For some kinds of scenes these work really well but note that lights using UberEnvironment take longer to render.
True… but you really aught to take a look at this thread for anything UberEnvironment related. I cut my render times down by a factor of 10! http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/5320/
Well, here’s a few free light options. First image is using Four Lights for Daz Studio 3. It’s a simple setup using multiple distance lights. When I use it, I tend to tweak it slightly such as turning the shadows off one or more lights or adjusting the angle slightly. I feel these are pretty good to experiment with.
Second and third images use Arah3D Subtly Soft Lights For DS Bonus Freebie. For some kinds of scenes these work really well but note that lights using UberEnvironment take longer to render.
Wow Zam, I love your shadows on these renders. I can see where lightling really creates the render. In fact, I know how important lighting is. I just remembered I purchased Skies of Terra Vol Two months ago and used it as well to try to get the right look and it just didn’t work for me.
But I do have a question that might be my problem (I’m willing to get anyone’s feedback on this). When I’m working on the lighting and rendering in Daz3d I have been using the camera (instant) render to get a feel for what it will look like during the final render. I have not actually rendered it “final” before accepting that the final render will not look right. Could it be that the instant render is not the best judge when trying to see if the lighting is right? I did just download the Arah 3d Subtly Soft Lights you linked to but I have so much lighting that I’ve paid for and received free that I really don’t think its the lighting that I need but the training. I’m just not using it right and that is more likely my problem. There’s something I’m just not understanding about lighting and it’s hard to figure out my problem when I’m trying to teach it to myself.
But I do have a question that might be my problem (I’m willing to get anyone’s feedback on this). When I’m working on the lighting and rendering in Daz3d I have been using the camera (instant) render to get a feel for what it will look like during the final render. I have not actually rendered it “final” before accepting that the final render will not look right. Could it be that the instant render is not the best judge when trying to see if the lighting is right?
If you’re talking about the slide dial on the render screen, the default settings of 1-3 are sorta useless for most lighting and are really only good for checking your placement of things. There’s various manual adjustments for default setting 4 that allow it to render faster at a lower quality but look good enough to act as basic previews. I’ll need to find the lighting info I had since it’s good general reference (that I tend to forget to use).
http://rubicondigital.host22.com/index.php/articles/poserdazstudio/4-optimising-render-settings-in-daz-studio
While it seems to be for an older version of Daz Studio, the info seems pretty good for adjusting render settings. The main current piece of info it’s missing is on Shading Rate. Lower numbers are more crisp yet they render slower with the more common goto number being 0.20 unless things are really needing to be cranked up. Higher numbers ranging from 0.50 to 1.00 often work well on their own, pending on what you’re rendering.
http://rubicondigital.host22.com/index.php/articles/poserdazstudio/4-optimising-render-settings-in-daz-studio
While it seems to be for an older version of Daz Studio, the info seems pretty good for adjusting render settings. The main current piece of info it’s missing is on Shading Rate. Lower numbers are more crisp yet they render slower with the more common goto number being 0.20 unless things are really needing to be cranked up. Higher numbers ranging from 0.50 to 1.00 often work well on their own, pending on what you’re rendering.
Hey Zam,
So do you think it’s the render settings and not the lighting? I’m still trying to work on lighting. I see videos on lighting that use distant light as if it was the sun to create shadows and light direction. I follow it to the letter and it still doesn’t work. In fact the instant render I get omitted the light all together and the only way I can get any light in the scene is add tons and tons of light and hope for the best. Oh well, you may not be able to help me without actually tutoring. LOL. But I really apreciate all that you have tried to do. I’m still going to work on it and hope that one day I can get it.
From your descriptions, I’m pretty sure it’s the render settings. That, or outright hardware limitations but I don’t think that’s it since you got two human figures in a scene at the same time and got it to render.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “instant render.” When judging lighting, I don’t rely on anything other than “real” renders because previews and OpenGL renders* can be deceptive. On my system, that means a lot of long waits for test renders on fairly high settings (for these, in order to speed things up, sometimes I find it helpful to hide the hair, or at least turn shadows off on the hair). If you post some renders and screenshots here (or better yet, in the New User forum), I’m sure people will be able to assist you. Possibly including me, although I’m still much closer to a total newb than I am to a lighting master!
*that is, the results of rendering on levels 1 through 3 on the slider that ZamuelNow mentioned.
You might also look into using some freebie or cheap light sets, either as a solution (load the lights and render) or as a learning tool (load the lights and check out all the settings to see how it was put together).
From your descriptions, I’m pretty sure it’s the render settings. That, or outright hardware limitations but I don’t think that’s it since you got two human figures in a scene at the same time and got it to render.
Thanks so much Zam. In fact that whole scene had five figures plus a horse and the rendering didn’t take very long at all from what I can remember. I use a laptop that’s only about eight months old and has a lot of power. I’m hoping that article you linked me to will help too. I’m also reading the notes that others are leaving here as well. All the information I can get can’t do anyting but help.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “instant render.” When judging lighting, I don’t rely on anything other than “real” renders because previews and OpenGL renders* can be deceptive. On my system, that means a lot of long waits for test renders on fairly high settings (for these, in order to speed things up, sometimes I find it helpful to hide the hair, or at least turn shadows off on the hair). If you post some renders and screenshots here (or better yet, in the New User forum), I’m sure people will be able to assist you. Possibly including me, although I’m still much closer to a total newb than I am to a lighting master!
*that is, the results of rendering on levels 1 through 3 on the slider that ZamuelNow mentioned.
You might also look into using some freebie or cheap light sets, either as a solution (load the lights and render) or as a learning tool (load the lights and check out all the settings to see how it was put together).
Hi Scott,
Thanks so much. The instant render is the “camera” render that Daz has. It’s very fast and gives me an idea of what the render will look like before I go to the tab and render the full sceen. I can’t be the only one with this feature. Anyways, I will post some renders but I’m still working on several and will have to wait a bit before they are ready to show. I want to get them as close as possible so that I don’t have comments on things I know how to fix but didn’t just to quickly put up a render. As for the new user thread, I tried that several times. Most of my questions were basically ignored and when I got answers, well, they left much to be desired and so rude the mods deleted it and I never got a real answer. In this thread people actual try to help and they are the most respectful of my ignorance. I think I will stay here for a while.
Hi LJWM I’m also a bit confused by what you mean by ‘the camera render’.
Can you post screen shots of what you use to render, your light settings and your advanced render settings.
Scorpio,
It’s called the “spot render viewpoint” tool. On my screen it’s the camera at the top of the desktop for Daz. If you still need a screen shot please let me know. Thanks.
Hey Zam
You are great, this really helps and helped. This is for a new book called Engima.
I have attached the render I did strickly using the information from the article. I added only one distant light at 200 intensity behind the figures. Here are the stats. Bucket size - 32, Max Ray Trace - 4, Pixel Samples - X&Y - 4, shadow Samples - 32, Gain - 00, Gamma - 1.00. I did have a background that didn’t show up but that’s okay. I didn’t have a light towards it at all. But what I got from the render is wonderfully fantastic. I have shadows that I didn’t see until the render and I love that I only used one distant light in the back of the figures. This helps tremendously. Now I have an idea which way to go to get what I need. I may not get there without running into a problem but this does help me understand what lighting should be giving me in a final render much better. I may be able to use Realty 2.5 now because the lights and reflections now makes a lot more sense.
Scorpio, above are the stats. I still have a ways to go but at least I feel I’m on the right road.I will add more renders as I get closer to my goal with this. Thanks to both of you
Possibly including me, although I’m still much closer to a total newb than I am to a lighting master! 
