Novica & Serene Night’s Renders, Tips, Tutorials & Product Reviews PART 2

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Comments

  • starionwolfstarionwolf Posts: 3,670
    edited December 1969

    I believe that Predatron uses image based lighting. Image based lighting does take some time to render. HDRI lights like the ones from the Yosemite set take even longer to render. Sorry I couldn't help out more.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,650
    edited December 1969

    Kharma said:
    SereneNight did you find the Predatron lights had a long render time? I tried using them yesterday and the render took forever, I am wondering if it was the lights. Love those couple poses added to my wishlist

    Thanks! I find predation ds lights render for me fairly quickly. It depends a lot of speed processing power and the hair used as well as which light type is selected and final image resolution. The previous set I'd used with the same images took longer. There are two types of shadows in the set. One type takes longer to render. Since I'm away from my pc I can't check right now, but for me the set rendered each image in about 6 minutes or under.

  • TrishTrish Posts: 2,625
    edited December 2013

    I love this outfit but I just can't get the lights right......It looks great here not rendered.......Serene Night....how did you light your scene yours is beautiful!!!! Is that what I need to get Predatron lights???? I want it to look just like it is now only lit up a little...but when I do it ...it looks washed out....Thanks Trish

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969


    Memory will be under the first tab.
    So it's 8192MB, is that good or bad?
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    I've got a good feel for lights and which ones go slower :) This doesn't have ANY fancy lights, just distant lights and UE2 which is on a very low setting. I took out the set because it's huge (and one piece this and that, can't take out certain parts) and it made no difference. (Basically had only M6 and the llama.) There's just something about this scene perhaps.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,650
    edited December 1969

    I love this outfit but I just can't get the lights right......It looks great here not rendered.......Serene Night....how did you light your scene yours is beautiful!!!! Is that what I need to get Predatron lights???? I want it to look just like it is now only lit up a little...but when I do it ...it looks washed out....Thanks Trish

    Predatron DS lights is a great basic to have. I found two looked particularly well with the white gis background (which is kind of tough to light. because it is so white and can easily looked over-exposed.

    The blue one is #7 raytrace. The Beigey one is Probably Number #5 raytrace. I've had good results from these lights.

    You can also see if you don't want to spend money, if you have any lights that came with characters. I find those sets are good to experiment with. =-) Good luck.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,650
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:

    Memory will be under the first tab.
    So it's 8192MB, is that good or bad?

    Sounds like you have 8 gigs of ram. That is how I started out on my previous machine. . I found that I did get increased performance by upgrading my ram to 16 on my new machine and then to 24. Depending on your operating system (for example if you are running window 7), your operation system needs a certain amount to run, and DAZ studio will need the same. I think 8 is the minimum I would go especially if you are running win 7.

    Depending on the age, and whether you will replace the machine, and other factors like speed of the hardware, extra ram could be helpful..

  • starionwolfstarionwolf Posts: 3,670
    edited December 1969

    I don't mean to jump in, but consider yourself lucky because you have 8 GB of memory. Windows XP only sees 2.75 GB of the 3 GB that I have installed. Carry on.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Yeah, I knew I had 8GB because hubby installed an additional 4GB. This is a laptop and that is the max it will hold.

    Everyone remember that there is currently a $5 off every $30 spent, in addition to the snowball savings. It stacks. I went into my wishlist and found a couple items so I had a couple of orders. That $5 off can also be applied to the Snowball items, so I got a few things I otherwise would not have. This morning I thought "Aint doing it" so far as buying because of the perpetual "add a deal later in the day" syndrome.

  • starionwolfstarionwolf Posts: 3,670
    edited December 1969

    I think most people havee 16 GB of RAM installed.

    I would spend some money in the Daz Store but I am trying to save money in case I need to move soon. Thanks for reminding me about the snowball savings though.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 2013

    If anyone is thinking "Africa" due to the big cats, note in the PA thread a vendor has submitted textured wings for the Griffin Wings- your leopard would have leopard fur along the membrane holding the wings, etc. (not yet available. But watch for the Griffin Wings to go on sale)

    And along the lines of Africa, the Meerkat and Antelope are 58% off for PC members and 40% for others, plus your snowball savings. They stack. Also, the African village toolkit by Alessandro is on today only (I think, like Flash sale) at 30% plus your snowball savings.

    http://www.daz3d.com/african-village-toolkit-by-am
    http://www.daz3d.com/pronghorn-antelope
    http://www.daz3d.com/meerkat

    EDIT: Be aware those two animals do not have much detail so far as fur goes- they would not be good for closeups.

    And I've wishlisted: http://www.daz3d.com/antelope-expansion-pack

    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,650
    edited December 1969

    I'm enjoying the newly released tile shaders. I should have some cool renders for you later on. =)

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,106
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    If anyone is thinking "Africa" due to the big cats, note in the PA thread a vendor has submitted textured wings for the Griffin Wings- your leopard would have leopard fur along the membrane holding the wings, etc. (not yet available. But watch for the Griffin Wings to go on sale)

    And along the lines of Africa, the Meerkat and Antelope are 58% off for PC members and 40% for others, plus your snowball savings. They stack. Also, the African village toolkit by Alessandro is on today only (I think, like Flash sale) at 30% plus your snowball savings.

    http://www.daz3d.com/african-village-toolkit-by-am
    http://www.daz3d.com/pronghorn-antelope
    http://www.daz3d.com/meerkat

    EDIT: Be aware those two animals do not have much detail so far as fur goes- they would not be good for closeups.

    And I've wishlisted: http://www.daz3d.com/antelope-expansion-pack


    Store needs one of these to go with meerkat. :)
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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 2013

    LOL. That looks like a rhino with a creature creation morph applied. EDIT: And hair!

    Post edited by Novica on
  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,106
    edited December 2013

    Novica said:
    LOL. That looks like a rhino with a creature creation morph applied. EDIT: And hair!

    That's a warthog. Did you see Disney's "The Lion King"?
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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 2013

    Kate For V4
    Pixiedust Outfit
    Rocks N Drops Fantasy Scene Kit
    Orion Hair

    http://www.daz3d.com/lr-kate-for-v4
    http://www.daz3d.com/pixiedust-outfit
    http://www.daz3d.com/rocks-n-drops-fantasy-scene-kit
    http://www.daz3d.com/orion-hair

    Kate doesn't seem the same as the promo. The bottom lip is much bigger.
    With the Rocks N Drops, you get 2 Backdrops, 5 Rocks, 2 Weird Rocks, 16 Sky Backdrop Options.
    The 2 weird rocks are actually a carved arch with a rock behind it. Very pretty! Nothing weird about them. The backdrops are also very useful if you want to use your own textures. One is just the backdrop, the other is the backdrop and the floor as one piece. Both curve around.

    Also note- the blue one would also work well for underseas renders to have it in the background as it has varying shades of blue. I included a render with one of the light sets included in the product. You can see how the blue lighting could be used for the underwater scenes. This was out of the box, no tweaking.

    The second one is one of the light sets with tweaking. The vendor went all out in doing lights for each set- you have about ten lights or more for every set, so you can turn off what you don't want and change the intensity of several and have a completely different light setup.

    The last one is my light set from scratch. It is 3 spotlights, and only 3 spotlights. Just experimenting to see how the skin materials light with just the basics.

    The Pixiedust Outfit promos feature the golden colors, but this blue is my favorite. You can also go Gothic with Dark Adaption For Pixiedust.

    Orion Hair is rather flat- There is a spotlight shining on it and the "out of the box" version needs some "oomph." It goes on nicely though and you can always postwork or fiddle with Surface settings.

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,650
    edited December 1969

    That looks very nice! I like the way she turned out. I did try rocks and drops but found the rocks looked a bit pixely... what's your take?

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,650
    edited December 1969

    Today’s Review is:

    Tiler Shader for DAZ studio http://www.daz3d.com/tiler-shader-for-daz-studio
    DAZ 3D DimensionTheory


    Other Products included in the render:

    Hilly Surround: http://www.daz3d.com/hilly-surround
    Hither and thither http://www.daz3d.com/hilly-surround
    30 Sky Backgrounds Victoria Goodman


    This tiler shader product is a great idea. It comes with quite a few pre-layered tiled sets to get you started but includes the tools to make other sets using your own ingenuity.

    Knowing me, I’m personally looking for the quickest way to get the results I want with the minimum amount of time…. So what I did with these shaders is load the pre-created sets, copy the textures and paste those texture surfaces to surfaces of my own choosing to create more complex stuff. You can of course make your props from scratch, load textures and set your own parameters to make your tiles look the way you want.

    For example, I loaded the hilly surround. To get it to match the second layer of the tile I used in the foreground I copied the tile’s surface texture and pasted it onto hilly surround surface. To make the second laye (if so desired, for distant work, having little weeds popping out of the ground may take a long time to render, and may not be what you want) , I’d load a second hilly surround on top of the first and do the same. I then copied the textures from one of the pre-created tile sets to make a very big vast hillside of dead plants.

    For the scenes below, I loaded hilly surround as the background prop. The foreground tile is from Tiler Shader.

    I’m not going to pretend I know or have even scratched the surface of what this cool set can do. There are a ton of options. One thing I do wish, is that rest of the textures that would be suited to go together would be labeled as such. The main textures are labeled, water, stone, etc, but the other options aren't. I'm not quite sure short of copying the settings used with the premade tiles which goes well the water tile.. .For example.

    Images

    1. How fortunate for me the grass from the hilly surround exactly matches the tile from the set. This image has a foreground tile from the set, but uses hilly surround for the distant hills.

    2 This is another foreground tile. Another case where the lettucey grass between the stones matches the hills!

    3. I had to copy the texture of the tile layer to make the hills beige like the dying grass in this image.

    4. This is an interesting ‘wagon rutt’ or ‘furrow style texture.’

    As you can see there is a tremendous amount of use you can get out of a set of landscape shaders.

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    That looks very nice! I like the way she turned out. I did try rocks and drops but found the rocks looked a bit pixely... what's your take?

    Let me load some and try them :)

    Otherworldly Wonders: Tamesis (Eyes)
    http://www.daz3d.com/otherworldly-wonders-tamesis

    Here's a challenge I issued myself- a very thin depth of field. Take a close look- I managed to get the wings fuzzed out and the cheek / eye / lip area closest to you. It was fun trying to get a sliver in focus. If you haven't done that, it's an interesting process of narrowing in with all three of the depth of field settings (focal length, etc) See how the right eye is in focus while the other one isn't?

    Those are Otherworldly Wonders Tamesis eyes. Try them, you'll like them. They are more subtle than you would think. The promo art doesn't give you a lighthearted pixie / faerie feel, but those eyes really are delightful.

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 2013

    The first one will show you the difficulties you'll have with the archway if you leave the settings at default. Those spotlights are only between 25% and 37%- otherwise the glossy gives you glaring white bald areas.

    Compare the images with the two rocks. You'll see the first one has both with the glossy at default. The second one, I removed most of the glossy and upped the bump and displacement. (TOP ROCK ONLY- LEFT THE BOTTOM ROCK AT ORIGINAL SETTINGS.) Same lighting in both images.

    Okay, with the Rocks N Props, go in and turn the glossy UP. (That reduces the glossy.)
    The top rock now has the glossy up to 92.6%. Change only the following and you will get rocks just like mine.

    Bump strength: 122.8%
    Negative -0.22
    Positive .27

    Displacement 60%
    Minimum -0.23
    Maximum 0.22

    If you have this product and like these results, you can setup a render then it will be ready when you need it. I tend to lose notes, lol!

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 2013

    Fast Grab is an entire page (and some on a second page) so if you don't have these, scoop them up. They are fantastic, particularly with props. (Be sure to read what's included with each one. You might be surprised!) I have all the sets, and the first one (with Kaetl and the dragons) has an excellent ground plane that I have used over and over again:

    http://www.daz3d.com/fast-grab-3d-models/dms-courage-realm

    The dragon and Riley one used this one: (and it has a wall in front that isn't shown in the promos:
    http://www.daz3d.com/fast-grab-3d-models/dmr-ellas-quest

    Be sure and look at the props on this one. I used that wagon wheel in a few renders.
    http://www.daz3d.com/fast-grab-3d-models/dms-instances

    1 Building 1 Stair Way 1 Wall 1 Planter with tree 1 Planter 1 Ivy Vase
    1 Wheel in 2 versions 1 Wood Plank 1 Boulder 2 Pebble stone groups
    1 Slab 1 Slab Pile 4 Wood Beams 1 Wood Beam Pile

    This one had the Woodwitch, remember? I put the nest inside it. Had the helicopter arriving and the girl and baby Woodwitch inside. So this unit can be used as a sci-fi creature's nest.
    http://www.daz3d.com/fast-grab-3d-models/dms-tunnel-unit

    EDIT: Found a small test render on my external hard drive.

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 2013

    If any of the thread regulars are surfing right now, check your PMs. I'll be sending you a message in a minute. (Barbult, Jindi, Starionwolf, Tjohn, Kharma, Tarina Kivi, Bullit35744) And of course you too SereneNight :)

    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,650
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for showing those rocks! They look quite smooth don't they? I always did like the baby wood witch. He's a cutie.

  • starionwolfstarionwolf Posts: 3,670
    edited December 1969

    DM's skins for Victoria 4 are nice. I don't need to fiddle with the lights or use EHSS to make Kay look good. I should buy one character for $5 before I forget. Thanks for reminding me about the sale.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,650
    edited December 1969

    Today’s review is: Air-Worlds. Air-Worlds http://www.daz3d.com/air-worlds
    by Magix101

    Background is: Winter Kingdom castle ruins http://www.daz3d.com/winter-kingdom-castle-ruins

    Whether they hover over your sci-fi city, or over your winter terrain, you can’t go wrong with a nice set of props for you science fiction or steam punk renders. With a variety of textures, and configurations, you are getting quite a few cool nifty air and space craft for your buck. They are also presently 50% off in the store right now. In addition to the aircraft, you get a nice little floating city, which you can use as a distance prop and also has several texture colors.

    I think the set is great. It renders well, is easy to use and setup, and what is not to like? The only thing I could wish for is if the propellers had a blur motion similar to what Petipet does. I think that would be an awesome effect to the zepplin in particular.

    Overall, and awesome product, I can see I’m going to use it a lot. Nice job. =-)

    1. One Render showing several of the air vehicles you get in the pack.

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    I always love the machinery / vehicles that have a lot of lines, so the one on the left is my favorite. The muted blues are perfect for that scene, makes me feel cold! I agree, a bit of motion blur for propulsion would be nice.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,245
    edited December 1969

    Try the new free SketchCam. I think it is brilliant! So far I've only used the default settings, and I like the results.

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  • TrishTrish Posts: 2,625
    edited December 2013

    burbult: That does turn out nice....Trish
    SereneNight: I got air worlds it is pretty cool...really like your render
    Novica: lets see all the new stuff you purchased

    Post edited by Trish on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,650
    edited December 1969

    barbult said:
    Try the new free SketchCam. I think it is brilliant! So far I've only used the default settings, and I like the results.

    Yes. This is kind of fun. Here's mine. Going to have to play around with it more! It doesn't appear to pick up backdrops.

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  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,245
    edited December 1969

    barbult said:
    Try the new free SketchCam. I think it is brilliant! So far I've only used the default settings, and I like the results.

    Yes. This is kind of fun. Here's mine. Going to have to play around with it more! It doesn't appear to pick up backdrops.
    Look in parameters tab. I saw a backdrop setting but didn't try it.

This discussion has been closed.