"IBL is useful for integrating 3d objects with existing 2d footage, but it's not very good when you have exact ideas ("I want a soft blue fill from below and a bright white highlight from the upper left")."

It's also great for an overall "fill" or ambient effect too, even if you're not matching to a 2D scene specifically. I often use a diffuse IBL with no image attached, just a medium grey color node, to supply the ambience of an indoor shot, or a medium blue color node, to supply a "skylight" type effect for outdoor shots. Then I only need two or three standard lights (a backlight and key) to actualize the specific lighting effect I'm looking for. Also, to keep the image from being too overexposed, I darken the diffuse color swatch on the IBL light in the material room, from it's default white to a muted grey color.

This is something I wish they had in Max, where I have to use light domes to get the same effect. I rarely use actual GI, especially for animation, as it's far too expensive (and not easily controlled, as you pointed out). Message edited on: 10/10/2005 22:12

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Tools :  3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.