by CITIGEN·Rendering
Illustrative cover generated by AnyPlugins — no product screenshot available.
CEL earns its place in the Blender sky-and-atmosphere space by pairing a one-click Add Sky setup with deeper controls for clouds, time of day, and HDRI baking. Its background as a 360-degree volumetric sky solution, later reshaped around user feedback, shows in the range of environment options it exposes.
CEL (Citigen Environment Lighting) is a Blender addon for lighting a scene from the sky. Clicking Add Sky sets up the lighting so you can get on with your art, and when you want to dig in, you can manipulate the sky, add clouds, shape them, and make them appear and disappear over time. It began as a 360-degree volumetric sky solution and was later reworked into a more user-friendly tool based on user feedback.
Beyond the sky itself, CEL can recreate any time of the day across the year, add a ground or a sea, and place the moon and the stars. Presets can be saved and shared, scenes can be baked into HDRIs, and it can stand in for 360-degree time-lapsed sky videos or recreate a mid-air environment.
CEL works in both Cycles and EEVEE, with the caveat that clouds are not included in EEVEE and its EEVEE volumetric clouds remain under development. On slower machines you can turn the clouds off or bake favourite presets into HDRIs. The addon is released under an MIT license, and presets or exported HDRIs can be shared with other CEL users.
Cel (Citigen Environment Lighting) is best for blender artists lighting scenes with a procedural sky, volumetric clouds, and baked HDRI environments.
Cel (Citigen Environment Lighting) is completely free to download and use.
CEL (Citigen Environment Lighting) lists compatibility with Blender versions 4.1 through 5.0. The addon is used with Cycles, and it also runs in EEVEE, though clouds are not included in EEVEE and its volumetric clouds there are still under development. Users on slower machines can turn off the clouds or bake their CEL presets into HDRIs. For the current supported builds and any additional requirements, check the developer's page before you install.
CEL works in both Cycles and EEVEE. In EEVEE, however, clouds are not included, and CEL's EEVEE volumetric clouds are still under development. In Cycles you get the full sky, clouds you can shape, a ground or sea, and the moon and stars. If performance is a concern in either engine, you can turn the clouds off or bake your favourite CEL presets into HDRIs.
CEL (Citigen Environment Lighting) is listed as free here in the catalog. It carries an MIT license, and the developer's listing mentions product updates and a period of support from CITIGEN. You can share your CEL presets or exported HDRIs with other CEL users; if you intend to sell them, the author asks that you get in touch first. For current licensing terms and what a download includes, check the developer's page before installing.
CEL is built around a single Add Sky action: click it to light your scene, then carry on with your art. When you want more control, you can manipulate the sky, add clouds, shape them, and make them appear and disappear over time. It can recreate any time of the day across the year, add a ground or a sea, and place the moon and stars. Presets can be saved and shared, and scenes can be baked into HDRIs for reuse.
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