Create Your Own HDR Images with Blender

In this quick tip Blender tutorial you'll learn how to make your own HDR images from your renders. Creating your own HDR images can be especially useful for things like product visualization because you'll be able use custom light studio HDRs for your projects.
Studio models by nukkio - www.blendswap.com/blends/view/50740
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[@plush1312]

I think you forgot to say that a 2*1 resolution (f.e. 2048 px wide and 1024 px high) works best for hdris

[@blengine]

I was actually wondering about that after I published. Thanks for that, pinned your comment to the top. -Chris

[@NadineCallan]

@@blengine I was just about to search to see what the best dimensions would be. Great tutorial Thanks!

[@djjuanito3863]

Is that why my images are coming out blurry?

[@davidmurphy563]

This means so much, now I can have complex high res 4000 sample environments for animations without needing 2hrs of render per frame. Thanks!!

[@沈煜詳]

…I thought this would require some clever hacks and tedious tuning. So Blender has support for rendering a proper HDRi. Thank you.

[@LopezBOT90]

Been searching for a whole minute and came across exactly what I needed. Got to love the internet.

[@BrianLindahl]

Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Exactly what I was looking for and all in just over 2 mins.!

[@Alex16bit]

Ah I did not know that one can save an image as an HDR directly. Thank you for the brief and precise tutorial.

[@billyblanks7302]

This is great. Please make an updated short video doing the same thing for 2.8!

[@cmdrterrorfirma4244]

It actually works the same in 2.8 .. you just have ot make sure to set the output to Cycles... not Eevee

[@kayronmercieca8226]

@@cmdrterrorfirma4244 I wish I knew what extra step(s) this involved. Please explain if possible? :)

[@Uradamus]

I've been thinking about trying out something like this for a while now; glad to see it's an easier process then I expected. I was thinking about setting up a mirrored sphere to bake to and rendering out several passes with different light strengths, since I hadn't realized a Blender camera could be setup that way or that rendering to HDR was an option. Always love these quick, concise tutorials!

[@BlenderRookie]

I know about the equirectangular images but I never even noticed that it had an HDR output. I think this will come in handy. Thanks dude.

[@Olav3D]

That was actually really smart!

[@The-cyber-imbiber]

I've got some serious respect for your teaching skills.

[@blengine]

Thanks man!

[@ganapathym3664]

Your channel is truly profession but you put us on wait for a long time to have the next. Your channel provide great information on modeling and Lighting but not in Sculpting.I would appreciate if i found a single super sculpting tutorial in this channel which not only lacks here but also on the rest blender channels.

[@KevRyanCG]

That was way handier then I would have thought. Also cheers for the link for the photo studio objects!

[@fullyleaded]

THIS IS SO USEFUL!!! THANK YOU!

[@ibrremote]

Holey Mack - it's THAT simple ?! Wow.

[@kahlzun]

Wow, that was much simpler than i thought..

[@michaelsmusicinstruments9980]

how cool is that? I didn´t know HDR renders is possible with blender. thank you very much for the hint!

[@juliandarley]

excellent! thank you. i cannot wait to try this out. thanks for highlighting the model-maker too.

[@wesleytillman9774]

Yes, very useful.

[@kofskie1146]

Very quick and helpful tutorial, thank you

[@gamesforeverstudio5543]

Nice tutorial, never thought that this is so easy. Thank you.

[@Music-vc7mq]

thank you very for dis tutorial..

[@ep8778]

thanks a lot !

[@christophkrass6929]

omg, I love Blender

[@jacobokpara7618]

As always. Great video

[@eonacademy5036]

You,re great bro!...thanks!

[@PoMkAc27]

Nice, thank you👍

[@NebraskaJimmy]

Very Niiiice thanks so much and under 3 minutes... eggs take longer

[@MrRac2010]

Gracias, lo andaba buscando. Blender es el mejor, y gratis! ;-)

[@brunoberteli5405]

Thanks, Chris!

[@JROtoons]

that's pretty cool.

[@arcanjopires1327]

thanks a lot Chris........

[@zapfsaeule2]

Super!!! Thanks a lot!!!!!!! It helps so much :)

[@SheigonSheffield]

Oh man! I love you!

[@Bart_Depestele]

great, thanks

[@carlosgomezasensio9057]

Cool, supercool!

[@M0DFATH3R]

Never knew this thanks!

[@ganapathym3664]

If you want to know more about Lighting in blender using HDRI go and grab for free Gleb Alexandro's tutorial from gumroad

[@dadequalcustody8350]

Hot damn! Genius

[@ganapathym3664]

Thank you

[@jazzew]

Thank you, awesome tutorial! Oh, 7500 samples... That sure would take a day on my computer. Ha ha!

[@hasanhuseyindincer5334]

Thanks.

[@arielgimenez_95]

thanks

[@Kimera_Alternate_Realities]

OMG, this is so amazing, and so simple at the same time, thanks for sharing.

[@KhalilCh]

I love you man

[@anthony4564]

got any 2.8 blender ways, can't seem to find the equirectangular option.

[@puntataccomoccasim9310]

It appears when you set to render on Cycles. It is not available for Eevee.

[@mortoopz]

Heh. I've had my standard HDR world texture setup wrong for years.

[@blengine]

haha, how'd you have it set up?

[@mortoopz]

I hadn't set it as an environment texture.... Honestly I don't think it makes any difference but it's nice to be as correct as possible, eh.

[@arslanmug9902]

it's helpful bit if you could tell how to create all that environment lighting and setup ????

[@blengine]

Hey you can check the description for a link to all the models by nukkio. They have lights in them as well, I think I just boosted their strengths and changed their colors to make the scene. -chris

[@eobet]

So what is "shift + z" originally in Blender for those of us who have remapped it?

[@Pigiu00private]

For everyone else confused like i was in a more recent Blender version - the "shift + Z" means "render image"

[@Dive_Me_Crazy]

I wish there was a way to add parallax to HDRI images..... any idea how to combine mid-ground and background elements into a final environmental image so you can have some parallax while panning?

[@blengine]

That's a cool idea, but unfortunately I don't know if it's possible -Chris

[@Dive_Me_Crazy]

pity

[@keithramoran]

now can we have that HDRI for download? :D

[@blengine]

Sure here it is - cgmasters.net/tutorials/light_studio.hdr -Chris

[@ibrremote]

Is this 32-bit HDRI ?

[@blengine]

Radiance HDR is described as storing colors still in 8 bits per component, but with an additional (shared) 8-bit exponent value, making it 32 bits per pixel. I don't really know what this means and how it might differ from regular 32-bit though.

[@andrisolehudin2725]

I'm searching all over for a way to paint my UVMap in external tool, in my case photoshop, and them load it back to the mesh in render. The problem is I want to use that blender export feature that creates a basic surface in the uvmap so it would be easy to identify the parts and paint in photoshop. that this feature just exists in blender render as far as I searched. any idea how to do that in cycles render? I hope I was clear, thanks

[@Uradamus]

If I am understanding you correctly, you are looking to export the UV layout, so you have a reference of the mesh edges in the UVs to use as guides while painting? If so, then in the UV/Image editor go under the UVs menu on the editor's header and near the top should be an option named "Export UV Layout", just click that and save out the image and you will be good to go. Hope that helps; have fun! =)

[@baptistebl8821]

I have a problem, I tried except that I had always a result with a lot of noise. Did you change some parameters?

[@blengine]

Yeah I just increased the samples in the render options, and usually increase "indirect clamp" to 1 which helps get rid the extra bright pixel noise referred to as fireflies. There are also other options for getting a more noise-free render you'll be able to find on a lot of videos on youtube. -Chris

[@JoySaebi]

I cant download anything from blendswap.. Please help me.. I am registered user.. When I click download, it download html not the file...

[@blengine]

When you click download, do you see a popup with a license agreement and another button that says "Yes, download now!"? And clicking that only downloads an html file for you? Not sure what's going on, you'll have to contact the owners of that site for help. -Chris

[@JoySaebi]

CG Masters I see.. Maybe I used via phone.. I will try to use PC.. Thanks

[@becool365]

It is easier to just muck around on Photoshop to quickly create a load of easy environmental textures.

[@blengine]

There's not really a comparison. This is about creating custom 3d environments for HDRIs, which also contain lighting information, not just color information. -Chris

[@Dive_Me_Crazy]

Are you talking about hacking and combining existing HDRI's or creating an environment from scratch? I have tried making HDRI environments in Photoshop but be stuffed if I can make anything I like. The method shown here is actually easier in my mind. Can you show me how you do it?

[@mirkosch926]

@@blengine I would like to ask about that: how did you set up the amount of lighting? I'm looking for a way to create my own HDRIs, possibly controlling the amount and position of dark reflections on metalic objects.

[@siete3d950]

thank you

[@TooEazyCG]

thank you