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Review - Blender HDRI Studio

5

Blender HDRI Studio is a collection of twenty .EXR images of studio lighting setups meant for product renderings or any other situation where you need a solid color background and even lighting. Also included is a scene with a shadow/reflection catcher where you can render using any of the HDRs included with the package and apply a background of any color you wish.

The complete package costs $11.99 on the Blender Market.

HDRI_preview_pack_01

HDRI Studio includes 20 HDR images.

Usability

The provided scene requires you to append/link a model into the scene, then you can render it out once you pick one of the HDRs included in the pack. There’s a object to scale that defines how much floor to show for reflections, but one thing I found odd was that when you scale the object down the floor area that renders becomes bigger, which doesn't make much sense.

The naming conventions can be a little confusing to read at times, with lots of underscores and all caps text. Personally, I believe underscores should be used if the user plans on doing some sort of programming. But that’s a very nitpicky critique.

After the user renders out the scene, a compositing setup is applied that has a built in vignette applied by default. I'm not sure why this was included, by I would have left it out of the package, since it's usually not wanted or needed for most renderings.

Overall, I’ll give it a 8/10 on usability. Everything works mostly as expected except for the minor issues I noted above. The only thing that would make it better to use would be a dedicated add-on, such as the Pro-Lighting: Skies add-on by Andrew Price.

untitled1

Realism

I’m cautious in using the word realism, since that doesn’t actually apply to studio lighting. But I can’t think of a better title for this section.

It’s hard to put all the different HDRs in one basket, certain ones worked nicely for me, while others worked pretty horribly to be honest. Especially the ones that had a visible floor inside the HDR, that gave an oddly lit underside that ended up looking like some odd kind of bounce lighting I’d expect from a biased renderer with some wacky settings applied.

Some of the HDRs worked better, but 14/20 HDRs had the lit underside problem, which is hard to overlook. And in many cases, having the very large floor acting as light, it caused the entire render to look dull and lack in contrast. The problem could be solved if the user creates a floor plane to block all the incoming light. But that brings on other problems with having a seamless backdrop.

I’m giving this a 5/10. I know, it’s harsh. But I feel if the creator would have tested the HDRs more, the realism would be vastly improved.

left is a render using HDRI Studio, right is using a mesh light setup.

left is a render using HDRI Studio, right is using a mesh light setup.

Value

There’s only two other studio setups available on the Blender Market, one $15 and the other $50. So it is the cheapest setup available, but both other setups seem to have better realism from what I can see from the product pages. But seeing as it is the cheapest of the three, I’m giving it a 7/10.

Score

6.7 Not Perfect

A cheaply priced studio rendering solution with acceptable, but not perfect results.

  • Ease of use 9
  • Value 7
  • Realism 4
  • User Ratings (3 Votes) 7.3

About the Author

Johnson Martin

Hi, I'm Johnson. . I run Topology Guides, a blog about tips and tricks for 3d modelers. I'm also a primary contributor to the Digital Life 3D project creating virtual animals for use in science and education.

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