Synopsis

This tutorial explains how to create a camera with a fish eye lens that can be exported for use in Radiance.

Duration

You will need about 10 minutes to complete this tutorial.

Training and Accreditation

This is a stand alone tutorial and does not form part of any training packages at this stage.

Resources Required

To complete this tutorial, open any Ecotect file that already contains a camera object. Alternatively, open a new Ecotect file, and insert a standard camera into the model. We can then convert this camera into one with a fish eye lens.

Tutorial

1. In Ecotect, go to the Model»Material Library... menu item. This will open the material library dialogue box.
   

   The Camera section of the Material Library dialogue box.
2. Under the Model tab, expand the Cameras section by double-clicking on it. You will see three camera materials have already been created - Normal, Parallel and WideAngle. Select any one of these cameras, and its properties will be displayed to the right. We've used the Camera_WideAngle in this example.
3. Rename the camera to Camera_FishEye. Now click on the Add New Element button. This creates a new entry under the list of cameras, using the selected camera as its basis. We can now change the settings for this new camera without affecting the original Camera_WideAngle material.
   

   Rename the Camera_WideAngle material to Camera_FishEye.
4. Under the Lense Type: field, use the drop down menu and change this from Perspective to Hemispheric. And then change both the Horizontal View Angle and Vertical View Angle to '180'.
   

   Change the values for the Camera_FishEye material as shown.
5. Click Apply Changes and then Close the Material Library dialogue box.
6. Back in the 3D Editor, assign the new Camera_FishEye material to your camera. Then export your model to RADIANCE. Not sure how to do this? Have a look at this tutorial here.
7. Using the camera settings specified above, your rendered RADIANCE image should look something like the following :
   

   The fish eye lens as it appears in RADIANCE.

Tips

• For some reason or other, the fish eye lens camera does not display correctly under the Visualise page tab. You'll have to ask Andrew about this one...
• Adjusting the Horizontal View Angle and Vertical View Angle independently allows you to control the horizontal and vertical extent of the fish eye lens, in case you don't want a purely spherical image projection.