How to Search CGI.Backgrounds' HDRi Maps and Backplates
CGI.Backgrounds' website and the CGI.B Connect app make it easy to find the perfect HDRi Map or Backplate for your project.
Searching for the perfect location is a necessary step when starting a creative project, but our priority is to help you Find, not Search. Our premium HDRi Maps can serve both as practical tools and as the creative inspiration for your next product shot or 3D render.
This article will walk you through the process of searching for content from CGI.Backgrounds, whether you are a beginning user or a professional content researcher.
How CGI.Backgrounds' Collections Are Organized
All our content begins with real-world places. Our professional creators travel to these real-world places in person, using high-resolution cameras and specialized technology to capture HDRi maps, skies, cityscapes, and more.
Our creators also capture high-resolution backplate variations in each place they visit, shot from different perspectives and camera heights. These variations give you and your brand the perfect tool to tell the exact visual story you wish to convey.
Each real-world place we’ve captured is represented as a Location on our website and in our app. Locations contain HDRi maps, backplates, and backplate camera height variations.
Backplate variations shot at different camera heights, capturing different perspectives
Breakdown of locations, HDRi Maps, and Backplates.
Locations
Locations are represented in the main search window as a cluster. These give an overall look and feel for a location.
Click on a Location, and you'll see all of the assets associated with the Location. This includes a variety of backplates and HDRi maps.
Pro-Tip : open each Location in a new TAB so you do not loose your search.
Detailed view of the selected Locations
Backplates
Clicking on a specific backplate allows you to choose between different camera height variations for that backplate. Again, this can help you achieve the perfect perspective or camera angle for the scene you want to create.
The sample right shows you the highest Backplate on position on, and the lowest on position five.
For example, a racetrack Location might include tight, low-angle backplates for close-up, low-angle shots of a sportscar that convey speed and power. The same Location might also contain wider-angle backplates that capture a greater sense of the racetrack’s scale, for projects where the surrounding environment is a bigger part of your story.
HDRi Maps
Every premium Location includes at minimum one HDRi Map so that you can light your models, or even place your model in an interactive scene and allow customers to pan around the scene themselves.
In addition, all HDRi Maps come as a tone-mapped version, for use as a background with a photographic look where no post-processing is needed. You can see it as a 360 degree Spherical Backplate and use the HDRi Map itself for lighting only.
Some Locations include other content as well, such as textures and materials. All our Locations include the support elements you need to finish off your creative project.
Profile view
Find your Angles
If you search for different angles, the system gives you updated results, replacing the hero images with the angle for which you are searching.
Angle Guide
Add any of the following words to your research
3/4 angle / 1/4 angle / 1/1 angle / profile / open space / high / top down / areal
Stephen Gray
Global Manager, Creative Visualization at General Motors
GM design
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