The Best Blender HDRI Tutorial (that I've made)

Everything I know about using HDR Images in Blender. This tutorial covers the basics of using an HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image) as a background in your Blender scene and using HDRI lighting. HDRIs can be downloaded from Poly Haven and can easily add light and realistic backgrounds to your renders.
Using HDRIs is a simple way to improve your rendering. I'll cover downloading the EXR or HDR file, installing it and how to remove it from a render if you only want to use it for HDR lighting.
Download free HDRIs at www.polyhaven.com
This is my current online guide to HDRIs: brandonsdrawin...
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[@Brandon-3D]

Current HDRI Guide: brandonsdrawings.com/hdri

[@traviscecil3903]

3rd option to include HDRI light without the HDRI actually appearing in the background: Run the HDRI into a background node. Into an additional background node, run any image or color you wish to actually display. Now run both background nodes into a 'mix shader' node. Add the node I think I remember as being named light paths. Run that node into the mix factor node of the 'mix shader' mode. Select camera ray on the light path node. If the HDRI appears in the background but the light doesn't affect the object, reverse the order in which the background nodes run into the 'mix shader' node. Not as simple as your options, but sometimes it afford opportunities for other tricks down the road. Awesome content as always. Have a like and keep it coming.

[@Brandon-3D]

Interesting, I’m gonna try that out. Thank you Travis!

[@WrestlingWithGaming]

What a great, easy to follow, and straight to the point tutorial. A buddy of mine that works professionally as a VFX artist recommended i look into HDRI lighting setups for my renders and you couldn't have made it easier to start using them. Thanks and you've earned a new sub. I look forward to watching all of your other videos. 🖖🏻

[@philipmcdonnell7168]

You got straight to the point. I'm always forgetting what to do because I only 'dabble' with B3D. Thanks Brandon.

[@Brandon-3D]

Thanks again Philip! Getting to the point is one of my main goals with these. Take care!!

[@mark-ge2yl]

Thank you for these tutorials. They have helped me immensely from transitioning from Maya/3ds max to blender!

[@diogooliveira4060]

I have to be honest this was way easier to follow compared to other tutorials

[@Brandon-3D]

Thank you, very glad to hear!! Take care!

[@MRUStudios]

Love me some HDRIs! Great video as always my friend! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us! I hope you and your family are doing well and you have a great weekend! :)

[@Brandon-3D]

Hey my man! Thanks again and same to you!!

[@pause-play-rule]

First time see how an HDRI was applied on Blender. Great vid!

[@LosClassicals]

Best teacher for blender

[@thomaskmathew]

simple and best one yet

[@Brandon-3D]

Thanks Thomas!!

[@dawidskrzypek1502]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

[@Brandon-3D]

You’re welcome. Thank you for watching!

[@Ger.bogado]

awesome video, as always!

[@Brandon-3D]

Thanks again my friend!

[@cartonks.2492]

Op chad tut. respect ++++

[@orphydiancg7759]

I can see the HDRI in material preview in blender 3.4

[@Aidenjh11]

Is there a way to use a low res hdri to light the scene, but use LightPath to make a high res background .jpg show to the camera?

[@orphydiancg7759]

On polyhaven HDR are actually bigger in size than EXR. So which is better in quality?

[@JonToons0208]

Wow that is very beautiful. I want to do one like that in the future soon.

[@mantacid1221]

How would I go about making a purple and black error texture as a background that moves with the camera, but also retains a 1:1 aspect ratio, regardless of the aspect ratio of the viewing window? Every time I try to use some vector math to fix the mapping on a checker texture, my blender crashes. Is there a simpler way to do it?

[@Brandon-3D]

Hi, I would love to help. I think I need a little better understanding of what you’re trying to do. Do you want the texture to completely move with the camera, like it doesn’t move from the viewers perspective? Any way to link to something to give me a better idea?

[@Chrondon]

You could map the image to the camera, in the nodes

[@mantacid1221]

@@Brandon-3D that is exactly what I want. I also don’t want it to be distorted like it is if you just plug the texture directly into the color of the background shader node.

[@Brandon-3D]

@@mantacid1221 unless I’m still not getting it, I’d just put a giant plane far in the background. Put your texture on that then parent the plane to the camera. It’ll move along with the camera.

[@mantacid1221]

@@Brandon-3D that seems like it would work better than what I was attempting. Thanks.

[@akimkhan2582]

Only important information, Very helpful. Thank you!

[@Jmvars]

HDRi I got is way oversized for my scene, but scaling doesn't do anything unless I only scale along one or two axes which results in a distorted image. Any way to fix this?

[@jan237]

change the focal length of the camera