360apps HDRI Creator Try it free

HDRI Creator · physical sky studio

HDRI sky generator: make your own skies, up to 16K

Pick any place, date and time and the sun lands exactly where it would be. Shape volumetric clouds lit by that sun, paint them where you want them, add a real night sky or an aurora, then export a 32-bit .HDR to light your scene in Blender, Unreal, Unity or Cinema 4D.

Try it free Open HDRI Creator

5 days free · no credit card required. Already have an account? Sign in and open it.

  • Real sun for any place & time
  • Volumetric 3D clouds
  • .HDR up to 16K
Real app, real taps. Nothing mocked up.

The problem

The perfect HDRI is never quite in the library

The sun is on the wrong side, the clouds are too busy, the time of day is almost right. Shooting your own HDRI needs a trip, a bracketed panorama rig and a clear afternoon. So the lighting of the shot gets decided by whatever sky you can find.

Who it is for

  • 3D artists and archviz studios lighting exterior scenes
  • Game and real-time developers who need skyboxes
  • Motion designers and VFX artists matching a plate
  • Teachers and students learning how sky light works

Before

  • Scrolling HDRI libraries for hours
  • Rotating the dome to fake the sun
  • One sky per shoot, if the weather plays along

With HDRI Creator

  • The sun where it should be, for any date
  • Clouds painted where the shot needs them
  • A new 16K sky in minutes

How it works

Three steps, right in your browser

  1. 1

    Set place and time

    Choose a location, date and time. Sun and moon positions, sunlight and sky light in lux, haze and twilight follow.

  2. 2

    Shape the sky

    Cumulus, stratus or storm clouds lit by the real sun, mixed skies, Edit Sky painting, the real night sky and aurora.

  3. 3

    Export

    Linear 32-bit Radiance .HDR or PNG up to 16384 × 8192, or a 360° time-lapse MP4.

What is inside

Everything HDRI Creator does

  • Physical sun and sky

    Any place, date and time, calibrated in real lux, with haze and twilight.

  • Volumetric 3D clouds

    Raymarched clouds with real depth, and fast 2.5D clouds for slower computers.

  • Mixed skies + Edit Sky

    Several cloud kinds at once; paint clouds on low, mid or high layers.

  • Cloud shape controls

    Edges, lumps, length and direction.

  • Real night sky

    Bright Star Catalog, NASA Milky Way, a NASA-mapped moon with phases.

  • Aurora

    Northern or southern lights with height, spread, activity and colours.

  • .HDR up to 16K

    Linear 32-bit Radiance .HDR or PNG, streamed to disk in strips.

  • 360° time-lapse

    MP4 with 360° metadata: golden to blue hour, sunrise, a whole day.

Make your own skies, up to 16K.

HDRI Creator runs in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer. Nothing to install.

Try it free Buy HDRI Creator

5 days free · no credit card required. Studio? See HDRI Creator PRO.

FAQ

Questions people ask

What is HDRI Creator?

A sky studio that builds physically based 360° skies and exports them as HDRI environment maps. You choose a location, date and time, shape the clouds and atmosphere, and export a linear .HDR (or PNG) panorama to light 3D scenes in Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, Cinema 4D, three.js and other renderers.

How do I make my own HDRI sky?

Set the place and time so the sun sits where your shot needs it, choose or paint the clouds, check the 360° preview and export a 32-bit .HDR. Load it as the world or environment texture in your 3D software.

How large can the HDRI exports be?

Up to 16384 × 8192 (16K). The panorama is rendered in strips and streamed straight to disk, so even 16K maps export without running out of memory. The .HDR files use standard Radiance run-length compression, which is lossless.

Is the sky physically accurate?

The sun and moon positions come from astronomical formulas for your location and time, and the sunlight, sky light, haze and twilight are calibrated in real lux. Clouds take their light from the actual sun direction and dim the sun when they cover it.

Can I make night skies and auroras?

Yes. Turn on the real night sky for the true stars of the Yale Bright Star Catalog and NASA’s Milky Way map, placed correctly for your date, time and latitude, plus a moon textured with NASA imagery that follows its phases. You can also add northern or southern lights.

Can I export animated skies?

Yes. The 360° video export renders time-lapses (live sky, golden hour to blue hour, sunrise, a whole day or 24 hours) as MP4 files with 360° metadata for YouTube and VR players.

Does it work with Blender, Unreal and Unity?

Yes. The .HDR is a standard equirectangular Radiance file that Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, Cinema 4D, 3ds Max and three.js load as an environment map.

What is the difference between SOLO and PRO?

Both unlock every feature. SOLO is a commercial licence for one artist or developer on one machine. PRO is for studios and covers productions of any size, licensed per machine.

Does it run offline or on my computer?

It runs in modern desktop browsers, and exports are written to your own computer. Your setups save as JSON files you can load again. A desktop app for Mac is coming soon.

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HDRI CreatorTry it free