To achieve flawless and beautiful renders, 3D artists need to master lighting. Physically accurate, beautiful light is essential for creating game-changing, production-ready work.
For our March 2025 Artist of the Month, we’re highlighting a longtime member of the CGI.Backgrounds community who has enthusiastically embraced lighting as a crucial tool to bring out a unique feature of an iconic vehicle.
E. Maximiliano Salas recently shared a post featuring stunning renders of the Nissan GT-R T-Spec in its legendary Millennium Jade color.
Nissan GT-R T-Spec
To accurately capture the colors of the vehicle—and ensure it was beautifully lit—Salas chose to use our RAY.HDRi Maps with embedded IBL data captured from the real world.
In his words: “Every detail mattered in bringing this project to life.” To that end, Salas created all the materials for his render from scratch, ensuring they perfectly captured the vehicle’s essence.
Salas also shared that “lighting played a huge role in shaping the mood of each shot.”
To achieve perfect lighting, Salas used our RAY HDR tech, which is color calibrated for exceptional accuracy. He executed his render with Blender’s Compositor, ASC-CDL for color grading, and Cycles for rendering.
Through Salas’s artistic expertise, and with the lighting data from our tech, the resulting full-motion render truly complements the GT-R T-Spec’s beauty.
In Salas’s words: “Thanks to CGI.Backgrounds’ assets, I was able to build a photorealistic setting efficiently, using their high-dynamic-range 360-degree images to achieve realism with ease.”
It’s wonderful to see our artistic community embracing RAY HDR and finding the tech to be a valuable addition to their workflows.
Want to try our RAY.HDRi Maps yourself? Head to the CGI.Backgrounds website to search for over 7,000 real-world locations featuring content with professionally calibrated lighting data to make your renders stand out.
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