In this tutorial I will show you how to use an HDRI and the environment texture node to quickly and easily light your scene.
Environment Texture Node
I am using a model I downloaded from Sketchfab – the link is in the description
I have no lights in my scene – so everything is black when I’m in render mode
I will split the viewport and open the shader editor
I change my data type to world
I add an environment texture node and open the HDRI that I downloaded
The HDRI I’m using is from AmbientCG – the link is in the description
I then connect the node to the background node
Lighting Options
The environment texture node gives me multiple options
The texture interpolation allows me to change the interpolation of the image which can increase or decrease the readability of the image during resizing
The projection method determines how the 2D image is being projected onto the 3D object
Image source is simply where the image comes from
The color space refers to the color space of the image
The alpha is the alpha within the space of the image
The vector input allows me to use other nodes to control the HDRI
I can use the strength of the background node to change the strength of the HDRI
I have the node wrangler installed so if I select the environment texture node and use CTRL + T I add a texture coordinate node and mapping node
I can now use these nodes to fine-tune the HDRI
For example, I can change the Z Rotation to change how the HDRI affects the lighting of my scene
I can also use the location fields to change the location of the HDRI relative to the object
If I render this object, I can see the HDRI in the background
If I want the lighting information but I don’t want to see the HDRI itself, under the render tab, under the film panel, I can activate “transparent”
This allows me to see the lighting information but not the HDRI