Lighting & HDRI

Facet gives you three complementary lighting systems, and most scenes use a mix of all three:

1. HDRI environment — a 360° image that lights the whole scene and provides the reflections your materials pick up. The fastest route to a realistic look.
2. Studio Light — a single, controllable spotlight for dramatic, directional lighting (with an optional gobo).
3. Atmospherus — fog and a gradient backdrop to add depth and mood.

HDRI environments

An HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image) is a 360° photograph that stores far more brightness range than a normal image — enough to actually light a scene. It:

• Lights everything with soft, natural, real-world light,
• Reflects in metallic and glossy surfaces, and
• Refracts through glass and transmissive materials.

Choosing a good environment does most of the work of making materials look right. A studio HDRI gives clean product-shot lighting; an outdoor or interior HDRI gives a completely different mood.

Opening the HDRI panel & importing

Double-click the background to open the HDRI panel. Hit "Pick HDRI…" to upload your own. Facet accepts the standard HDRI formats — .hdr, .hdri, .exr — as well as .jpg equirectangular images. Uploaded HDRIs appear as thumbnails in the panel and are saved to your account, so they're available across all your projects (not just the current one). Click any thumbnail to apply it; the scene relights instantly.

HDRI controls

Once an environment is active you get:

• Rotate X / Y / Z — spin the environment to move highlights and reflections to where you want them (−180° to 180° on each axis).
• Intensity — how bright the environment lights the scene (0–3).
• Show in background — a toggle that decides whether the HDRI is visible behind your objects, or used purely for lighting and reflections while you keep a different backdrop. Turn it off to get realistic reflections on a clean solid or gradient background — the classic product-shot setup.

Glass and chrome need an environment. Refraction and reflection have nothing to bend or mirror without one — if glass looks flat and grey, set an HDRI. See Materials.

Studio Light

The Studio Light panel (top-left) adds a single dramatic spotlight on top of — or instead of — the environment. Toggle it on with its header checkbox. When it's off, you instead get a simple Scene Light dial (flat ambient fill).

With the spotlight on, you control:

• Brightness — the light's intensity.
• Focus (cone) — how tight or wide the beam is.
• Softness — how feathered the edge of the beam is (penumbra).
• Colour — the light's tint.
• Direction dial — a two-part control: drag the white handle around the ring to orbit the light around the object (azimuth), and drag the centre crosshair within the disk to set its height (centre = directly overhead, edge = low/horizon). Scroll over the dial to change the light's distance.

Gobos

A gobo (from "go-between") is a stencil or cutout placed in front of a light so it projects a shape rather than a plain circle — think of window blinds casting stripes, or leaves throwing dappled shadows. It's a classic studio and film lighting trick for breaking up flat light and adding realism.

In the Studio Light panel, hit "Gobo image…" to upload a black-and-white image; Facet projects it through the spotlight so its pattern falls across your scene. Double-click the button to clear it. Use gobos for window light, foliage shadows, blinds, or abstract texture across a backdrop.

Atmospherus (fog & backdrop)

Double-click the background to also reach the Atmospherus panel. It adds:

• Fog — depth haze that fades distant objects, giving a sense of scale and atmosphere.
• Gradient backdrop — a coloured gradient behind the scene.

Fog pairs beautifully with the environment and a dark backdrop to make glows, rim light, and depth of field read far more cinematically.

Tips

• Set your lighting first. Because reflections come from the HDRI, the same material can look completely different under a different environment — lock in the environment before you fuss over surfaces.
• For a premium product look: an HDRI with Show in background off, a clean gradient backdrop from Atmospherus, and a touch of Studio Light for a directional highlight.
• Small HDRI rotation changes move highlights across a glossy surface — nudge it to catch the light exactly where you want it.