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Cinema 4D Plugin
Blender Addon
3ds Max Plugin
Maya Plugin
Rhino Plugin
Houdini Plugin
MODO Plugin Kit
Omniverse Plugin
Octane Standalone Plugin
SOLIDWORKS VISUALIZE Plugin
VRED Plugin
Unreal Engine Plugin
Patchwork 3D Plugin
DELTAGEN Plugin

Lighting Plugin for 3ds Max

HDRI Maps made with HDR Light Studio
BMW M4 by Amir Mohammad Nabavi - lit with HDR Light Studio
Credit: Amir Mohammad Nabavi
Samsung Level-Over Headphones by Vasiliy Vatsyk and lit with HDR Light Studio
Credit: Vasiliy Vatsyk
Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream by Vincent Salasombath and lit with HDR Light Studio
Credit: Vincent Salasombath

Live 3ds Max lighting with lighting tools in HDR Light Studio
HDRI map and HDR Area Light creation

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Cinema 4D Lighting Plugin

3ds Max
Lighting Plugin

Established in 2009

Lighting pixels
since 2009

Industry Standard

Industry standard
HDRI editor

Used in over 80 countries

Used in over
80 countries

Over 12,500 licenses sold

Over 12.5 thousand
licenses sold

Over 1.5 million renders lit

Over 1.5 million
renders lit

Cinema 4D Lighting Plugin

3ds Max
Lighting Plugin

Established in 2009

Lighting pixels
since 2009

Industry Standard

Industry standard
HDRI editor

Used in over 80 countries

Used in over
80 countries

Over 12,500 licenses sold

Over 12.5 thousand
licenses sold

Over 1.5 million renders lit

Over 1.5 million
renders lit

Cinema 4D Lighting Plugin

3ds Max
Lighting Plugin

Established in 2009

Lighting pixels
since 2009

Industry Standard

Industry standard
HDRI editor

Used in over 80 countries

Used in over
80 countries

Over 12,500 licenses sold

Over 12.5 thousand
licenses sold

Over 1.5 million renders lit

Over 1.5 million
renders lit

HDR Light Studio User Interface

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."

Testimonial by Norbert Nagel at Thule

Norbert Nagel, Thule
See Website

Testimonial by Vincent Salasombath

Vincent Salasombath
See Behance

Testimonial by Toby Lee

Toby Lee
See Behance

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.

M'AYCREATE Lipstick by Agildo Borges
Honda NSX by Cream Electric Art
Young Henrys by Goon & Justin Bellchambers

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.

V-Ray Corona Redshift Arnold Octane Maxwell FStorm Art

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.

Caixa Bank Campaign by Vvincent Salasombath
Headphones by Fahredin Kosumi
Jewel Visualization by Balachandra Chakrasali

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?

Thule's customer story

Norbert Nagel, Thule

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.

Read More
Vincent Salasombath's customer story

Vincent Salasombath, 3D Artist

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.

Read More
Wonder Vision's customer story

Wonder Vision

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.

Read More
Larsson & Jennings LUGANO 40mm Watch by Wonder Vision
Honda Type R by Evgeniy Tikhanskiy
V Iced Coffee by Cream Electric Art

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.

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"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."

Testimonial by Jordi Sans Gassó

Jordi Sans Gassó
See Behance

Testimonial by Joe Thomas, Wonder Vision

Joe Thomas, Wonder Vision
See Website

Triumph Speed Twin Configurator by Wonder Vision
Kirks Soda by Cream Electric Art
DuPont - It's What's Inside Campaign by Ars Thanea

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 Video

HDR Light Studio - Quick Start

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3ds Max Plug-in - Quick Start Video

3ds Max Plug-in - Quick Start

Watch Now

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.

Free 3ds Max traning videos
Learn to Light
Jaguar F-Type by Giuseppe Difilippo
M'AYCREATE Lipstick by Agildo Borges
Nike Air Force 270 by AB Photography & PULLA

Widely Compatible with Regular Plug-in updates

HDR Light Studio Plug-in for 3ds Max (Build: 2024.0208)

Operating system: Windows 10, 11
3ds Max: 2022, 2023, 2024
Renderers: V-Ray (including V-Ray 5 + 6), Corona, Redshift, Arnold, Octane, Maxwell, FStorm

HDR Light Studio Plugin for 3ds Max Compatibility

See the Current Features Compatibility Chart for all Connections here

Requirements
Software delivery via internet download
Internet connection required for license activation
HDR Light Studio software requires approx. 200MB disc space
Preset light content requires approx. 8GB disc space
CPU based, no special graphics card required

Where Next?

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