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Oh sorry should have said, click on the time stamp, and then copy the url from the top address bar http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/1007479/#Comment_1007479
Hi, I'm new.. but I've been playing with turning down the environment lightning overall... maybe try bumping it down to like .6 and see if it gets a little more moody :)
also, I think the blood highlights are a little to bright.. darker it would make it seem let the colors bleed more, no pun intended... well maybe a little.
Here is my render attached this time :D
FIXED THE LIGHTING!
The problem was coming from the top of the lamp, casting the dark shadow on the sailor's face. I tried a point light by his face to counter it, but still couldn't get rid of the blindfold effect. Next I tried to make the top of the lamp partially transparent like glass, but no luck.
I tried repositioning the lamp. In a test render I raised the lamp and that got rid of my problem, but we can't have a floating lamp, now can we? It also cast light on the water making it light up in an unnatural way. So I tried to scoot the lamp around on the bench. The first pic shows that funny attempt. Makes him look pretty sinister.
Finally I thought I could lower the light, but the candle was in the way. So I turned off the visibility of the candle and all its parts, and imported a stand-alone candle from another set, and lowered it so it's pretty short. This allowed me to lower the flame... success. Whew!
This is starting to look really nice, in my opinion! The blurry background works nicely with the rest of the scene.
Okay, so here's a bit of background.
The girl is highly trained and has been battle-tested. Former military? Civilian? We don't know yet, but we do know that she's a "cool cucumber" under pressure, so we don't expect to see a lot of emotion from her face while she's preparing for combat, and maybe not even while she's fighting for her life. We don't know a lot about her yet, and that's part of the image. Right now she's just listening and looking. She has sensed something that could be dangerous; hence her drawn weapon and crouched posture.
She understands proper firearm handling and is not "aiming" the gun at anything yet. A close up would show that her finger is not on the trigger, but that she is instead "indexing" the side of the gun while she determines if there is a danger nearby.
Right now, she is in a dark place; a basement, maybe an attic, could be a dark alley or a garage. She's dressed too brightly for any preplanned action under cover of night, so something must have happened to make her bug out from her date or other social function.
The head turned to the right is intentional. There was a sound or maybe a flash of light from that direction. I'm not quite sure how to represent that without resorting to comic panel balloons.
"Who's there?" might be a more appropriate title because it would completely answer the question of the turned head without attempting to explain by way of adding visual elements. But for now the working title is just "Looking for Trouble".
So as to move this work along in a timely manner, I'm going to try to find a background appropriate for a basement or attic. I'll post an update later this weekend.
I can understand not wanting an overdone expression but slight adjustments can make a huge difference.
Perhaps a slight pinching of the brows and a squint to the eyes. Maybe a slight tilt of her head to help indicate she is listening for something.
Sometimes we have to get creative with the props to get them to do what we want.
Nicely done with the candle and figuring out the light.
This is coming along quite nicely. The only thing that is jumping out at me is her right leg. It could be the twist but I am not sure that would be a very comfortable position to be in and she looks quite comfy otherwise.
Maybe try rotating her thigh so the foot comes back towards the camera. Hopefully that won't mess up the bedding too much. Or unbed the shin slightly.
Just suggestions.
Is the background an image? The wall seems to be floating a bit and does not look anchored to the ground.
I am not sure how to achieve this effect in Reality/Lux but some dappling from light through the trees seems to be missing on both your figure and the wall. You might be able to achieve this effect with spotlights.
Revised edition with some changes to my space man. Added a light in the cat tube and gave the flooring a matte surface and used a few shaders here and there
What a difference a few changes make.
I especially like the addition of the blue light in the tube.
Well said. I'll try it!
This is where I was going with this image. I think I need to go back and look at the monthly contest on atmosphere. I know AoA has a volume camera to add fog and smoke, etc. I tried it earlier and the whole image came out white. I'm probably going to have to replace these lights with something else.
@Linwelly: I haven't found a way to make the UE2 lights active only on certain objects. If I do, I will let you know.
"D"
Lighting: You can make the lighting better with a sun direction and stronger shadows. The shadows are too soft so there's no drama. If you add a spot light with a slightly different color (make it subtle, just a tint), make sure it is shining in the same direction as your sun.
Pose: Her arms holding the axe are a little awkward. Not sure if she is resting it on her shoulder - is she ready to swing? Best rule: Go to a mirror and pose yourself. You can use a yard tool or a broom for the handle. When you get the pose you want, have a friend snap a picture. Use this as a guide to adjust your pose.
Expression: A neutral expression doesn't tell a story. Is she tired, resting, or bored? It looks as though she is looking into space. An attitude expression can give her some personality, even if the axe is at rest. Here's an example with the expression settings (for Genesis 2). The settings should work for Genesis 3. The important thing to remember is to make her eyes look at you, and thus she is engaged as though you are standing with her. Remember that realistic expressions are asymmetrical. You to a mirror and make expressions and you will see. While you're at it, take a few selfies to use as a guide. It doesn't matter if you are doing expressions for the opposite gender; the same rules apply.
Brow Inner Down Right 0.12
Brow Outer Down Right 0.10
Brow Outer Up Left 0.56
Brow Outer Up Right 0.30
Brow Squeeze 0.35
Brow up Left 0.42
Cheek Crease Right 1.00
Cheek Flex Left 0.76
Cheek Flex Right 1.00
Eyelids Bottom Down Left 0.10
Eyelids Bottom Up Left 0.083
Eye Lids Bottom Up Right 0.56
Eyelids Top Up Left 0.45
Eyelids Top Right 0.17
Eyes Side-Side 0.43 - these to to make her look at you.
Eyes Up-Down 0.17 - your values will be different.
Mouth Corner Up-Down 0.28
Mouth Frown 0.39
Mouth Narrow Left 0.19
Mouth Smile Open 0.13
Mouth Simple Smile Left 0.21
Mouth Simple Smile Right 0.93
Lips Pucker 0.25
The textures on the bars look really stretched.
This is my scene for this month after several months away, I'm glad that I could participate again
Kids Attic Room Fight, rendered in 3Dlight, used 10 point lights with 200 Intensity (attached to the lamps), and 1 linear point light 150 intensity (close to the ceiling).
I'm not satisfied yet with the scene first render, I'm going to add deep shadow map to the point light and linear point light, the windows doesent allow to show the outside atmosphere "I'll fix this soon".
Any comment or advise to it would be appreciated.
Here's one of my experiments with iRay. It is related to the foggy / dusty effects.
I started this 1.5 years ago using 3Delight. But every time, I applyied the Environment lighting (UE2), the whole picture just looked very white without any rays, so I learnt that I had to produce the picture in 2 steps and to finally compose them.
First there was a render with only the UberVolume, the sunlight and UE2 - ah and of cause an UberArea plane in the window to imitate the diffuse daylight.
The next step was only the foggy volume with the sunlight.
Now I used Paintshop Pro (the Photoshop killer!) to compose the two pictures.
And - her you are.
Yesterday I repeatetd this with iRay.
The setup was more simple. I only had to apply a foggy volume, as described in several tutorials over here and a normal sun-sky.
But the render took 12 hours to reach 8% (Let the PC run all the night). Sorry, but I only have a simple on-board graphic in my PC. And I'm only playing around with DAZ just for fun. So I'm not able to install several of those very expensive nVidia cards.
On different renders I did, I learnt that the memory needed could easily exceed 16 GB.
I think, for the ressources available for me, that result looks quite nice.
I observed, that genarally the more indirect light causes an exponentially longer render time. My outdoor scenes even with double the size are complete (100%) after round 1 hour.
@Ati Yeah, I noticed that, and I'm not sure how to fix it. The skin's not that great, the dress doesn't fit right for a little girl, the sky got washed out by the haze, and there are other technical problems, but...it's a contest about light...people get upset what you talk or ask about other stuff.
I'll figure it out.
@AndyS: I really like the results! Nice work!!
After over 2 years, I'm finally getting around to experimenting with UE2. But I'm wondering...you've managed what looks like a rather complicated work-around using post processing to achieve the desired result. I'm sure you tried many things to get to this point without doing it in post. Are any of our resident experts aware of a way to get this result using UE2 without resorting to postwork?
I got real sick last month but I'm all beter now, so here's another try
Welcome back h_habash. A word on point lights: there are two versions available in 3dlight one is called just point light, the other one is a linear point light and that one has the ability to reduce the light within a certain radius. What I would advise for your render is to use the linear point lights, reduce the intesity back to 100 (you can still try around with that) but increase the raduis which is illuminated by them. standart settin is falloff starts a 30 and nothing left at 100. Try for example a fallof start at 60 and end a 200 and see what happens to the light in your room. you can try with a different light colour as well, a light that most people have at home is within the yellow orange stectrum. Additionally it might work out if you add a UE2 light with occlusion w/soft shadows.
You did a nice job on the light! Generally I believe the 2dlight renders are calculated from schadows to light, so the darker the faster. With IRAY it's the other way round to my knowledge, may the more knowlegable people around correct me.
Now Iray is not my world for the reasons you named and the lack of my patience to wait out 12 hours. I just wanted to let you know that there are several possibilities to achieve the effect in 3delight in one go as well. one of the easiest is using the AOA Atmospheric Effects Cameras for DAZ Studio, but you can as well user Ubervolume cones (attached to a light) as I have done in this render (see in the back)
A few touch-ups...
I think the sky looks better, but I lost the atmospheric effects. No haze...
: (
You are correct Linwelly. The darker an image (more shadows) the longer it takes in Iray.
I agree with Linwelly. Change the point lights to linear point lights. I have found that Deep Shadow Maps really add to render time, whereays Raytraced shadows are much speedier. The UE2 will add ambient light - which is what you need to fix that hollow (or shallow) lighting. Once you add transparency to the windows, add a distant light so that sunlight is coming through them.
If you want more character to your environment - add a bunch of stuff: books, toys, clothes on the floor to make it look like a messy room, 'cause Martha Stewart doesn't live here. Check the freebies lists on Share CG, DAZ's Freebies forum, Renderosity and Runtime DNA for props.
Glad you are feeling better, lucasdestoop.
First of all, the angled camera adds lots of drama, but I suggest that you make the angle less steep - drama that's a little easier on the eyes... and my neck!
Also, a dark scene screams for dramatic lighting rather than soft. Your scene is a little monochromatic. Suggest adding some linear point lights in the wings with contrasting color to bounce off the pillars. Lowering the light level and adding spotlights on your subjects so that the shadows are dramatic will add an eerie feeling.
Create a spotlight shining from the table up to the undead to make him stand out - at first I didn't see him at all because he blended into the background. Color your light with a cold tone - blue or blue violet. Even a pale aqua or cream will do. Increase the effect of the godrays/gel light shining down on him - the contrast of the two blended lights may give you some depth. Be careful that they don't blend your necromancer into the background. Add some warm lighting on your necromancer so that she stands out from the cool background.
I noticed that the floor is smooth and has no texture. Are you planning on adding fog to the floor? It would be great touch if you are.
Some light fixtures/candles and misc. fantasy paraphernalia would also add to the scene - like the stuff that comes with the DM's scenes.
Not really. Only if you substitude "shadow" by " ratio of indirect lighted areas" then it is correct.
You can change the exposure values to get the dark scene very bright. But it doesn't change the render time.
For me the major impact is the amount of indirect light in the scenes. Even for very bright scenes it takes very long depending on the ratio of areas only indirectly lighted.
But as long as you don't own these special render GPU cards, you shpuld prefer 3Delight, except you use UE2 (GI), which is light bouncing and nearest to the photoreality of iRay. Even in 3Delight here small scenes need several days render time.
I did generalize.
Thanks Linwelly and Dracorn for your valuable advise and suggestions, I'll definitly change the lights as advised, and for other items I have some toys in my contents I'm adding them to the scene right now, thanks again.