Lighting Plugin for 3ds Max
Credit: Amir Mohammad Nabavi
Credit: Vasiliy Vatsyk
Credit: Vincent Salasombath
Live 3ds Max lighting with
lighting tools in HDR Light Studio
HDRI map and HDR Area Light creation
3ds Max
Lighting Plugin
Lighting pixels
since 2009
Industry standard
HDRI editor
Used in over
80 countries
Over 12.5 thousand
licenses sold
Over 1.5 million
renders lit
3ds Max
Lighting Plugin
Lighting pixels
since 2009
Industry standard
HDRI editor
Used in over
80 countries
Over 12.5 thousand
licenses sold
Over 1.5 million
renders lit
3ds Max
Lighting Plugin
Lighting pixels
since 2009
Industry standard
HDRI editor
Used in over
80 countries
Over 12.5 thousand
licenses sold
Over 1.5 million
renders lit
HDR Light Studio for 3ds Max
Make HDRI Maps in Real-time
Lighting your 3D scenes with HDRI maps is quick and easy. Image-based lighting provides a great way to achieve photo-real renders that look as good as real world product photography. With HDR Light Studio, you can effortlessly create and edit HDRI maps. As you create and edit lights on the HDRI Map, you will instantly see your render update in 3ds Max with the new lighting. Our patented feature called LightPaint makes it extremely easy to precisely place lights exactly where needed by simply clicking on your 3D model where you want the lighting effect. All the transformation and calculation of light positions is done for you automatically. It's so easy to place your key lights, fill lights and rim lights.
"With the help of HDR Light Studio, I was able to reduce my work time from 6 hours to 15 minutes, with a nice added bonus of significantly lower render-time because I only used one light source and not several like before."
"With HDR Light Studio the process is much faster as you can decide where the light has to be on the object. It really boosts the productivity to be able to decide where you want the light, where will be the highlight or the reflection."
"With HDR Light Studio I can add and experiment with numerous lighting settings so much faster, enhancing the quality and speed I can complete tasks."
Make HDR Textured Area Lights
Need to light specific details on your 3D scene? Such situations require lights to be positioned close to your 3D model. This is where HDR Textured Area Lights come handy, as opposed to HDRI maps which light everything in the scene from a distance. With a click of a button, HDR Light Studio converts any light on the HDRI map into a HDR Textured Area Light in 3D space that can be moved closer to your model. Behind the scenes, the area light geometry and the shader network is instantly built in 3ds Max for your chosen renderer. Your 3ds Max scene is kept in sync as you edit, add, or delete area lights in HDR Light Studio. With a single click the Area light is returned to the HDRI map.
The quick and easy way to light in 3ds Max
1. Start HDR Light Studio Plug-in
Choose which renderer you’d like to build lighting for: V-Ray, Corona, Redshift, Arnold, Octane, Maxwell, FStorm, or Art. Pressing start in the HDR Light Studio plug-in panel will launch a dedicated lighting interface connected to your current 3ds Max session. Your 3ds Max lighting for your renderer will be automatically built as you light your scene in HDR Light Studio.
2. Drag and drop Lights
With every HDR Light Studio license comes a huge pack of photo-real HDR lighting content. Any light is at your fingertips, simply browse the lighting library then drag and drop lights where needed onto your model. Your custom HDRI Map and area light setups will be created automatically. It’s time to experiment with lighting without sacrificing your time.
3. Precisely paint the light positions
Now it’s possible to get the correct placement of your light in just one click! LightPaint let’s you click and drag on your scene to position the light’s effect exactly where you want it.
You’re in safe hands
Since 2009, thousands of professional 3ds Max artists and creative studios have revolutionised their lighting workflow with HDR Light Studio. Why not join them and take your 3ds Max lighting to the next level with the lighting tools in HDR Light Studio?
Sometimes at Thule it's required to match lighting to a reference. Norbert confessed that it's painful to get right. However, HDR Light Studio has managed to make that process smooth, efficient, and intuitive.
Vincent used to imagine where he'd want his light to be, then guess and get the light placement right through trial and error. Now, he uses HDR Light Studio and gets the light placement right in one click with LightPaint.
Wonder Vision felt limited by its lighting workflow and the lack of control over highlight placement. After discovering HDR Light Studio, they can't believe how they worked previously without it.
Perfect studio lighting for Product, Packaging, & Automotive visualizations
Commercial 3D visualizations need to look as good, if not better, than real world product photography. The key ingredient to achieving this is lighting. A perfect studio lighting setup is all about clean and flawless, yet subtle, lighting that creates realistic reflections. It’s essential to have full control over all properties of the lights to easily create a beautiful studio lighting setup - especially for scenes containing chrome and shiny materials. In HDR Light Studio, each light is defined by a collection of editable properties that make up the appearance of the light - color, position, size, shape, opacity and much more. Allowing you to craft your key lights and fill lights with ease.
"I could get instant feedback on the mood and lighting of the image, whilst keeping an organised scene with just the one HDR rendered straight out of HDR Light Studio."
"HDR Light Studio helps me light scenes in a quick and intuitive way. In addition, the preset library is fantastic to simulate any type of studio lighting on the go."
"HDR Light Studio allowed us to precisely and artfully craft every highlight and shadow. Giving us the level of control we needed when lighting the shots."
Learn lighting in 2 short videos and see instant improvement
It’s always difficult to pick up and learn another tool. But don’t worry, HDR Light Studio is very easy and quick to install and use! We have carefully constructed the HDR Light Studio and 3ds Max Plug-in Quick Start videos to be enough for you to efficiently light your renders by yourself.
HDR Light Studio - Quick Start
3ds Max Plug-in - Quick Start
For workflows with Octane, Maxwell, Art or FStorm renderer see online documentation
Lots of free training
Our library of learning resources will leave you inspired and eager to experiment with different lighting techniques.
Plug-in Updates News
3rd April 2025 (Plug-in Build:2025.0326)
Support added for 3ds Max 2026