookdev, I know what the balls do in terms of lighting but whats the benefit of having the Macbeth chart showing, is it for calibration of some sort?  But if the hdri isn't calibrated, how will the macbeth chart help?  Sorry might be a silly question 

oglu

Those charts and balls are in the render scene cause you see something is off really fast.
If the white ball insnt white but your chars eyes. Something isnt right.
Some goes for the colors on the chart.

There are lightballs and a chart in the scene.
https://renderman.pixar.com/official-swatch

And yes with an xrite you can calibrate HDRIs and footage on set. 
https://www.xrite.com/categories/calibration-profiling/colorchecker-targets

poopipe

Generally you  take a photo with a Macbeth chart in it and then compare the color values to a digital version of the chart.  The difference in values helps  you to work out what transform you need to apply to colours to cancel out the effect of environmental lighting and other such pollution from the source photo and allows you to find the true colour of objects

gnoop

I used X-rite chart  before and now it collects dust mostly.     Guessing  sounds like something wrong while in reality  you just instantly know what color should it be after switching few random "neutral"  HDRI    or in our case moving the sun over a game dynamic sky and switching few cloud conditions,    Same for roughness.

My guess  all that balls/charts  stuff is more for persuading  themselves   then actual necessity.   Maybe  to eliminate any chance of mistake in big budget  projects.

poopipe

You only need the chart if you're pulling stuff in from other sources and need to match it up with stuff you're making digitally - which is why they're important for VFX/movies etc. 

If you're making something entirely original then provided you stick to physically legitimate values (assuming you're doing pbr - if not, why would you be dicking around with charts?) you can do whatever you like