1
$\begingroup$

How to keep only the upper part (the lower part should be removed).

I want to remove nature up to horizon and just keep sky. I only need the sky itself and its lighting. The removed lower part of environmental texture can stay empty.

first photo

second photo

Blender project: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JFRwKPZWHOAcz5V14zQ5uOym9XA-wIk9/view?usp=sharing

Hdri: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15VIRZ3-7KOdXIUAL5fkEFRCyYJEi9I0d/view?usp=sharing

Edit

How to fix "sun broblem" seen in Gordon's answer?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
7
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ If you are looking to edit an HDRI, you need to use a software like Photoshop or GIMP $\endgroup$
    – Emir
    Commented Jan 16 at 12:24
  • $\begingroup$ I dont know why people vote to "Close for community reason" ... probably if you can explain deeper what do you mean extract sky (to be used in your scene) ... it is already used ... like you want to remove nature up to horizon and just keep sky to light the scene? $\endgroup$
    – vklidu
    Commented Jan 16 at 13:09
  • $\begingroup$ yes, I only need the sky itself and its lighting $\endgroup$
    – Михаил Байраков
    Commented Jan 16 at 13:15
  • $\begingroup$ What do you expect at lower part of removed part ... what should fill that part of environmental texture? $\endgroup$
    – vklidu
    Commented Jan 16 at 13:16
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Unfortunately I wrote my answer before all these comments... Anyway, there are a few things you can do. But honestly, if you do not want any landscape you might probably be better off with trying to find some sky only HDRI... or mostly sky... or simply use the Sky Texture > Nishita in the world background instead of some HDRI. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Commented Jan 16 at 13:37

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3
$\begingroup$

It depends on what you mean and how the HDRI should be working afterwards. To really edit the image itself you should maybe use real image editing software as @Emir suggested.

However, there are things you can do in Blender, depending on what result you want. For example, if you want the bottom half of the HDRI to be simply black (or any other color) you can set the Image Editor to Paint instead of View and paint the lower part. Note that it might not really update in the viewport until you have saved the edited version (and maybe even refreshed with Alt+R). And if you want a seamless transition where the left and right side meet correctly it might be better to do this in Texture Paint mode on a sphere with this texture (because you cannot paint the background):

paint it, black

If the black part reaches too high, you can move the sky down a bit by increasing(!) the Z location of the coordinates with a mapping node:

move texture down

But if you do not want everything black in the lower part, just overall sky, you could also move the texture even further down by increasing the Z location a lot more. I have not completely removed the landscape so that the principle becomes clear:

move further down

The only problem with this method is, the sun in the sky moves down as well as you can see above. And because you only use the upper half of the image for the full sphere, everything gets stretched vertically. Even if you decrease the scale on Z this will not make it look better.

If you don't want to stretch the sky texture and not paint it but rather do everything procedurally in the shader, you could also use a Separate XYZ node to get the Z component of the Generated coordinates. This you can use in a Mix Color node to blend between some color (I've now chosen some blue instead of pure black) and the HDRI. A Color Ramp might help with the transition:

mix by height

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ and how to fix "sun broblem" ("the only problem with this method is, the sun in the sky moves down as well as you can see above") $\endgroup$
    – Михаил Байраков
    Commented Jan 16 at 15:17
  • $\begingroup$ @МихаилБайраков Well, I just wanted to mention that this is the downside of the method. Not that there is a solution for the problem. It is just how it is, if you move the texture down, everything moves down. That's it. No fix. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon Brinkmann
    Commented Jan 16 at 15:24
2
$\begingroup$

Gordon already covered the topic (with their downsides) ... for proper result manual retouch is necessary (or search for Sky textures).

To retouch horizon from trees and mountains ... you can use in blender only Smear Brush (Image Editor > Paint) ...

enter image description here

... that works for this purpose just fine (or use some external image editor).

enter image description here

Some people use mirrored texture (Scale Z -1) to fill black bottom part like water effect or use Gordon's last nodetree ...

enter image description here enter image description here

Notes:

  • to see better overbright parts of texture in Image Editor change Color Management > Exposure and under Image Editor's N panel enable Image > View as Render (if option is gray, save Image as)
  • Clone brush is not an easy to use in Image Editor. It is more handy use clone brush in 3D viewport (at texture Imported as Image as Plane), but it doesn't operates in 32bit.
Improve this answer
$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .