This is a set of 5 HDRIs captured from real-world lights that you can use as textured light sources in your CG scenes. The HDRIs are provided as 32bit ACEScg exr (4096 x 4096) files and should be suitable for all renderers. Just attach them to an area light, a mesh light or to an emissive shader, and hit render.

The lights provided include:

1. Skylight
2. Soft Spot
3. Soft Plane 001 (Diffuser)
4. Soft Plane 002 (Diffuser)
5. Kinoflo

Provided with the download is also a mid-resolution modelled set of lights that you can use in your scenes for more believable renders. The light geo has been textured using the provided tonemapped images, so they look fancy in your renders 😉 We’ve also mapped textures to the additional geo, so they are visible in render.

Please note that if you are using older versions of Maya, you will more than likely need to re-wire textures or tweak colour space settings. Unfortunately, Autodesk like to modify settings between Maya versions, and we are unable to create a project that works out-of-the-box for every version of Maya.

File Format: exr (ACEScg), ma (2024+), FBX

Overview

In this video, we cover what’s provided with the download and their intended use.

Setup and Troubleshooting

Although this video is presented using the HDRI Light Set 1004, it demonstrates how to setup your project, ensure all the HDRIs are plugged into the lights and prep the calibration scene. It also shares a few notes on how to go about fixing any issues if you are using older versions of Maya.

Lights

The HDRIs have been provided in ACEScg colour space. All the light maps have been ‘squished’ into 4K square tiles, so you can re-scale (reformat) them in your app of choice to match the physical real-world size of your lights. The Maya scene file (or FBX) with the geometry has the lights scaled as they would be in reality.

 

Test Calibration Scene

Provided with the project is a test scene that contains a grey ball, chrome ball, Macbeth chart, scale cubes, and a photoscanned statue (John Asaro’s Planes of the Head). A locked off camera is also included and reference images from the shoot. The reference camera has the correct focal length on the lens but has not been perfectly lined up. You can use the provided data to further calibrate and grade your lights as you see fit.

The Maya 2024 scene file should work from the offset but if you are using older versions of Maya or other apps, you will need to modify things (add/modify shaders for example). In order that you can easily work in other apps, an FBX file has also been included.

We’ve also provided a series of reference renders (jpg, sRGB) for you to assess and get an idea of how the lights illuminate a scene.

 

License

For all licences, you may remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, but you cannot resell or share the assets.

Personal

Our personal license allows you to use this on your personal projects and non-commercial projects. You may not create training content that you intend to sell or make available via platforms such as YouTube, Patreon, Vimeo, etc. using this license.

Commercial Single Project

This license allows you to use the product for a single project only. If your studio has numerous sites, you may also use the product across all sites (for example, London, Montreal, LA, etc). However, if you are a studio that comprises of a number of different companies (for example, VFX Global > Pixel Crunchers, VFX Global > Pixel Converters), then you will need a licence per individual company.

Commercial Perpetual

This license allows you to use the product across all your projects and across all sites. However, similar to the Single Project license, if you are a studio that comprises of a number of different companies (for example, VFX Global > Pixel Crunchers, VFX Global > Pixel Converters), then you will need a licence per individual company.

Academic

If you are an academic institute (university, school, training centre, etc.) looking to provide this product to multiple students, please get in touch to discuss our academic license.