HDR Light Studio 8.2 released

Today, Lightmap released HDR Light Studio 8.2, adding key new features: Preset Auditioning, Reflection Filter, new LightPaint methods, Infinite setting for Scrim Lights, and 405 new HDRI Maps from hdrmaps.com. This substantial new release enables even faster workflows for exploring creative lighting designs.

LightPaint®: Shadow & Shade

New ways to position your lights in HDR Light Studio 8.2 provide even more creative control over your lights. 'Shadow' mode lets users click to position the shadow cast by a light. 'Shade' mode positions the light to place the clicked surface in the shade of the light.

Reflect your lighting designs

The new Reflection Filter adds new creative possibilities to your lighting process. Now, you can easily create symmetrical lighting designs around an axis on the HDRI. The reflection direction can be vertical or horizontal. You have control over the brightness and alpha of the reflection. Blend control allows a soft transition over the axis or between both halves of the HDRI map when using 'Wrap' mode. The reflection filter is ideal for speeding up studio lighting for products and pack shots. It has creative applications for generating fake floor reflections and water effects.

Infinite Plane for Scrim Lights

Introduced in HDR Light Studio 8.1, Scrim Lights provides a photographic approach to creating studio lighting. The new 'Infinite Plane' setting in 8.2 ensures soft lighting effects with scrim lighting that falls off unconstrained by the physical edges of the scrim/light. This setting works with scrim lights on the HDRI map using 3D mapping.

Auditioning Presets

Visually exploring lighting options through experimentation is vital to the lighting process. Turn on the new Audition mode in the Presets Library panel - now, as you hover over preset thumbnail images, the presets are instantly temporarily applied to the selected light. When you've made a decision, double-click to use the Preset. Auditioning is a huge time saver and works with most Presets: HDRI maps, lights, colors, alpha, and more.

The new M, V, and A buttons on the Preset Library panel direct where content and element presets should be applied - to the Main (M), Value Blend (V), or Alpha Multiply (A) content of the selected light.

Additional Preset Improvements

Organizational Tabs have been added to the Presets Library panel. Presets have always contained a wealth of lighting content, but they felt hidden away. Now, Presets are more accessible and are automatically organized into tabs. For example, any image with a 2:1 ratio or any light that fills the canvas will be filtered to display on the Environment tab.

You can now apply all of the appearance settings for a Light Preset to another light by dropping the Preset thumbnail onto a light in the Light List or using the right-click menu from the Preset thumbnail.

Change the size of Preset Thumbnails: Choose from Standard (the size in previous versions), Large, and Extra Large.

Use the right-click menu to hide Presets you do not want to see using 'Add to Hidden.' Use the new button to reveal and hide the hidden Presets.

New Presets: HDRI from hdrmaps.com and more

HDR Light Studio 8.2 adds 405 new HDRI Maps from hdrmaps.com. These are provided at 2048x1024 pixels. This resolution is suitable for many lighting tasks. But if you need a higher resolution version, you can get them from hdrmaps.com.

In addition to the new HDRI maps, we have added a lot of useful new presets to the library, including:

• Rigs: 25 Studio Lighting Rigs, Rigs showing Composites, and the new Reflection Filter.
• Lights: Colored Lights, Composite Light Examples, Infinite Scrim Light Examples, Additional Window Gobos.
• Content: Polygon Content.
• Element: Color Ramps - A range of color ramps with combinations of hues at each end of the ramp.
• Element: Colors - Color Palettes, including color temperature and Kelvin.
• Effects: New Effects Lights showcasing Blend modes in action.

Additional New Features

Light Handle
The position of the light handle can now be adjusted using a new LightPaint mode. You can drag in the Render Views or Canvas, and this slides the position of the handle around the light.

Reset Gradient
Double-clicking the Gradient label text will reset the gradient to its default settings.

OCIO LUT Changes
To clean up the interface, the LUT drop-downs have been removed from Presets, Canvas, and Light Preview panels. The LUT being applied to these views is the 'OCIO Default View' LUT as set in the application Preferences panel.

When using HDR Light Studio with 3D software that supports streaming its render into the HDR Light Studio render view, the render view should know if a LUT has already been applied to the incoming image. This new Auto LUT setting means when using HDR Light Studio with Unreal, Rhino, Omniverse, and Octane Standalone, you will not need to set the OCIO to None to prevent the double application of LUTs on the render.

Open ColorIO, OpenImageIO, and Open EXR
We have updated to newer versions of Open ColorIO (2.0.2 → 2.3.0), OpenImageIO (2.2.19 → 2.4.15.0), and Open EXR (3.1.3 → 3.2.0).

Light Looks
A convenient right-click menu can be used in the Light Looks panel, providing the Light Look button features on hand.

Start-up time
HDR Light Studio 8.2 will start up noticeably faster than previous versions.

Plug-in Connection Updates

Most plug-ins have been updated to be compatible with HDR Light Studio 8.2.

Cinema 4D
Updated plug-in to support Cinema 4D 2024.3 (that had a breaking change).
Native Cinema 4D renderer support reinstated and now supported again.

Release Notes

For full release notes see HDR Light Studio documentation.

HDR Light Studio 8.2 - Compatibility

Operating System Requirements:
Windows: 10, 11
Mac OS: 11.4 (Big Sur) or later
Linux: Centos 7.9 and compatible distributions

For full details of compatibility and features for each HDR Light Studio plug-in, see our Compatibility Chart.

HDR Light Studio 8.2 - Availability

Existing Customers

Existing customers with active subscriptions or permanent licenses with active maintenance can download HDR Light Studio 8.2 and updated plug-ins from their account at www.lightmap.co.uk now. (How do you know if you can run the latest version of HDR Light Studio and Plug-ins?)

New to HDR Light Studio?

If you have any questions please email sales@lightmap.co.uk