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Hopefully a simple question about scaling environments

john_antkowiakjohn_antkowiak Posts: 334
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Good evening - so I'm thinking of doing a scene with miniatures, and it occurs to me that fans of the fae folk art must know the best way to populate things like tree roots and dandelions with DAZ figures. Do you you scale the figures, or the environment, or both? Do HDRIs work for this? Seems to me, if I take a typical object like a set of keys and zoom in on it until it towers over the figure, it loses a lot in the closeup. Thanks : )

- John A

Comments

  • SevrinSevrin Posts: 6,307

    I don't know about keys, but there are some HDRIs you might be interested in.

    https://www.daz3d.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=fairy+hdri

  • Catherine3678abCatherine3678ab Posts: 8,342

    I've been known to reduce the size of the figure to match in with the 3D landscape. Put the clothes on it first though, and use the resize dial on the Parameters Tab.

  • chris-2599934chris-2599934 Posts: 1,814
    john_antkowiak said:

    Good evening - so I'm thinking of doing a scene with miniatures, and it occurs to me that fans of the fae folk art must know the best way to populate things like tree roots and dandelions with DAZ figures. Do you you scale the figures, or the environment, or both? Do HDRIs work for this? Seems to me, if I take a typical object like a set of keys and zoom in on it until it towers over the figure, it loses a lot in the closeup. Thanks : )

    - John A

    Either approach would work.

    Scaling the environment up would probably be easiest to work with: if you make your figures very small, you'll have trouble positioning your cameras etc. without bumping into them. On the other hand, you might have difficulty getting lights to look natural with the everything big approach (though HDRIs should still be OK).

    Either way, you could have quality issues with props like your set of keys. They've been modelled and textured to look good at their normal size. If they're subjected to extreme close up (or extreme scale up) all kinds of tiny flaws that aren't normally noticable become glaringly obvious.

  • john_antkowiakjohn_antkowiak Posts: 334
    edited June 2020

    Thank you, Sevrin. I hadn't known what to search for. This does seem like a simple way to go, and I've got one of them on my wishlist now. Much appreciated!

    Catherine, would you tell me a bit more please? What's an example of the kind of environment you use? Do you also resize the camera to get it positioned better? (I never thought of that question until now...) Also, what's the difference between "resizing" and "scale"?

    And incidentally, Catherine, I picked up your horse blanket at ShareCG before you replied. Thank you for that - I was wondering how I was going to make one of those!  : ) 

    Thank you too, Chris. I'll be looking out for these potential hiccups; I wouldn't have thought of them otherwise.

     

    Post edited by john_antkowiak on
  • Catherine3678abCatherine3678ab Posts: 8,342
    john_antkowiak said:

    Thank you, Sevrin. I hadn't known what to search for. This does seem like a simple way to go, and I've got one of them on my wishlist now. Much appreciated!

    Catherine, would you tell me a bit more please? What's an example of the kind of environment you use? Do you also resize the camera to get it positioned better? (I never thought of that question until now...) Also, what's the difference between "resizing" and "scale"?

    And incidentally, Catherine, I picked up your horse blanket at ShareCG before you replied. Thank you for that - I was wondering how I was going to make one of those!  : ) 

    Thank you too, Chris. I'll be looking out for these potential hiccups; I wouldn't have thought of them otherwise.

     

    For example, I have this: https://www.daz3d.com/dandelion-bundle and a free dandelion available at the time somewhere on the 'Net. Today I've noticed that there are quite a few free dandelions!

    Depending upon which set I'm using, might use an hdri {can also be a jpg} for a background {draw Dome on}, comb through my Content Library looking for an appropriate environment with grass and flowers, etc., add in a few individual plants {easier to resize one plant than the entire scene}, load in the main figure, clothe it, resize/scale it, and carry on with posing, adding in lights, etc.

    Resizing and scaling, same thing, dial on the Parameters Pane.

    To position the camera, select the camera in the Viewport, what you see is what the camera is seeing. Use the Viewport controls to see what you want that camera to see. Switch out then to Perspective View so any further manuevering of what-you-see in the viewport does not mess up that camera's view. No I can't recall ever resizing the camera for any reason. That camera box is, AFAIK, an illusion.

    Happy to hear that the horse blanket found a good home ;-)

  • Catherine3678abCatherine3678ab Posts: 8,342

    If the key you're using doesn't work well in all scenarios, maybe you would like to try another key? There are a number of those available too.

    For eg.:

    https://sharecg.com/v/90303/gallery/21/DAZ-Studio/Medieval-keys
    https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/medieval-keys/78510

    https://www.sharecg.com/v/72987/gallery/5/3D-Model/Car-Keys

    https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/tallans-skeleton-keys-01/61527


    https://www.daz3d.com/strongboxes-locks-and-keys

  • john_antkowiakjohn_antkowiak Posts: 334

    Thank you again! To be perfectly honest, though, the key was just an example to illustrate the point I was trying to make, and it's the first prop that came to mind. There won't be any keys in the scenes I have in mind.  I have an idea based on memories of my favorite cowboy toys where I used to take them down to the creek. Like the way Hobbes always looks like a real tiger to Calvin even though he's only a plush doll.  : )  Your responses have definitely helped refine the idea, although I'm only just starting to work on the figures and thinking what I might do with them later. 

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,058

    There are some HDRIs that are purpose-built for this scenario:

    https://www.daz3d.com/fairy-scale-ibl-desert-dweller-hdri-environments

    https://www.daz3d.com/fairy-scale-ibl-flower-fairy-hdri-environments

    https://www.daz3d.com/fairy-scale-ibl-forest-pixie-hdri-environments

    https://www.daz3d.com/fairy-scale-ibl-nature-bundle-hdri-environments

  • john_antkowiakjohn_antkowiak Posts: 334
    edited July 2020

    Hmmmm... you know what I just noticed for the first time? I loaded a normal HDMI preset and started customizing my Render Settings... and there's a property called "Ground Texture Scale." It actually seems to scale the background image - but I haven't played with it beyond 2-3 quick tests. Does anyone know how effective this is for the purposes we're discussing? (I loaded one of Dimension Theory's Real World series.)

    Post edited by john_antkowiak on
  • thistledownsnamethistledownsname Posts: 1,325

    I can't get the pixie hdri to work.  The backgrounds all render blury.

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