PoserPro Render Help?

lowtech

Can anyone offer some insight into getting this sort of Lighting/atmosphere in Poser? I've been having a hell of a time trying to get a convincing warm sunlight effect with that atmospheric perspective. All of the attached pics are renderd in Studio, but I'm a Poser user. Any thoughts?

Craig John

I'm not feeling too well at the moment but as no one else has replied, I'll give a quick reply now and elaborate when I'm feeling better if needed.

1 • I'm pretty sure they've had post work done and aren’t directly what Daz Studio outputs. Specifically the lens flares in all but your first example. There are Photoshop plug-ins that can create those (and I use Knoll's Lens Flare Pro from Red Giant software where you can create any manner of Lens Flares - it was something I bought when I was working on video projects and is a little pricy for the odd flare here or there but there are cheaper alternatives on the market now and I think there's a set of flare overlays available from that competing marketplace that has Prime members - you know the one).

2 • The Depth of Field (DoF) effect can be directly rendered in Poser or faked (which is a lot quicker) in post as long as you render out a Depth Map as well. Directly rendered in Poser has the best result though.
This video shows how to set that up about a third of the way in - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNTpR_qiA1Y&list=PLynyD-7entJ1YAdVSLkNtmTHj0J1Z1fPx&index=10 but all their tutorial videos are a good start if you're new to Poser

3 • Atmospheric Perspective is also easily faked by going to the Materials Tab, selecting 'Atmosphere' in the 'Object' drop down and choosing either DepthCue (a quicker process) or Volume (a more accurate but longer render).

4 • Choosing the right lighting set-up also affects the render and I've always use Image Based Lighting (IBL) and have switched between several products until I bought the DayLight Studio (http://www.runtimedna.com/Daylight-Studio-For-Poser-8.html). This has been my friend and I've added my own sky materials that I've amassed over the years from samples on discs from art/3D magazines.

Here are some of my images using the things mentioned above...

Poser DoF & Daylight Studio - http://www.cjproductions.co.uk/share/0243-Palladio-1-small.jpg
Daylight Studio - http://www.cjproductions.co.uk/share/0171-ManDown-2-2000.jpg
Faked DoF, Poser DepthCue & Daylight Studio - http://www.cjproductions.co.uk/share/0171-NPC-Knight-1-2.jpg
Faked DoF & Daylight Studio (plus other lights) - http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2013/179/c/8/campfire_ambush__violence__by_cj_productions-d6b1mp4.jpg
Poser DoF, Extreme DepthCue & Daylight Studio - http://www.cjproductions.co.uk/share/0171-Denivor-Stand-Sword-EZ.jpg
Poser DoF, Extreme DepthCue & Daylight Studio - http://www.cjproductions.co.uk/share/0171-Uriel-Stand-3-4.jpg
Poser DoF, DepthCue & Daylight Studio - http://www.cjproductions.co.uk/share/0187-CharranxGrazing.jpg
Poser DoF, DepthCue & Daylight Studio - http://www.cjproductions.co.uk/share/NamelessOne-1.jpg (unfinished)

The following are mostly examples of the lens flares as they were rendered in Vue and not Poser...

Lens flares as thrusters and enhancing explosions - http://th03.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/127/0/6/06b81e2dbf95e70ecbaf3e61e0e7a160-d4ytm2d.jpg
Lens flares as the sun, shine on space station and as thrusters - http://th04.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2012/127/d/b/dbf246e476d0e959a079a85983a2a3c2-d4ytmaf.jpg
Lens flares as sun and running lights. Vue produces accurate atmosphere perspective. Faked DoF & Motion Blur - http://th01.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2012/077/c/b/evening_flyby_by_cj_productions-d4t40sm.jpg
Lens flare as sun - http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/media/folder_222/file_2218726.jpg
Lens flares as the 2 stars and thrusters - http://www.renderosity.com/homepages/folder_1/image_655312_1.jpg

I think that is quite enough examples that show my point - this quick reply has taken way more time than I was expecting but I hope it's useful.

lowtech

Craggies,Thanks so much for that reply!
Some great renders, by the way! I'm not a newbie, as I've been using Poser for many years now, but I can't seem to make the Depth of field tool work without a ton of trial and error rendering, which as you know takes a long time( even on my monster powerful workstation) There was a great tutorial by Ironman13 that explained all of the functions of the DOF, Atmosphere, and Depth Cue, but they never work for me they way they were demonstrated. When using the focus distance tool on the camera, I will adjust it until it intersects with the part I want in focus, Render, and find that that part is not in focus! I check by rendering the same area with DOF turned off, an that area is crisp. I've tied selecting the top view, and using a primitive (like a cube) I measure the actual distance from the camera to the object I want in focus, and this value is never even close to the value set by the camera distance cross hairs. Also, I've noticed that if you have the perspective dialed way down (lower numerical value) for a more interesting render, the cross hairs center is impossible to align with the main object in my scene. I've got Daylight Studio, and it has produced some good results, but I'd like to combine it with the atmospheric perspective. What is a good setting for the atmosphere node? Specifically, color, Volume strength, etc.. say for example, a city distance shot with a character in the foreground. Incidentally, SunLIGHT by VinceBagna is a phenomenal product that uses Indirect Lighting, Available over at RDNA. Also, how do you render out a Depth map?
Hope you feel better! Thanks for putting in the effort for a reply! :-)
Lowtech

Craig John

Hi Lowtech,

I have a similar problem for calculating the DoF distance and I'll go into my work arounds when I'm feeling better. In the meantime, however, here's how you render out the z-depth in Poser...

In the Render Options (Ctrl+Y), click on the 'Auxiliary render data' drop down (at the bottom right of the dialogue box) and choose Z Depth