High-Res HDRI Map Pack 02 (Abstracts)

Wed, February 11, 2009 (10 Comments)

When mapped onto a sphere, like in the previews, these aren’t really being shown as they are meant to be used, but the spheres do provide a decent visual reference for each map. Sometimes when working with models or objects out of the ordinary, you want to use the HDRI features, like allowing the environment to pass through the white clamps, and other such .hdr features, but a reflection of something like an old victorian house doesn’t quite fit in your abstract/space/bizarre scene. That’s what these are for. They provide a decent looking “abstract” messy/complex reflection look though images, not reflections. This cuts the render time way down on trying to achieve that “complex” look, as the map does the work, not the processor.

Granted, applying just about any bitmap as a reflection to a jagged mess will get it distorted enough to look similar to the example, but as I said before, these allow for that look, and retain the .hdr format. Plus, with these, should your scene / model go “smooth” in parts, more tubular, or torus-like, the reflections/refractions will remain abstract and crisp, and not reveal the true nature of the map you may be using, like a picture of an inside of a room (has happened to me before), etc.

Almost all of the maps have an inherent color to them, which a little PS-post work can remove, or alter, if you find the color not to your liking. But by leaving the color in, the ranges on the reflections get a tad more dynamic than if they images were just gray. I tried to include a range of dark-to-light, and simple-to-complex in the choices. All the images used as maps are original artworks chopped up and altered to work, so you may recognize some (such as #20, being from Amphitheatre), though most are extremely old works, which aren’t posted anywhere, anyway.

Feel free to use / distribute these as you wish, with the only stipulation being for non-commercial use (ie: don’t sell the maps (who would do that anyway?) or any images you may produce which contain obvious use the maps.) I say “obvious use” because like in the sample, which has map #6 applied to it, there’s no way to tell what was really applied to it, so that’s fair game. But if you apply these to something smoother, or something where the reflection/refraction is pretty much a clean-representation of the map itself, then please don’t sell it / claim it as yours. That’s all pretty much common sense, though.

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