12th May 2016 – Today, Lightmap announces the immediate availability of HDR Light Studio version 5.3.3. This new release adds ‘Area Lights’ to the 3ds Max and Cinema 4D Connections, allowing users to interactively create and control both a HDRI Map and set of Area Lights with the same ‘artist friendly’ ease of use that has made HDR Light Studio a favourite lighting tool with professional 3D artists.
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Area Lights added to 3ds Max and Cinema 4D Connections
The 3ds Max Connection supports Area Lights for these compatible renderers:
V-Ray, Maxwell, Octane, Thea and Corona.
Introduction to Area Lights in Cinema 4D
The Cinema 4D Connection supports Area Lights for these compatible renderers:
Cinema 4D, V-Ray, Arnold, Octane, Maxwell and Thea.
HDR Light Studio – Area Light Key Features:
• A Natural Evolution – Area lights have been added with the same intuitive controls and ease of use as you would expect from HDR Light Studio. A single tick box promotes a light from the HDRI map into a 3D area light. Lights can be moved back and forth between the HDRI map and 3D space with ease.
• LightPaint – Area Lights can be positioned ‘in shot’ by clicking on the 3D model in the Render View using one of the LightPaint modes: Reflection, Illumination, Rim.
• Smart Dolly – Controls both the distance and size of the area light, using scaling algorithms specific to the LightPaint mode used to place the light. For example, if the area light is positioned using Illumination mode, Smart Dolly scales the light to maintain the illumination intensity whatever distance the light is from the model. This eliminates the constant back and forth between distance and scale settings, instead allowing the user to concentrate on the visual effect they want whilst using minimal controls.
• Connections – When using HDR Light Studio via a Connection to your 3D software, the Area Lights are instantly built by the Connection with the correct shader network for the chosen Renderer. Area lights are always in sync with HDR Light Studio. Start an IPR session to see a live preview of the lighting effect as you work in HDR Light Studio.
• A Light Touch – HDR Light Studio controls only the essential core settings for an area light, i.e. The RGBA image data mapped to the light surface, light size and position, falloff method and visibility to camera. Additional area light settings can still be set within your 3D software, and are not altered by HDR Light Studio.
• Portable Lighting – The lighting design is completely independent of the 3D software/renderer and can be moved between 3D software/renderers using HDR Light Studio.
Pricing and Availability
Existing customers within their maintenance or subscription period can download this update today from www.lightmap.co.uk.
HDR Light Studio 5.3.3 is available on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux through the Lightmap website (www.lightmap.co.uk) and its authorized resellers. Pricing starts at £695 / $995 / €945 for permanent licenses, and £295 / $445 / €395 for annual subscriptions.
Learn more about area lights in Cinema 4D and their features.