What it does
No HDRI files, no image libraries — the studio is math.
The add-on owns the active World and builds an environment from up to 8 light slots. Each slot is a softbox-style light source with a shape, position, size, softness and color. Everything updates live in the viewport, and a chrome-ball preview in the panel shows the full environment at a glance.
When you want a file instead of a shader, switch to Baked Image mode: the exact same math is rendered into an equirectangular 32-bit image that you can paint on in the Image Editor and save as EXR. Preview, shader and bake share one evaluation core, so what you see is always what you get.
Installation
Two ZIP files, because Blender changed its add-on format in 4.2. Install the one that matches your Blender version — the feature set is identical.
Blender 4.2 and newer
…-extension.zip
- Open Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions.
- Click the dropdown in the top-right corner and choose Install from Disk…
- Select the extension ZIP. Done — extensions enable themselves.
Blender 3.6 – 4.1
…-legacy.zip
- Open Edit → Preferences → Add-ons.
- Click Install… and select the legacy ZIP.
- Enable the checkbox next to Procedural Studio HDRI.
The add-on lives in the 3D Viewport sidebar: press N and open the Studio HDRI tab.
Quick start
- Press N in the 3D Viewport and open the Studio HDRI tab.
- Click Create Studio (3-Point) — or any other preset in the welcome box. This creates a tagged World, applies the preset and builds the shader in one click.
- That's it. Tweak lights in the Light Slots panel and watch the chrome ball and your viewport update live.
Panel reference
Five panels in the Studio HDRI tab. All except the main panel appear once a studio world exists.
Procedural Studio HDRI (main panel)
- Live preview — a chrome ball rendered from the current settings (about 2 ms per update). It uses the exact same math as the bake.
- Mode — Procedural (live shader nodes, changes are instant) or Baked Image (the World samples a baked HDR image instead; see Bake).
- Build / Update HDRI — rebuilds the world node tree from the current settings. With Auto enabled this happens automatically on every change.
- Presets — replace all light slots with a ready-made arrangement. See Presets.
- Clear All Slots — disables all lights and resets every slot to defaults. The world itself is kept.
- Remove Studio Setup — deletes everything the add-on created: tagged worlds, its node groups, the baked image and all settings. Asks for confirmation; cannot be undone.
Globals
| Property | What it does |
|---|---|
Rotation X / Y / Z |
Rotate the whole environment. Z is the classic turntable rotation. |
Global Strength |
Overall brightness multiplier for the environment. |
Global Tint |
Color multiplier applied to the whole environment. |
Sky Color |
Color of the dark background between the lights. |
Film Transparent |
Render the background as transparent (alpha) while keeping its lighting contribution. |
Camera / Diffuse / Glossy |
Per-ray visibility of the world: hide it from the camera, from diffuse lighting or from reflections. Cycles only. |
Bake
Resolution settings, the Bake to Image button and Auto Re-bake on Change. Details under Bake mode.
Baked Image (collapsed by default)
Name, size and timing of the last bake, plus Open in Image Editor and Save Image As… (32-bit EXR).
Light Slots
A small copy of the live preview sits at the top, so you can see the result while editing — even when the main panel has scrolled away. Below it, the slot list (scrollable; drag the grip at its bottom edge to resize) and the properties of the selected slot.
Light slot properties
Each of the 8 slots is an area light painted onto the sky. Position and size are angular — think of pointing at the sky dome, not placing objects in the scene.
| Property | What it does |
|---|---|
Enabled |
Include this light in the environment. |
Label |
Display name of the slot (e.g. "Key", "Rim"). |
Shape |
Rectangle/Softbox, Stripe, Ellipse/Circle, Polygon (3–16 sides) or Ring. |
Sides |
Number of polygon sides (Polygon shape only). |
Ring Thickness |
Width of the bright band as a fraction of the ring's radius (Ring shape only): small values give a thin ring, 1
fills the disc. The ring is always circular and uses Diameter in place of separate width/height.
|
Azimuth |
Horizontal angle around Z. 0° = +X, 90° = +Y. |
Elevation |
Vertical angle. −90° = straight down, 0° = horizon, +90° = straight up. |
Width / Height |
Angular size of the light in degrees. For a Ring, a single Diameter is shown instead. |
Roundness |
0 = sharp rectangle/polygon corners, 1 = fully circular. Hidden for already-round shapes (Ellipse, Ring). |
Feather |
Edge softness — the gradual falloff at the light's border. For a ring it softens both edges of the band. |
Gradient |
Brightness falloff inside the light: 0 = flat, 1 = full linear falloff from center to edge. Mimics the hot spot of a real softbox. |
Color |
Light color (alpha is ignored). |
Intensity |
Emission strength of this light. |
Presets
Classic studio setups, one click away. Applying a preset replaces all current slot values — and every preset is just a starting point: all lights remain fully editable afterwards.
3-Point Studio
The workhorse. A warm key softbox high to the right, a large soft cool fill from the left, and a thin warm rim stripe behind the subject for separation.
Ring Light
All 8 slots used: a ring of identical circular lights placed every 45° around the horizon, slightly raised. Even, wrap-around illumination with discrete ring reflections.
Ring Light (Single)
One frontal Ring shape: a bright annulus with a dark center, facing the subject head-on. The
classic catch-light look in a single slot — adjust Ring Thickness for a thin halo or a fat donut.
Beauty Dish
One big frontal light at 45° elevation — a 16-sided polygon with heavy feather and gradient, so it reads as a round dish with a soft hot spot. Portrait classic.
Strip Sandwich
Two tall, narrow stripes directly left and right of the subject. Crisp parallel edge highlights — the go-to look for bottles, gadgets and other product shots.
Top Window + Bounce
A wide, cool window light from almost directly above, plus a faint warm bounce from below and behind — like daylight through a skylight hitting a wooden floor.
Bake mode
Turn the procedural setup into a real, editable HDR image.
- Set the Resolution in the Bake panel. Equirectangular images are usually 2:1, e.g. 2048 × 1024. The default is fast; go higher for final renders.
- Click Bake to Image. The environment is rendered to a 32-bit float image and the World switches to Baked mode, sampling that image through an Environment Texture node.
- Open it via Baked Image → Open in Image Editor to paint on it — add gradients, flags, color accents, anything.
- Export with Save Image As… as a 32-bit EXR, ready for any other scene or application.
Global rotation is intentionally not baked into the image. The shader rotates the lookup instead, so you can spin a baked environment freely without re-baking.
Good to know
- HSV color picking. The type of color picker is a Blender preference, not an add-on setting: Edit → Preferences → Interface → Color Picker Type. Blender also remembers your last used tab (RGB/HSV/Hex) in the picker popup.
- Every control has a tooltip. Hover over any property or button for a short explanation — the texts on this page and in the tooltips match.
- Clear vs. Remove. Clear All Slots resets light values but keeps the world; Remove Studio Setup deletes everything the add-on created, after confirmation.
- Slot list. Click the lamp icon in the list to toggle a light without selecting it; drag the grip below the list to make it taller.
- One source of truth. Preview, shader and bake share the same evaluation core. If the ball looks right, the render will too.
- Eevee & Cycles. The environment works in both engines. The per-ray visibility toggles (Camera/Diffuse/Glossy) are a Cycles feature.
FAQ
How is the Ring shape different from the Ring Light preset?
The Ring shape is a single light: one bright annulus with a dark hole in the middle, controlled by
Diameter and Ring Thickness. The Ring Light preset is a different thing —
eight separate circular lights arranged in a circle around the horizon. Use the Ring shape for a frontal
catch-light; use the preset for wrap-around illumination.
Why are there two ZIP files?
Blender 4.2 introduced the new Extensions format, which older versions cannot install; and the old add-on format is deprecated in 4.2+. One ZIP per format covers all three supported LTS releases (3.6, 4.2, 4.5) with identical features.
Does it touch my existing World?
No. The add-on creates and manages its own tagged World and switches the scene to it. Your previous World stays in the file (Blender keeps unused data until you save, unless it has a fake user) — switch back to it anytime in the World properties.
Is the baked image saved with my .blend file?
The image datablock is kept in the file (it has a fake user), but like all generated images its pixels live in memory until you pack the image or save it to disk. For anything you care about, use Save Image As… to write an EXR.
Can I use the result outside Blender?
Yes — bake, then save as EXR. The file is a standard equirectangular 32-bit HDR image that works in any renderer or DCC that accepts environment maps.
The panels disappeared / look empty?
The Globals, Bake, Baked Image and Light Slots panels only appear while a studio world is active — that's by design.
If only the welcome box shows, click a Quick-Start preset to (re)create the setup. If something genuinely looks
broken, check the system console for lines starting with [PSH] and report them.