Burning questions about SY's Fast Flames Iray
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in The Commons
Has anyone gotten Fast Flames Iray yet? I'm curious about it.
Are they planes so they have to be positioned in line with the camera to look "real"?
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I haven't bought them (wishlisted for now), but the product description says "planes".
I like the shapes, but I already have the full "Z/PlateZ" sets by Jepe, which pretty much cover most shapes in 3DL and Iray, so I'm not sure if I really need them, and what makes them different from the Jepe sets.
I got it, ill install it later this morning and take a few renders.
I've got it as well, and plan on doing some tests this evening.
I have it. They are planes.
It does say in the description the props are one polygon, that's the simplest "plane" possible.
As FirstBastion says, they were done that way as single poly emitters are the most efficient (based on the more polys an emitter has the more work the engine has to calculate light from them).
I got them but removed them from my image because they were so bright they made the rest of my image too dark and I couldn't even see my figures or scene.
And in usual daz style, there's no readme anywhere to tell ppl like me how to 'make it work'. The promo images appear well lit in addition to the flames. Is this another case where postwork is coming in to fix it?
I don't know how to work with them and it's frustrating. I just might return them.
Here's a quick example. I used two planes. One facing the model and one facing the camera. So to answer your question, yes, a plane does have to more or less face the camera to look real. But you can position the other planes so that they arent really noticable. I suppose it would just depend on the look your going for.
I don't know if you have worked with the emissive Iray shader before, but if you haven't it's pretty easy to tone down the light strength.
Select the plane's Surface tab, then look for "lumiance" and "Lumiance Units" (second arrow). The first can be set to any number, the second is the unit, in my example, 1000 candles per square meter. Any changes you'll make in any of those two, will have direct impact on the light strength.
I didn't get them, yet, but I can tell you how to adjust the brightness.
Click on the flame prop in the Surfaces->Editor. Expand the listing until you see the parameter groups. Click on "Emission". In the right column, you will see the Emission parameters isolated. Luminance controls the brightness. There are three Luminance parameters, however the Luminous Efficacy (lm/W) is only used if Luminance Units is set to W, (watts.) The easiest way to change the brightness, though, is to decrease the value in the primary Luminance parameter.
Here is a screenshot using one of Jepe's FlameZ III props.
ETA: I see BeeMKay beat me to it. I hope my answer will also be helpful.
Yes, but it's a SY product, and she warps space and time, so exactly what was there was a question :)
I'll try to grab all the questions in one post:
Yep, they're one-polygon planes, just as it says in the product description. They do surprisingly well when not directly facing the camera, actually, because real flames behave in a way that is a bit odd compared to other objects. If there are logs you probably need it to be facing the camera.
I did NOT do postwork on my images for lighting. That would actually not help this particular thing anyway. In the promos you are looking at default tone mapping, an HDR at 1 or 2 or the default sky dome set to 7 or 8 p.m., a flame from this set, and sometimes an off-screen spotlight for rim lighting if there's a character in the scene. If the flames are too bright for the rest of your scene's lighting, you may need to turn them down in the Emission settings of the Surfaces tab. Sometimes I did this when there are multiple flames in the scene.
And finally, Jepe's beautiful sets were made for Poser; mine was made for Iray. If you're willing to load his from the Runtime folders and convert all their lighting and surfaces, by all means do so; he does great texturing work and I sometimes use his ZZ series myself (as my previous promos will show). Mine is easier to find and use in Iray. This is true of the Fast Fog versus his steam set as well.
Actually, Jepe updated all his sets to Iray earlier this year, with lumiance adjustments...
But his doesn't have the nice single flames and fireplace that your set has (checked that), so I'll add your set to my collection as soon as my funds allow it.
Oh did he? Great! I'd better go check for the updates. :)
I just finished a render today using the Fast Flames. I used the candle flames and love how they look. I was going to post the image but you can't really see the flames themselves. But their light effect is apparent. Can also add I had no issues with the flames not directly facing the camera. I think their luminance helped with that, but I could be mistaken. I got a little carried away with the Fast Fog in my last couple of projects. They're just so fun and simple to use and I suspect the Fast Flames will be the same. Now I want fire in all my renders. ;)
Thank you guys for the tips on how to adjust the Emission settings. It's for ppl like me who buy things then can't make them work that vendors need to include a readme, and DAZ needs to let them! I can't help that I'm not a DS guru and don't know how to do all this stuff, but it doesn't mean I don't want to buy things. I just want them to look good and without proper instructions, I can't figure it out.
Thanks again.
I have all of Jepes sets (in Iray and 3Delight) except for one or two and I snagged both of Sickleyields newest, the fog and the fire props. They are different enough and easy enough to work with that I didn't hesitate. I haven't used the flames yet but the fog prop is great and really is, literally, one click.