Educational April keeps getting better!
I'm happy to present the latest collaborative submission to HDRLabs:

Students studying the Graduate Diploma of Advanced 3D Production course at New Zealand's (Auckland) Media Design School have built a robot which allows a DSLR camera to take 360 degree panoramic HDRIs. In a 45-minute presentation they explain their motivation, design, usage experience, and showcase the excellent 3D rendering results they achieved by using their own captured HDRIs.

This project deserves a permanent page in the Tutorial section. After the jump you'll find everything you need for your new summer DIY project - including blueprints, CAD models, source code and software for the controller. Big thanks to Emil Polyak and Darren Leslie from the Media Design School for making all this publicly available!

Grab a cup of tea and some cookies, and then watch the presentation on how to

Build an HDR panobot!

Pashá Kuliyev just made his Bachelor in Imaging Sciences and Media Technology at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne. Congratulations, Pashá!

Highlights of his Bachelor thesis are:

• Comparing mirror balls of different grades and sizes.
• Fisheye capturing with a custom made panoramic head.
• Hands-on experience with the SpheronHDR camera.
• Comparing all three acquisition techniques.
• Great explanation of radiometric units.
• Overview of the multi-layer rendering and compositing.

There's a good ratio of well written explanations and formula-proven hard facts in there. HDR Software developers should have a closer look at chapter 2.3, where the Lat-Long mapping equations are discussed. This is the foundation to make your tonemappers panorama-safe. Heck, you should read the whole thing - you'll find thousands of golden information nuggets in this thesis.

Because Pashá is awesome, he offers his full thesis for free download, right here in the Tutorials/Download section.

I'm sure there is a bright future waiting for Pashá. Currently, he's running a CGI workshop at his University. Wonder which big CG house will snatch him for their R&D department...

Paul Debevec is one of the founding fathers of HDR Imaging. He also took HDRI further than anyone else, a true pioneer, still unmatched. If you're not familiar with his work yet, check out this documentary:




And now Paul Debevec is up for the Visionary Award of the Visual Effects Industry. Clearly, nobody deserves it more than him! You should pop into the ELAN website and vote for Paul. Do it now, voting closes this Friday...

Monthly site updates:

Quick sidenote: my monthly update chores. This month's sIBL is my friend Alex's Apartment. Also, we can celebrate 1.000.000 "HDR"-images on Flickr with a new race for front seats in the Hot-on-Flickr gallery.

And now: Go, Paul, go Paul, GO!