In late 2023, we rolled out our new CGIB.Horizon system . Horizon is a generative AI platform trained on tens of thousands of our HDRi Maps and Backplates.
With this extensive training, Horizon can create AI-generated HDRi Maps, backplates, and more based either on a textual prompt or an existing image.
We initially rolled out Horizon as part of a private beta. Today, we’re excited to announce we are expanding the private beta and preparing to open Horizon access to users in our Pro and Freelance plans.
How Horizon Works
To use CGI.B Horizon , you can enter a textual prompt for the HDRi Map or Backplate you’d like to see. You can also upload a concept image for the system to work with, or even select any image from within CGI.Backgrounds’ extensive catalog.
Based on your input, Horizon will create new HDRi Maps or Backplates for you. Again, because it was trained on our professional collections, Horizon generates images that have the visual styling of a professionally shot HDRi Map.
You won't find overly dramatic, Instagram-like images here!
Our goal is to use our massive library to create a valuable generative AI HDRi Map generator that’s specifically built for professional designers.
How People Are Using Horizon
Based on results from our early beta, here are a few of the ways that people are using CGIB Horizon.
Ideation and Concepting
Transforming an idea into a compelling visual is challenging, even for skilled designers. Yet doing so is essential for any designer who needs to win over a stakeholder or client, or communicate their idea to an internal design team.
Horizon is an amazing tool for taking your visual ideas and turning them into real HDRi Maps and backplates.
We’ve seen designers use the tool to express their visual ideas quickly to their peers or colleagues. They can also iterate more quickly, trying out different ideas until they find the best one.
At the end of the process, some teams use the actual asset generated by Horizon, but others select a production-ready HDRi Map from our collection that matches their final visual concept.
Visual Search
This is one of the most powerful uses we found for CGI.B Horizon. Our library of HDRi Maps and Backplates contains several hundred thousand images. That makes it massively powerful, but searching it can sometimes be overwhelming.
With CGI.B Horizon, you can provide a detailed description of the exact HDRi Maps or asset you need. Horizon will create several AI-generated versions of your idea.
You can easily use these AI images to perform a visual search of our collection in a single click. The search can help you locate real-world assets that match your visual concept.
Quickly moving from text, to visuals, to production-ready, high-quality RAY.HDRi Maps and Backplates is an incredible capability for designers.
Creating Custom HDRi Maps for IBL
Another powerful use for Horizon is creating your own custom HDRi Maps for image-based lighting purposes.
Because the system is trained on our huge library, it’s able to realistically recreate the lighting data that you’d find in a real-world map.
That makes Horizon a powerful tool for creating HDRi Maps and Backplates for lighting that match almost any idea you can imagine.
From a city at magic hour to the starkly-lit desert at high noon, Horizon can create AI-generated lighting assets which you can then import into the DCC of your choice (often paired with a backplate for visuals) to achieve lighting perfection.
Want to try out Horizon for yourself? If you are a CGIB customer at the Freelance level or above, reach out to contact@cgibackgrounds.com to request access to the beta.
