HDR Skies - Series One Favourites

Not sure which skies to buy? Obviously I would suggest that you buy all of them, but I decided to put together a list if you are looking for a good selection which happen to be my most used and favourites from series one.

0743 - Dramatic, a great mix of low sun and moody clouds, as used on Quest.
0839 - Lovely warm light - see my interiors on the Haus Hafner project.
0902 - Overcast sky, very flexible. I used it on Glenstone and even the Tind Dusk shots.
1008 - VERY overcast! As seen on Allandale and Twins.
1123 - High sun angle, useful in a lot of scenarios. One example: Plain Space.
1433 - Nice sunny day with some white clouds.
1739 - Similar to 1725, but I prefer this one. I used it for the Kilburn Vale project.
1847 - A nice soft dusk sky, used on some of the Ziphouse renders.
1928 - A great general dusk sky. Examples here and here.
1941 - My favourite dusk sky, used most recently on the Ando project.

Online Shop now online!

Finally, after a LOT of work and about 6 months later than planned, I'm happy to announce that my online shop is now open for business. Next project: finish the 2nd series of skies...

Free HDRi Sky* - 3DArtist Mag

Completely forgot about this until I got sent a copy of the magazine, but 3DArtist Magazine has one of my skies on the cover disc courtesy of 3DOcean.net.

It doesn't mention my name anywhere but it is indeed one of mine so maybe a good chance to try a HDRi sky out if you haven't done so already.

The sky on the disc is '1928 Dusk Sun'

*when you buy the magazine for 6 quid

45 Skies - 3docean update!

UPDATE: My HDR Sky shop is now open, please buy my products there instead, thanks!

Before I start making new skies, I decided to go back and work a bit more on all the old ones. If you bought any of them, you can now log in to 3docean.net and download the updated versions.

Changes include:

  • The original horizon has been removed from the HDR files, and the photos used to make the HDRi re-processed for a smoother, noise free image.
  • Radiance (.hdr) and OpenEXR (.exr) file sizes have been optimized to improve loading times.
  • 16 bit RAW versions of the backplate photos now included to allow greater freedom in post processing.

Enjoy!

EDIT: labelled version as requested.

EDIT 2: Any new skies won't be happening anytime soon I'm afraid, I'll probably wait till I have 9 ready so that I can offer them as a pack for a reduced price straight away.

EDIT 3: Lots of people asking how to get the updated skies. Just log into 3docean as normal, click on the downloads tab and you will see all the products you have bought from 3docean, then just download the ones you want. All my skies on 3docean have been updated so you will get the new version when you download.

Lighting test by Saiful Said

Saiful Said sent me a nice selection of images, one of which features my 1934 sky. Love the warmth of the direct sun contrasted with the cool skylight. You can read more about it and see the rest of the images on Ronen's blog.

minimalist test - dusk

minimalist test - dusk

Lake Lugano House by James Pickford

I loved these images by James Pickford even before I learned he had used my skies to light them. The dusk ones are absolutely spot on in terms of lighting and colour balance. James works for the excellent Uniform in Liverpool and did these as a personal project. They are based on the Lake Lugano House by JM Architecture in Italy. You could easily sneak the dusk images in amongst the photographs on the architect's website and no-one would notice.

He used 1957 for the dusk images and 1008 for the overcast one.

lake-lugano-shot_06_500

lake-lugano-shot_06_500

lake-lugano-shot_07_500

lake-lugano-shot_07_500

lake-lugano-shot_01_500

lake-lugano-shot_01_500

bullfinch visuals

minifinal031

minifinal031

Really interesting to see some non arch viz work being made with the help of my HDR skies! These beautiful renders were sent to me by Andreas Fougner who works in the video game industry and is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

minifinal051

minifinal051

minifinal131

minifinal131

The sky he used was '1342 Cloudy' and you can find the complete set of images on his blog: bullfinch visuals.

Triple-D visuals

I always enjoy seeing images made using my HDRi skies, so I was delighted to see these lighting tests arrive in my inbox today.

These are from George Nijland (Triple-D Visuals) who was kind enough to let me share them here, and who has been experimenting with the reduced gamma HDRi workflow that I blogged about here.

The skies he used (from top to bottom) are:

0743 Cloudy Morning
1725 Sun Clouds
1954 Dusk

I love the moody morning one, must try to use it more often!

If you have been using my products then I always appreciate an email to show what you have been making, and I might even share them here.

HDRi Skies

UPDATE: My HDR Sky shop is now open, please buy my products there instead, thanks!

The first HDRi skydome is available on 3docean. It's a clear blue sky with just a few clouds. I'm hoping to be able to offer packs at a discounted price as well, but that's dependent on 3docean, so for now it's just going to be individually. Feel free to let me know what type of skies you would like to see next, the image below is just a selection from many!