Llynara's Loony Bin (WIP Thread)

Llynara

Oh wow, Dracorn! That's awesome! Thanks for the tip, I haven't had a chance to try it yet. I saved a bunch of them this morning.

FYI: Looks like anything from the NASA site that's marked as theirs is fine for any kind of renders- commercial or personal, without giving credit. There are some Hubble ones I found that say they must be credited. Just make sure you check whichever site you're getting them from first.

• I got mine here: http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/sources/illustrations/
• Copyright info is here: http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/copyright/

Material credited to STScI on this site was created, authored, and/or prepared for NASA under Contract NAS5-26555. Unless otherwise specifically stated, no claim to copyright is being asserted by STScI and it may be freely used as in the public domain in accordance with NASA’s contract. However, it is requested that in any subsequent use of this work NASA and STScI be given appropriate acknowledgement. STScI further requests voluntary reporting of all use, derivative creation, and other alteration of this work. Such reporting should be sent to [email protected].

This site also contains material generated, authored and/or prepared by individuals or institutions other than STScI, and those individuals or institutions may claim copyright. Should you desire use of such material at this time, inquiries should be made to those individuals and institutions in accordance with the following:

A catalogue of HST publicly released images on this site may be found at the following location:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/

If the credit line for an image lists STScI as the source, the image may be freely used as in the public domain as noted above. However, for credit lines listing individuals from other institutions, you will need to contact that institution listed in the credit line to advise you on the copyright policy for that image. If the institution referred to is a US institution, you can go to the American Astronomical Society web site to obtain their contact information.

 

cismic

Llynara said:

Oh wow, Dracorn! That's awesome! Thanks for the tip, I haven't had a chance to try it yet. I saved a bunch of them this morning.

FYI: Looks like anything from the NASA site that's marked as theirs is fine for any kind of renders- commercial or personal, without giving credit. There are some Hubble ones I found that say they must be credited. Just make sure you check whichever site you're getting them from first.

• I got mine here: http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/sources/illustrations/
• Copyright info is here: http://hubblesource.stsci.edu/copyright/

Material credited to STScI on this site was created, authored, and/or prepared for NASA under Contract NAS5-26555. Unless otherwise specifically stated, no claim to copyright is being asserted by STScI and it may be freely used as in the public domain in accordance with NASA’s contract. However, it is requested that in any subsequent use of this work NASA and STScI be given appropriate acknowledgement. STScI further requests voluntary reporting of all use, derivative creation, and other alteration of this work. Such reporting should be sent to [email protected].

This site also contains material generated, authored and/or prepared by individuals or institutions other than STScI, and those individuals or institutions may claim copyright. Should you desire use of such material at this time, inquiries should be made to those individuals and institutions in accordance with the following:

A catalogue of HST publicly released images on this site may be found at the following location:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/

If the credit line for an image lists STScI as the source, the image may be freely used as in the public domain as noted above. However, for credit lines listing individuals from other institutions, you will need to contact that institution listed in the credit line to advise you on the copyright policy for that image. If the institution referred to is a US institution, you can go to the American Astronomical Society web site to obtain their contact information.

The Nasa Stuff is awesome. You can also get some models, objects and images for other nasa items here. https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/images ;

 

Llynara

Oh, thank you for posting that info! I had come across that a while back, put it in my massive folder of bookmarks, and forgotten about it. There's a lot of great stuff over there. Down the rabbit hole I go, LOL.

The DigiVault

Llynara said:

Test render using that technique on Digivault's Stardome. Need to tweak lighting and everything else, but it does show up! YESS!!! Took like 2 minutes to render. Just select surfaces, add Uber. Picture is already in the Emission channel and emission channel is already set to white. SO EASY!

Time for bed now!

With the Ultagenesis glass floor. Love the reflections!

This is a great idea Llynara!! I must look into an Iray version of the Stardomes.

The DigiVault

This is a great idea Llynara!! I must look into an Iray version of the Stardomes.

 

Llynara said:

One more shot with Elijah 7 looking at the night sky, then I have to move on to other stuff. I turned down the sky, added an emitter near his face, and used the darker render settings from Darwin's lighting walk through for this. I've got the ISO way up, as well as sharpening and detail. It's rendering in 3 minutes, but very grainy. I know I've read about people having that issue in Iray with dark renders. Will have to read more on it. I think I'm going in the right direction though. (click for larger pic.)

 

Llynara

Oh, please do, DigiVault! Pretty please! Your original product is still fabulous, but it would be wonderful to have an Iray version. Instabuy for many of us!

Knittingmommy

Llynara said:

Oh, please do, DigiVault! Pretty please! Your original product is still fabulous, but it would be wonderful to have an Iray version. Instabuy for many of us!

Yep, I second that!  I love the Stardomes and have wished for something like that in Iray a lot!  Excellent product.  An Iray version would definitely be an instabuy for me, too.  :)  

Nice work!  I like how the floor is reflecting back the stardome.

IceDragonArt

The DigiVault said:

This is a great idea Llynara!! I must look into an Iray version of the Stardomes.

 

Llynara said:

One more shot with Elijah 7 looking at the night sky, then I have to move on to other stuff. I turned down the sky, added an emitter near his face, and used the darker render settings from Darwin's lighting walk through for this. I've got the ISO way up, as well as sharpening and detail. It's rendering in 3 minutes, but very grainy. I know I've read about people having that issue in Iray with dark renders. Will have to read more on it. I think I'm going in the right direction though. (click for larger pic.)

 

Insta buy for me as well.  Love the original product.

dracorn

Ditto!

Llynara

Ooh, I might've found the solution to the issue with the fast, grainy render when using the stardome. Kyoto Kid just posted about the same problem on this thread.

L'Adair gave some good suggestions which I'm going to try: 

I recommend you turn Quality "off".

Now Max Time and Max Samples control the length of the render.

I prefer to set Max Time to "0" effectively turning it off and control the render using Max Samples. If I'm happy with the render before the Max Samples is reached, I stop the render. If I'm not happy with the render after it's reached the Max Samples, I just increase the number via the controls on the left of the render image and hit resume.

Unfortunately, you can't turn off Max Samples, so if you want to control the render via Max Time, set the Max Samples to a very high number.

I suspect it takes slightly less time with Quality off because the software doesn't have to calculate convergence, but it's probably neglible. Though you might see a difference with your older machine and cpu only renders.

ETA: I also, usually, turn on the Architectural Sampler. Oddly enough, it can shorten the render time or lengthen it, depending on the scene. But it renders the entire image at the same rate. With it off, the render engine gives priority to light areas. That allows darker areas to still be noisy/grainy when the rest of the image looks fine.

IceDragonArt

Well I learned a bit of new stuff aobut max times and samples as well as what the Architectural sampler does.  Thanks for reposting!

Llynara

Here's the same render with quality off, max time set to 0, max samples at 15000. I let it render for 45 minutes. It said it was 15% complete, but looks pretty good. Far less graininess. (click for larger pic.)

Didn't realize I had the camera's headlamp on during all of these. Tried it with the headlamp off and it didn't look very good in this case. Tried DOF and that was a mess too. I'm going to continue playing with the emissives and see if I can get that headlamp off. A slight DOF might look good. The one I had was way too severe.

IceDragonArt

I really wish the headlamp was automatically turned off.  Drives me nuts.  I have a bare scene saved with a default camera no headlight and half the time, I'm so excited to get started on a new idea, I forget to use it lol.

Llynara

Here's the same picture, but with a glamour glow in Photoshop using Color Efex from the Nik Collection. I think this works nicely. Might need a little more light and something going on to the left, but I like it.

Stargazing

Knittingmommy

Ice Dragon Art said:

I really wish the headlamp was automatically turned off.  Drives me nuts.  I have a bare scene saved with a default camera no headlight and half the time, I'm so excited to get started on a new idea, I forget to use it lol.

You can tell DS to use that as a default scene.  That's what I do.  I have a default scene all set up with my camera with the headlamp turned off and my favorite HDR in the Environment so DS is already to go when I load it up.  Look under Edit>Preferences> Startup>Load File and then choose the file you want to load when DS starts.

@Llynara I like the glamour glow.  It has a nice soft effect.

IceDragonArt

Thanks I will give that a try! 

I like the last one too and I honestly don't think you need to add anything to the left.  It gives a good feel for the loneliness and vastness of space.

dracorn

Thanks for the tip.  As I delve further into Iray, I will no doubt use it.

Llynara

Thanks, that's one of my favorite effects in the Nik collection, and you can't beat free!

I made a few more tweaks and discovered that the Painter's Lights render very well inside the stardome. I also changed out Elijah 7 for Diesel for Elijah 7. Both are fabulous characters, but I'm partial to Darwin's guys. 

Here's the raw render and the postworked one: 

Llynara

Final step: I'm going to render a wider version of this, then make a wall paper out of it and add my favorite quote from one of my favorite people: 

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

~Oscar Wilde

I think I may also do a version with Hugh in it, because there's a scene in my next Black Kat book that is very similar. 

dracorn

Looking forward to seeing it.

Llynara

Here's my first crack at a wall paper. It's 1920x1080, because I'm testing it on my monitor and I think it's a pretty common size. Not sure what everyone's got. I've attached two versions, one is brighter, the other a little more subdued (preview is second version.) I'm hoping the wording isn't too large. I can shrink it down if needed. Just playing and open to suggestions. 

IceDragonArt

I think you should move the words more toward the left and leave a bit more space in the middle.  Putting the words dead center makes me want something to fill the left in with.  Which is strange because when I look at the one with just the figure on the right I like the empty space.  Not sure if that makes sense or not.

Llynara

I can try that, but it seems like there's a natural frame around the picture with the lighting, which is why I centered it. I could try adding more stars on the left. I'll keep playing it. Here's an attempt at moving it to the left. It doesn't look right to me, but I'm tired. I'll probably do more tomorrow. The crazy toddler is finally asleep but wiped me out too.

dracorn

I agree with Sonja - move it to the left.  Since the background is not dark, maybe consider a darker color, especially since the left is brighter.

By the way, Llynara, check out this portrait in the gallery - while spooky, I think this guy is the kind of character you like. 

https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/338001

Llynara

Oh, he looks cool! I almost bought that carnage skin. It's on my wishlist. Got the demon already. I did a render of a demon Elvis a while back, LOL.

I'll play with the words more tomorrow. Typography is certainly challenging sometimes. Gotta hit the hay!

Llynara

Ok, so here's my thinking on the wallpaper. I want to leave enough space for desktop icons. That's why I don't want to drag it too far over to the left, because there will be stuff there. Here's what my desktop currently looks like with the centered text version: 

I'll look up some guidelines on wall paper design. I planned on offering some to readers for both of my series, and it's great practice, so might as well learn it! 

dracorn

Your desktop is neater than mine!  I turned off the auto-arrange so I can move my icons where I want them, but they don't look so nicely stacked. 

I tend to accumulate miscellaneous files on my desktop - you know, like papers on the desk.  You need to do something with them but will put them away whenever you get around to it?

Here's my desktop. The picture changes with every new render.  Note I cleaned it up and put a bunch of those miscellaneous files into a folder "Misc Junk."   ...Maybe someday I'll get around to clean that up.

IceDragonArt

Looks better with the icons on the desk top.

Knittingmommy

Looks good, Llynara.  I like doing wallpaper sized images.  It makes good practice because that is one of the things I want to be able to do with any readers I might have whenever I managed to publish.  My desktop isn't quite that neat either.  I have similar programs grouped together, though, in their own little groups so that is sort of organized.  :)

Llynara

Thanks! I can't function if it's too messy. Of course, the same does not apply to my farmhouse. The toddler wreaks havoc here right now. But at least the desktop can look orderly. 

I think I just figured out how I can make this better and incorporate what Ice Dragon suggested. I do think the words need to be farther away from Diesel. I'm going to try flipping the image and moving the words to the right. The feeling of needing something on the left probably has a lot to do with how we read left to right. Having him on the left, looking to the right towards the words might work better and feel more natural.