by CGOnFire·Rendering
Images © CGOnFire. Used for product review; image policy.
Ev Express earns its place in the superhive library for turning EEVEE scene setup into a single thumbnail click, bundling light rigs, probes, a backdrop, compositor node-groups, and Color Management looks into one add-on.
Ev Express is a Blender add-on aimed at speeding up the setup of an EEVEE scene to showcase a model. Instead of adjusting render settings, shadows, contact shadows, and probes by hand, you click one of 32 large thumbnails and the add-on places 11 lights arranged as two light rigs, a backdrop, and probes, adding smoke when the preset includes it. The backdrop parents the irradiance volume and reflection probe, and everything arrives with the best settings known so far.
Lights are adjustable for color and size, with color presets inspired by HDRIs from Greg Zaal. You can add volumetrics with two button presses, place a Depth of Field empty with one button that enables DOF automatically, and use a keying-set to keyframe one light rig's color, position, scale, and focus in a single click. A global shader, merged in per the April 12 update, applies a switchable color scheme to the whole scene.
The download also bundles a separate compositing add-on with nine node-groups, including vignette, Logo-overlay, and Normal-FX, made available through Shift+A, plus eight extra looks in Color Management. As of an April 15 update, Ev Express can also be used with Cycles.
Ev Express is best for blender artists who want to light and set up an EEVEE scene to showcase a model without adjusting render, shadow, and probe settings by hand.
Ev Express is completely free to download and use.
Ev Express is built to speed up setting up an EEVEE scene to showcase your model, handling render settings, shadows, contact shadows, and probes for you. As of an April 15 update, the add-on can also be used with Cycles, with the details covered in the developer's FAQ. If Cycles support is your main reason for looking at it, check the developer's page from CGOnFire to confirm how that mode works and what it covers before you commit.
Ev Express presents 32 large thumbnails, and clicking one sets up the scene in a single step. Each click places 11 lights arranged as two light rigs, a backdrop, and probes, and it adds smoke when the chosen preset includes it. The backdrop acts as the parent for the irradiance volume and reflection probe. Everything arrives with the best settings known so far, so you skip lining up the irradiance volume and tweaking individual light and render settings by hand.
Ev Express includes a separate compositing add-on inside the same download, bundling nine node-groups for the compositor such as vignette, Logo-overlay, and Normal-FX. You do not need to append them manually. Pressing a button makes the node-groups available through Shift+A, so you can drop them in like building blocks instead of arranging nodes one by one. Templates for the Logo Overlay node-groups are also included, and more detail on each node-group is in the documentation.
Ev Express is listed as free in this catalog. For current licensing, download details, and any terms, check the developer's page from CGOnFire. The download bundles the main add-on along with the separate compositing add-on, the global shader that was merged in per the April 12 update, and the eight extra Color Management looks, so these arrive packaged together in one download rather than as separate pieces.
Also in Rendering for Blender.
by Sanctus
Sanctus Procedural Mapping is a Blender add-on that keeps procedural material mapping consistent while you animate and deform objects. It works with rigs, shape keys, modifiers, and Geometry Nodes, without baking.
by Split Studios
Render Toolbox is a Blender add-on from Split Studios that centres rendering tasks: adding and controlling HDRIs, creating camera bookmarks, painting lighting onto models, and applying camera effects like glare and film grain.
by Roland-Vyens
Industrial Light AOV Splitter is a Blender add-on by Roland-Vyens that separates light groups into four channels—diffuse, specular, transmission, and volume—with one click for industry-standard controllability during compositing.
by Lazy3D
Light Master Pro is an artistic lighting toolkit add-on for Blender by Lazy3D. It bundles 560 light textures, all lighting assets, advanced placement tools, and a Paint Mask workflow, with Cycles and Eevee support.
by Omega VFX Ltd
The RenderBoost Addon speeds up animated renders in Blender using frame interpolation, generating extra frames from an existing image sequence so fewer frames need rendering. Customisable settings let you adjust the number of interpolated frames.
by Physical Addons
Physical Starlight and Atmosphere - Sky is a Blender addon for real-time, physics-based sky and atmosphere rendering. It works in Eevee and Cycles, using photometric measurements and analytic air mass volume calculations for scientifically accurate atmospheric scattering.
by Andrew_D
Extreme PBR Nexus is a Blender addon for managing a library of over 1800 materials, compatible with Cycles and Eevee. It includes texture painting between materials, animated water, and displacement built on native Blender modifiers.
by Community
Tri-lighting is a Blender add-on that places a three-point lighting setup on the selected or active object. Found under View3D → Add → Lights, it was previously bundled with Blender 4.1.
by Håvard Dalen
Lens Sim is a Blender addon that simulates camera lenses using real-world optical data. It extends the standard Blender camera so you can choose and render dozens of lenses in Cycles.
by pioverfour
Sun Position is a Blender add-on that positions and animates the Sun to simulate real-world natural lighting, using geographic location, time and date based on the NOAA online calculator.
by Dynamic Sky
Dynamic Sky is a Blender add-on that creates dynamic sky for the Cycles render engine. Originally authored by Pratik Solanki, it was part of Blender 4.1's bundled add-ons and is now offered as-is.
