Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
That poor Ducky!
Very inspiring images. I just picked up LineRender9000.
@isidorn Where did you get your duck because when I went looking, I couldn't find that specific duck. :(
@diomede I've been having a blast learning all of the cool things you can do with it. Make sure you check out the vendor's thread over in the PA Commercial forum because there are lots of great examples of what you can do with it and @dreamfarmer posted a great tutorial here which is a must read, I think.
The ducky I use isn't easy to find as it's not in any of the promo images for the product it comes with, which is Towel Set for Genesis . Usually it's enough to just slap it with the Iray Uber shader, but sometimes it gets too shiny and then I use yellow and orange plastic shaders (that matches the original colours pretty well) from Mec4d's first shader pack. I should probably save that as a preset one of these days...
Ah, thanks, @Isidorn. It just so happens I have those towels, too. :) Time to go hunting in the library.
As a duck, that sounds scary!
LOL!
So, interesting experiment going on today. I'll be leaving soon for the day. Since I don't really have time to set up a completely new scene in DS, I thought it would be a great time to dig out the Northern Terrace Kitchen set I did a while back (link to earlier in my thread) that took over 25 hours on my computer to render and it still hadn't finished when I stopped it. I turned off all of the lights that came with the set and used an HDRI light for the dome and installed 2 Ghost Lights from the Iray Ghost Light Kit by @KindredArts. I'm really hoping to see a marked improvement in render time on my computer. I can already tell you from the little that has rendered that the kitchen is already brighter than my original test version. I dug up the .duf file so that the results would be easy to compare. I'll let everyone know what the results are when it's done.
As a side note, I used these lights for the first time in my Toon Generations 2 images above in that very dark Living Room Interior set. I think I could have increased the lighting a little bit, but it really helped with the lighting in that set. That rendered much quicker than I expected, too, so I have high hopes for these lights. :)
So, back in July, I ran a little experiment with the Northern Terrace Kitchen by David Brinnen and ForbiddenWhispers on my thread. Most of you know I run CPU only Iray renders because I don't have a nVidia card. My system is an AMD system with Radeon R7 260X. So, while I can render most anything, I'm a little slow when it comes to Iray renders. I'm actually okay with that. I'm still in the learning phase and not all of my renders are marathons in patience. This kitchen though was a big surprise in that it took forever to render when there wasn't even anything in it! Imagine what it was like with a full scene.
After 25 hours of rendering and it reached just under 5000 iterations, was really dark with just the base lighting and I had to stop it early. Here is what it looked like in that experiment. At the time, I did not take note of the convergence percentage. But, I did stop the render early so it had not reached anywhere near 95% convergence. I'm trying to dig up what the exact amounts were because I'm pretty sure I saved that logfile, but I haven't found it yet. I got those stats from the post I made directly after the render when I ran the original experiment which you can find here.
So when the new Iray Ghost Light Kit came out by @KindredArts, I had high hopes that it would help the Northern Terrace Kitchen and other sets that I have like this that are basically enclosed sets that tend to be dark without extra lighting. As most of us know, the darker the scene the long it tends to take to render in Iray.
I dug out my .duf file from that experiment loaded up two ghost lights and turned off the lights that were on that came with the Northern Terrace Kitchen. I put on ghost light in the window and one on the ceiling. I used the daylight setting on both. I also added in and HDR light on the dome and drew the dome for something behind the window since I didn't want a full set affecting the results. HDRs render really fast so I knew it would have a negligible effect on my render time. Here is the result of that render:
Render time was 7 hours 41 minutes 38.20 seconds and reached 2761 iterations when it considered itself done. I didn't have to stop it early. I assume it reached the 95% convergence that I had set which is the default. That is a huge time difference, roughly 18 hours difference. One thing I did not like about the render was the fact the surfaces weren't as shiny as in the original render especially the tile floor. I have no idea why that is because nothing changed in the surface settings.
Next, I ran the render with the Northern Terrace Lights back on and the ghost lights and ran the render again. This render is a little perplexing. I think it might be because I really don't understand the convergence rate thing. However, this render with both lights ran faster than the original, had more iterations in that shorter amount of time and I did indeed stop it again before done, but I hadn't noticed any improvement in the image for the last 4 hours and probably could have stopped it at hour 15 when it was closer to 5000 iterations which are the number of iterations the original image was stopped at. Here that last render:
Notice that I got my shiny surfaces back and nothing was changed in the surface settings. And, I can live with a 15-hour render much better than a 25-hour render. And, yes, if I hadn't been running this experiment to see what happens, I probably would have stopped that last render at 15 hours because it looked just as good as it looks at hour 19.
I have to say that I love these lights! Thanks KindredArts for doing your thing and making them available. I read that KindredArts wasn't sure how well received these lights would be because of their simplicity. However, I think they are great. Could I have done something similar with planes and NOT have bought the package? Sure, but then I would have to figure out a lot of stuff and do a lot of experimenting and testing. Don't get me wrong, I love experimenting and testing, but I like to pick and choose what I'm experimenting and testing and there is still a LOT that I DON'T know about lighting yet. Being able to buy KindredArt's Ghost Light Kit saves me a whole lot of time and I can do the type of experiments I like to do like this one. For me, it was a no-brainer idea to get these lights and I'm very happy that I did. They are definitely going to improve dark rooms and save me time with faster renders.
edit: added in the links to products
Hi KM! These are some nice renders! I love the photoreal look. That kitchen looks amazingly similar to my kitchen!! (except we have a dishwasher where the oven is..)
How do these lights work exactly? Are they mesh lights that you put in the windows to simulate incoming light from outside? If the "invisible" lights are truly invisible, does that mean you can have some scenery visible outside through the window?
@dHandle Yes the are essentially invisible. The cutout opacity is set at 0.0(insert a log of zeros here)01 and yes you can have scenery behind the window and it will show through. There is a texture on the light to make it easy to see and position it where you want it when it first pops into the scene. You apply a surface modifier to the light that says Apply This First in the list of options and that essentially makes the light invisible. Then you can apply your other light presets that came with the package to set the lights to the intensity that you need. They are very easy to use.
Pardon me for beeing late to the party. Thank you very much for the greetings. :)
Happy New Year, Knittingmommy!
Happy New Year, MN! :)
I posted the results to my experiment on KindredArts' Iray Ghost Lights thread over in the Commons and he had an explanation for the differences in surfaces that makes a lot of sense. So, for anyone giving his lights a try, this is what he said:
edit: fixed link
Hey hey! I found the thread. You did @ me in an earlier post but i never got the notification, not sure why. Anyway, i'm following your thread so you don't have to post in mine if you don't want to (although it would be nice!). Don't worry, i won't shill my wares on here, just a fan ;) Keep those renders coming KM.
KM, All the kitchen renders look *very* good except for the window. The longest I've waited to render glass was back in the 90's on my Amiga with no graphics card at all... took around 10 hrs. I can't imagine waiting 25 hrs and having an uncompleted Iray render today. I've rendered a few Iray scenes and waited around 2 hrs which was way too long for me so I've stayed away from DS and Iray as well as Iray only items. I'm using an AMD FX8120 8 core processor.
I just learned that a flat plane can be used for a light source in Carrara with it's Glow shader channel cranked up to around 300%... afterwards it can be made invisible and still will emit light as well as seeing outdoor scenery... it was PhilW who suggested this. Regarding Glass... a lot of windows/windshields are a single plane and require a bit of thickness to look like real glass and actually be clear instead of having a non or semi tranparent whiteish look. TangoAlpha told me that he makes his windows 1/4", 14mm, thick.
Hey KA! Welcome to my dark little corner of the world! Glad you found me. This is where I mumble and stumble around a lot and do all kinds of wacky things that others seem to be interested in learning about, too. :) They get to follow along as I learn and make mistakes and hopefully get better at what I do, whatever that happens to be.
That one window light setting that completely shows white is a light setting in Northern Terrace Kitchen and I've used it, but I'm not completely sure I like it. I love having something outside of my windows so nature can show through. Now that I know how best to use these ghost lights, I'll have to do a full render and take advantage of that kitchen window. It is a clear window and anything outside of it does show through if the light is off. I'm not sure what the specs on it are, though. My test renders didn't really take advantage of outside scenery since I wanted to test just the lights and compare render times. Once I'm all done wrapping up the Raining Men contest, I'll try to do a render to show off that window to it's best advantage.
I think one of the reasons I don't shy away from long render times is that I'm okay with setting up a scene and walking away. I can work on my book or do things with the boys while renders are cooking. I do get a little impatient the few times I've had renders take longer than a day or two. The longest render I had took almost 5 days, but it was a high resolution image that I was having printed as a gift in a small poster size so I kind of expected it to take a long time. I was more than ready to get my computer back, though, when it was done. :)
I adore that kitchen! Awesome!
Every surface looks so REAL!
Hi KM, thanks for showing the kitchen with those new lights, I've been debating about picking them up and now I am sure I will at some point. If you remember I was here asking if anyone had trouble rendering it and you and Novica I believe both tested it for me. I haven't tried rendering it since then but maybe with these new lights it will work better for me also.
I was looking through your thread again as I thought it was you who posted a step by step of how you organize all your Daz stuff into categories,but couldn't find it. Was it you or someone else I am thinking of?
Kharma
@Kharma Yeah, I remember you were the reason behind doing that experiment. I was thinking of PMing you to let you know about the new post, but I got distracted tonight. I'm glad you saw it.
It was Ice Dragon Art who does all of the categorizing. She's fanatical (in the nicest way possible) about her categories. I really need to get on board with that now that I have CMS working in my new setup. I just have had the time to even start thinking about categorizing stuff. I have been categorizing little bits as I use them, but that's about it. Right now switching back and forth between Windows and Linux for the things I don't completely have working in Linux, categorizing tends to get pushed aside for other things. Check out her thread though as she has some screenshots of her categories somewhere in her thread. I'm not sure how far back, maybe a month? I don't remember if it was in December or November but I'm sure it was fairly recently. Dracorn also does some categorizing but I don't remember if she has anything on her thread or if it was all on Ice Dragon Art's thread.
thank you so much for letting me know who it was doing the categories. I will check out both those threads. I have mostly been surfing quickly through the threads here and there but not posting very often lately mostly just taking notes so I can go back once I get my rendering computer moved, not enough room where I am right now to have it and rendering anything on my laptop is a real PITA.
It's a great kitchen which was one reason I was so bummed that it took so long to render. It's beautiful! Now, at least, I know how to get it to render shorter and I can use again without fear of having renders run into days! :) And, it's a PC+ item so the price was really great, too.
I tracked down the start of my stuff on categories. Its page 18 about halfway down on my Art thread. I might try and find the time to do a short tutorial or walkthrough at some point on my thread and just put it all in order, its scattered over several pages and several other people's threads lol.
Thanks, Sonja. I really need to see about getting control over my library.
I've been a little busy with wrapping things up for the judging on the Raining Men contest and that is all set now. Just waiting to see who won. Can I say that I don't know that I want to see any more male renders for quite awhile? I can't even think about doing a male render at the moment. I'm literally exhausted and think I might stick with toons and girls for awhile.
On a side note, anyone who pays attention to signatures might have noticed that I added a little something to mine. I recently became a Daz 3D Community Volunteer. I'm afraid it looks like you guys won't be rid of me anytime soon. I still figuring out exactly what that means, but one thing it does mean is that I'll be around doing my thing for the foreseeable future. :)
Another volunteer? Sweet. Saph is a volunteer now too, she's running the freebie contest (which you guys should all totally check out because its has awesome prizes from a super modest sponsor ;) ). Do you guys not get a little handy hand-book that lays out your duties? Or a special hat?!
Ah, I haven't talked to Saph in awhile. Running my little contest kind of took over there for a little while. We do get information on what is required. It is just a matter of going through and reading it. Now that I'm almost done with the contest, I can focus on other things. No, no special hat! Hmm, maybe I should inquire about that. ;)
I don't think I've ever done the Freebie contest. I keep thinking that would a be a good excuse to use up some of the Freebies I've managed to accumulate, but I haven't done it yet. I'll have to try and fix that little oversight this year. :)
No hat? Devastated
Is raining men coming to an end by the way? I thought that was a monthly affair? (scrap that, just looked, it's annual :( ) That reminds me actually, i should really scoop up more dudes. I bought george today - i'm really not sure what to do with him, but i shall shoe-horn him in somewhere, just because he's magnificent. For some reason i keep buying up the ladies but i hardly ever use them either - mainly Cailin or Ceridwen if i need a character. I hope G3 Lives long enough for me to use all of them!
Oh, geez! I don't think I could handle the Raining Men on a monthly basis! I love rendering men and I'm ready for a vacation from them! I love Geoge. He's a great character. I have a lot of girls in my library and I don't use them all that often. I might have to fix that while I'm in my all male slump. I did just get the Toon Generations 2 when they came out and I've several renders with the girls. I have to say they are amazing! I've done some renders and some product testing and renders for the product testing, but I haven't put anything up in the gallery since my Parker image, I don't think. Isn't that awful that I have to stop and think when the last time I uploaded a render was? Just too busy.
Oh yes, i know the feeling. I keep wanting to do portfolio stuff so i have even a remote chance of getting any movie work or pre-viz, but my time always seems to get sucked up with products. Totally agree on the toons though, i bought them as soon as i got the promo email. I actually thought they were standalone figures, but as soon as i saw they were on the g3 platform, they went straight into the cart. Another set that i have no idea where i'd use, but i just knew i wanted it. :)
Congrats (I think!) on the community volunteer role!