Lighting and Scenery Help?
DrowElfMorwen
Posts: 536
I am constantly trying to improve my art. I think in the months since re-using DAZ Studio I've come a long way in a short while, but I feel my art is still no where near exceptional, by any means, or even particularly eye-catching, unfortunately. There are two things, however, I feel can really help me if I just improve on them: scenery (background) and lighting.
First I'd like to touch upon lighting. Looking at the Slicer product (http://www.daz3d.com/shop/clothing-accessories/uniforms-costumes/slicer) and the unimesh version (http://www.daz3d.com/shop/slicer-unimesh-fits) I am amazed by the gorgeous lighting in that first picture on both... it's just so... "glowy"! How is this effect done? The upper left in the first link, and upper right in the second, have this nice yellow-ish corner glow, and everything else just looks perfect like a sunny day should. Is this all done in DAZ Studio, or post work? (I hope not post work, because I'm horrible at it). What are the tricks to get that nice effect? My experience with lighting, by the way, is rather basic--toss some lights in a scene, place and angle and oclor them, chose some shadows, go.
The second is scenery. I mainly do fantasy art and I feel I am missing some epic backgrounds that make... well, epic fantasy art :) I am beginning to think I should move beyond DAZ Studio--I guess to Carrara? But does Carrara pretty much work the same way? Buy stuff from the store, place it in a scene, apply materials, render? Or is there a lot more to it? I have no experience creating things myself from scratch.
Also, I use DAZ Studio 3.5, in case it's relevent. The interface of DAZ 4 kinda chased me away.
And just for reference, this is my gallery of fantasy art; the first page pretty much holds all my latest artwork so no need to go back further.
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Comments
Before other helpful people wade in and try to help I would like to answer a part of your question.
Promos image for the Daz3D store are not allowed any postwork beyond Colour Correction. I have Used GIMP a number of times to adjust the colour curves and in doing so made a big difference to the saturation of the colours, lightness and depth of colour.
Obvisously you do need a good starting point in terms of the final render.
Thank you for that information! I didn't know about the lack of post-work rules. So I'm pleased to see this is all done in DAZ... Now I just have to work out how.
If anyone knows of any tutorials for that type of nice, soft, glowy, picture-esque lighting, it would be helpful! Or just tips!
Not sure about the second one, but it looks to me like the first is using volumetric lighting, If you look at where the glow hits the wall just beyond the tree I can see four light beams extending down across the walls.
I was just having a gander myself DWG and I think you are correct. And given that these are older promos I would have to guess at Uber Volume being used.
Thank you for the help. I actually just realized (well, remembered) I have Uber Volume in DAZ, and decided to finally look up what it is. Playing with it now, thank you!
Don't know what volumetric light is though ^^"
Promos do get some post-work as long as it's not on the main object (and even then, I read on the forums that opinions from end-users vary). I'm not sure if it's post-worked or volumetric on those Slicer pics, I'll try later.
Carrara is a full-blown application in which you can model whatever suits you, provided you take the time to learn that is. ;) It can also load and pose Poser kind of stuff, and I believe even the new duf (dough?).
You can find some suitably impressive stuff in the store, I think, (Stonemason...) or even at Renderosity. I saw Rodluc sells his rather well-done castles at yurdigital.com but I'm not sure how their textures hold close-up (I did download some when they were free for personal use, though).
Okay I know this I posted a while ago, but I never got it resolved. Fooling around a long time with Uber volume, I still am not getting effects anywhere near what I'm trying to do.
For another example, I found a nice sun glow effect in the 5th promo picture here, on the rocks:
http://www.daz3d.com/nature-rocks-pack-1
Really, how is this being done? And if it IS UberVolume, what settings would achieve this? I really cannot figure it out!
I am interested in this too! I find it very hard to believe that promo pictures from some sellers involve no post work, like those on stonemasson, which have a gorgeous noise texture. So if there is a way to do this in Daz, I am all in to learn how!
That fifth pic looks like an Octane or LuxRender render, both produce very realistic unbiased lighting.
But I have seen the glow effect in other promo pictures too, even crowded ones. Besides, aren't sellers required to put on the picture, a watermark, if they used LUX or Octane?
I posted this topic a year ago, but I'm coming back to it. I found another example of gorgeous glowing sun light in this promo picture:
http://www.daz3d.com/street-mage-textures
Again, after all my years of using DAZ I STILL can't figure out how this has been done! Can someone please, please help? I know there must be several artists here who know how to do this!
The Reality Plugin, that bridges DAZ Studio to LUXRender has a built in BLOOM effect. The Iray renderer has a similar effect.
I think your looking for- the bloom effect. (glow)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_(shader_effect)
Ah, I do have Reality, but I've never seen this bloom effect. Do you know how to do it or where it is?
I'm not sure how to get there from Reality, but in the Luxrender UI, it's under Lens Effects...
Okay, I see now. Thank you very much for your help!! I'm just surprised because the other renders I have seen with the bloom effect don't look like Reality/LUX renders to me... just regular DAZ renders!
A lot of those renders look like they are using some atmospheric effects....something done with Uber volume or something.
Environmental lighting...like UberEnvironment can contribute to a nice 'glow'.
Depth of field is also evident in some of them...
Also, making sure your shadows are somewhat 'soft' will mellow things a bit.
Yes, a number of those items, especially the M4/V4 items probably pre-date the use of Luxrender, so it's not likely to be what was done. Besides, you are right, most of them don't really look like a Luxrender or Octane render.