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Sneak Peak At My Upcoming Product: HDRI Studio Pack 119 Comments

If you have been following GSG lately, you may have noticed that I have gone a bit crazy for Global Illumination and image based lighting. IBL is a simple way to light you scene by using pre-made images instead of 3D lights. After playing more and more with this technique, I realized that this would work REALLY great for product shots. So, with all this new knowledge, I set off to make a product that will make it super simple to light your product shots and make them look beautiful. I’m calling it HDRI STUDIO PACK.

It’s made so you can easy bring in a model, add a Seamless Floor and pick an HDRI image to along with it. You then have all the controls you need to make the product look beautiful and hit render.

The best part are the over 50 HDRI images included with the Pack. These HDRI images are images of actual studios that I built in cinema 4D. I set up popular studio setups and baked them into HDRI images so that you could use them too!

I will have much more news about this pack as the week continues. For now though, check out the video above and the examples below and let me know what you think!

Renders Made With The Pack

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HDRI Studio Pack
Light Kit Pro

119 Comments

  3. Christoph

    awesome stuff
    question:
    how do you make the preview render in your scene? and switch the scale…?

    Reply

  4. remmac

    Hi Nick, i’m honored that my agfa model features in your tut.
    I use the lightkit all the time and its fun to get into the xpresso settings and tweak it. I started with cinema 14 months ago and have learned so much since then from this awesome site. not only the enthusiasm you bring to us but also the ongoing effort. you just don’t stop and keep everyone looking out for your new tuts.

    Thanx & Cheers dude!

    Reply

    • remmac

      You are more than welcome.
      I’m busy modeling, the phone is almost finished, difficult one, i’ll send you an update tomorrow, thinks it’s done in a day or two… great challenge.

      Reply
    • The Gorilla

      The Gorilla

      Heck no. Some are bought, some were free from websites. Some were graciously shared with me from the creators.

      Reply

  7. Mario Gonsalves

    How much will this cost? And when will it be realesed??

    Can’t wait…been lookin for some HDRI Studio for a long time…
    Does it come with some extra also?
    Like City’s, Parks, Concerts, Baseball Stadium HDRI?

    Reply

  9. Hamilton

    You know how you say in your reel critiques, don’t put in anything that brings down your presentation or doesn’t compare with your other pieces?

    Well that orange car render is looking pretty bottom drawer with the others Nick. Just sayin ;)
    I’d pull it dude. Thats my critique back to you.

    http://www.hdri-locations.com/examples.php

    Sweet site for HDRI’s. And yep thats a modelled car in the example. Hot shit. Almost as hot as those Alex Roman renders.
    Down side is one of these HDR’s is like $120 euros :(

    Reply

  10. Marcello

    Looking good Nick! The HDRI is looking preety awesome but i`d like to ask, is there a lighting rig that matches de kind of lighting produced by strobes with beauty dish and large parabolic umbrelas? These would be killer for product shots of cars and stuff like that.

    Reply

  11. iMario

    Cool shit Nick! Can’t wait to put my dirty 3d hands on it!!!

    Just one question… and I know you will hate me: are the GI presets made for stills or also for animations?

    Reply

    • Oliver

      Best question so far imo.

      It’s so much fun to crank up the quality for still images.. (not to mention using other render engines like vray), but the real deal will be this kit making animations look awesome without dying old of age looking at the render queue.

      SO, some animation low-medium-high presets would be much appreaciated!

      Reply

    • iMario

      Nick said that for not too complex animations the set works pretty well. I bought it this morning and it is awesome!

      Reply

    • Oliver

      Well thanks iMario for the quck answer! And big cheers to Nick!

      Reply

  12. PoLerX

    could you share the models or atleast the freeones in anyway?
    I would love to try some lighting settings on those.
    That Agfa model is so cool.

    Reply

  13. mism

    I’m buying it just to find out how you got rid of the edge on the seamless floor!

    Reply

  16. Ramzes

    Hello Nick! one question,is this studio pack will include also HDRI Light kit Pro?You’re creating great staff,thank you so much!I hope it is not gonna be expensive:)

    Reply

  17. Mike D

    Really looking forward to this Nick!
    You’ve done a fantastic job!

    Regarding the seamless floor using GI, correct me if I’m wrong but is it just as simple as ticking ‘Enable GI Parameters’ then ticking “Enable transparency Overlook” in the GI settings of the compositing tag (placed on the floor)? That’s what I do anyways seams to work pretty good..

    Reply

    • Mike D

      And ofcourse, using the exact same texture on the floor as on the Background object, and setting the projection to “frontal”

      Reply

    • Mike D

      Fail. I think my HDRi that was attached to my sky object was just making it barely visible..

      Reply

  19. Mohamed Zakzouk

    wow i think it’s perfect Nice really i love this kind of render and i’ll buy i’m sure of that and i saw last image in the previous tutorial and i clicked pause for watching it and i said wow this is great :)

    Reply

  20. Tyler

    Please man, I still havent received the update for the light kit pro and I would really appreciate if you could help me out

    Reply

  21. Adam Schmisek

    Very excited to get this kit. I think it’s great you are taking on GI and making it slick and easy.
    Can’t wait.

    Reply

  22. KarloKarlsen

    What about the rendertime. ‘HDRI’ vs. ‘Normal Light Kit’ ?

    Reply

  23. NoSuchThing

    Finger licking good! Will it be possible to add your own HDRI’s? Might be cool if there were some kind of HDRI-template for Photoshop.

    Reply

  25. kirsten

    Hi :D
    I am very interested in this new pack specially the seamless floor. seems very cool <3

    Reply

    • Oliver

      Great product though a little bit expensive for what it does.

      Reply

  29. Dani

    for the next tutorial about this new studio pack it will be cool if you tell something about animation.. does it work well with animation too? any limitation? etc.. anyway, thank you man!

    Reply

  30. Dani-Sang

    Hey Nick,

    First, will say Hi (like you requested)

    and for the Questions:
    - How big will those HDRI images be in pixels?
    - Are those HDRI images made purely in C4D or is there also some external influence (you made pictures in a actual IRL studio)?

    Personally I would like the kit so I can speed up the process. But I already create my personal HDRI images and using GI for like ages (even for animation). Would be there a possibility to have the tool/sidebar without the HDRI images?

    Reply
    • The Gorilla

      The Gorilla

      Hi, Dani,

      The HDR Images are very high rez 6000×3000 pixels.

      The Images are made using both c4d and external light sources. many of the lights were shot from real softboxes, ring lights, kinos, and spot lights.

      The tools and the rigs will sell as a pack. But frankly, I think either one of them on their own will be worth the price.

      Stay tuned.

      Reply
    • The Gorilla

      The Gorilla

      HDRI Light Kit Pro was primarily made to replace Cinema 4D’s native lights and give you full control to be able to build your own entire light setups very easily.

      The Studio Pack on the other hand is a set of pre-made HDR images that allow you to light your scenes with professionally made studios instantly. With the pack, the lighting is done for you.

      Reply

  36. ZEF

    Hi Nick,

    Any chance to have a discount price for this next kit, if we are already HDRI Light Kit Pro customers ? It seems to be a pretty good product, with useful features, but… It would be nice to have those presets (I’m thinking about hdri pictures) as an add-on of the light kit Pro, isn’t it ?
    Anyway, I’m exciting to get your next tutorials about “demystifying Global Illumination” ‘cos it’s a bit tricky to setup, especially since version 12 and this LWT feature…
    Keep going and get us more inspirations !

    Reply

    • ZEF

      and NOW ! I bought the HDRI Studio Kit for the 24h-discount opportunity… Much more easy to install, rather than HDRI Light Kit Pro, interesting presets, great video tutorials (on Vimeo)…
      It seems we gonna have great results for rendering studio moods. I hope we can do some pretty decent outdoor simulations with it (like Linear Sky or Daylights)…
      Great work !

      Reply

  37. Classicgamer

    Woah Nick! This is excellent news! So looking forward to seeing this in action with my own models. Can we expect an early Chrimbo Pressie?……………………………………. as the Forrero Rocher advert used to say…… “why sir you are simply spoiling us!”

    Reply

  42. Jeff Osborne

    Hey Nick

    Great Job again mate, Ill be a happy buyer, my HDRI’S are only getting used in the environment channel for extra highlights. I used to have murders trying to color balance one of my stills.

    Cheers

    Jeff

    Reply

  43. Matt Van Dyck

    Hey Nick.

    What are the advantages to purchasing this over the HDRI light kit? I was going to purchase the light kit – but then this new video came out. Is this kit strictly a set of HDR images?

    Reply
    • The Gorilla

      The Gorilla

      This pack includes a huge set of HDRI images and tools and presets to help you render product shots very quickly. The Light Kit Pro is designed to be a replacement for your normal 3D lights for ALL your renders. Let me know if you have more questions.

      Reply

  44. KushDesign

    Nick,
    Looks awesome! Can we bring in our own HRDIs with this?
    Also, how about a tutorial on creating HDRIs like the ones included with the studio pack? That would be sweet!

    Reply

  45. Ronny

    “Say Hi, will ya?”
    See here you go: Hi! How you doin’? :D

    I have a question. You seem to have some nice looking (say: VERY NICE LOOKING) models there! I’m wondering where you found those. I’ve been googling along for some time, but didn’t run into the quality of models you have, for free :)

    I found some very cheap ones, but free… That’s actually hard! :)

    Oh and somebody above brought this one up: You once talked about a ‘city’ plugin. How far along are you on that one? Really looking forward for that :D

    Have a nice day!

    Reply
    • The Gorilla

      The Gorilla

      Many of those are paid models, actually. I will be putting together a “Free Models” thing soon though.

      Cheers,
      Nick

      Reply

  46. athime de crecy

    hey, nick looks great !
    I’ve got an out of topic question about your light kit pro (great too), I’ve created some studios whit it and I was asking me if it was possible to put them in the content browser next to yours, with a little icon and all the stuff ?
    and if it’s possible how ?
    thanks

    Reply

  47. Sam Welker

    Thanks nick! Oh and Hi nick :) I’m very intrigued by this pack. I’ve made HDRI’s and Softbox’s before so I figure I might just have to put that together and get renders like yours. I will be picking this pack up with the HDRI light kit pro as soon as I can afford it.

    Reply

  48. Brendon

    Hey Nick, great job on the HDRi light kit and soon to be studio kit. Quick note, the shot of the Mustage has DOF, can the DOF be circular (tunnel vision) as your short has vertical parallel lines of DOF. Otherwise looks like a great product.

    Reply

  49. Hamilton

    Hey Nick
    While using your HDRSky rig I noticed you may have rig something up wrong. I think the Blur Luma should be effecting the reflection sphere rather than the illumination shpere. Normally you hide the one that lights your scene but quite often want to blur your reflections down a bit.
    Have a look, I could be mistaken.

    Also here are a few good references and studio inspirations I use for doing car photography.

    http://www.danielhartz.com/studio001.html
    http://www.victorhuber.com/
    http://www.kitsuman.co.uk/chrisbailey/

    I tried to post a bunch, but they didn’t go through.

    Reply

  50. FTY

    Hey gorilla
    You should totally make us a tutorial about the animation the use on Mythbuster

    They are simple but awsomet

    Reply

  52. Zachary O'Connor

    Just downloaded it! Thanks a billion for treating the guys that purchased the Light Kit extremely generously. I love what you do for us Nick and love all your work. Thank you!

    Reply

  53. AdamG

    Hi Nick, When is it better to use Real lighting objects and when HDRI images?
    Thanks :)

    Reply

  55. Fabrice

    Hi Nick ! Thank’s again for your work man !
    I get the Studio pack and start playing with it and it’s a very great tool for working !

    Reply

  56. Hedehodo

    i really loved the kit though it would be even “sexier” (with your vocab :) ) if you could see the hue spectrum while changing it and also to be able to see the hdri in the viewport as we are rotating it so we actually know which way it is directed before rendering. Then when we render we see the background object and not the hdri. I dont know how much of this cinema 4d would let you to configure but for sake of ease of use that would add a ton. anyway just great job even without these.

    Reply

  57. BHMTH

    Hi Nick

    I’m just downloading the kit right now and can’t wait to play with it. I mostly do animation but sometime I like to use global illumination for short ones. My mac is almost melting all over the desk because of the render time, but you know, it’s the price of sexiness.

    Thank you for the special pricing for those who already own the LKP by the way.

    Reply

  59. Sean Hunt

    Thanks Nick, really appreciate the deal for existing users, find myself using lightkit, the hdr sky especially, in most of my renders these days. keep it up man. Would love to see a motion blur tutorial someday, either in cinema 4d or post render in after effects, finding it a tough nut to crack. Thanks again

    Reply

  61. Steve

    Just purchased. Thanks, Nick, for this indispensable tool and making my renders look like professional studio shots.

    Reply

  62. Allen Ellis

    As expected, the default GI settings aren’t great for animation. Here’s a stress test animation with camera & object movement, using the Tota Umbrella preset:

    http://files.allenellis.com/gsg-test.mov (12MB Quicktime)

    Aside from the animation artifacts the GI looks great. Pay attention to the early frames where the red & yellow vases are near the white and black ones.

    I’m rendering another with Full Animation settings so we’ll see. This definitely rocks for still shots though – I had the lighting all setup in about a minute. That & the seamless floor are an awesome time saver.

    Reply

  64. Niklas_75

    Hi Nick! Thanks for a real good product… I LOVE it

    Reply

  65. Shelby

    Nick- Bought this morning! Thanks so much for the discount for Light Kit owners!
    I’ve followed the install (twice to make sure) for 11.5, but when I render, I get missing material errors. SoftboxTent2.hdr (Light Material) and SoftboxTent2.hdr (Reflect Material) to be exact. Did a search, but I can’t find that file. Any ideas?

    Reply

    • Niklas_75

      Look to the “training for the HDRI Studio Pack”

      Reply
    • The Gorilla

      The Gorilla

      Sorry about that. Be sure to double click to open that scene and not drag in into an existing file. The best way to fix it is to just drag another HDRI map into the “HDR File” section of the HDR rig. Email me if you need more help.

      Reply

  68. JONNY V

    dude, what font did you use for the opening titles – reading: HDRI studio pack, not helvetica and not futura and certainly not avant garde….which one is it?

    Reply

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