New HDRI photoshop plugin

hydra101 · January 17, 2014, 12:57:05 PM

Hello Everyone,

This is Jon Hull from Hydra Design Labs, an avid user and fan of KeyShot. You might have seen some of my images posted by KeyShot before but I am new to the forum. I've been talking with Josh Mings of KeyShot about my new company and software that we just launched. The name of the company is Hydra101, it's an automotive design store and learning center. We have free tutorials about car design made by professional car designers. We also have a few products that relate to KeyShot; photoshop plugins, 3D models in native KeyShot format, HDRI images.

I am excited to tell you about our first photoshop plugin called Hydra HDRI Pro. Hydra HDRI Pro is a photoshop plugin that will automatically convert an 8bit image into a 32bit spherical HDRI for use in KeyShot. Instead of having to buy your HDRI images or having to own an expensive camera you now have the ability to create your own library of HDRI images using your smart phone and this plugin. Our recommended workflow is to use Occipital's iphone app (or android) 360 Panorama http://occipital.com/360/app which lets you take a seamless 8bit panoramic image and then use our HDRI Pro plugin to convert that image into a 32bit HDRI. At the same time you take the panorama with your phone you also snap some backplate images and then you are all set.

We have done some testing with Josh and Rex at KeyShot and got a great response from them. The final HDRI has gotten some pretty impressive results coming from an 8bit image. While the HDRI doesnt have as wide of a range as a true HDRI we have found that in most situations it works really well and produces great results. You can always take it a step further with KeyShots HDRI editor and add more lights for harder shadows, and we also have a tutorial on our site to show you how to manually add hard shadows to any HDRI.

At Hydra Design Labs we are using this plugin on a constant basis, I have compiled a huge library of HDRI that I take wherever I go. Its so easy because I always have my iphone on me so I just start grabbing panoramas and backplates wherever I am, and then come back and convert them with the plugin. Here are a few examples of renderings I have done using backplates and HDRI made with our plugin.

We'd love to have you check it out and let us know what you think.
http://hydra101.com/product/hydra-hdri-pro-1/

Thanks,

Jon Hull
President
Hydra Design Labs

Josh3D · January 17, 2014, 02:05:13 PM

Hey Jon, thanks for posting about Hydra101. Should be a great resource. The plugin is very useful and definitely saves time on creating HDRI's from panoramic photos. Thanks for sharing!

LiteHold · February 19, 2014, 03:14:27 PM

Is this the program?

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/hydra-pro-hdr-photography/id467371061?mt=12

edwardo · February 19, 2014, 03:44:31 PM

This sounds exciting. Gonna look into it tomorrow!

hydra101 · February 19, 2014, 06:02:39 PM

Quote from: LiteHold on February 19, 2014, 03:14:27 PM
Is this the program?

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/hydra-pro-hdr-photography/id467371061?mt=12

Hi LiteHold,

That is a different program for HDR photography. Our plugin is for HDRI spherical images for photoshop.
You can see our program here http://hydra101.com/product/hydra-hdri-pro-1/
Let me know if you have any questions.

Jon

LiteHold · February 20, 2014, 08:24:06 AM

Thanks for the reply.

Do you have any downloadable examples this program has created?

LiteHold · March 16, 2014, 03:56:11 PM

Bump...........

edwardo · March 16, 2014, 04:59:28 PM

This looks great. But i don't understand why you recommend occipital 360 - it only does cylinders, not spheres, so I'm not sure how useful the maps would be for keyshot?

As well as environment spheres, this looks like it could be good for (quickly) making picture lights for the new HDR editor in ks5?

Majority · April 18, 2016, 10:01:53 AM

150$ for a photoshop plugin that we already have some alternatives for free?
can you please explain us what makes your plugin so special and more powerful than "JPG 8bit to HDRI 32 bit" ?(http://nmaker.com.br/tools.html)

Majority · July 22, 2016, 05:18:04 PM

if the developer cannot give us a demo, can he at least give us an .hdr image sample processed by Hydra HDRI Pro,
so we can evaluate the exposure quality?

they cannot give us an .hdr image sample? Fine, then make a video showing us the final result with exposure settings.

I just don't think nobody here will give them 150$ for a software without a demo or a sample or some proof that this is better than this free plugin: http://nmaker.com.br/tools.html