Polyhaven Studio Setup

PolyHaven Studio Setup

Product photography studio: a PolyHaven HDRI for environment lighting and, optionally, a PBR ground plane — dramatically better reflections than manual lights.

Adapted for claude-3d-harness. The original ran a bundled Node script that opened Blender's add-on socket itself and sent it Python built from command-line text. The same steps now go through the MCP server, where each one is visible and asks for permission. See docs/security-review.md.

Prerequisites

• Blender MCP connected, with PolyHaven enabled in the add-on sidebar (get_polyhaven_status)

Parameters

Flow

Step 1: Keep the World that is already there

The add-on's HDRI download rebuilds the first World in the file in place. If the scene has a World this job did not make, copy it first so it can be given back:

import bpy
scene = bpy.context.scene
if scene.world and not scene.world.name.startswith("KEEP-"):
    keep = scene.world.copy()
    keep.name = "KEEP-" + scene.world.name
    keep.use_fake_user = True   # survives a save with no scene pointing at it
    print("kept:", keep.name)

To undo the studio later: scene.world = bpy.data.worlds["KEEP-<name>"].

Step 2: Download and apply the HDRI

download_polyhaven_asset(asset_id=<hdri>, asset_type="hdris", resolution=<resolution>, file_format="hdr")

Step 3: Strength and rotation

import bpy, math

STRENGTH = 1.0
ROTATION_DEG = 0

world = bpy.context.scene.world
if world and world.use_nodes:
    for node in world.node_tree.nodes:
        if node.type == 'BACKGROUND':
            node.inputs['Strength'].default_value = STRENGTH
        if node.type == 'MAPPING':
            node.inputs['Rotation'].default_value[2] = math.radians(ROTATION_DEG)

# Rendered viewport, lit by the scene world, so the HDRI is visible
for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
        for space in area.spaces:
            if space.type == 'VIEW_3D':
                space.shading.type = 'RENDERED'
                space.shading.use_scene_world = True
                break

Step 4: Ground plane (only when ground is given)

download_polyhaven_asset(asset_id=<ground>, asset_type="textures", resolution=<resolution>, file_format="jpg") returns the name of the material it created. Use that name:

import bpy

MATERIAL = "<material name the download returned>"
GROUND_SIZE = 10

bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_plane_add(size=GROUND_SIZE, location=(0, 0, -0.01))
plane = bpy.context.active_object
plane.name = "Studio_Ground"

mat = bpy.data.materials.get(MATERIAL)
if mat:
    plane.data.materials.append(mat)

If the texture download fails, keep the HDRI and say that the ground was skipped.

Popular Studio HDRIs

• studio_small_09 — Clean white studio
• studio_small_08 — Warm studio
• studio_small_03 — Soft studio lighting
• photo_studio_loft_hall — Loft photography studio
• industrial_sunset_02_puresky — Golden hour
• kloppenheim_06_puresky — Outdoor overcast
• royal_esplanade — Grand interior
• venice_sunset — Warm sunset
• snowy_park_01 — Cool daylight
• meadow_2 — Bright outdoor