So you CAN use HDR Images in Blender, HOWEVER, it won’t light the scene for you and is mostly reduced to just a spherical map. But it does give for some interesting reflections for materials and does add some life to your scene. Currently Blender 2.5 doesnt support Yafary or Lux so this is the best I could do inside Blender 2.5 with the internal renderer (Blender 2.49 seems to be screwing up on me which is really annoying). Anyways have a look at what I have achieved so far with a robot I modelled in about an hour (yeah its rubbish, but you’ll get the idea of what you can) She kinda looks like Eve from Wall-E. Friggin love that movie

So this week I had contracted the infamous swine flu (or so I think, they didn’t actually test me per say, they just gave me the drugs and sent me home). That being said, I was confined to my house for the next 3 days which were boring as hell! So I had to occupy my time somehow. And this is what I came up with!

Now this bad boy was wholly created in after effects. There is no 3d per say, although of course, good ol Optimus here is created using 3d solids in after effects, so technically it is 3d, but no external 3d apps.  I am not the greatest animator, but I am going to get some 3d animation tests on here eventually and in the foreseable future, show you guys how I created this bad boy!

stay tuned!