Create the perfect HDRI lighting in minutes with HDR Light Studio Pro. Lighting shots are now fast, precise and easy. Simply click on the model to position lights on a live HDRI map.
HDR Light Studio software provides 3D artists with a new way to light 3D imagery. Paint your shot with lights. The lighting process is now easy, fast, precise, creative and enjoyable. HDR Light Studio builds lighting that is used by your existing 3D software and renderer. By adding HDR Light Studio, 3D artists become more productive and image quality improves.
Frustrated with your 3D Lighting Process?
HDR Light Studio will dramatically improve the way you light:
Easily and quickly light your 3D models to a very high standard
Enjoy a more creative and flexible lighting process
Meet your deadlines and produce higher value images
Lighting should be fun
Lighting is one of the most creative opportunities for a 3D artist, it can transform the look of your render. Don’t be held back by the limitations of your current lighting tools and content. Become a lighting master.
A Lighting Standard
HDR Light Studio has now helped thousands of commercial 3D artists, world-wide, to speed up the lighting process and produce better quality renders. It has become an industry standard over the last 10 years and we work closely with our partners to create plug-in connections to: 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, MODO, Houdini and many more.
Xenon Release – New Blender Connection
This new HDR Light Studio release includes new features for Blender, Octane Render Standalone and 3ds Max/V-Ray 5 users. This release also lays the foundation for improving the performance of all our connections, with the development of a new faster API.
HDR Light Studio Transforms Your Lighting Workflow
Studio Lighting
Lighting to match a back-plate image
Adding lights/adjustments to existing HDRI maps
Creative Benefits
Fast
Craft lighting to a higher level
Explore more lighting treatments
User-Friendly
Puts the art back into lighting
Easy to use with real-time feedback
Accurate
Precisely position lighting and reflections on 3D models
Commercial Benefits
Cost Effective
Increase productivity – light shots in minutes not hours
Image-based lighting can significantly reduce render times
Works with your existing hardware/software
Improve Quality
HDR lighting raises image quality to the next level
Key Features
Anatomy of HDR Light Studio - HDR Light Studio’s real-time lighting interface provides the tools and lighting content you need to take your images to the next level.
Light Sources: Procedural - HDR Light Studio is best known for creating studio lighting – especially suited to reflective materials. Procedural lights can be precisely controlled and positioned to create a wide variety of lighting effects.
Light Sources - Images - For the most realistic lighting effects – load HDR images as light sources in HDR Light Studio. Image based light sources bring high levels of realism with subtle details and imperfections seen in reflections.
Lighting Content - HDR Light Studio includes a huge library of high quality HDR content to use in your lighting designs.
Render View & LightPaint - The Render View is a key feature of HDR Light Studio’s lighting interface. Lights are positioned by clicking and dragging on the Render View – we call this patented process LightPaint. HDR Light Studio loads Alembic, FBX*, Collada file formats. *Windows OS only
HDRI Area Lights - HDR Area lights are created and controlled in real-time in your 3D software as you work in HDR Light Studio. Light geometry, shaders and HDR RGBA image content is all updated on the fly via the connection.
Handles Huge Scenes - The Render View and LightPaint remain fast even with huge scenes.
Matching Photography - When blending photography and CG imagery, matching the lighting between the photographic content and the CG elements is key to a successful and believable image. If a HDRI map of the location has not been captured then a lighting setup needs building from scratch. HDR Light Studio makes this process easy and enabling the rapid creation of a suitable lighting environment.
Enhancing Reality - When reality isn’t enough. Load HDRI maps shot on location and add additional light sources to bring your subject to life. Just like on a real photoshoot, beauty lights are added to make your subject the star of the show.
Procedural Sky - HDR Light Studio includes a procedural sky shader. Replace the sky on an existing HDRI map and use an alpha ramp to control the horizon position and softness. Drag and drop the included Cloud preset images onto the sky for added realism. The sun disc can be increased in size whilst maintaining its overall lighting contribution, allowing for creative decisions about the sun scale. The sun disc has a controllable soft edge.
Mix Up Your Maps - Load more than one HDRI map into HDR Light Studio and use the alpha ramp to blend between them. Use saturation adjustments and color filtering, via blend modes, to take control of color and create a better match. Enabling you to get more out of your existing HDRI collection.
More Than Lights - The HDR Canvas is a compositor for HDR and LDR content, supporting a range of image formats, mappings and blend modes. Lights are not limited to representing light sources. A light can be a loaded HDRI map background or an additional cloud added to the sky. The procedural light sources are very useful when combined with blend modes. Allowing precise local adjustments of color and brightness on the HDRI map – shaping the lighting effect.
Portable Lighting - HDRI maps are the ultimate portable lighting format. They can be used with different renderers and produce predictable and accurate results. Especially with physically based rendering. When implementing the new Area Lights feature, we ensured these lights were portable too. For example, you can create a lighting design in Maya for Arnold Render (using a HDRI map with Area Lights) and then switch renderers to V-Ray, the Area Lights will be rebuilt using V-Ray lights. You can also light a shot in Cinema 4D with Arnold, and load the same lighting design into Maya with Maxwell Render to get the exact same lighting.
Industry Standards - VFX artists will be pleased to know HDR Light Studio has progressed to embrace some industry standards. HDR Light Studio uses OpenColorIO color management and supports loading Alembic scene files. In order to efficiently handle very large image files, HDR Light Studio will automatically convert image files to mip-mapped and tiled images, saving them as .tx files. When using .tx files, HDR Light Studio only loads the image resolution and area needed – this vastly improves image load times and performance.
Use Standalone or Connected - HDR Light Studio can be used standalone – load a 3D scene and produce the perfect HDRI map.Or, Connect HDR Light Studio with your 3D software and Renderer. Lighting is built and updated live within your 3D software as you light with HDR Light Studio.
Included connections: VRED, DeltaGen, Patchwork 3D
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Priority Support
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Support Channels
email
email
email, phone, web meetings
Nodelocked – Single User Annual Subscription
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Nodelocked – Single User Permanent License
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Floating – Multi-User Annual Subscription
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Licensing Options
A node-locked license is for one user and allows HDR Light Studio to run on a designated primary computer, and a designated second home/laptop computer if required (by using the license transfer facility on our web site).
A floating license is for multiple users and allows one concurrent session of HDR Light Studio to run on any computer on the local network. You need to purchase licenses for the number of concurrent users you will require. A computer on the network runs the RLM server software and client machines get their licenses from this computer via the local network.
An annual subscription provides a license that will expire at the end of the 1 year period. During the subscription period you can run the latest software and you are entitled to support. Renewal is not automatic and we do not store card details.
A permanent license does not expire. It includes 1 year of maintenance – providing software updates and support. At the end of this period, additional maintenance can be purchased in order to keep your software up to date and to continue to be supported.