Need a dusk environment map

[stayinwonderland]

Hi,

 

I'm making a dusky/night exterior rendering and I need a nice clear blue dusk environment map.

 

Are there any available for free? (it's a non-commercial piece).

 

Cheers

[Corey Beaulieu]

http://cgskies.com/

 

Lower quality are free and truthfully not all that low quality.

[stayinwonderland]

That's awesome. Thanks a bunch. And you're right, the free samples are pretty decent.

 

Say, quick questions. To make a decent environment map, will I need to spherize such an image? Or would I just drop it straight in as is?

[Corey Beaulieu]

I usually drop it straight in and select spherical mapping. I think I usually double the height of the image canvas in photoshop without changing the image size itself and then add black to the bottom. This way there is a horizon and the clouds, sun, moon, etc don't appear strectched.

[RyderSK]

Just jpeg environment ? Or HDRi ?

 

Perfect 2 free HDRis offers Bob Grothius on Dutch skies, both are dusk/night. Free VizPeople collection also features 2 dusk HDRis. They are both good quality, the Dutch skies are among the best I've seen (also come in sIBL! ready)

 

I swear by these, I hoard HDRi collections :- )

[stayinwonderland]

Again, awesome links/leads. Those vizPeople ones are amazing. Thanks guys!

[Chris MacDonald]

http://www.hdri-locations.com/ are superb, plus I use a lot of Peter Guthries too.