The Best HDRI Maps and Textures

Texture & HDRI Sites Compared:

As a 2d and/or 3d artist, it is assumable that you use a wide range of resources. We are talking here about shapes, textures, brushes, and HDRI Maps. You can use textures from pictures that were taken by your own, or textures from dvd’s you can buy but many use the internet. Yep, that’s right, the internet. But where do we find them?. Here we will look up a few of those sites, that are providing HDRI-maps ore textures, and a short description of each site is given. First, for who textures are relatively new, textures and HDRI-Maps are explained in short. On the bottom a short list of all websites is shown.

What are Textures?

In visual art, texture is the perceived surface quality of an artwork. We see something same with digital art, where textures can influence the surface enormously. Textures are in short images of (often) repeatable patterns as stones, bricks, wood, metal, etc. But remember, they are not always repeatable, as they also can be an image of a window, a door, buildings, etc. Textures themselves are most times 2d, but they can influence 3d geometry. They are used in 3D Applications for well, giving color and texture to a defined shape, but also to alter geometry (using displacement mapping for example, and you can find a tutorial for this here on my site, using Blender3D) or to fake geometry (using bump or normal mapping). Below is an example of a not textured 3D-Cube, and a cube textured with a simple concrete texture. When texture is added to a 3D model, to add detail, surface texture and/or color, we call it Texture Mapping.

But there is more! Yes, is there more? Textures are also very popular in 2D software (although the new CS4 version has some interesting tools in for 3D) as photoshop, often used as an overlay (the texture image is set in the layer above the background layer, and the blending mode is set to overlay). If we look to my recent addition in my portfolio, you’ll see that I used a texture in the background. Do you see the little cracks above the statue? I used a stone texture in the whole background, to emphasise the meaning of this artwork and to detail the background. 

What are HDRI-Maps?

Wikipedia, the online encyclodia, uses the following explanation for HDRI: “In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.” That actually means that HDRI images are capable of showing images that physically corresponds more with the real world, so you actually have more ‘real’ images. Possibly for that reason HDRI images are used in 3D software, to render an accurate and realistic lighting.

Stocks

There is much more that can be found on the internet, to inspirate you, to make use of, etc. Think of photosites as flickr. Stock photographs are usefull for inspiration, but also in backgrounds, or as a reference (for example when moddeling a specific type of car or mobile phone). There are a few free stocksites added in this list, who have a lot of photographs. However, be aware how you use your stocks, know the rules of use of your stockphotographs you are going to use, and make sure what license is used. Since they are not the main objective of this article, they all ofer many pictures and more or less work the same, with exception of deviantart and flickr, these sites are not described, but listed in the short list.

The sites compared:

The images are linked to the described sites. At the end of each site description a short information is given about the resolutions (high, around 2560×1920, medium (around 1600×1200) and small (around 800×600 and smaller)), watermarks and how you may use textures. What we also see is that most texture sites offer also sky maps and backdrops, but a few sites with only good sky maps and backdrops are pointed out.

Textures

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http://www.cgtextures.com: The worls largest free texture site, according to the website itself. And they have a point, because they have a lot of categories, from animals to even pictures of x-rays (well, could be very handy for the medical ones among )! Most textures are available in small, medium and large to download, and quick information about the filesize and resolution is available. However, it has a (daily) quotum of 15mb, since they don’t like you to stockpile their textures by massive downloads. They also have some great tutorials on how to modify textures. This is a great site if you just need any texture, but don’t need many.

• Resolution: High, Medium and Low
• Quotum? Yes, 15mb
• Use? Free to use private and commercial. Redestributing of unmodified work is however prohibited.
• Watermark: No

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http://mayang.com/textures/: This site offers some really nice textures to download, but they are all watermarked. They have over 3800 free to download textures, which makes them a really nice resource. However be aware of the watermarks, as they are quickly visible in renders. They also have to possibility to order all textures on DVD, but that is ofcourse not free.

• Resolution: Most High, Some Medium
• Quotum? Yes, 20 downloads per day per IP.
• Use? Free to use as long as your artistic effort is visible. Redestributing, selling of unmodified work, and using the textures by any way that competes with the website, is of course prohibited.
• Watermark: Yes

———————————————————– http://www.texturewarehouse.com/gallery/index.php: This site has not as much textures as the sites above (it has around 800 textures), but is still sufficient to most of your texture needs. The textures are not watermarked, and the website doesn’t speak about a download quotum. All textures are under Creative Commons License. The design is pretty sober, what makes the site in my opinion an appealing texture site.

• Resolution: High, Medium
• Quotum? They don’t seem to have one.
• Use? Creative Commons License, attribution and non-commercial use.
• Watermark:No

———————————————————– http://www.mega-tex.nl/highqualitytextures/ This site again, has a lot of textures, almost 8000, to download. The website says high quality textures, but don’t expect many textures to have resolutions as we found on cgtextures.com or mayang.com/textures/. The advantage is that the textures have no watermark, but they may not used commercial and the original authors rights must be respected all times. Most of their quality reflects in the quantity, and their site design and lay out (ordering of textures) could be better.

• Resolution: Medium, Low
• Quotum? They don’t seem to have one.
• Use? Free to use private, but prohibited to use commercial. Redistributing in any way is not allowed.
• Watermark:No

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http://www.imageafter.com/ This site has a lot images which are not texture, but it has nice terms, and the images are asy to download. That is why this sites sneaked into my textures bookmarks, and I also often use it for reference. The search results however are not always satisfying, and sometimes you will need another site. One thing that is great, that this site allows to distribute unaltered images in print. Having over 20000 free images, this is site is a nice reference and stock resource.

• Resolution: Most High, Medium
• Quotum? They don’t seem to speak about having a quotum.
• Use? Free to use private and commercial altered, free to use both altered and unaltered as a printed work. Redistributing unaltered online, or behaving as a competor, is not allowed.
• Watermark: Did not found any

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http://www.textureking.com/: ‘Free Stock Textures’ states the site. It is a nice site with a decent amount of textures. Ok, not that much as most sites described here, but they offer a sufficient resource in my opinion. All textures are resized to 1600×1200; the site lay-out is clear and works fast.

• Resolution: Medium
• Quotum? They don’t seem to speak about a quotum.
• Use? The site itself states: “The stock photographs on this site are free for use in any situation by anyone with only one exception. DO NOT sell, redistribute, or host any of the stock photos that are found on this site.”.
• Watermark: Did not found any

———————————————————– http://www.accustudio.com/index.php?option=com_phocagallery&view=category&id=1&Itemid=77: Accustudio looks like a litte player among those texture giants, not only focusing on textures, but they offer pretty well tileable textures, skymaps and as you can see below also HDRI-Maps. That made this site a favorite for me, despite that the site, compared to the other sites, does not load very fast for me.

• Resolution: High, Medium, Low
• Quotum? They don’t seem to have a quotum.
• Use? The site itself states: “Everything downloadable from this site should be free of copyrights and trademarks unless specifically noted otherwise”.
• Watermark: Did not found any

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HDRI

http://www.accustudio.com/index.php?option=com_remository&func=select&id=19&Itemid=54: Accustudio is also offering some free HDRI Images, which differ in quality. Since HDRI are used for lighting and not as a real physical background in a render, and want to save ram, the quality is not as important. But smaller HDRI’s may produce a less convincing lighting.

• Filesize: Medium to Low
• Use? The site itself states: “Everything downloadable from this site should be free of copyrights and trademarks unless specifically noted otherwise”.
• Watermark: No
• Rectangular

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http://www.debevec.org/probes/ Debevec is offering some good HDRI Probes (yes, that’s right, they are round so map them right), which even can be downloaded in one pack. This is very usefull because you don’t have to download them one by one. They differ in ranges and a filesize, but have a good overall quality.

• Filesize: Medium
• Use? The site itself is copyrighted, but they suggest emailing when you like to use the HDRI Maps.
• Watermark: No
• Probes

———————————————————– http://www.hdrimaps.com/downloads.html HDRIMaps.com sells HDRI-Maps, but they also offer a small quantity of HDRI maps for download. They also offer a basic explanation on HDRI Maps, and the downloads work fine: they contain both probe and rectangular maps.

• Filesize: Medium
• Use? They don’t say much about this, but I guess redistributing is prohibited.
• Watermark: No
• Rectangular and Probes

———————————————————– http://www.evermotion.org/index.php?unfold_exclusive=84&unfold=exclusive: The evermotion team offers some free HDRI sky maps, which weren’t tested. They are a great addition in sky maps.

• Filesize:Large
• Use? They don’t say much about this, and also visitors are redistributing it on rapidshare in the comments.
• Watermark: No
• Rectangular

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http://hdri.3dweave.com/library/: Offers some free medium sized HDRI-Maps, but watermarked.

• Filesize: Medium
• Use? You can use the images for your work ,but by downloading the files, you agree to not distribute any of the images or the complete collection on a commercial CD or in any electronical way without the permission of the Copyrightholder!
• Watermark: Yes
• Rectangular

———————————————————– http://smashmethod.deviantart.com/art/High-Res-HDRI-Map-Pack-1-9597501: At last smashmethod from deviantart is offering 20 HDRIMaps in one single package to download. This package can cover your basic HDRI needs .

• Filesize: Medium
• Use? Can not be used commercial, selling and redistributing not allowed. Say thanks when downloading them .
• Watermark: Yes
• Rectangular

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And here is a short list for all of you, who want the links in a row. Hmm.., really short is this list anymore :p.

Short-list of links:

Textures

• http://www.cgtextures.com
• http://mayang.com/textures/
• http://www.texturewarehouse.com/gallery/index.php
• http://www.mega-tex.nl/highqualitytextures/
• http://www.imageafter.com/
• http://www.textureking.com/
• http://www.accustudio.com/index.php?option=com_phocagallery&view=category&id=1&Itemid=77

HDRI

• http://www.accustudio.com/index.php?option=com_remository&func=select&id=19&Itemid=54
• http://www.debevec.org/probes/
• http://www.hdrimaps.com/downloads.html
• http://www.evermotion.org/index.php?unfold_exclusive=84&unfold=exclusive
• http://hdri.3dweave.com/library/
• http://smashmethod.deviantart.com/art/High-Res-HDRI-Map-Pack-1-9597501

Stock

• http://www.deviantart.com
• http://www.flickr.com
• http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp
• http://www.sxc.hu/
• http://www.gettyimages.com/
• http://www.dreamstime.com/