Background
A critical part of your render: what is behind the robot.
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A critical part of your render: what is behind the robot.
Last updated
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Solid color and environment are two options for the background of your render, with solid color making the background a customizable color, and environment setting the background to the selected HDRI (covered in the HDRI section below).
You can switch between color background and environment background through the scene settings menu.
While the default background is a light gray, this can be changed by clicking the on the color palette icon, choosing a new color, and selecting Apply.
HDRIs, or High Dynamic Range Images, are essentially three-dimensional images that contain lighting information in comparison to regular images which simply contain pixels that define the image. They are especially useful in rendering, as it helps create a more realistic scene than solid-colored backgrounds by both introducing realistic lighting data and a realistic background.
Fusion 360 comes with a few built-in HDRIs which can serve as decent backgrounds and lighting data for your render. To switch the HDRI being utilized, navigate to Scene Settings and then select the Environment Library tab. From here there are a list of built-in HDRIs.
To apply the HDRI, all you have to do is either drag the environment into the scene or double-click it.
Searching for HDRIs is a bit more complicated than searching for regular images online. Moreover, most of the ones on the internet are not free to use. Fortunately, there are sites such as HDRI Haven that you can download free HDRIs from. You can find a few other sites on the Other Resources page.
Here are some of our favorite HDRIs:
It is recommended that you download the 4K or 8K versions of the HDRI. However, this may not be necessary if you only plan on using the HDRI for its lighting.
After downloading the HDRI, you must import it into Fusion in order to use it. You can do so by navigating to Scene Settings and then selecting the Environment Library. Scroll down and select the folder icon next to the words Attach Custom Environment.
To apply the HDRI, all you have to do is either drag the environment into the scene or double-click it.
After your HDRI is applied, you may want to reposition it. In the Scene Settings tab, there is an option to adjust the environment Position. Here, you can rotate the entire environment around the pivot point.
