HDR Light Studio – Carbon Drop 2

Wednesday 9th May 2018 – Today, Lightmap announces the immediate availability of HDR Light Studio – Carbon – Drop 2.

Drop 2 brings core new features for all HDR Light Studio users (whichever plug-in connection you use), allowing the creation of lights with more character and providing more creative lighting control. Additional enhancements make lighting even more productive. Plus updated compatibility for 3ds Max, MODO and DeltaGen.

“Lightmap completely understand what artists need to get great renders. This time around they have added ever greater controls to finesse individual lights with box gradients and value blends to craft any studio light imaginable. For product rendering, it will add to the beauty and natural look you get from high-end studios and from great photographers.”
Declan McGurry, Senior 3d Artist/Creative Retoucher, Schawk (London)

What’s New in Carbon Drop 2?

Photographic Exposure Stops
New buttons have been added to the brightness slider. They provide a more photographic approach to adjusting the light brightness. They work by adjusting the brightness relative to its current value. So you can double, halve, increase by 1/3 or decrease by 1/3. This is a really useful addition when an art director wants a light brightening by 1 stop for example. (Double the brightness).

Light Property: Value Blend
Value Blend has been added to the Light Properties panel. It allows blending of the luminosity values from a secondary piece of content with the primary light content. It provides a way to tweak the visual character of a light source. For example, adding a hot spot into an existing softbox, or graduating the light brightness across your light. It can also be used to clamp the brightness within an image, for example clamping the brightness of the sun in an HDRI map.
Content types for Value Blend are: Image, Gradient, Flat and the new Box Gradient
Blend Modes for Value Blend are: Add, Multiply, Over, Low Pass and Amplify

Here is an example of how the image is richer and the lights have more character when using Value Blend.

New Content Type: Box Gradient
Box Gradient is a really useful new content type in HDR Light Studio. It blends a vertical and horizontal ramp. It’s perfect for softening edges or creating a light with a really interesting character that will enhance your reflections. It is perfect to use on Alpha Multiply or the new Value Blend.

All Lights are now Uber Lights
When we released HDR Light Studio version 5, we made it easy to use, so the toolbar created simple lights with fewer settings. But many users don’t take advantage of converting them to Uber Lights that provide far more flexibility and creative options. So in this release, all lights are now created as Uber Lights, which include the Alpha Multiply and Value Blend settings.

Region Zoom on the Render View
A tool has been added to the toolbar on the Render View (HDR Light Studio) for region zoom. This was available previously only as a keyboard shortcut. Region zoom is great for positioning lights accurately on small details within the shot.

Light List Buttons Behaviour
Using the buttons on a light in the Light List (on/off, solo, etc) no longer selects the light. It was common for a user to turn off a light and not expect it to be selected, and move a newly hidden light by accident for example. The new behavior avoids this problem.

Color Coded Light Properties
With the addition of the new Value Blend on the Light Properties panel, it was easy to confuse which properties you were editing. We have color coded each light property section making it easier to navigate the properties panel.

Production Render Speed Improvements
Big performance increase with production renders containing lights using gradient ramps (which is many light types), especially large lights. Additionally, lighting designs containing many small lights will see significant render speeds too, with smarter use of render threads.

LUT Control for Preset Panel
The Presets panel now has a LUT drop down to view the presets with correct color space.
Presets Panel also provides links to download Preset lights and Installation instructions if presets are missing.

New Maya Connection Interface – Shelf Buttons replace the Panel
3ds Max 2019 Connection release
MODO 12 Connection release
DeltaGen 2018x and DeltaGen Stage 2018x Connection release

How do I get my hands on it?

• If you’re an existing HDR Light Studio subscription or maintenance customer, the release is all yours. Simply login to your account and download now.
• If your subscription or maintenance has lapsed you can renew online now.
• Alternatively, you can take a fully functional 15-day trial or buy here at: www.lightmap.co.uk

Customer licenses will run any build of HDR Light Studio up to and including the version date as shown in the License Management dialog. All subscription customers can run the latest releases. Customers with permanent licenses get 1 year of updates from the date of purchase, then need to renew their maintenance to update the version dates in their license files.

Don’t forget, we’re here to help. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact sales@lightmap.co.uk

Missed what’s new in Carbon – Drop 1? Read all about it here