Digital Art Zone

It is helpful sometimes to render the image with each one of your lights one at a time so you can understand better what each of the lights is doing. The first image show the scene lit by only the key, fill and accent lights individually.

The key light provides good lighting, but very deep shadows. This makes for an artistic kind of lighting that can sometimes be used for edgy portraits.

Just the fill light produces very flat lighting, which on it own is not very attractive. This is similar to the type of unflattering lighting you get with on camera flash. The shadows you get from the off axis key light make the image look more 3 dimensional and pleasing, but just the key light produces shadows that are too deep for most people’s preference. Combining the key and fill gives nice 3 dimensional lighting

Just the accent light is only illuminating the back edges of the arms and face.

The second image shows the combination of the key and fill, and the combination of all three lights. This shows the subtle change the back light makes in the image.

What do you set your samples levels at on the area lights?

scorpio64dragon - 08 January 2013 02:01 AM

What do you set your samples levels at on the area lights?

The settings of all the parameters are shown in this post http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/14536/P15/#214381

I usually use 32 as a good compromise between render speed and quality.

Thanks a lot Mr.Mark

gupta

mark - 08 January 2013 02:27 AM

scorpio64dragon - 08 January 2013 02:01 AM

What do you set your samples levels at on the area lights?

The settings of all the parameters are shown in this post http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/14536/P15/#214381

I usually use 32 as a good compromise between render speed and quality.

Ahh I usually have mine set around 24-28 but my render settings are higher, I find it helps get rid of that grimy look things, especially skin, can get sometimes.

scorpio64dragon - 08 January 2013 03:15 AM

mark - 08 January 2013 02:27 AM

scorpio64dragon - 08 January 2013 02:01 AM

What do you set your samples levels at on the area lights?

The settings of all the parameters are shown in this post http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/14536/P15/#214381

I usually use 32 as a good compromise between render speed and quality.

Ahh I usually have mine set around 24-28 but my render settings are higher, I find it helps get rid of that grimy look things, especially skin, can get sometimes.

By render settings higher, do you mean the shading rate? What value do you use?

Cheers everyone, esp Pete and Mark for all the helpful screenshots of settings etc, and for very clear easy to understand instructions (good for old farts like me!)

Nice one Mark for helping out…much appreciated.

Ian nothing wrong with us old farts.

mark - 08 January 2013 03:35 AM

scorpio64dragon - 08 January 2013 03:15 AM

mark - 08 January 2013 02:27 AM

scorpio64dragon - 08 January 2013 02:01 AM

What do you set your samples levels at on the area lights?

The settings of all the parameters are shown in this post http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/14536/P15/#214381

I usually use 32 as a good compromise between render speed and quality.

Ahh I usually have mine set around 24-28 but my render settings are higher, I find it helps get rid of that grimy look things, especially skin, can get sometimes.

By render settings higher, do you mean the shading rate? What value do you use?

Yes I have my render settings Shading rate set at 0.1 or 0.08

Yes like scorpio64dragon I often drop the main Shading rate first but it really does depend on the surfaces in the scene…example using UberSurface/HSS, Uber Surface 2 I have found that the Area Light Sample rate needs inceasing to 64 or 128.

I did not read through the thread to see if this was stated yet, but in DAZ Studio it will always render the normals forward so it looks right in the scene.  However, if you are using a surface as a mesh light and the actual normals are flipped, it will not work right for you.

wancow - 04 January 2013 01:10 PM

Okay, so I’m playing with this using this model:
http://www.foundation3d.com/index.php?categoryid=38&p13_sectionid=307&p13_fileid=1677

I applied UberAreaLight Base to the 7-Lightsheets material zone (which are supposed to emit light).

In a previous render I used point lights to simulate the lighting, but I wanted to play with these light types.  The UberArea lights on that material zone is the only scene lighting present.

Okay, one thing I had an issue with is that I had to jack the Shadow Samples way up to 64 in order to get the graininess out of the shadows (on the lights in the material zone).  I have my render shadow samples at 16, but I’m still seeing graininess.  It took a whle to render, so I just wanted to ask, do I need to jack up the shadow samples in the render engine or do I need to up them in the lights themselves again?

I will double check that to see if the normals are flipped.

thx Matty yes I did included info about the normals (first page first post second paragraph)

Szark - 04 January 2013 08:00 AM

When a surface is used for a light source the direction of the mesh’s normal dictates the direction of the light projected. Take a standard Daz Studio sphere; its normals are facing outward…when used as a light source the light emits outward. This can be reversed by scaling the sphere negatively effectively turning the sphere inside out. Scaling the sphere up and using a sky and ground map as a light colour map makes for a great soft environment light.

Mattymanx - 13 January 2013 03:17 PM

wancow - 04 January 2013 01:10 PM

Okay, so I’m playing with this using this model:
http://www.foundation3d.com/index.php?categoryid=38&p13_sectionid=307&p13_fileid=1677

I applied UberAreaLight Base to the 7-Lightsheets material zone (which are supposed to emit light).

In a previous render I used point lights to simulate the lighting, but I wanted to play with these light types.  The UberArea lights on that material zone is the only scene lighting present.

Okay, one thing I had an issue with is that I had to jack the Shadow Samples way up to 64 in order to get the graininess out of the shadows (on the lights in the material zone).  I have my render shadow samples at 16, but I’m still seeing graininess.  It took a whle to render, so I just wanted to ask, do I need to jack up the shadow samples in the render engine or do I need to up them in the lights themselves again?

I will double check that to see if the normals are flipped.

The normals are fine.  I am rendering the drydock with a starship in Lux as a test and its just fine.

I have just amended the first post of this thread to include a link to show how to use Area Lighting Base on an inverted Sphere as an Environment light http://vidaru.com/creating-simple-image-based-lighting-in-daz-studio-4/77154604

Makes for a nice soft overalll ambient light with occlussion but yeah a bit slower at render times compared with other sorts of lighting but it is a trade off with what results you want. Personally I would use this method more in the future.

Mattymanx - 13 January 2013 05:12 PM

The normals are fine.  I am rendering the drydock with a starship in Lux as a test and its just fine.

Thx Mattymanx for confriming that and talking the time to check.