Get your FREE single texture shader here: https://gift.addyourlight.com/singletextureshader

Did you ever have just one single texture and had to make a photorealistic 3D material from it? Are you trying to make this look less flat, have more depth and react to light in a realistic way?

For me it was very often the case: I received a wood texture from a manufacturer and nothing else: no glossiness maps, no normal maps, no scanned materials. And my clients wanted to see their products shine and look the best!

So I came up with a simple workflow to make wood look great even if I only had one texture!

https://3dimperfections.gumroad.com/l/SmartWoodShader

Get this ready-to-use shader, plug in your texture and start tweaking the individual parts so that your wood material can make your clients and yourself happy!

Last year I became a full-time creator with my new brand "Add Your Light".

You are the reason why I chose to do that, because it fullfills me to help you in your 3D / CGI career. And because of all these years of support from the community, I feel very thankful. 

I started a newsletter to bring inspiring stories, tips & tricks and some freebies and discounts from time to time to you. Every week | 1-4 minutes read | nice and easy.

So I would love it if you would sign up for my newsletter. A thank you gift is waiting for you after you submitted your first name and e-mail.

Now, to the free gift: As an employee, freelancer and team leader, I often met trouble because of failed renderings that could have been avoided. I made a pre-render checklist for you, so you have less stress and can be sure that every single render will come out as expected. *Click* *Download* *Yeah!*

Get it here: https://gift.addyourlight.com/artstation

I thought it would be nice to create something different and just drop in to let you know what I am working on right now:

I am thinking of starting something like a Patreon account and share more about how I do my stuff and get more in contact with everybody out there. 

What do you think? Would you be interested?

This was just me babbling a little bit, nothing too planned out...

Save 30% on single products (until Sun. Dec 4th) and 50% on bundles (until Sun. Nov 27th)!

Coupon codes:

BLACKBUNDLE = 50% on bundles (only available on my Gumroad Store until Sunday)*

https://3dimperfections.gumroad.com/

PerfectFriday = 30% on single products (available without coupon on Artstation until Dec. 4th)*

Boost your photorealism and productivity with the Perfect 3D Imperfection assets with this Black Friday sale!

Check out all my assets:

 *Unfortunately I cannot give a discount on Bundles on Artstation, so you have to go to my Gumroad stores, enter the coupon there to get the bundles. PerfectFriday can also be applied to get 30% on Gumroad, but the Cyber Days Sale on Artstation is longer and without coupon, Sorry for the inconvenient way to save money on my assets!

Dont worry: I didnt raise my prices before giving you the discount :) You can safely buy my assets and you will also get free updates whenever I improve and add a new release.

If you have any questions, just ping me!

Cheers,

Manuel

Hi fellow CGI Artists!

For a while it has been bothering me that I only got 95 custom bokeh shape textures and not a round number..

Check out the FREE SAMPLE if you want to know what I am talking about!

Win one free asset!

As I ran out of ideas right at the very end, I need your help tp upgrade the pack to a full 100 textures!

Enter the competition and send me references or create your own aperture map. Among the participants I will choose 5 of the best and re-create them in high-resolution to add them to my collection.

The chosen ones will get one asset of their liking from my stores for free!

And all the others will get 30% off of my products!

The competition starts now and ends in two weeks: September 9th 2022.

Send your ideas/references/own creations to:

Perfect3DImperfections @ CreativeControl.de

or contact me via my Artstation-Account:

https://perfect3dimperfections.artstation.com/

I can't wait to see what you come up with and to add more value to my pack!

Thank you for your help in advance 😀,

Cheers,

Manuel

PS: I started my Youtube Channel recently and would be so happy if you would check it out and watch some of my tutorials or product promos and give me feedback!

Hi there 😄!

it has been a great year for me so far. My audience is growing steadily and especially on my Artstation Store it is showing: I have over 1200 followers and it makes me so happy that people are recognizing my stuff!

To celebrate this, I am giving out 120 coupon codes until the end of this week for my products here on Artstation – read on and get the code while it´s hot!

I also finally released my HDRI Collection 2: Gradients for perfect CGI lighting – FREE samples available! You can use these lights with any rendering engine and any 3D software package like VRED, Maya, 3ds max, Blender, V-ray, Octane, Cycles, Corona Renderer, Arnold etc.

You can check out the free samples, test them out before you decide to buy!

Having a full-time job, three kids, a wife and creating digital assets for CGI Artists is tough! I am having a lot of fun, but it takes way longer than I wish it would. Especially with my stuff – every single asset is hand-made and I put a lot of thought into each and test it out.

It really pays off, though, when I see that you are happy with what I'm doing! I got some raving reviews recently and was so thrilled that my assets really do help making your life easier:

"The best studio lights money can buy for your 3D DCC. Nothing beats using those high dynamic images for your area lights. You'll be baffled what this does to your reflections, refractions and specular highlights."

and:

"Highly recommend for everyone trying to up the realism of their product renders and break up the artificial look of standard lights in 3D applications."

and:

"An instant-buy for anyone who's after creating photoreal product renders. Simply to use and they are suitable even for high resolution renders."

"Cheap product photography studio" – lit only with my gradients and studio light HDRIs

If you want to up your lighting quality, achieve photorealism and have more definition in your lighting (and save up to 88%) check out my HDRI Collections and get the bundle, which features extra gradients and extra studio ligthing HDRI panoramas for instant photorealistic and smooth lighting – at no extra cost!

The first 120 people to use this code will get 33% off extra on any of my products: "33FOR1200" – only available until Sunday this week!

Be fast before others use the codes and get ahead of them, create awesome visualisations and send them towards me – I am always eager to see what you achieve with my assets that I put all my energy and love into! If you like my stuff, please do leave a good rating to support me – it means the world to me! If you have troubles, message me so I can help!

I am working on more assets and have big plans to support you further in your journey. If you have any requests, feedback or critique, just ping me and let's get in touch!

Thank you so much for your support! 🥰

Cheers,

Manuel

Look at that awesome bokeh! Done in V-Ray with my "Imperfect Aperture Maps for Perfect CGI Bokeh" FREE Sample available.

PS: Here is the code again, if you skipped the post and missed it: "33FOR1200" for 33% off store wide!

Be one of the 120 people to save on all my assets now, only valid until Sunday,14th of August 2022! 

After a long wait on your side, I finally released my second HDRI Texture pack:  HDRI Collection 2 - Gradients for perfect CGI lighting.

Our goal as CG Artist is - besides having a great art style and interesting content - to achieve photorealism and in the case of product or automotive renderings we want to have full control over our lighting to bring out the form of the subject in the most beautiful way. In real-life photography as in CGI you will achieve this by using gradients in your reflections. They define the shape and make the material apparent: Having a sharp reflection with a soft gradient on one side looks appealing to the eye as well as making it clear, that the objects material is reflective and glossy.

For years I used to spice up my CG lighting by going away from using plain white rectangular lights to creating softboxes and gradients with a gradient ramp and then later the VraySoftbox map. Its a great tool, if you are using v-ray, to quickly use gradients for automotive and product renderings! I highly recommend using it. I began to combine my custom gradients with a base map, mostly a softbox hdri texture from my HDRI Collection 1 - Studio Lights, Lamps and Softboxes

As a Digital Creator I realised that not every 3D software of rendering engine has the same feature as V-Ray. Maverick Renderer introduced a great gradient light tool and V-Ray is extremely popular. But e.g. VRED doesnt have any procedural way to generate gradients and others like Octane or Corona can only use simple procedural gradients. 

The difference between a perfect gradient and a real photostudio gradient are the burned spots, the highlights, the imperfections and these make the difference in your lighting and the photorealism in the end! 

It is also a quite some work to create gradients that are not plain and simple white-to-black ones. You probably want to use a ramp that starts strong at the top and dark at the bottom while still having a constant gradient to the right or left; then you probably want a hotspot of light at the top or at the most left or right to spice things up. If you then want some imperfections in it to bring out the most realistic small details in your lighting, you already have several layers on top of each other and it can become complicated.

That´s why I created the HDRI Collection 2: Gradients and I myself am using them now instead of custom made procedural softbox textures. Why? Because its easy: Just plug them into your light, dial in the right multiplier value and you are set. I took all the hard work from your hands so you can concentrate on awesome lighting.

These textures are handmade and I put a lot of thought into them: What would you need to light a car, a bottle or anything else to make the product shine? Perfect gradients for the times when your client is REALLY picky about the look. Imperfect when you can go all the way to achieve photorealism. Softboxes, ring lights, hard gradients, soft gradients, short and long, round ones, rectangular ones. You will have 40 unique ones in two variations so there is more than enough that you could wish for. I even through in a studio lighting HDR panorama in different variations so can get beautiful lighting in seconds!

And if you wish for anything, please let me know. Communication with the community and to help you out is my first and foremost goal.

And if you need a little more spice, a little more color variation, a little more imperfection in your reflections and shadows, a little more photorealism - check out my HDRI Collection 1 - Studio Lights, Lamps and Softboxes or buy the bundle HDRI Collection Bundle - 2 in 1 plus Extras! to save big time and get even more gradients and a few variations on another (one with variations is included in each collection) HDRI 360 Degree Studio Lighting Panorama for your dev look or final render.

Check out the free samples here and here and please leave a review if you like them, or contact me if you don´t so I can improve my assets!

Cheers,

Manuel

BTW, the visualisation of this cola bottle is also done with my HDRI Collection. It would need a ittle more work for a proper commercial, but if you like the water drops, check out the free sample too!