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Thanks! I tried to mask the fact that I forgot to put drivers in the cars!! :)
Peter.
If you're talking about the kickstand, and you're using Carrara, there's a couple really easy ways.
The first would be to see if it can be move or rotated. If not, create a new master shader, set everything to None except the Alpha channel. It should have a 0-100 slider by default. Slide it over to whatever side makes the shader ball invisible. Drag your shader to the Shader Browser for future use and name it whatever you want. Next, select the bike's model in the hierarchy and find the shading domain for the kickstand. Drag your shader from the browser and drop it on the kickstand's shading domain. Viola!
Yet another option that works great for Poser/Daz style rigged models is to select the model, then select the either the wrench icon on the left top window (to edit in the assembly room) or the large wrench icon on the top screen to enter the actual modeling room. Once the mesh of the bike loads you can use the Selection Menu--> Select By--> Shading Domain. A little window will open with a list of shading domains. Select the one you want. Depending on the density of the mesh, Carrara may have to think a little. Once the part is highlighted, go to the View Menu--> Hide Selection. The advantage of doing this is that sometimes alphas don't play nice with volumetric clouds or other post-render effects such as Aura. This will only work on Poser/DAZ style rigged figures. Anything else will show in the Assembly Room.
I loaded a prototype of this scene on Renderosity at the beginning of April but it did not seem to ring too many bells . I have since been following Bluebird 3d's instruction and have now produced the attached.
It's called Shipwreck Survivors.
Two points.
THe first is that this should have been a new image, started just for this contest. The 2nd is the we prefer New Users to post to the WIP thread first, this thread is a clean thread, only for the completed images, once they are considered ready, after feedback and advice in the WIP thread. here http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21483/
Puppy Love
After having done a few more things where I played around with lights and tried to put the advices I had gotten to use, I am now presenting my second entry for the contest.
I do know I need to get rid of the block of darkness, but I still want that part of the picture to be darker. Though not as much as it is now *smiles* Was a bit to tired to try to do anything about that right now, and also wanted to see what you people thought of it :)
I do honestly love this contest, cause it made me truly start to play around with lights. Have to admit that I'm kinda annoyed at myself that my personal favourite of the things I've done so far, is a mature piece so I can't enter that in here *laughs*
/C
Changed a few things, noticed after the render finished that the legs aren't posed properly. :red:
Not sure about the hands, I never know what to do with hands if they are not holding anything, posing is one of my weakest skills.
Maybe you can extend the hands toward the camera as if he is summoning the viewer to grab hold of them?
And ep that second method worked.
Glad to see so many people giving this a try, and looking forward to watching these images develop over the course of the month. My thoughts on the WIPs from the past couple of days:
@peter.shelfhout: Aside from what Jaderail already mentioned about the DOF, I like your cars image a lot. The lighting looks quite realistic. In the other one, I see the tension in the lighting and camera angle. The poses actually look a little too tense...or too stiff, rather. I'd like to see a little twist in the police officer's torso, and as far as the other character is concerned...maybe it's just me, but he appears to be staring at something behind the policeman rather than at him. Tweak the poses a bit (and the lighting, which I think is good but with room for improvement) and this could be something really great.
@Ilena52: try moving the character out of the center of the image, and maybe get a bit more focused lighting on her to draw the viewer's eye. Aside from that this looks fine so far.
@sithkitten: very cool...I love the pose and lighting of the hands, and the...entity, for lack of a better word. Not sure about the way the light falls on her clothing and how her forehead is lit but the rest of the face is in shadow. Not that it is unrealistic, just in terms of the aesthetics and composition I would take a look at those things. Kind of a nitpick though...overall I love it.
@bluemoon: they're both good, but for some reason I like yesterday's render much more than the most recent one. Much more drama, in my opinion. For either pose, it sounds silly but try it yourself in front of a mirror and experiment with posing your hands in different ways...what feels natural and looks right?
@carola.ottosson: The foreground lighting looks fine to me, but the background lighting definitely looks very wrong. That's the Millennium Environment, right? Haven't used it much myself, but sets like that one (where the backdrop is on a plane or otherwise part of the scene) can be tricky to light well... I wonder how it would look if you added a spotlight, positioned it above the characters, shining down directly on that dark area? Probably wouldn't need to be a very high intensity.
Maybe you can extend the hands toward the camera as if he is summoning the viewer to grab hold of them?
And ep that second method worked.
Glad I could help!
Hi everyone,
Even I use DAZ Studio for a bit more than one year as hobby, I'm a beginner and I'm not sure that my work will be at the same level of other candidates (I find some of the artworks posted very beautiful and I hope to be able to do the same one day!)
Would an experienced member drop me an advice to help me to improve?
On the picture attached, I used a dim distant light to create night environment, and two light points (one in the lantern and one on the fire).
Thank you.
Sorry
I found the rules unclear
It is the millenium enviroment background, but I actually haven't used the light that came with it. Partly cause it felt a bit like cheating, partly cause I wanted to control all the lights myself to learn more and partly cause I used the millenium eviroment light on another pic once, and didn't quite liked it :)
I'm not overly fond of that background tbh, but it was the only one I had that resembled nature and actually had a background not only ground. Haven't been able to buy much yet (only had the program since april 23) but I do plan to pick up some enviroments when my money comes... amongst other things *feels the wallet become lighter with each passing thought*
I am going to try to put a spotlight towards the problem area, and I realised when I was in bed.. that I kinda forgot to set the quality of the UE.. not sure if that could be part of the problem or not *blush*
Time to start up the program... but first.. Coffee !! Been doing way way to many near allnighters since I picked up this program, I just get lost in the creating of the things *sheepish smile*
Did you actually read the rules http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/3440/
As this is purely a Contest Forum for New Users we do have the rules in the Sticky thread, in order to save repeating them every time we start a new contest.
This whole forum section is designed for New Users of the software. Then contests are designed to help New Users learn things in a fun way, with help and assistance, and each month we have a different emphasis for the Contest. This month it is using lights.
It looks nice. I would consider trying UberEnvironment for the night rather then the distant light. There is a 'Full Moon' preset which gives a night look, but casts a bluish light which you may or may not like. You can actually use any of the presets, or none, and just dial the value to the desired level for the background ambient. It looks good as it is however, the UE is only to give you other options. The same goes for the point lights. They look nice, and getting to work the way you want them to is tricky, it was for me anyways. I found that UberSurface lights gave some nice options at times.
The other thing is, if your goal is to give the character a photo realistic effect, that comes with playing with the characters textures, skin, eyes... right now it has a bit of a stylized effect, which is fine also... it depends on where you were trying to go with it.
So, not really anything to make it better per see in the end, just making sure you have all the toys in your toy box available to you to play with :)
..
Progress so far...
better - maybe move her back some or add dust or some thing like that
The lighting on her helps quite a bit and I like how you did it with the focus on the face and a bit along the leg etc.. The shadow along the front faring is also nice, but you might want to add a blur to them (in post probably) since they wouldn't be sharp if the bike is moving unless one were doing a freeze motion type image. Actually, that might be the effect you want to go for with this as otherwise there should be motion blur on her or the background.
:)
several cups of coffee later,, some tweaking, lots of cursing and Coldplay playing loud in the background I think I managed to make that strange shadowy block better.
Also ended up re-working my older pic, Moment of Thoughts, a bit, some difference in the lights and changed colors and angles around a bit too *smiles*
/C
Thank you for your help! ;-)
I still feel uneasy with UE because I don't see - at that time - the difference with a distant light. However, I have modified the scene using the UE you mentionned above. I have slightly changed the color and shade of the "full moon" preset. The distant light used previously has been converted to a soft dark light from behing (to darken the front and augment the contrast from the light points).
For the realistic effects you mentionned, I still need your help! I don't even know how to handle the problem and I will look forward on the forum for tutorial on shaders and textures, because it is new to me!
Attached below, there is three different views, which one do you think it's the best?
@carola.ottosson: The first image the lighting is looking better, but I'm not sure what the black star is, and it's stealing focus. The face of the girl where I would think you would want focus (I could be wrong here, it's up to you of course) has no light focusing on it to draw ones eyes to it.
@Llan: I personally like the one in the upper left corner. However, the light in her left hand and perhaps on the lower part of her right arm appear a bit harsh and blown out to me. (Sometimes when you enhance one area, you notice something else that was there but you didn't notice before.) You might want to play with Linear Point lights or UberArea lights where you have more control over the distribution of the light in those areas.
[Edit for Llan] Spot lights like that do produce blown out effects at times due to our eyes inability to accommodate the range from the dark to the light in lighting like that, so don't take what I said as 'do it this way to be more correct' rather as something to consider if that isn't the effect you are going for. It often isn't a matter of one being more correct then the other but rather our ability to produce a range of effects, blown out to graduated in the lighting in this case, depending on what we are trying to achieve with the picture. In the end, it's how all of the parts come together that matter. If the image were part of a larger composition, I might go for a blown out effect if it worked with the rest of the composition to create an overall effect I was looking to achieve (harsher = more drama, more graduated, more gentle/fantasy/romantic) Here, with it being a standalone thing, I would tend to have a bit more graduated type of lighting, but subtle.. not overdone, as in the lighting should have hotspots. All personal opinion.. if it helps, great.. if not, discard it ;)
..
@Llan: as to the skin/eye effects (shaders & shader adjustments,) that is a whole area of it's own that people are currently working on quite a bit in various threads. There's no quick answer here yet. The comment was basically just to point you in the general direction.
like the dog render - maybe you can move the tree into the scene
I'm afraid that you are too subtle for the beginner I am! Whatever, I have modified UE and distant light from behind, as well as the intensity of light points. The flame in the left hand has been set closer to the hand and the result is attached below. Does it look better to you?
I think I will call this scene "Light my fire" (I hope you like the Doors!)
Thank you for all your help!
Yes, I think it looks good :)
I'm afraid that you are too subtle for the beginner I am! Whatever, I have modified UE and distant light from behind, as well as the intensity of light points. The flame in the left hand has been set closer to the hand and the result is attached below. Does it look better to you?
I think I will call this scene "Light my fire" (I hope you like the Doors!)
Thank you for all your help!
The only problem I have with your image is that the hand holding the lantern is being lit by the lantern... through the solid top.
Oups! Any idea on how to handle this?
i will check it by myself, but any help will be welcome! :cheese:
Oups! Any idea on how to handle this?
i will check it by myself, but any help will be welcome! :cheese:
Check the shadow settings of the point light you have there. You'll want to turn shadows on, and set them to Raytraced. Deep shadow maps don't work with point lights in DAZ Studio, and having no shadows at all is, I'm guessing, responsible for the light passing through the top of the lantern.
Nice work overall on this, though. :)
Check the shadow settings of the point light you have there. You'll want to turn shadows on, and set them to Raytraced. Deep shadow maps don't work with point lights in DAZ Studio, and having no shadows at all is, I'm guessing, responsible for the light passing through the top of the lantern.
Nice work overall on this, though. :)
That's correct. While deep shadow maps are quicker to render; raytracing produces a more realistic look.
Thank you for the compliment. :-)
However, I tried all the shadow settings and the problem was still the same.
So I have slightly modified the scene to hide as much as possible the tricky light!
Below is the final result. Does it seem acceptable?