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Voting for Book Cover Design Contest

Hey folks - a month ago I announced a book/magazine cover design contest to test-drive the possibility of crowd-sourcing content for 3D Model Haven via a contest with prizes donated by sponsors.The contest is now closed and received an impressive 89 entries - and now it's time to vote for the best designs!As a patron of HDRI Haven, we'd like you to help us decide which designs are the most deserving of prizes. You can add your votes here: https://forms.gle/JP8ja6CDN3y7oaje789 entries is a lot to vote on, but it should take you less than...

First HDRI from the new camera is stitched - 24k!

I've just stitched my first HDRI shot with the new camera :)I'm not sure when I can publish it (the rest of this month is reserved for HDRIs from Sergej and Andreas), but you can find it in the Early Access drive folder right now.The image above looks a bit boring and overcast, but being there in person was pretty cool. It was on top of a fairly large hill, and the clouds were passing really low making it look quite misty and eerie.Shortly after I shot this I noticed the clouds around me were getting thicker and thicker, but there was s...

Open Source under attack from patent trolls

The GNOME Foundation has recently been targeted by a patent troll (Rothschild Patent Imaging, LLC) for developing the Shotwell image viewer software, which has been in use for over 10 years.We don't know the details of their case, but the idea of patenting an image viewer, and then suing the developers of 10-year-old open source software is completely outrageous.Rothschild "offered" to allow GNOME to settle the suit for a high five figure amount (presumably USD), however GNOME decided not to play their game and instead go the more e...

New gear! Night HDRIs on the way!

Anyone who knows cameras, and knows that I’ve been using an entry-level Canon 600D to make HDRIs for the last 6 years, is probably pretty surprised that I’ve made it this far.Well, the time has come to say goodbye to my squeaky old SLR, whose shutter mechanism has served me over 100000 times, and say hello to the sleek new kit on the block:After 2 years of savings, months of research, several spreadsheets, and 1242 amazingly generous patrons later, I’ve purchased what I believe to be the perfect camera gear for HDRIs:A Nikon Z7, and a Ven...

🎉 3D Model Haven is coming 🎉

Boy has it been a long time coming. Ever since HDRI Haven re-launched as a "everything free for everyone" platform 2 years ago (almost to the day), I've constantly been getting emails asking whether I'm planning to make similar platforms for textures (✅ check) and 3D models.My answer was always: Yes? Eventually? I hope so?I was never sure if it was financially viable. Models take significantly more man-hours per unique asset than HDRIs do, and there are so many more existing resources too like BlendSwap, Turbosquid, CGTrader, ...

300 HDRIs!

Well damn, that's a lot of HDRIs.I don't know about you but I think it's high time for an update!*cue wall of text*Since about last May we've been rocking steadily around the $2000 mark in donations, which has been amazingly predictable, allowing me to start paying other photographers to shoot HDRIs for HDRI Haven.Thanks to you guys, instead of saving up for months and months to travel across the world to shoot HDRIs, wasting huge sums on air fares and hotels, I can simply hire people already there to shoot for me :)Perhaps &#34...

Workflow Articles Are Done \o/

Oh man it's been a long time coming.My estimates for how long it would take were off by several months. The perfectionist in me kept resurfacing and demanding me to be more thorough in my research and explanations, and the bigger this mammoth task grew the more I procrastinated.This is actually the third time that I've tried to explain how to make HDRIs in the form of a crazy long article, my previous two being a couple years ago, so I really wanted to make sure I covered all the bases and created a solid future-proof reference for anyo...

What is Clipping? Precursor to workflow articles.

While I was working on my promised (and seriously overdue) workflow articles, particularly one about capturing the sun and other bright light sources correctly, I thought it would be a good idea to explain the basics of clipping in a separate post as it might be interesting to all of you even if you're not bothered about making your own HDRIs.Clipping is in a nutshell what makes an HDRI good or bad. There are of course other measures of quality, but in my opinion the most important thing about an HDRI is whether or not it stores the true an...

1 Year of HDRI Haven

It's been one year since HDRI Haven opened up as a platform of 100% free HDRIs for everyone. It's been a wild ride so far, but I think we're only just getting started :)There have been a total of just over 2,000,000 HDRI downloads from the site, adding up to about 246 terabytes of bandwidth from approximately 200,000 unique users*.It's been interesting keeping an eye on Graphtreon too, which tracks the donations on Patreon over time:A total of about $17,600 has been donated. $1,880 was spent on the server and related web hosting...

Equipment Purchases

TDLR: Thanks to your donations, I was able to replace some broken PC components, at the same time preparing to be able to process much higher resolution HDRIs, as well as purchase some equipment that will let me improve the light and color accuracy of future HDRIs. Thanks :)Every month I save the majority of the Patreon income for future purchases, split between travel savings and equipment savings.The equipment savings is mainly to save up for a new camera body, lens, and set of filters once the $2500 goal is reached, but it's also meant f...

Website Source Published!

As part of the previous "Open Source It" goal I promised to publish the source code for the website, to allow anyone interested to help make improvements or to build their own haven-style platform.I said it would be ready in August... it's the 30th now so I guess it still counts? :) Here you go: https://github.com/gregzaal/HDRI-HavenI'm not a web developer really, I just tinker and butcher some stackoverflows together until it works. If you are a web developer, prepare your eyeballs for some cringe, I have no idea what I'm d...

What Camera Should I Buy?

With my savings for new camera gear growing each month, it'll soon be time to decide exactly what to buy :)I've been researching a number of camera and lens combos for a while and there are a few possibilities to choose from, each with some flaw and area of speciality.Before I decide anything, I thought it would be nice to get the opinions of the people who have/will be funding the new gear :)So my questions for you is, what do you think is most important?1. Brute force resolution - e.g. 25k or even 32k HDRIs.2. Low-light capabilities -...

HDR Merging Script

As promised, I've now published the script that I use to merge exposure brackets to HDR files.Github repo: https://github.com/gregzaal/HDR-MergeIt uses Blender's compositor to do the dirty work of choosing which parts of each image should be included in the final HDR file to get the maximum dynamic range, and then uses Luminance HDR to tonemap those HDR files into JPG files that are easier to stitch with.No compiled binaries are available (yet?). It's a python script which uses PyQt and Exifread libraries for the GUI and exposure br...

Texture Haven

The secret project I've been working on for the last few months is finally ready, and you probably already guessed what it is :)A new Haven of CC0 resources was born yesterday: Texture HavenJust like HDRI Haven, Texture Haven will follow the core principle of high quality content for free for everyone, supported by patrons like you.Textures there are not just a single photo, but a collection of PBR maps to give you realistic materials in as little effort as possible, all while being completely free and high resolution.Rob Tuytel will be run...

Open-Source-It Goal has been Reached!

Goddamn that was fast :D you guys rock!This goal encompases a few different things, all to do with making hdrihaven.com more open - helping to turn it more into a community effort than a solo expedition... The git repo for the website code itself will be published, accepting patches for improvements and new features. I'll publish all the scripts and tools that I've made to help me create HDRIs, as well as detailed documentation about my workflow so that others can learn how to create high quality content. The possibility for community c...

Occasional Allowance for Imperfect HDRIs

Occasionally I'll screw up shooting an HDRI in some way, whether it be missed focus, incorrect focal length, incomplete dynamic range or a dirty lens.Often these HDRIs would otherwise be pretty sweet, but their irreparable flaw prevents me from publishing them on HDRI Haven without spoiling my efforts to maintain a high standard of quality.The worst part is that the flaws of these HDRIs often make it significantly more difficult to stitch them - for example, out of focus images make it hard to add control points accurately, or an incorrect ...

Vault #3 is Open!

The $1500 goal was just reached (again) :DThat means the final 60 of my old for-sale HDRIs are now on hdrihaven.com, free and CC0 like everything else :) I can't even describe how it feels to finally have all my work out there for anyone to use, thank you guys so much <3See everything: https://hdrihaven.com/hdris/category/?o=date_publishedSome random sidenotes since I can't really contain myself at the moment: There are nearly 200 HDRIs in total now. Jeeez. Bergen (one of my oldest ones) was actually clipped, so I stole the sun from ano...

16k Files in Offline Access Folder

UPDATE: Thanks to Barbara's suggestion, I've made subfolders for each resolution. If you want to save some bandwidth and harddrive space, simply deselect them in the preferences:Or instead, only add the resolutions that you want to your Drive.Original post below:----------The final Vault goal was just reached this weekend \o/But considering there is always a bit of a drop in pledges at the start of the month (after payments are made), I'm holding out on the announcement of that for a day or two more.In preparation of adding 60 more ...

Interior HDRI Stitching Live Stream

Join me for a casual stream tomorrow where I'll process, stitch and publish an interior HDRI :)Q&A welcome!Watch/set reminder: https://youtu.be/JOoy1w6qvWE11AM GMT - Saturday 3rd March

Backplates are up! + New release schedule

All the backplates are now finally published!You can tell which HDRIs have backplates by the little icon that appears when you hover over the thumbnail:You can also just search for "backplates", which will then only show HDRIs that have some.The backplates will appear below the HDRI download buttons:After clicking one of the backplate thumbnails, you can choose which format to download: Pretty JPG - looks the same as the preview, but much higher resolution. Good if you don't feel like doing any compositing/photoshopping on your rend...

A 25 hour day would be nice.

Quick update on the upcoming backplates...All of the backplates for the older HDRIs (from Vaults 1 & 2) and a couple of the newer ones are now up!I'm still working on the recent stuff from Italy though, and I'm struggling a bit to find the time to do this and still release two new HDRIs every week (most of which also have backplates).Because of this, for the next 3 weeks I'll only be releasing one HDRI per week to give me time to finish up the backplates. Regular bi-weekly publishing will resume from the 27th onwards.You can see all...

Backplates are in the oven!

Huzzah! \o/ The $1200 goal has just been reached, meaning I'll soon release all the backplates I've got for existing HDRIs, as well as enabling me to publish backplates for future HDRIs too!HUUUUGE THANK YOU to everyone supporting me and helping to tip us over the edge of the goal :) This is really amazing.It'll take me quite a while to actually process and upload all the backplates (there are so many!) and build a system of displaying and downloading them on the site, but to give you an idea of what to expect: For all the current H...

New Patreon Fees & Alternatives

UPDATE: Due to mass rebel, Patreon has scrapped the new fee system and will stick with the old one.Original post below.-----------------------Patreon recently announced a major change to their fee structure, and will start charging you more than what you pledged to pay.Before this change, the Patreon fee and transaction processing fees (from PayPal and credit card companies) were deducted from your pledge before it was sent to me. This meant if you pledged $1, you would be charged $1 and I would receive about $0.85.The new fee structure adds a ...

Vault #2 Now Published!

Woo! Finally :D Took me longer than expected to get everything uploaded, but...The 40 HDRIs in Vault #2 are now available here for everyone!Can you believe this almost doubled the total number of HDRIs on the site?! So there are now 104 HDRIs available - all 16k, unclipped and 100% free thanks to you :)

An Unbelievable First Month – Stats, Reports, Etc.

The busy first month of the new site has already passed with outstanding and unexpected success. In fact, it was so unexpectedly successful and busy that the second month is almost over too!I've written a little blog post about the current progress of HDRI Haven, some stats, and included the first finance report too in case you're curious about exactly where your money went.Read on here: https://blog.hdrihaven.com/2017/11/20/an-unbelievable-first-month-stats-reports-etc/ :)

Second Vault Goal Reached!!

I can hardly believe it, after a little more than one month we're already at $900!That means the second Vault is going to be unlocked, adding 40 HDRIs to the new site :DSince I've just got back from Italy, I've got a few more urgent things to take care of first (report for the trip, finance report for October, stitching HDRIs, taxes, etc). Give me a week or so to get all that out of the way and then I'll work on publishing the Vault :)The process for selecting the HDRIs in the Vault will be the same as last time (completely rand...

Vault #1 Now Unlocked!

Woohoo! :DThe 20 HDRIs from the first Vault are now officially published!You can see and download them here along with everything else: https://hdrihaven.com/hdris/category/?o=date_publishedPatrons with the Offline-Access reward can find them in the Google Drive folder too :)This brings the total number of HDRIs to 53! Vault #2's goal is not far away now, which will add another 40 HDRIs. Add that to the new schedule of 2 HDRIs per week and with any luck we'll have over 100 by the end of the year :)If you're curious about how these 2...

Unlocking Vault #1 [Live Stream]

Tomorrow at 8PM GMT I'll unlock the first Vault, adding 20 more HDRIs to HDRI Haven :)I thought it would be nice to make the process transparent, so you can see how the 20 HDRIs are chosen randomly and watch me go through all the technical steps of publishing an HDRI.You can set a reminder for the stream on YouTube here, or if you miss it you can use the same link to find a recording of the stream later.There will likely be some downtime during the stream while we wait for renders and such, so feel free to use the chat to ask me any questio...

First Vault Goal Reached!

Woohoo! \o/I seriously did not expect that to happen so fast, I'm completely unprepared. I haven't even decided which of the old HDRIs will go into each vault, only that the first two will not contain a whole bundle from the old site (only bits and pieces of each bundle).After deciding that, I still need to upload the files, render all the tonemapped previews, exposure previews and sphere renders, and add everything to the database with categories, tags, dynamic range and other metadata.The bad news is: I'm leaving tomorrow. The goo...

Two Goals Reached already!

Wow, you guys, I love you <3Both of the first two goals have already been reached, in just 17 hours :D Unlock 16k downloads New HDRI every weekThe server is struggling a lot at the moment, so I've already signed up for a CDN service which should at least make the site more responsive. This will take ~48 hours to kick in though, so I'm also looking into other options like upgrading the server directly (which I need to do anyway if I'm gonna fit all the 16k files on it), I just need to figure out the best way to do it.In the meantime,...