Most 3D artists sooner or later face the problem of finding original background for their models. It is not so difficult to find a suitable image on the web. The problem is how much time you are going to spend for that. Here we gathered most beautiful hi-res original 3d rendered backgrounds for your needs.

There are many images for a variety of platforms, including widescreen, dual-monitor (dual widescreen available) versions of some backgrounds, free for your personal use.

Creating 3D backgrounds can be much more difficult if you don't know what you are doing, as drawing a few stars on a completely black background, for example, is fast, easy, and needs no artistic talent. Today there is certain demand for more exciting graphics.

On the other hand, if you want to create a 3D background that makes people feel like they are in an infinite 3D world, you need to know what 3D backgrounds actually are, and why they are known as 3D or in other words skyboxes.

A skybox image is kind of a cylinder or cube made of six images that surround the spectator. Skyboxes are also known as environment maps or sometimes panoramic pictures.

Skyboxes look amazing, if they are created properly. They produce the false impression that the spectator is in a large, flawless universe. But the illusion will be quickly crushed if the borders between the images don't match precisely, or if there is the wrong perspective.

Many high-quality renderers prefer spherical panoramas. They look just like skyboxes, only a single image made as a panorama mapped onto a sphere instead of six images mapped onto a cube.

Spherical 3D backgrounds might seem easier to work with because they are stored as a single image. However, the immense distortion of pixels near the north and south poles of a spherical map also makes them complicated to render.

Your background is supposed to set a certain mood, just like a regular picture. It depends only on you and the effect you are trying to get. Today various artistic software programs let you make images as the background, from romantic sunsets to strange, alien green skies. One day, in future 3D backgrounds will surely integrate full weather simulations, displaying realistic and ever-changing backgrounds of clouds rolling across the landscape. Until then, skyboxes seem to be a more or less suitable replacement.