Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
When I was working with this scene, trying to add LAMH fiber hair, Windows 10 kept giving me Out of Memory errors, telling me I needed to shut down programs to free up the memory. (The program it recommended closing was, of course, Daz Studio!) I was getting these errors while the Task Manager reported I had 62% of RAM in use. That made no sense to me, so I went looking online to find out just what was going on. (After I bought more memory at Amazon, another 32GB.)
What I found was a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo, knowledgeable folks trying hard to explain exactly what was going on, but missing the mark because so much of it required a deeper understanding than "most" of us have, or want to have, about the Windows operating systems. I finally found an answer that made the solutions clear: 1) Increase your RAM, 2) Increase your pagefile size, or 3) Run less stuff at one time. The new RAM won't arrive until next week, but I changed my page file settings already. I have two drives in the render computer, so I added a page file to the second drive, specifying the same min and max as the C-Drive's page file.
I then opened Daz Studio and loaded the scene. I loaded the LAMH presets for both the cat and the squirrel. I used LAMH to export Fiber hair for both animals. I applied Iray Uber Base to the fiber hair of both, (this is one of the steps that would crash DS.) Then with both animals wearing their LAMH fur coats, I started a render. No problems.
So if you are getting that Out of Memory error on your Windows machine, it might be time to make some changes to your page files. Here is the page where I found answers I could understand... Windows 10 Page Files. (That would be towards the end of his "answer.") And here is a video I watched that helped me find where to make my changes to the increase the page file.
(By the way, I added a Secret #9 to the previous post, as well as a couple of images.)
It's been too long since I posted anything in this thread. In January, I was working on a post featuring Mr. Tumnus. I saved the draft and spent a couple days working on other things. When I came back, the draft was gone. Boy, was I kicking myself for not having a text version saved on my computer.
I have a number of images I could feature here, but before I do, I want to add a short tutorial to the thread. One of the most frustrating things for me has been trying to use DOF with a Daz Camera. I've had a couple of successes, in spite of not really understanding which settings did what. But that's not the case anymore. If finally clicked. It now all makes perfect sense to me.
I'd like to pass that epiphany on to those of you still struggling with this feature in Daz Studio. I'm just finishing up some images now, so I expect the DOF Tutorial post will be later today, or early tomorrow at the latest.
In the meantime, you can see my attempts at DOF, linked below in the order they were created:
(I started this hobby late September in 2014. It was nearly two and a half years before I created my first DOF render. Not my first attempt, but the first time I got it to work.)
How To Get A Blurred Background In Daz Studio Using The DOF Camera Options.
If you're like I was, you know how to get the background to blur behind your subject with your physical camera, but struggle with the settings in Daz Studio. This tutorial will take you, step-by-step through the process, with as little tech-speak as I can manage. This is not a "do this, change that setting, add that and, Oh look, you're done" kind of tutorial. Before giving you the settings to create the final image, you will be walked through what the setting actually does. All these details may not "click" the first time through, but this tutorial will stay up for future reference.
First things first. you'll need to have the following products installed. These are all bundled with Daz Studio, (current version 4.10, at the time of this post.)
Download the DOF Tutorial.duf scene file, and save it with your other scene files. (You want it easy to find.)
The tutorial file loads the complete scene along with Render Settings for Iray, including Progressive Render settings for the image to render 1000 samples.
Note: All objects in the scene are loaded with their default materials and have not been converted using Iray Uber Base. There is also a Distant Light that loads with Visibilty disabled. If you prefer to work in 3Delight, change the render engine to 3Delight and make the Distant Light visible. All other instructions remain the same.
Note: I believe all of the pose controls used to create the expression on Genesis 3 Female come with the figure in the Starter Essentials, but it is possible that's not the case. I also dialed in the Cornea Eye Bulge to 100%, but I'm not sure where that morph comes from.
Note: My layout has the Scene tab in the right column, the Parameters tab in the left column and the viewport in between. I recommend, at least for the duration of the tutorial, you have your layout set up so that these three Panes are visible all the time. You'll also be using the Environment pane, and may want to dock it for the tutorial as well.
Ready. Set. Open Daz Studio and load the scene file, DOF Tutorial.duf.
When the file is through loading, open the Scene tab. Notice there are two cameras: Camera 1 and Camera 2 DOF. Both should be visible, (the "eye" icon along the left side should be "open".) Camera 1 is your control, and the settings are locked so you won't inadvertently change them. If you ever feel the need to start over, select Camara 1 and copy-paste to Camera 2 DOF.
Go to the viewport and change Perspective View to Camera 1. Now change that to Camera 2 DOF. Notice the scene in the viewport hasn't changed.
In the Scene tab, select Camera 2 DOF. Now open the Parameters Tab and click on Camera in the left column. In the right column are the settings you'll be working with in this tutorial.
While still viewing the scene through Camera 2 DOF, move the slider for Frame Width (mm) to the right and then the left. Notice the changes in the viewport, how the camera appears to be moving forward and back. Use Ctrl+Z to remove any changes.
Now do the same with Focal Length (mm). From this vantage, it looks as if they do the pretty much same thing, if in opposite directions, but that's not the case with DOF. You'll see why later in the tutorial.
Below the Depth of Field On/Off button are two more settings, Focal Distance and F/Stop. These two settings only affect the render when DOF is enabled.
In the Scene tab, Camera 2 DOF should still be selected, the "eye" should be open and the camera visible. In the the Viewport, select Perspective View and then open the Viewport menu and Disable Show Floor. Clicking on the item will toggle the checkmark on and off. (If it isn't already Enabled, click on Show Aspect Frame as well.) In the Environment tab, Set Type to Backdrop and set the Background color to Black. This will make the camera guidelines easier to see. Now rotate the view so you're looking at the camera from the side and then zoom out until you can clearly see the camera and the guidelines for the camera, as well as your Genesis 3 Female and the front columns of the Memorial set. You may also find it easier to set Draw Mode to Smooth Shaded.
Notice there is a solid blue line from the center of the camera all the way to the center of the white square behind Genesis 3 Female. The blue line is your camera's line of sight, and the white square, with the two diagonal lines crossing it, is the frame indicator, where the frame indicates the area of the scene visible through the selected camera.
Back to your Parameters tab, once again move the slider for Frame Width (mm) to the right and then the left. Notice the changes to the guidelines in the viewport. Use Ctrl+Z to remove the change. Now do the same with Focal Length (mm). Once again, they appear to be doing essentially the same thing. From the side in Perspective View, you can see the frame indicator getting larger or smaller as you move these sliders.
Now toggle the Depth of Field button several times while watching the guidelines in the viewport. You should see additional guides when DOF is active. The tutorial file loads these settings in their default positions. Notice the Frame indicator falls within the DOF guides. (It's not an issue, but for the purpose of the tutorial, I want it behind the DOF guides.)
Set Focal Distance to 400. With DOF enabled, zoom in until the new guides fill the viewport. What you are looking at are essentially distance indicators. Notice this new guide is really a box, with all solid lines. The front and back sides of the box are crossed from side-to-side and top-to-bottom. (This helps to tell the DOF guides from the frame indicator.)
Roughly halfway between the front and back sides of the "box" you will see two short lines crossing the long blue line. If necessary, rotate the scene until you see them clearly. This is the indicator for the Focal Distance setting. When using DOF, your image will be sharpest at this point; think 0% blur. Outside of the box, the blur will be at it's maximum, based on your settings. Between the focal point and the Front and Back sides of the box, the focus will blur until it matches the blur outside of the box.
To help you visualize the blur in your Depth of Field, here is an image with three gradients. The white represents our focal point and the black represents the maximum blur. The transition in between represents our DOF box. You can clearly see the shorter the DOF box, the smaller the area of the image that will be sharp and the faster the transition from sharp to blur.
However, unlike the gradient image above, the distance between the focal point and the back increases and decreases more than the distance between the focal point and the front.
Now zoom out until Genesis 3 Female is visible and with DOF enabled, move the slider for Focal Width (mm) to the right and then the left. Notice how this setting increases the the frame but does not change the front-to-back settings of the DOF box. Use Ctrl+Z to remove the change. Now do the same with Frame Length (mm). Notice how that changes the guidelines in the viewport, especially the distances in front of and behind the focal point.
Zoom out again, to include the camera and front columns of the set. Now move the slider for Focal Distance to the left and right. Notice the closer you bring the focal point to the camera the smaller the distance between the front and back of our DOF box! Set Focal Distance back to 400.0.
Finally, move the slider for F/Stop to the right and then the left. Notice how this setting does not change the frame indicator, but does change the distances of the DOF box in front of and behind the focal point.
Now it's time to use those settings. With Camera 2 DOF still selected, set the Focal Distance to 126.5. In the scene tab, select Genesis 3 Female. In the viewport, click on the "+" icon. Now adjust the view until you're looking at her from the side. The focal point should be even with the tip of her nose, (though the line of sight goes through her upper chest.) Notice how shallow the DOF box is!
You've seen how the DOF box is affected by changing the F/Stop, and how the area within the box is affected by blur, but all you really need to remember about F/Stop is lower numbers mean more blur, higher numbers mean less blur. And how much blur the F/Stop creates is dependent upon the other settings. Here's a quick set of three Draws with our current settings and F/Stop set to: 22.0 (default,) 8.0 amd 2.0.
Our goal with this image is to keep most of Genesis 3 Female in focus, while blurring the background as much as possible.
This is where you use Focal Length (mm), (you're going to "lengthen" the depth of the box,) which again is the area of focus. Slide the setting to the left. The numeric value gets smaller, but the distance inside the box gets larger. So does the frame indicator! Notice the focal point doesn't move.
Set the Focal Length to 20 and switch to the Camera 2 DOF view. Notice how much more of the scene is in the camera? Now set the Focal Length (mm) to 30 and the Frame Width (mm) to 15. Switch to the Camera 1 view. With Camera 2 DOF still selected you can see the guidelines of the DOF box and the Frame indicator.
Now increase the value of Frame Width until the outer edge of the frame indicator lines up with the Aspect Frame of the viewport. Switch between Camera 1 and Camera 2 DOF to view your progress. Don't worry if the two don't line up exactly. "Close" will be good enough.
Once you're satisfied with the Frame Width (mm) setting, switch to Camera 2 DOF and change Draw Mode to NVIDIA Iray. Once the scene has rendered in the viewport, lower the F/Stop settings. You can do this incrementally by clicking on the "-" to the left of the slider, or enter a value if you want to skip around, and let the viewport update between changes. In any event, keep an eye on the left shoulder ArmArmor, (our right,) and watch for this to become blurry.
Now set the F/Stop to 8.0.
In the Environment tab, set the Type to None. (If you're going to render with 3Delight, select a medium-light blue to mimic a cloudless sky.)
Switch to Camera 2 DOF, if necessary, and Render. (For 3Delight, make sure the Distant Light is visible and you've selected 3Delight as the Engine in Render Settings. I know, that's probably like telling a fish to swim, but I don't like making assumptions.)
Here's the image rendered in 3Delight. I admit to having switched to Iray before becoming proficent at 3DL lighting, so please realize this is merely proof you don't need Iray to follow along with and learn from this tutorial.
Since posting this tutorial, I have learned other, more efficient ways to adjust where the blur occurs in the image. However, the above information still demonstrates how the settings work and I believe it is beneficial to understand the how and why. The following videos made more sense to me because of what I learned and shared in this post. I highly recommend taking the time to view the videos listed below after reading, (and perhaps, following along with,) this tutorial.
22 April 2019, Edit: @deathbycanon has just released a quick video tutorial on Depth of Field. Although she goes about things a bit differently than I do, this seven minute video covers some of the reasons for choosing the settings. She doesn't go into framing the shot like this tutorial does, but she does touch on some of the helper settings that I didn't cover because I didn't know how they were used.
18 May 2019, Edit: @DAZ_ann0314 has also released a short, 16 minute video on using Depth of Field. She shows how to use the split screen feature to see both the camera view and the top view of the scene while adjusting your camera, as well as covering what the camera settings do.
Nice tutorial (even though I know how to :D) If there are questions about the 3dl part I'm happy to help. But I was laughing as the poor girl need glasses for her crosseyes ;)
I know how to use DOF but I never knew WHY so this was most useful, thank you!
Most useful, thank you very much.
@deeleelaw57, You made it! let me know if anything is unclear. It's your fault, you know, that I used this particular task to put off working on taxes. (Which is to say, if it wasn't this, it would be something else!) Anyway, I do hope this helps you get a handle on DOF. I expect to see some blurry images from you soon.
@IceDragonArt and @Linwelly, Thank you for taking a look when you already know how to use DOF. I'm really pleased you learned something new from it, Sonja. In my case, it wasn't until I knew what those sliders were doing that it finally clicked.
Knowing why things do the things they do increases their usability as far as I am concerned.
A couple of years ago, I came across a post on how to use Gimp, (Photoshop, or other graphics programs that use layers,) to extract the makeup from any character to use on other characters. The resulting layer(s) are added to the target character's face map in LIE. Here are the steps:
These instructions predate G3/G8, so the material zones listed in Step 8 will be different for the newer generations, and may also be different for much earlier generations as well.
In the Mika 8 thread, one of the PAs stated this procedure wasn't necessary anymore, that one could apply any Diffuse Overlay makeup preset to our G3/G8 character and then replace the map in the Diffuse Overlay Color, with the makeup we wanted to use.
My own testing with that process was not successful. For those presets I tested, the same image map was used for Diffuse Overlay Weight as for Diffuse Overlay Color, acting as a mask to control the weight of the map in the color parameter. One of the presets I used included eyebrows, so when I changed the map in the Diffuse Overlay Color parameter, the material from the texture I was using was also applied to the brow area, even though the overlay eyebrows didn't match either face texture I was using. Also, most of the older characters' makeup doesn't include blush on the cheeks, but the Overlay image(s) did. Here's an example of an extreme "fail":
This is Grandmother HD using an overlay makeup map for Charlotte 8 in the Diffuse Overlay Weight parameter and a makeup texture map from Stormy in the Diffuse Overlay Color parameter for the material zones Ears, EyeSocket, Face, and Lips.
For a point of reference, here are Grandmother HD without additional makeup, followed by LY Stormy with the same makeup shown in the above image:
The 04 makeup from Stormy required two layers , (using the method from j cade, above,) and does not include the lips. Using LIE I applied the makeup to Grandmother at 100% and then at 65%. On Grandmother, the blue looks darker, more dusky. That is due in large part to the darker skin materials of Grandmother's eyelids. Here are both images:
One thing to remember when using this method, there is no guarantee the colors will be the same from one model to another. Not only do the makeup layers combine with the color of the skin materials, but this method is only using the "diffuse" skin materials of the source to create the layers. Stormy, for example, uses other parameters for the eyeshadow. Here is Stormy with the same layers applied via LIE, (at 100%) as used on Grandmother. If you compare the two Stormy images side-by-side, you will see the LIE version looks more purple than blue, and the eyeliner is more dark gray than black..
While working with other character makeups, I found some PAs provide two images for each eyeshadow, one with eyeliner and one without. Using a variation of j cade's method, it is possible to extract just the eyeliner and create a mask you can use in either LIE or the Diffuse Overlay Weight and Diffuse Overlay Color parameters.
Whether you use LIE or the Diffuse Overlay method, because this is a mask, you can use any color you want.
I feel like this is really just scratching the surface of what we can do using LIE and/or the Diffuse Layer method combining makeup, tattoos, even scars, from one character to another. And using the Map Transfer Utility, provided you have the necessary UVs, means you can use older content, too.
You can find j cade's original post here.
Here is another example of using the LIE method outlined in the previous post.
"Defender of the Art (Closeup)"
The makeup I used on Edie 8 for the "Defender" images is from Hinky Punk's 7 Deadly Sins series of Genesis 3 gals; specifically from Vanity. All of the makeup was darker than Vanity's no-makeup face, so only the Subtractive Layer was needed. However, the eyebrows posed a problem as there was a void in the makeup where Vanity's brows are. I experimented with trying to put Vanity's brows on Edie, but didn't have any success. I ended up using Redz' Super Natural Brows and tweaking the morphs until the brows filled the void. The Vanity makeup included settings to add "glitter" to the makeup. I used the same settings on Edie as I found in Vanity's face material zone for this makeup, including the "Glitter map." The base skin materials are all Edie, using the no-brow face option.
(You can see the full scene in the galleries here.)
something else new to try lol! Great job on making this simple enough for even me to follow!
Interesting LIE work. Really nice lighting on the Defender of the Art.
And...I realize I didn't mention how much I liked what you did with it lol!
WOW! You have some fantastic renders there. The old lady looks like a photo.
Thank you for the make up tutorial! I often want to steal make up, particularly eyeliner or guyliner, so yay!
You're welcome, @Worlds_Edge, though the bulk of the credit goes to j cade.
And thank you to
for your kind words. I have been remiss by not saying thank you sooner.
@themidget, As I recall, the lighting for those face renders is just the default HDRI rotated 110 degrees. The figures are at world center. The reason "the old lady" looks like a photo is because the vendor did a wonderful job on the skin materials and settings.
That might have been me - but I think a couple of us were talking about it.
What I like to do us use a Diffuse Overlay Makeup map that doesn't include the eyebrows plugged into the Diffuse Overlay Weight channel - then you can use G8F and G3F makeups from other characters. Ideally, you want a Diffuse Overlay Makeup map that ONLY has the eyeshadow area. If you don't have a character that only has the eyeshadow area as a diffuse overlay map you can bring one into photoshop that also has the blush and/or brows included and just erase the brows or blush then save the new image somewhere where you can find it. You can then create a Material Preset that loads that map to the face Diffuse Overlay Weight channel. Make sure when you save the Material Preset you uncheck everything but that Diffuse Overlay Weight channel for the face.
Then you have that preset to quickly load that eyeshadow mask. You then need to just load a G3F or G8F makeup map into the Diffuse Overlay Color channel and add a color to that channel's color slot (I like using medium gray, but sometimes a different color can look better - just play with it until you find a color that looks good coupled with that particular makeup texture map). You can save your favorites as a Materials Preset (just uncheck everything but Diffuse Overlay for the face area).
Here's Sandi for V7's makeup on Penny 8 using that method:
I love that there are so many different ways to create makeup looks in Daz Studio. :)
L'Adair this is a great thread and very helpful. Thank you for sharing what you know with the community! That's very nice of you! I have this thread bookmarked and look forward to more fun tips and tricks. :)
Thank you for sharing that information, @Divamakeup. I can see how a preset for that will come in real handy. I think knowing both methods will be a good thing. The method I outlined above will work really well for extreme makeup, but your method will be great for changing up the eyeshadow. I love the subtle look of your example. So many characters come with too much makeup for my tastes.
Oh, look! A special request!
Okay, here's the image:
"Asking Directions"
Daz items used:
This scene is a lot less complex than it looks. The terrain, water and plant life are all from a preload of Planet Selena. I did add one more plant, to sit strategically between the camera and the backside of the lion. I used a pose created for the "Big Cat" and the, um, "marbles" stuck straight out from the back. All the "grassy" vegetation uses 2.5D, not quite billboards, but close. Two poly, bent, and clumped together, the "grass" looks very lush but is easy on resources. I used the Geometry Editor and created a Selection Set from any grass that intersected with the horse's hooves, the man's boots and lion. Then I hid that selection. I could have deleted the hidden polys, but using the Selection Set, I still had the flexibility of moving my figures.
The signpost doesn't come with alien-looking text. I found a free font online and added it in Photoshop. I copied the wood from the post itself to create a clean background for the arrows, behind the text. And I used my new texture to create a normal map, too.
I didn't like the way Midnight Special Hair auto-fit to G8M, so I just parented it to Fabio's Head. First I added the Smoothing Modifier and set the hair to collide with Fabio. Then I hid all the hair but the scalp and set the scalp opacity to 50%. That let me see Fabio's head through the scalp. With the hidden properties visible, I used trial and error dialing in various G3F "Actors," along with the Adjustment morphs, until the scalp was as close as I could get it. With all that done, I then parented the hair. Later, I used the style morphs and the bones directly to change the look of the hair. I used a texture from the included Materials, a pale blonde with darker roots. The HDRI lighting colored everything a bit golden, including the hair!
The animals are from Hivewire 3D. I used "The Beast" for the Hivewire Horse, though I dialed it down to 80%, with the Clydesdale materials. The lion is the new Hivewire Lion for the Hivewire Big Cat. The poses are also from Hivewire, and modified only slightly, except as mentioned below. I also modified the lion's face a bit to give the impression he's talking.
The pose for Fabio was originally for G3M, converted using Zev0's pose converter script some time back. I modified it somewhat to fit the terrain and hold out his hand to the "local" as he's talking. The expression is compliments of RiverSoft Art's Expression Mixer. I also used "Look at Each Other" from RSA's Look At Me Pose Control to get the man and lion looking at each other, though I modified the results.
And there you have, maximum impact for a tad bit more than minimal effort! (I do a lot of kitbashing to create scenes, but it's really nice when the PA does the bulk of the work for you!)
ETA: I actually did put in a bit more effort. Almost forgot to mention the bridle, from the Western Tack for the HW Horse. I used dForce on the reins. Nothing special, really, just posed the reins best I could, used the weight maps to exclude the bridle, and Simulated. Took a few tries before I got it right. And the Hunstman undershirt and vest have morphs, created using dForms, to move them out a bit on the left hem where they were intersecting the pants and each other. Still, if it weren't for how hot my office is during the current heat wave, (facing the west doesn't help!) I would have had this scene set up in under a day.
Thank you very much for sharing L'Adair!
I totally overlooked Planet Selena.
You make it sound so easy but there is a lot of thought and work put into this superb image.
I learned a lot from this. Great thread.
Thank you, xmasrose.
I tend to "overlook" most of the PC+ new releases, on purpose. I picked up Planet Selena because I needed a new release in the cart to get the "hot dog" freebies.
This scene was relatively easy… Downright simple when compared to other scenes I've done. For example, my entries in last year's Raining Men contest:
I think any time I can use a set right "out-of-the-box," it's a big win. That doesn't happen very often, but when it does, the rest of the scene seems to just fall into place "effortlessly."
"Between Tasks"
Secret #1: The building prop, from GIS Project, dwarfed the figure so much, I scaled it down to 50%.
Secret #2: The bottom and center of the posed figure is at World Center.
Secret #3: The building and Moonscapes terrain are grouped together, and the group has been translated to support the position of the posed figure.
Secret #4: Once the camera angle was determined, I realized the figure was too small for the story the scene is telling, so I place her in a group and dialed up the scale until I liked the proportions. (By using the group, the figured scaled up from World Center, not the center of the figure.) I then readjusted the location of the set group so her arm was resting on the angle of the opening.
Secret #5: The floor of the building is multi-poly plane, with the excess polys first hidden and then deleted using the Geometry Editor.
Secret #6: The lighting is a combination of a starfield HDRI created from an image from the Hubble Telescope, one distant light with a color temp of 21,000, and the inside material zones of the building set to emissive.
Secret #7: The window in front of the figure is a multi-poly plane with excess polys removed using the Geometry Editor, as was done with the floor, and adding a glass shader.
Secret #8: The Starfire spaceship, (converted to Iray and tweaked,) is actually offwhite. The color comes from the distant light. And even though the material is set to 100% roughness, it is also reflecting some of the stars from the HDRI.
Secret #9: The nebula behind everything else is actually a single poly plane with a Hubble Telescope image of the star 30 Doradus in the Tarantula Nebula for the Base Color image map, and a custom Cutout Opacity map to blend the edges into the background.
Secret #10: The nebula plane, at World Center, was parented to a Billboard Node and the node was moved to a distant point. As the Billboard Nodes always face the active camera, adjustments to size and distance of the node, (not the plane,) were done with the render camera active.
I think xmasrose deserves an award for almost single-handedly keeping this thread alive!
Thank you, girl friend.
So here's the image she's gushing about.
"Summer Nights"
Secret #1: The foreground "set" is actually a couple of primitives, a dForm-spawned morph, and a few props.
Secret #2: The red car on the left is Family Car 1950 with Resource Saver Shaders—red paint, chrome and rubber—on the three surfaces visible in the render: the hull; the trim, wheel and bumper; and the tire.
Secret #3: The convertible is Luxury Car 1950 with a combination of 1950's Luxury Car Iray materials and assorted shaders for the chrome and car paint. I used the sky from a "Draw Dome on" background render to create a texture map for the mirrors to "reflect" the night sky. Everything else I tried, when going for actual reflections, didn't work well in the low light.
Secret #4: I used the Geometry Editor to select details of the cars that weren't visible to the camera anyway and created a "HideDuringRender" Selection Set for each. With the main car, I included the convertable top as well. Before rendering, I hid those polys in the Tool Settings for the Geometry Editor.
The image below shows what parts of the cars are not hidden. Draw Mode is Texture Shaded, and the image has been removed from the asphalt so the black car is easier to see.
Secret #5: Not much of a secret, that wonderful ocean is out-of-the-box DA Big Ocean with number 11 materials. I didn't even use a decal! Rendered with Draw Dome on, the blue of the HDRI definitely contributed to the overall color of the ocean. Tip: The angle of the camera to the ocean is important. This material, for example, is tiled 33 times, and the pattern can become quite visible as the angle increases.
Secret #6: I was unable to render the complete scene in one pass, without the GPU dropping out. Even though the memory required easily fit on the 8GB Nvidia card, the high SubD requirement for the ocean caused the image to revert to CPU only. Rendered separately, the foreground needed Draw Dome off and the background needed Draw Dome on, so I separated the two into their own scene files.
This image below is the actual background image I used on the final image, though sized much smaller than the final image.
Secret #7: Because the foreground and the background are two scene files, rendered separately and composited in Photoshop, I had a lot of flexibility with the background. When both were in the same file, the horizon lined up with the top of the fence posts. Separately, I was able to move the moon down for rendering, then align the moon of both layers in Photoshop to move the horizon up.
Secret #8: I used one of the starfield HDRIs from TerraLUNA 3 for the lighting in both. I have never been satisfied with the background stars in any HDRIs, (a limitation with the technology, not a reflection on the quality of the products.)
Secret #9: The leather jacket is actually fit-to a hidden Genesis 2 Male, whose pose matches the Genesis 8 male's pose up to a point. The G2M is actually standing, preventing the jacket from distorting on the bottom. In the front, the jacket doesn't fit quite so well. This is the jacket from Horror Survivors: Marius, with a leather shader applied to all the fabric material zones.
The rest of the actor and clothing secrets were part of my attempt to get the complete scene to render on the GPU. After I decided to put the background in it's own scene, I saw no reason to change any of these. Fewer "stuff" in the scene still means a faster render.
Secret #10: The T-shirt the G8M is wearing is actually a Geometry Shell with a T-shirt fabric shader applied, and all but a few Regions hidden.
Secret #11: I used the "shorts" option of the G8M MEGA Wardrobe as the rest of the jeans weren't visible anyway.
Secret #12: I originally planned on dforcing the Audacious Outfit's skirt and top, but with so little of it showing, I decided I didn't really need to, so the skirt which doesn't auto-conform is sticking straight out in front of G8F and intersects the hood of the car.
Secret #13: I used a feature of the Geometry Editor to hide unseen skin of both actors by selecting what I wanted to hide, (including the internal zones of the mouth, tongue and teeth,) and then using Geometry Assignment->Set Auto-Hide Faces for Attachment…. The G8M faces were assigned to the jeans, and the G8F faces were assigned to the skirt. When these items were fit-to their respective actors, those polys disappeared. To be honest, I don't know if that reduces the render time, but I think it should.
The image below is in Texture Shaded mode. The bright yellow is the chrome. To remove the odd colors you see in the viewport from these Iray shaders, you can set Per Pixel Shading to On in the Preferences dialog, Interface tab. There are trade offs, and I leave it Off most of the time.
Secret #14: I applied the same solid color G8 shader from the Resource Saver Shaders to both figures. I then copied the shader from one zone, and applied it all zones. As the eyes aren't visible, there's no need for those to be different. I then selected all the zones of the male and adjusted the color to be a little different than the female.
Secret #15: Finally, I used a large Ghost Light behind the camera to shed some "ambient light" on the cars and the couple. The image below is a composite, showing the actual settings I used on the ghost light, while the viewport shows the Debug materials applied so the position and size of the light are visible.
(@James47, #15 is the secret I use to "render such beautiful low light scenes." In a nutshell, more light! lol)
I enjoy reading what you're doing too :)
Thank you very much for taking the time to explain everything. (Sorry it took me so much time to get around but I got sidetracked by Notre Dame fire)
A lot of thinking went into your image. Everytime I learn so much from your thread. Again thank you.
I love this thread too! I learn a lot from it, but maintaining it must be difficult/tedious.
Thank you, ladies. I appreciate your kind words.
@Worlds_Edge, The hardest part of maintaining this thread is finding the time to write about the render while the information is still fresh in my mind. If I don't get it done within a day or two of finishing the work, it doesn't get done. Between RL and working on other scenes, details get fuzzy.
I don't find it tedious, either. Especially when I've learned a new skill while working on an image, it helps me to remember the next time, if I've written it down. And of course, it's also handy to be able to come back and read how I did something, to jog the old gray matter. (Which needs more jogging these days… And that's about all the jogging I can do, too! LOL)
"Bear Creek"
Secret #1: This image was created with just four mesh products: the bear, the butterfly, the environment, and the rig creating the atmosphere in the back. The bear's fur uses the Catalyzer setting, which requires the LAMH 2 Iray Catalyzer product, but something similar could have been achieved using the free LAMH player and the LAMH preset of the bear.
Secret #2: Hidden from view are multiple variations of the butterfly, which were used by UltraScatter to create the "puddling" on the left bank and by UltraScatterPro to create the small swarm of flying butterflies between the camera and the bear. (I'm sure I coud have used the Pro version for all the instances, but I've not used Pro before, and the original interface is more familiar. I only decided to try Pro after attempting to place butterfly instances by hand—and not liking the results!)
Secret #3: I used the Geometry Editor to select the few polys of the very large polycount terrain I where I wanted my butterflies to be puddling. I saved those polys as a Selection Set. Then from inside UltraScatter, I was able to select the Selection Set as the target for the scatter.
Here's a close up of the "Puddling" instances. There are two, with the second one set to repel from the first. The bright yellow is the Selection Set highlighted.
Secret #4: I created a high-poly cylinder primitive, Z-Positive, and used dForms to shape the mesh around rocks and plants so the resulting scatter wouldn't have the butterflies intersecting anything. From the image below, you can see the scatter I used kept the butterflies in the half closest to the camera, where there is very little shaping to the cylinder! In the future, I believe I'll try something far less customized to begin with, and only shape it if there is intersecting.
I spent half a day creating that volume, and the rest of the day trying first one setting then another, (and another, ad nauseam,) until I was happy with the results. (Lesson learned though, so not a waste a time.)
Secret #5: The environment set includes the 10 cameras and render settings used to create the 10 environment-only promo images. After I set up the location of the bear and , I set the Draw Mode to Nvidia Iray and applied each of the render setting presets. These are for Sun-Sky Only mode and already optimized for the set. Once I found something I liked, I tweaked the time and date settings until the light fell how I wanted to see it.
Secret #6: Using the Fog System from Iray Storm and the Geometry Editor, I removed two sections of the rig. I also selected every other poly, front to back and removed those, and then I set the Z-Scale to 50%. Finally, I moved and scaled the whole rig to cover just the area I needed it to. (I'm not sure to what extent it helped, but I figured less is better when rendering fog elements.) This is the default materials for the Fog System.
The images below show the rig from different angles in relation to the set, camera and bear.
Secret #7: With the image rendered to about 95% of the specified samples, I opened the render window to full screen and clicked on the arrow to the left to open the available Render Settings. While Daz Studio continued to render the scene, I made changes to the Exposure Value, Shutter Speed and F/Stop, (you need to lock two of the three while making changes to the third to actually make any changes,) as well as changes to Burn Highlights, Crush Blacks and White Point.
I found that the White Point to be the sticking point. When I liked it for the reddish fur, I didn't for the rest of the image. So I set the White Point for the overall image and let the scene finish rendering.
Secret #8: When the render finished, I went to the main window of Daz Studio and used the File menu to save the render: File->Save Last Render… That left my render window open.
Secret #9: To continue the render, I increased the Maximum Samples by 50 in the Progressive Rendering settings. I change the White Point to the value I had previously determined gave me the color I wanted for the fur. I then resumed the render. This allowed me to ultimately save two variations of the same image, without needing to render it twice from the beginning.
The extent of the postwork to the final image was 1) layering the two versions together and using a layer mask on the top layer to hide everything except for the bear's fur, and 2) adding my signature to the bottom right.
I think the biggest takeaway with this image, for me, is how easy it is to make changes to the Tone Mapping while the image continues to render. While I'm not sure just when that became possible, I did notice it prior to this, 4.11.0.366, beta. In DS 4.8, making any changes to Tone Mapping would update, but it would then start the render back at sample 1. Knowing this, I was reluctant to make Tone Mapping changes during a render.
ETA: I forgot to mention, one of the tools I've started using recently has gone a long way toward the last two landscapes looking so realistic. That tool is from PAs EmmaAndJordi, their Artist Reference Studio. I use the standalone app, but it does include plugins for both Daz Studio and zBrush.
By using this tool and real photos of the animals, I was able to pose both the doe in Family, and the bear in Bear Creek to look as those animals would in their native habitat. This was definitely a worthwhile investment for me.
Such a beautiful image again! Your nature images are breathtaking!
Thank you for including all the details of the how to. And I discovered a great plugin I had overlooked.
"What Are You?"
Secret #1: TerraLUNA 3 includes a number of Dusk to Dawn HDRIs, some with a moon in the image, some without. I used one of the darkest HDRIs, with a starfield but no moon. The "moonlight" is a Distant Light with Luminous Flux (Lumen) set to only 4000 and Temperature (K) set to 21000. To get that high of a temperature, I change the Maximum in the properties settings, (little gear, upper right corner of the parameter.) Theoretically, the higher value should make the light more blue. I haven't tested this, but I've always gotten decent "moonlight" results with this higher value.
Secret #2: The tree in the background, left, is quite a distance away from the primary set. Due to the artificial nature of the 3D "world", the further away from world center, (0, 0, 0,) the less accurate the lighting, so the tree was barely visible. I added a ghost light to emulate the anount and color of light on the set in front of the camera, as world center. I used the following settings: Emission Color set to white; Emission Temperature (K) set to 21000; Luminance set to 50; and Luminance Units set to kcd/m^2. Ghost Light is above the tree and angled down the same as the Distant Light.
Secret #3: In this lighting, the white fur of the plushie shows up a very dark gray. To make the toy show as white in the scene, I made the body and eyes emissives. This is a trick I use a lot when details get lost in an image. The amount of Luninance needed will vary, but I generally start with Luminance Units set to kcd/m^2 and Luminance set to 10. This is with the Base Color image in the Emissive Color channel, with the Color set to white, Emissive Temperature set to 0, and Two Sided Light turned Off. In this image, Mokie is set to a total luminance of 5 kcd/m^2.
Secret #4: Because Mokie is emissive, the shadows of the mane on the body are eliminated. To put them back, I did a spot render of Mokie with the emissive off, which I layered over the original render in Photoshop, masking the entire layer. I then "painted" the mask wherever the lighted body showed through the mane..
Secret #5: I added the "roundabout" back into the image because the area to the right was too empty. I moved into a position that looked good in the image, but would have been very odd for an actual playground—too close to the edge and too close to the other equipment. It was also too close to the ground, and in this light, very hard to tell the shadow from the object, so I lifted it up until I liked the distinction between the two. (The "roundabout," what I always heard called a "merry-go-round," was slightly angular, so I did a tiny bit of postwork on that and the shadow to make those angles rounded.)
Secret #6: Most of the "spaceships" I own look more like Star Wars then Star Trek, so I ended up using the Alien Collector, a PC free product from back in Feb'15. That's pre-Iray, even in the beta. I used the Iray Uber Base to convert the materials to Iray. That discarded the texture used for "Ambient Strength" in the 3Delight textures, but I used that grayscale image to create a mask for the diffuse, Base Color, texture and created a new map for the Emissive Color channel. I only did this for one of the three hull material zones, as it was the one facing the camera. (Emissive mesh not facing the camera would have increased the render time without adding anything to the image.)
Secret #7: I used the Geometry Editor to remove the "tenticles" of the collector and a few other extraneous bits and bobs that added a lot of polys but weren't visible in the scene.
Secret #8: The Grey Alien for G3F comes with a number of skin options, but the differences are all in the material settings; There is only one set of texture maps. Test renders revealed the alien a little short on skin details with emission applied, (fine without though,) so I used Skin Builder 3 to add vein details. But the veins are only added to the diffuse, Base Color maps, but the Emissive Color channel uses the specular maps. So I used the Layered Image Editor, (LIE,) and the vein masks from SB3 to add the veins to the four spec maps.
Secret #9: There is no Grey Alien for the males, so I tweaked a bunch of morphs to give the second alien less feminine body features, including broader shoulders, thickers arns, straighter and deeper waist. I then gave him an "impatient" pose adding and modifying the crossed arms of a Mrs Chow pose with a weight on one leg, tapping the other foot stance I created. He was in the foreground originally, where you could actually see all that work, but in the end, he looked better back by the ship.
Secret #10: While I'm sure they exist, I've never seen a playground with "tiles". I do remember playgrounds in CA with sand, though, so I applied Mec4D's sand shader to the ground of the playground, tiled about 20 both horizontally and vertically.
Secret #11: In postwork, I added a few distinct stars to the night sky, on a separate layer, of course.