How to Search the CGI.Backgrounds Collection

How to Search CGI.Backgrounds' HDRi Maps and Backplates

CGI.Backgrounds' website and the CGI.B Connect app make it easy to find the perfect HDRi Map or Backplate for your project.

Searching for the perfect location is a necessary step when starting a creative project, but our priority is to help you Find, not Search. Our premium HDRi Maps can serve both as practical tools and as the creative inspiration for your next product shot or 3D render.

This article will walk you through the process of searching for content from CGI.Backgrounds, whether you are a beginning user or a professional content researcher.

How CGI.Backgrounds' Collections Are Organized

All our content begins with real-world places. Our professional creators travel to these real-world places in person, using high-resolution cameras and specialized technology to capture HDRi maps, skies, cityscapes, and more.

Our creators also capture high-resolution backplate variations in each place they visit, shot from different perspectives and camera heights. These variations give you and your brand the perfect tool to tell the exact visual story you wish to convey.

Each real-world place we’ve captured is represented as a Location on our website and in our app. Locations contain HDRi maps, backplates, and backplate camera height variations.

Backplate variations shot at different camera heights, capturing different perspectives

Breakdown of locations, HDRi Maps, and Backplates.

Locations

Locations are represented in the main search window as a cluster. These give an overall look and feel for a location.

Click on a Location, and you'll see all of the assets associated with the Location. This includes a variety of backplates and HDRi maps.

Pro-Tip : open each Location in a new TAB so you do not loose your search.

Detailed view of the selected Locations

In the Detail-View you see all the related HDRi Maps, Backplate Images and eventually related Location-Clusters.

Each Backplate contains several variations, indicated by the small number on the lower left side of each thumbnail.

Some Locations may contain as many as 500 different Backplates and camera height variations, allowing you to choose the exact camera angle to tell a specific story.

Backplates

Clicking on a specific backplate allows you to choose between different camera height variations for that backplate. Again, this can help you achieve the perfect perspective or camera angle for the scene you want to create.

The sample right shows you the highest Backplate on position on, and the lowest on position five.

For example, a racetrack Location might include tight, low-angle backplates for close-up, low-angle shots of a sportscar that convey speed and power. The same Location might also contain wider-angle backplates that capture a greater sense of the racetrack’s scale, for projects where the surrounding environment is a bigger part of your story.

HDRi Maps

Every premium Location includes at minimum one HDRi Map so that you can light your models, or even place your model in an interactive scene and allow customers to pan around the scene themselves.

In addition, all HDRi Maps come as a tone-mapped version, for use as a background with a photographic look where no post-processing is needed. You can see it as a 360 degree Spherical Backplate and use the HDRi Map itself for lighting only.

Some Locations include other content as well, such as textures and materials. All our Locations include the support elements you need to finish off your creative project.

Profile view

Find your Angles

If you search for different angles, the system gives you updated results, replacing the hero images with the angle for which you are searching.

Sample >> Road in the mountains, profile

Angle Guide

Add any of the following words to your research

3/4 angle / 1/4 angle / 1/1 angle / profile / open space / high / top down / areal

Example Search: urban, 3/4 angle

The General Motors (GM) Design Global Creative Visual (GCV) team utilizes CGIB backgrounds within our varied image development pipeline.
As part of the GCV image portfolio, supporting the public reveal of GM’s new vehicles, the team has produced more than 100 images over the last 3 years that have included backgrounds from CGIB.

Stephen Gray

Global Manager, Creative Visualization at General Motors

GM design

More Information

To search our collections, begin by entering a search term into the search box on our website or in our app. You will begin by seeing a list of Locations, along with preview images for each location.

Note that if you enter search terms with additional words (“city front” instead of “city,” for example), you may see different preview images for each location. This can help to refine your search and provide inspiration for specific angles you might choose within the Location, or specific stories you might tell using each Location.

Click on a Location, and you’ll see all the assets associated with the Location. This includes a variety of backplates and HDRi Maps.

Clicking on an HDRi map will load the map in your browser, allowing you to pan and zoom, exploring the HDRi environment in real time. Note that these preview maps are provided at a low resolution–our actual maps are higher resolution and allow much greater zoom depth.

Each real-world place we’ve captured is represented as a Location on our website and in our app. Locations contain HDRi maps, backplates, and backplate camera height variations.

Here is the breakdown of locations, HDRi maps, and backplates.

Locations

HDRi Maps
Backplates: variations shot at different camera heights, capturing different perspectives

Some Locations may contain as many as 30 different backplates and camera height variations, allowing you to choose the exact camera angle to tell a specific story.

Every Location includes a tone-mapped HDRi so that you can light your models automatically or even place your model in an interactive scene and allow customers to pan and zoom around the scene themselves.

Some Locations include other content as well, such as textures and materials. All our Locations include the support elements you need to finish off your creative project.

Have a research background and need more advanced search capabilities? Our platform provides advanced search tools, including boolean operators and query expansion via word stemming and calculated relevance.

The following boolean operators are allowed:

AND Search

All input that is either separated by a blank or the word ”and” is an and search for the backend and means that the assets that show up must contain all keywords

OR search

All terms separated by a comma or the keyword „or“ is an or search for the backend and means that the assets that show up must contain at least one of the keywords

EXACT search

The terms surrounded by double quotes will be searched for exact matches on the assets and only they will show up

Although you can always use our website to search our collections, the CGI.B app provides many advantages for 3D designers.

Through our app, all our content is connected directly to the rendering software of your choice, allowing you to seamlessly integrate our backplates and HDRi maps into your design workflow.

Depending on the rendering tool you are using, CGI.B Connect loads the content directly into the software, optimizes the resolution, creates your primary stage, and includes any supporting lighting information from our library.

It’s the fastest way to access our content, and the fastest way to dive in and starting designing.