Lighting just got a new shape—yours. With the release of HDR Light Studio 9.1 (build 2025.0711, 17 July 2025), Lightmap has thrown out the rigid light primitives and handed artists a flexible, editable curve. Dubbed Lumi‑Curve, this new feature lets you draw freeform light strokes directly on the Render View, sculpting everything from stylized reflections to complex highlight trails in real time.

What Is Lumi‑Curve?

Lumi‑Curve is not another variation on the softbox. It is an entirely new, curve-based light type where the core is a line you plot and edit, not a fixed circle or rectangle. Each side of the curve can be independently softened or sharpened with falloff controls, allowing highly nuanced light gradients. You place control points (nodes) in the Render View, dragging and warping the curve to follow object contours or define unique light paths. The result updates instantly in both the HDR canvas and your connected DCC.

Use Cases: More Than a Pretty Arc

Lumi‑Curve is all about control and creativity where standard HDRI or primitive lights fall flat:

• Shaped Highlights: Create continuous, non-uniform highlights that flow across curved surfaces, eliminating the tiled or disconnected look from stacking multiple round lights.
• Glowing Arcs and Trails: Draw arcs behind a model for stylized background glows or graphic accents. When trails overlap, the brightness stacks additively, perfect for dynamic, motion-driven VFX or glossy product renders.
• Projector Mode: Set the curve’s “spread” to zero to turn it into a projected light brush—handy for painting animated highlights that follow the path of your line.
• Non-Linear Horizon Lines: Stretch a Lumi‑Curve across the HDRI canvas to create complex, curved horizon lines or to mask and structure environmental backgrounds. Artists can use these for both soft ambient transitions and hard-edged graphic beams.

Under the Hood: How It Works

• Control Points: Place and move nodes in the Render View to define and refine your curve’s shape.
• Falloff Gradients: Adjust the softness or hardness on either side of your curve with precise falloff parameters.
• Real-Time Feedback: See changes live both in HDR Light Studio’s canvas and in any connected DCC (3ds Max, Blender, Maya, Cinema 4D, Houdini, and more).

Platform, Plugins, and Pricing

HDR Light Studio 9.1 runs on Windows 10/11, macOS 11.4+ (Big Sur or later), and CentOS 7.9+ or compatible Linux distributions. Plugin support includes 3ds Max 2023–2026, Blender 3.6.12+ (including Apple Silicon), Cinema 4D 2023–2025, and others—maintaining the broad integration essential for pipeline artists.

Pricing for 2025: the ‘Indie’ tier has been dropped. Pro node-locked licenses are $540/year (up $95), Pro floating $1,140/year (up $165), Automotive node-locked $1,620 (up $125), and Automotive floating $2,460 (up $215). HDR Light Studio remains subscription-only.

The Takeaway: A Lighting Brush for 2025

Lumi‑Curve doesn’t just add a new shape—it changes the act of lighting into an act of drawing. From automotive-grade specular sweeps to stylized trails for motion graphics, the feature’s flexibility supports a new breed of artist-driven light design, all inside the familiar, DCC-linked HDR Light Studio interface.

As always, test new workflows in real production environments to confirm performance, stability, and expected results—especially with heavy HDR scenes and complex DCC links.

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Cited Sources:
// Lumi‑Curve reference, features, workflows // Lightmap: Lumi‑Curve Content Reference
// Official release notes, system/platform requirements // Lightmap: HDR Light Studio 9.1.0 Release Notes

The post HDR Light Studio 9.1 Lumi‑Curve Turns Lighting into Line Art—Literally first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Plastic Software, led by developer Nick Kallen, has released Plasticity 2025.2, a substantial update to the lightweight NURBS modeller aimed at concept artists and industrial designers.

New lighting and material preview

The update introduces 34 readymade physical materials—metal, plastic, fabric, wood, stone—that appear in Render Mode. Users can now switch on HDRI‑based environment lighting, choosing from seven built‑in HDRIs or importing custom ones. Shadows drop onto the ground plane in Render Mode, giving models improved spatial context.

Surface‑analysis shaders

Two new shaders in Shader Mode assist in surfacing diagnostics. Normal Surface Checker colours inward‑facing normals in red, facilitating quick normal corrections. Topology Shader overlays a wireframe on curved models, aiding in evaluating imported organic forms.

Precision surfacing tools

Three new commands bolster surfacing workflows. Measure Curvature introduces a ‘curvature comb’ overlay on surfaces, useful for assessing curvature variation. Measure Continuity assesses G0, G1 or G2 continuity across selected edge pairs. Users with Studio licences get Align Surface, powered by xNURBS, to auto‑align surfaces with G0/G1/G2 continuity matching.

Usability enhancements

The release also updates existing commands (Boolean, Bridge Curve) and adds new tools: Unlock All, batch unlocks objects in the Outliner; Select All options for visible measurements, solids, and sheets; support for π and unit‑conversion expressions in numeric dialogs.

Licensing, plans, and pricing

Plasticity now offers a range of plans: a free tier with a 30-day trial and no commercial use permitted, including essential 3D modeling tools and STEP import, with low-resolution OBJ/STL export only. The Indie 1.1 license, priced at $149 USD plus local taxes, targets individual users seeking access to all essential hard-surface modeling tools, STEP/OBJ/STL/Parasolid import and export, FBX import, and a Blender bridge. It allows commercial use, is node-locked for up to two machines, and includes all version updates for 12 months.

The Studio plan, at $299 USD plus local taxes, provides all Indie features plus advanced solid and surfacing tools, IGES, ACIS, Rhino, OBJ, STL, and Parasolid import/export, and DXF/DWG import (Windows only). Studio users receive beta program access for 12 months, xNURBS integration (Windows & Mac), a Blender bridge, and commercial use with node-locking for up to four machines. Companies with more than 10 employees must use this plan.

Plasticity 2025.2 runs on Windows 10+, Ubuntu 22.04+ and macOS 12.0+. As always, innovations should be tested before use in actual production pipelines.

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Plasticity 25.2 Release Notes (July 10, 2025) (doc.plasticity.xyz)

The post Plastic Software upgrades Plasticity to 2025.2 with HDRIs, physical materials, new surfacing tools first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.