September 2023 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Depth of Field and Canvases
Linwelly
Posts: 5,944
New User's Challenge - September, 2023
Sponsored by DAZ 3D
Are you new to the 3D World? Are you at the beginning stages of learning 3D rendering? Have you been around for a little bit but feel you could benefit from some feedback or instruction? Have you been around awhile and would like to help other members start their creative journey? Well then come and join the fun as we host our newest render challenge!
New this year, we are breaking down each month into 2 different challenges. A Beginner Challenge and then also an Intermediate Challenge.
So which "Challenge" should you choose?
Follow the Beginner Challenge if you are:
- New to the New User Challenges
- New to Daz Studio
- Newer to 3D Rendering in General
- Or if you have not participated in the September Depth of Field Challenge in a previous year
Follow the Intermediate Challenge if you have:
- Participated in the New User Challenge for awhile
- Know the basics of Daz Studio and would like to learn more in depth topics
- Been using 3D Rendering Applications for awhile and feel comfortable with learning Intermediate Topics
- Or if you have all ready participated in the September Depth of Field Challenge in a previous year
*Please be sure to list in your post which Challenge you are participating in*
Closing date for both is September 30, 2023
If you would like to review the previous topics and information you can find the topics/threads here:
Beginner/Intermediate: Composition/Instancing, & Duplication
Beginner/Intermediate: Lighting/Light Effects
Beginner/Intermediate: Posing/Posing II
Beginner/Intermediate: Using Props/Push Modifiers/Deformers
Beginner/Intermediate: Scenes and Landscapes/Working Modularly
Beginner/Intermediate: Portrait Rendering/LIE
I will be checking in as will the rest of the Community Volunteers to try and help with anything you all may need.
For a list of the current challenge rules, please see this thread: Challenge Rules
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Comments
Beginner Challenge - September 2023
"Focus/Depth of Field"
This month's focus will be on Depth of Field/Focus.
Depth of Field is basically controlling what part of the image is in sharp focus. A couple of explanations, from the world of photography (so not everything is applicable, but the definitions and basics do apply when rendering).
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm
http://digital-photography-school.com/understanding-depth-field-beginners/
Inspiration
Tips and Examples, Studio:
http://flipmode3d.com/depth-of-field-daz-studio/
http://www.versluis.com/2015/04/how-to-render-with-depth-of-field-in-daz-studio/
http://www.sharecg.com/v/52258/browse/3/PDF-Tutorial/DAZ-Studio-Tutorial-Depth-of-Field
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/19195/daz-depth-of-field-settings-a-general-starting-point
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuAIDTH0YoA (Depth Of Field In Daz Studio 4 10)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0jMBdrMo40 (Daz Studio Depth of Field)
Tips and Examples, Poser:
http://www.keindesign.de/stefan/poser/dof_p5.html
http://www.trekkiegrrrl.dk/DOFtut1.htm
Tips and Examples, Bryce:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/3855/
Tips and Examples, Carrara:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gliniNqq8_k
Other Helpful Links
When following tutorials, be cognizant of the different applications (Bryce, Daz Studio, Poser, Carrara Blender, etc.) and different render engines (3Delight, Iray, Reality, etc). Techniques for one may not apply directly to another. If you have some favorite portrait lighting and composition tips, please share them in this WIP thread.
Composition Golden Ratio helpers:
Bryce
DAZ Studio (Also, DS has a built in Rule of Thirds guide; just select Show Thirds Guide in the Viewport context menu)
Don't forget to look at previous themed contests where information and hints are available. Here is the depth of field challenge from last September.
Intermediate Challenge - September 2023
"Canvases"
This is a general render challenge with the focus on rendering separate layers, or canvases, for compositing in an image editor, such as Photoshop or Gimp. Daz Studio supports Canvases natively via the Iray render engine, found in Render Settings > Advanced > Canvases. Creating separate layers in 3Delight is also possible with the use of premium vendor products.
Iray Canvases are very powerful, allowing a lot of control over your final image. They can also be very confusing until you understand how to create a canvas and how to use the resulting image. Like any tool, the more experience you get with it, the more the necessary details will become second nature.
A quick Overview of Iray Canvases:
Using the tools provided in the Canvases settings, you can "tell" Daz Studio to create multiple layers of image information with a single render. There are options to specify Type, (beauty, diffuse, specular, depth, etc.,) and options to specify Nodes, (aka objects.) An option to use Alpha exists for most types and will create an alpha layer for the EXR file, which can be loaded as transparency or an alpha channel.
Once you've enabled Canvases, a new section will show in the Render Settings for Canvases, where you can select which canvas will be rendered to the render window. Tone Mapping is on by default and will be applied to the image in the Render Window. This give you a good reference image if your Beauty canvas is selected.
When the render completes and you save the image, Daz Studio will save a folder for the Canvases in the same folder as the saved image, with the same name and "_canvases" added. The canvases in that folder are all 32-bit color images in the EXR format. These EXR images will need to be processed to use. They are very much like a "camera raw" image from a Digital SLR camera.
The "magic" of using canvases is in how you process the various 32-bit files into layers and composite them to create a final image.
Information on Using Iray Canvases in Daz Studio:
It's important to remember Iray was introduced to DS over five years ago and some details about Canvases have changed during that time. Most of the information from older tutorials linked here will be accurate and worth the time to view. Occasionally, you may find something that is no longer the case. Feel free to let us know what those are. For that reason, the upload date of videos is included with the link. (Forum Member names are included, where known.)
Videos
Forum Threads
Adobe/Photoshop
3Delight Options
We normally do not include store products as options in these challenges. However, it only seems fair to mention these products as DS does not have a native canvas feature for 3Delight, so those working with 3Delight—who may well already own one or both of these products—can also enter the intermediate challenge.
My plan for this month is to try and work on my use of DoF. I don't use it that often, and when I do it's tricky to find the right ballance, I'm ether to focused on the main subject or what I want blured looks like I haven't even applied any DoF at all.
Version A of my beginner project this month. No DoF yet I'm going to set up most of the scene before I mess with that so I have an Idea of where what I want effected by it will be.
a note while you're still planning your scene, effective work with DOF likes a lot of light, because the area that will be in focus, we want to see that, In your images you often work with low light situations which also gives a depth to the images but I would like to push you to try something with a lot of light, like an outdoor situation or several strong light sources
@Linwelly, my characters are meeting in a backalley after dark. maybe I'll be able to find some places to add light, or see what a different lightsetting for a different time of day. I'll have to take a look in a bit after I take care of a few things. Thanks for your feedback.
Title: Mama.
Software Used : daz
entering for the Beginners Challenge
https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/user/6045877127872512?edit=albums#gallery=album8915300&page=1&image=1307247
Version B here.
I changed the lighting to a sunset preset rather then the nighttime one I used in version A.
I also shifted the farther character down some because he was floating in the air some, and did some texture work on both of the characters clothes.
that looks like a very interesting work! can you try to add the image to the post, or is that giving errors again?
@Linwelly I was never able to add pictures here, it's allways stuck at "Uploading..."
@habibsoufi that happens to me as well at times.
Click on image for full size.
I get those on a regular basis, madi it a hbait to first check if it really didn't go through, but yeah it's problematic though I think it's being worked on
I'ts worse when you try to quote a post with an image in it, I now tend to remove the image and leave the text in a quote post.
but thanks for adding the image to the thread
it does be difficult atm, I know, sorry about that, but Fishtales made it work
Title: In action.
Software Used : daz
entering for the Beginners Challenge
https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/user/6045877127872512#gallery=album8915300&page=1&image=1307455
nice work, I like that you use DOF settings that makes it all look a bit as if toy sized, but still giving it the impression of huge with the spaceship crashin in the back there, ver neat work on the lights as well, the backlicht set's in perfecty in scene
Just ran a new version of my project for this month. Doesn't seem to want to upload at this time so I'll have to try again later.
Version C here.
I did some more texture work and started on my use of DoF on the character with the cycle who is the main character.
coming together there, but I have the impression that the focus is a bit off the head of your main figure, you can adjust that best when you place one camera to the side of the figure you want to have in focus, then select the main camera you want to use for your render in the scene tab this will show you the layers which are the borders of the focus, set the F/stop in the camera tab to 1 instead of the standard 22 so those layers move together with a very small space in between then adjust where those layers are with the Focal distnce tab. make sure the end up being spot on the eyes of your main character (or whatever you fosu is on) then reset the F/stop to 22
@Linwelly Thanks for your feedback, I'll have to take a look this evening after work since I'm going to have to head out soon.
@Linwelly Here's version D giving your feedback a try. I may have been a little off on where I had the panes when I had it set at 1 after I pulled the focal distance closer(sortta centered on his head), The focal distance in C was behind him.
Also I couldn't look at things right away when I got home from work because for some reason the power was out in my neighborhood, though luckly it was back up before sundown. Crazy thing is that a friend of mine who lives about half a mile or so from me wasn't effected at all by it.
Here is the first version of my entry - New York Lovers
Constructive feedback welcome
Intermediate Challenge
Title: The Feral Heart
About: In the depths of a moonlit forest, a fierce and brooding lycan had been imprisoned for centuries, his savage nature bound by enchanted chains. One fateful night, his true love ventured into the haunted woods. With a single tear, she shattered the chains and released the beast within, revealing a love that could tame even the wildest of hearts. Together, they roamed the night, the lycan's loyalty to his savior unwavering, as they found solace in each other's embrace under the watchful gaze of the moon.
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My wife has been reading literally hundreds of these fantasy romance novels that involve werewolves, lycans, vampires, witches, etc. I decided to try and make my own Romance Novel cover. I started with the Manitou. He is wearing the Berzerker Battle Outfit. This was manually placed on the character since I couldn't put clothes on that character. His one true love is Lynn from Evelyn & Lynn HD. She has Romantic Curly Hair, bracelet jewelry from Lucidity Outfit, and a skirt from Rocker Outfit. Posing these characters was crazy difficult due to the great difference in size. The Manitou is massive with unusual sized muscles and limited motion. I had to break the movement limits in order to get the effect shown. The moon brought a lot of light and a sense of etherealness to this image. The moon was from Solar System Planets.
This was my first time using Canvases, and will not be my last. I tried every one. Emission Only was pretty awesome. I'm definitely going to use that in the future sometime. I settled on Light Group. Some of the others gave me results that were lackluster or were downright awful. It was nice to play around and see what they all do though. No post work done.
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Lost
Intermediate Challenge
Used beauty and depth canvases
An entry for the Intermediate Challenge: "American Gothic Revisited". (I haven't attempted to recreate the original painting, just taken inspiration from it.) I used beauty and depth canvases, then combined them with some postwork in Affinity Photo.
great work here already, but I think the moon could get a bit more lit up, in the moment it looks a bit grey
double post
@aprilshowers2065 that'ls a lovely gloomy work with the mist, you might want to pose the lamp hanging down straight
@stargazy, that's an awesome work and reference, love the character detail. Maybe take a look at her skullcap, looks like there is some of it visible?
@sueya that's a nice start, you might want to lighten the set up some more and change the tiling on the ground plane (use maybe is pavement shader preset if you have one)
Slightly retouched version, to tidy up the woman's hairline. (I think it was actually a shadow, but it certainly looked a bit odd!)