PhysicalCamera

PhysicalCamera

Type: Shaders

Updated: May 10, 2009

Availability: Unreleased

Compatibility

Host Applications: mental ray

Operating Systems: Linux, Mac OS X and Windows

Architecture: 64-bit and 32-bit

Overview

This lens shader is designed to be physically accurate and mimics a DSLR camera’s exposure settings. For simplicity’s sake I modeled the settings after the popular and beginner-friendly Nikon D40.

PhysicalCamera bases its exposure calculations on these real-world camera units:

The shader offers useful presets for each individual setting and also combined presets for various lighting situations such as sunlight, overcast skies, tungsten etc. as you might know them from your DSLR camera.
Anyone familiar with photographic cameras will find PhysicalCamera intuitive to use.

Moreover, PhysicalCamera features basic color correction settings and simulates various photographic effects including vignetting, chromatic aberration and film grain for added realism.

Usage

This shader can be used as a basic tone mapping operator and to properly expose an image as you would with a real DSLR camera.

PhysicalCamera is designed for best results when used in combination with PhysicalLight and PhysicalMaterial.

Compatibility

PhysicalCamera is compatible with mental ray on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows (64-bit and 32-bit).