pwCatch tutorial?

2

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  • edited November 2012

    Someone did a tutorial on how to do a shadow catch shader using shader mixer. I used that tutorial and made my own shadow-catcher shader that I apply to a plane primitive when I want ground shadows. It works for me -- simple to apply to any surface, and you can adjust shadow intensity.

    Here it is, from carnite on youtube.

    Post edited by nieman151_516f901a4a on
  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited December 1969

    Thanks. I'll check it out.

    I just have issues with the products I'm buying not working. Call me a rebel ...

    Although, I have a really dumb question ... why can't I just avoid the catch altogether and render right on the plane?

    It's a top view image, looking straight down at the sand, over the figures shoulder, as if we, the viewer were standing above her.

    I tried, but the shadows cast on a white plane, rather than the image on the plane. Why?

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited December 1969

    Wait, is it because I am using several lights vs one light? Or because I am using raytraced lights?

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited December 1969

    fivecat said:
    Someone did a tutorial on how to do a shadow catch shader using shader mixer. I used that tutorial and made my own shadow-catcher shader that I apply to a plane primitive when I want ground shadows. It works for me -- simple to apply to any surface, and you can adjust shadow intensity.

    Here it is, from carnite on youtube.


    I love Carnite's videos, but in this instance, I am following her step-by-step, and I am not getting her result. My plane is rendering white. The shadows are there, but so is my white plane, which should be transparent. The same problem I am having with pwCatch.

    Do ya'll think I need to re-install daz?

  • frodifrodi Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Carnite's instructions are for Poser, not DAZ

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited December 1969

    frodi said:
    Carnite's instructions are for Poser, not DAZ


    No, it's Daz. http://youtu.be/qo2OVy9tf8E


    DS3Advanced, same as mine.

  • frodifrodi Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Oh, that's a different one. lol.

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited December 1969

    frodi said:
    Oh, that's a different one. lol.

    That's why I'm so perplexed. I can't get pwCatch to work nor the shader mixer route Carnite explains. I don't know what to do. I have to get this commission in and nothing is working.

  • frodifrodi Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    That is so frustrating, I am afraid that if I cannot get the shadows right, I use either photoshop or corel paint. Not very satisfactory though. I am not good with shadows, that is why I bought pwCatch, and even that won't work. It should, we paid for it!!!!!

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited November 2012

    frodi said:
    That is so frustrating, I am afraid that if I cannot get the shadows right, I use either photoshop or corel paint. Not very satisfactory though. I am not good with shadows, that is why I bought pwCatch, and even that won't work. It should, we paid for it!!!!!


    Exactly. I bought it during a sale some time ago. I just never needed it until now. Now I need it, it won't work, and it's too late for a refund, witch I don't want anyway, because I want it to work.


    But that still doesn't help me figure out why it doesn't work through the shader mixer, either.

    Nor does it explain why, when I simply put the background image under my character and render from above, why it's coming out white. Is it me or daz?

    Post edited by WillowRaven on
  • frodifrodi Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Usually backgrounds don't show shadows. If you use a prop it should, but image backgrounds don't.

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited November 2012

    frodi said:
    Usually backgrounds don't show shadows. If you use a prop it should, but image backgrounds don't.


    Lol ... I know that. I am saying, I first tried casting the shadow on a plane with my background photo on it. It's an areal view, so it should have worked. But instead, it renders white with the shadows in place.

    So I put the background image in the actual background, and used a plane just as a surface for the catch. That renders yellow with shadows.

    And most recently, I used Carnite's tut, but that renders white with shadows, too.

    I am pulling my hair out.

    Post edited by WillowRaven on
  • frodifrodi Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    How come that we buy a product that is supposed to make life easier, causes so much grief??!!!

  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943
    edited November 2012

    Because it works without problems for many people?
    You never know where things are hiccupping ...

    Post edited by Kerya on
  • scorpioscorpio Posts: 8,301
    edited December 1969

    AidanaWillowRaven have you tried starting with a new scene and just using a simple prop and ground plane a couple of lights not too bright and seeing if you get shadows then.
    Make sure you are applying the correct version for the version of DS you are using.

  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943
    edited December 1969

    Maybe delete all lights, add a new one and make sure it throws shadows.
    If you have too many lights, it is quite possible that the other lights are bleaching the shadow.

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited December 1969

    Kerya said:
    Because it works without problems for many people?
    You never know where things are hiccupping ...


    That's why I am thinking it must be something I am doing wrong. Or maybe something is wrong in Daz.

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited December 1969

    Kerya said:
    Maybe delete all lights, add a new one and make sure it throws shadows.
    If you have too many lights, it is quite possible that the other lights are bleaching the shadow.


    I did that, too. The shadows are showing up. It's the plane or the background that isn't.

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited December 1969

    AidanaWillowRaven have you tried starting with a new scene and just using a simple prop and ground plane a couple of lights not too bright and seeing if you get shadows then.
    Make sure you are applying the correct version for the version of DS you are using.


    I did that, too. This is my third time building this scene.

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited December 1969

    Finally!

    The catch was not the problem at all. It was the pic I was using, although for the life of me, I can't figure out why because the original photograph does render. It's just the altered version of the photo that doesn't. Why, I have no idea. No settings were changed, no colors, nothing but imposing a heart onto the sand was done and re-saved as a jpeg. For some reason, it refuses to render any color but white or grey.

    Now that I figured this out, I went back to the original pic for the background and I will add what I want to the sand in post. What really matters is that the shadows of the figure are casting over the sand so it looks real. I don't know what I'd have done if the shadows had to cast over the imposed heart as well, which is why I altered the image to begin with, just in case it might have to.

    Now, can ANYBODY explain to me why one jpeg would render and not another with no settings whatsoever altered? I do not want to repeat this stress again ... lol.

  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943
    edited December 1969

    First: hoooray! :)

    Second: I am guessing, but you did you save as jpeg? did you try renaming to jpg? Hazy memories ...

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited November 2012

    Kerya said:
    First: hoooray! :)

    Second: I am guessing, but you did you save as jpeg? did you try renaming to jpg? Hazy memories ...


    Thanks :D

    Yes. The original photo was a jpeg. All I did was crop to the size I wanted and overlay a heart from another image into the sand. I then merged the two layers and saved as a fresh jpeg, by a new name.


    No matter what I do, the new, modified jpeg refuses to render as anything other than a blank white or grey plane.

    Yet the two original pics that were used to create the modified pic both render fine.

    I know the immediate crisis is over since I can add the heart post render. But it only works in this case because in this particular scene, the shadows do not need to fall over the heart. I just want to figure why I am having this odd problem with a regular ol' jpeg so I can avoid this stress next time.

    Post edited by WillowRaven on
  • scorpioscorpio Posts: 8,301
    edited December 1969

    Jpeg or jpg?

  • WillowRavenWillowRaven Posts: 3,724
    edited December 1969

    Jpeg or jpg?


    JPEG

    It's the only version my PS CS5 creates. What I don't get, is I alter jpegs all of the time for daz when I tweak textures. Plus, all of the other jpegs I've made and used in the past never have a problem rendering. It's just this modified pic. I'm stumped.

    Also, just as an experiment, it wouldn't open in filter forge, either. First time for that, too.

  • SyphonapteraSyphonaptera Posts: 190
    edited August 2015

    Ok , it is 2015  and I just purchased pwCatch (it seems to work with Daz 4.8 now) and the tut and read me link are completely dead. On the Postwork site there seems to be a sort of a 'tut' but that one makes no sense and doesn't explain anything at all. Does anyone know where I can find an actual USEFUL and LOGIC tutorial on how to get this pwCatch shader to work???To be honest, almost all tuts from Daz vendors are a disaster.....no
    Thnks in advance.

    Post edited by Syphonaptera on
  • RCTSpankyRCTSpanky Posts: 850

    Willow, why did you use DS3? Since more than two years DS4.x is available and meanwhile most users has moved to that version. Especially, because you can get it still for free. You can't expect really much help for older versions of Studio. And DS 4.8 run very well on my small laptop with very less memory and a slow internal graphic adapter, so it couldn't  be the "old computer ... no new software works"-thing.

  • AtiAti Posts: 9,078
    RCTSpanky said:

    Willow, why did you use DS3? Since more than two years DS4.x is available and meanwhile most users has moved to that version. Especially, because you can get it still for free. You can't expect really much help for older versions of Studio. And DS 4.8 run very well on my small laptop with very less memory and a slow internal graphic adapter, so it couldn't  be the "old computer ... no new software works"-thing.

    That was written in October 2012. wink

  • AtiAti Posts: 9,078

    Syphonaptera, I haven't bought pwCatch yet, so I cannot try it alongside the tutorial, but the tutorial from the first answer ( http://poseworks.com/shaders/pwcatch/ ) seems pretty detailed to me. Have you seen that?

  • Ati2 said:

    Syphonaptera, I haven't bought pwCatch yet, so I cannot try it alongside the tutorial, but the tutorial from the first answer ( http://poseworks.com/shaders/pwcatch/ ) seems pretty detailed to me. Have you seen that?

    I did , but it gets me no where It doesn't explain anything!! Do you think it does?

    http://poseworks.com/shaders/pwcatch/pages/applying.html

    if so then what do I miss? Soemthing becomes blue, sometimes something gets red....yellow....wth??

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    Ati2 said:

    Syphonaptera, I haven't bought pwCatch yet, so I cannot try it alongside the tutorial, but the tutorial from the first answer ( http://poseworks.com/shaders/pwcatch/ ) seems pretty detailed to me. Have you seen that?

    I did , but it gets me no where It doesn't explain anything!! Do you think it does?

    http://poseworks.com/shaders/pwcatch/pages/applying.html

    if so then what do I miss? Soemthing becomes blue, sometimes something gets red....yellow....wth??

    1. Which renderer are you using?

    2.  The shadows and other changes will not show in the viewport, just when rendered in 3Delight.

     

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