Features that you could slap yourself for not figuring out sooner.

ben98120000

jakiblue said:

There's way too much scary voodoo going on in this thread.......where is Partial Render?????  

Partial render = Spot Render. You can activate it from Tool menu - Spot Render. When it is activated, go to Tool Settings tab and activate Render to - New Window. 

nonesuch00

Fishtales said:

If you are using one of your own pictures, taken with a camera, as a Backdrop under the Environment Tab, not the render Environment, then set the sun to the Lat/Long for where it was taken, Google it. Look at the IPC for the picture and set the time of day; set the Tone Mapping to the same settings as the camera, if they don't look right then look for the EV setting and try that and also set the White Point if it gives a setting for it; set the camera to the same as the camera used, frame size, focal length and F/Stop if you want to use DOF. That way the lighting will match the photograph and then rotate the camera to point in the direction you were facing when the picture was taken. Front is facing South so if you were facing West turn it to the right and East to the left, or any points on the compass. You can then zoom the camera in or out to get the added elements into the positions you want them. That is the fiddley bit and every image will be different so then it becomes trial and error. You can move the camera up or down or zoom in or out but not left ot right or you will lose the sun direction and the shadows wont match the photograph.

Love this tip!

Petercat

maclean said:

Petercat said:

nDelphi said:

The Iray Tone Mapper for rendering.

What does it do and how do you use it? What's the advantage?

Tone Mapping is the equivalent of Exposure Value in photography. That's an old system which combines the 3 main variables on a camera - shutter speed, f-stop (aperture) and ISO (film speed). The Tone Mapping dialog has all 3 of these, plus Exposure Value. When you change EV from the default 13 to 12, it halves the shutter speed, effectively letting more light in - ie. making your scene brighter. The good thing about EV is that you don't need to know anything about photography - just that a lower value makes your scene brighter.

So when you're rendering an interior, rather than ramp every light up to unrealistic values - 10 million lumens, etc - you just lower EV to a suitable setting. In Iray preview mode, you can fiddle with the value to get a rough idea of what's good, then tweak it (or the lights) to get it just right.

Some of the other values in that dialog are also useful. As I mentioned above, I tweaked White Point to change the color of the HDRI. I also tend to set Saturation to 1.05 or 1.1 to get deeper colors.

Ah! Thank you!
I've been locking the EV and adjusting the ISO.

L'Adair

D-Form!

I tinkered with using D-Formers a couple years ago, but didn't really understand what I was doing, even with the really good YT video I watched on using them. (I needed them for my first ever published render... and what a poor job I did, too! lol) It was last December when I needed to modify the reins for this image that I really spent the time needed to understand the tool, at least to the extent needed to get the job done. Since then, I've used D-Form a lot. Here are some of the things I've learned, (some of which are quite basic, but included for anyone who's never tried to use D-Form):

• D-Form loads parented to the object selected.
• You can name the D-Form before it's applied. Very handy if you need multiple morphs to fix an issue.
• There are three parts to the D-form: the field, the base, and the actual deformer tool, (which is parented to the base.)
• The D-Form field loads to whatever size is needed to encompass the entire object. At 100%, the field is very small.
• With the field selected, you will see colored dots, from bright red to bright yellow. The red will affect the object the most, and the yellow will affect the object the least.
• The field transforms are separate from the base/tool. Move, Rotate and Scale to place the D-Form where you need the change.
• The base and tool load in the object center. Move the base to reposition the tool where it is most convenient for you. You can also resize the base to make the tool larger or smaller to fit inside your preview window.
• Any transforms you do to the tool will affect the object. (That's the point, right?) So be sure to use the base for repositioning, etc.
• When you "Spawn" the morph, all the existing D-Forms will be used. So if you don't want to combine D-Forms, make sure to spawn the morph, removing the D-Form(s) for that morph, before creating another D-Form.

Now that I know what I'm doing, somewhat, I use D-Forms a lot.

nicstt

scorpio said:

I don't know about Partial render but I use Spot render>Tool Settings>New Window

Yup, I named it incorrectly; corrected my post.

nDelphi

maclean said:

nDelphi said:

The Iray Tone Mapper for rendering.

Yep. I never ramp lights up to ridiculous values. I always use Tone Mapping. And funnily enough, I just figured out a new wrinkle in Tone Mapper less than an hour ago.

I use the Pixar Campus HDRI for all my test renders, and it's always irritated me that they have a distinct blue cast. So I tried playing with the White Point value. Basically, it works in reverse. If your renders are too blue, you have to set White Point to a very light blue, and renders will return to a more normal, warmer color. I added the new setting to the toolbar shortcut I use and I'm good to go with non-blue renders.

Great tip about the color. Thanks.

Richard Haseltine

L'Adair said:

The base and tool load in the object center. Move the base to reposition the tool where it is most convenient for you. You can also resize the base to make the tool larger or smaller to fit inside your preview window.

Remember that the base is the centre for any rotation or scaling applied with the dForm.

IceDragonArt

L'Adair said:

D-Form!

I tinkered with using D-Formers a couple years ago, but didn't really understand what I was doing, even with the really good YT video I watched on using them. (I needed them for my first ever published render... and what a poor job I did, too! lol) It was last December when I needed to modify the reins for this image that I really spent the time needed to understand the tool, at least to the extent needed to get the job done. Since then, I've used D-Form a lot. Here are some of the things I've learned, (some of which are quite basic, but included for anyone who's never tried to use D-Form):

• D-Form loads parented to the object selected.
• You can name the D-Form before it's applied. Very handy if you need multiple morphs to fix an issue.
• There are three parts to the D-form: the field, the base, and the actual deformer tool, (which is parented to the base.)
• The D-Form field loads to whatever size is needed to encompass the entire object. At 100%, the field is very small.
• With the field selected, you will see colored dots, from bright red to bright yellow. The red will affect the object the most, and the yellow will affect the object the least.
• The field transforms are separate from the base/tool. Move, Rotate and Scale to place the D-Form where you need the change.
• The base and tool load in the object center. Move the base to reposition the tool where it is most convenient for you. You can also resize the base to make the tool larger or smaller to fit inside your preview window.
• Any transforms you do to the tool will affect the object. (That's the point, right?) So be sure to use the base for repositioning, etc.
• When you "Spawn" the morph, all the existing D-Forms will be used. So if you don't want to combine D-Forms, make sure to spawn the morph, removing the D-Form(s) for that morph, before creating another D-Form.

Now that I know what I'm doing, somewhat, I use D-Forms a lot.

HOw do you remove it?  I couldn't get it to turn off lol.

Summerhorse

This thread should be stickied-- so many great tips. And thank you all!

L'Adair

Richard Haseltine said:

L'Adair said:

The base and tool load in the object center. Move the base to reposition the tool where it is most convenient for you. You can also resize the base to make the tool larger or smaller to fit inside your preview window.

Remember that the base is the centre for any rotation or scaling applied with the dForm.

I've not noticed it making any difference where I put the base, or if I scaled the base to better fit in my viewport. Or did you mean something else?

 

IceDragonArt said:

HOw do you remove it?  I couldn't get it to turn off lol.

Assuming you mean the D-Form and changes it makes, you need to delete the D-Form. But the best way is to use the Spawn Morph button... (and now I have to open DS...)

Okay, I'm back. It's the "Spawn Morph..." button at the bottom of the pane. There are three checkboxes. You can leave all three unchecked, but I prefer to at least check "Delete Applied D-Former(s)"... The spawned morph shows up in the Morphs folder under Parameters when you have your object selected. Now you can use the dial to add as much of the morph as you need. Or, if you checked "Apply Spawned Morph," you can dial it down. Set it to zero to remove any affect it has on your object.

IceDragonArt

Thank you very much!

Silent Winter

j cade said:

maclean said:

On the subject of the Alt key, I was recently semi-shocked to discover someone who didn't know that Alt-clicking a parameter resets it to zero. Then I realised that I knew about it because it's always worked that way in Poser, and DAZ sensibly kept the same shortcut in DS. The person had never used Poser, so wasn't aware of it.

 

*Slaps self*

'sblood is this going to save me some time. I do so much zeroing out of stuff

Just to be clear - alt-click resets the value to its default (which is usually zero but has other values in, for example, the surfaces tab)

 

Been using DS for years - thanks to this thread I've finally got the align tool in my list of commonly used tabs - thanks and keep 'em coming :)

namffuak

Ah, documantation - and the lack thereof. The problem is that there are two base, fundamental types of documentation: functional and procedural.

Functional documentation is what Rob provides- apparently after hours, for the most part, although some seems to appear on months with a 'Q' in them or six Thursdays. This goes into complete detail of each and every parameter, option, value, and/or tool on what values are valid and what they do. This needs to be written by the developer OR a skilled technical writer with physical access to the developement staff. Any attempt to write this just by poking around the interface will have gaps and holes in it.

Procedural documentation is what we're doing here, and answers the question "how do I" and is best written by someone with an in-depth understanding of the process. See the various threads on Iray lighting, or Iray skin optimization, or ... well, that should give you the idea.

And yeah, I'd contribute to BOTH kickstarters - one for good procedural documentation and "best practices", and one to fund proper functional documentation.

Richard Haseltine

L'Adair said:

Richard Haseltine said:

L'Adair said:

The base and tool load in the object center. Move the base to reposition the tool where it is most convenient for you. You can also resize the base to make the tool larger or smaller to fit inside your preview window.

Remember that the base is the centre for any rotation or scaling applied with the dForm.

I've not noticed it making any difference where I put the base, or if I scaled the base to better fit in my viewport. Or did you mean something else?

I mean if you scale or rotate the dForm, the effect is centred on the base.

Peter Wade

Serene Night said:

When I first started ds I didn't know I could make my own camera. I was constantly frustrated because I would save and the perspective view would be altered and I would spend hours putting perspective back lol!

When I was starting with Studio I found the option to make it create a default camera and switched it on. I don't understand why this isn't switched on by default, I would have made it the default option and called it the Main Camera or the Render Camera. I usually setup the default camera for the render and use the perspecive camera as a roving director's camera to move around the scene adjusting things.

But I started with Poser so I'm used to having lots of cameras. When I'm using Studio I miss all those cameras. Trying to get a character to hold something? switch to the hand camera. Not sure the expression is right? switch to the face camera. Want to check the pose of a character somewhere in the background? select the character and switch to the posing camera. 

kaotkbliss

Peter Wade said:

Serene Night said:

When I first started ds I didn't know I could make my own camera. I was constantly frustrated because I would save and the perspective view would be altered and I would spend hours putting perspective back lol!

When I was starting with Studio I found the option to make it create a default camera and switched it on. I don't understand why this isn't switched on by default, I would have made it the default option and called it the Main Camera or the Render Camera. I usually setup the default camera for the render and use the perspecive camera as a roving director's camera to move around the scene adjusting things.

But I started with Poser so I'm used to having lots of cameras. When I'm using Studio I miss all those cameras. Trying to get a character to hold something? switch to the hand camera. Not sure the expression is right? switch to the face camera. Want to check the pose of a character somewhere in the background? select the character and switch to the posing camera. 

You can create as many cameras as you like in DS, you can even parent them to things so if the object is moved, the camera moves with it. :)

Peter Wade

kaotkbliss said:

Peter Wade said:

Serene Night said:

When I first started ds I didn't know I could make my own camera. I was constantly frustrated because I would save and the perspective view would be altered and I would spend hours putting perspective back lol!

When I was starting with Studio I found the option to make it create a default camera and switched it on. I don't understand why this isn't switched on by default, I would have made it the default option and called it the Main Camera or the Render Camera. I usually setup the default camera for the render and use the perspecive camera as a roving director's camera to move around the scene adjusting things.

But I started with Poser so I'm used to having lots of cameras. When I'm using Studio I miss all those cameras. Trying to get a character to hold something? switch to the hand camera. Not sure the expression is right? switch to the face camera. Want to check the pose of a character somewhere in the background? select the character and switch to the posing camera. 

You can create as many cameras as you like in DS, you can even parent them to things so if the object is moved, the camera moves with it. :)

The great thing about the Poser cameras is that the figure cameras apply to whatever figure is selected. For example, you have one Left Hand camera in the list and it always shows the left hand of the figure that is selected. In Studio you'd have to create and parent a set of cameras for each figure in the scene and I can never be bothered to do this. If I ever get around to looking into scripting I'll see if it is possible to write a script to do it.

RAMWolff

23Cascade said:

This thread should be stickied-- so many great tips. And thank you all!

Agreed!  Useful tips in there all OVER the place!

maclean

Peter Wade,

Here's a link to an old tutorial of mine on using cameras and lights. It was written for DS 2, but the basic principles are still exactly the same. It pretty much assumes you know nothing about cameras/lights, and goes through it step by step.

http://digilander.libero.it/maclean/DStutorial.htm

SpottedKitty

Peter Wade said:

When I was starting with Studio I found the option to make it create a default camera and switched it on. I don't understand why this isn't switched on by default, I would have made it the default option and called it the Main Camera or the Render Camera.

I don't think I've ever not had the "create default camera on new scene" turned on. This includes way back in the very first D|S versions, before I really knew what I was doing, or the limitations of the Perspective View (it isn't a Camera) — so it must have been an active default option 10+ years ago, then switched to default "off" at some later time. (Settings like these are preserved when you update D|S.)

ghastlycomic

What Layers do in Puppeteer. Not that I've done a lot of animating in Daz Studio, but it would have been nice to know sooner.

WendyLuvsCatz

SpottedKitty said:

Peter Wade said:

When I was starting with Studio I found the option to make it create a default camera and switched it on. I don't understand why this isn't switched on by default, I would have made it the default option and called it the Main Camera or the Render Camera.

I don't think I've ever not had the "create default camera on new scene" turned on. This includes way back in the very first D|S versions, before I really knew what I was doing, or the limitations of the Perspective View (it isn't a Camera) — so it must have been an active default option 10+ years ago, then switched to default "off" at some later time. (Settings like these are preserved when you update D|S.)

not always, I used to have 24 FPS as my default until the last beta where it is back to their default 30

I may need to save a default start up scene again.

Spit

I got one. I got one.

You can drag n drop directly from Explorer into your scene. Even the alt-drag trick works to place it where you want. Poser and DAZ formats both.

I use it especially to order by date so I can quickly find something I installed recently. Other uses too and I'm sure you can think of tons of uses for it.

(re Alt-drag remember it comes in at ground level, so if your scene has hills, for example, keep that in mind.)

Peter Wade

maclean said:

Peter Wade,

Here's a link to an old tutorial of mine on using cameras and lights. It was written for DS 2, but the basic principles are still exactly the same. It pretty much assumes you know nothing about cameras/lights, and goes through it step by step.

http://digilander.libero.it/maclean/DStutorial.htm

Thank you for that link, there's a lot of useful information there, certainly a few things I wasn't aware of.

BTW if you are the maclean who is a PA here and used to sell Poser stuff in other places, I've got some of your sets and I think they are very good.

maclean

Peter Wade said:

maclean said:

Peter Wade,

Here's a link to an old tutorial of mine on using cameras and lights. It was written for DS 2, but the basic principles are still exactly the same. It pretty much assumes you know nothing about cameras/lights, and goes through it step by step.

http://digilander.libero.it/maclean/DStutorial.htm

Thank you for that link, there's a lot of useful information there, certainly a few things I wasn't aware of.

BTW if you are the maclean who is a PA here and used to sell Poser stuff in other places, I've got some of your sets and I think they are very good.

Thanks for the nice words. Yes, that's me. Although I've never sold anywhere but here at DAZ. Been here since June, 2001 - longer than most of the DAZ staff. LOL.

algovincian

Spit said:

I got one. I got one.

You can drag n drop directly from Explorer into your scene. Even the alt-drag trick works to place it where you want. Poser and DAZ formats both.

I use it especially to order by date so I can quickly find something I installed recently. Other uses too and I'm sure you can think of tons of uses for it.

(re Alt-drag remember it comes in at ground level, so if your scene has hills, for example, keep that in mind.)

Exactly, Spit. I do the same, which allows for all of the searching/sorting/ordering in Windows. It also has another huge advantage in that you can have multiple explorer windows open at once. I resize my DS window to be a bit smaller than full screen, and then leave various explorer windows open underneath sticking out a bit like tabs for easy/quick access.

- Greg

nicstt

Aux Viewport.

I use it a lot for rendering tests, but actually something as simple as undocking it, resizing it to a size I can see what's going on, and then move it to another monitor.

... why didn't I think of this previously?

(Of course, I'm currently going deaf in one ear from the graphics card fan; normally I don't notice but it's been running for hours as I do this scene; every silver lining has a cloud. )

j cade

nicstt said:

Aux Viewport.

I use it a lot for rendering tests, but actually something as simple as undocking it, resizing it to a size I can see what's going on, and then move it to another monitor.

... why didn't I think of this previously?

(Of course, I'm currently going deaf in one ear from the graphics card fan; normally I don't notice but it's been running for hours as I do this scene; every silver lining has a cloud. )

Not something that I just discovered, but I do have one thing I do to keep the aux viewport from making my computer hot enough to cook eggs I made up some presets to set the max render time including one for 10 seconds, I then right clicked > add custom action to send it up to the scripts menu. I then got fancy and created a custom toolbar that sits right above my aux viewport, (I say got fancy, but its actually pretty easy to set up)

All you have to do is remember to change it back before the final render. Now If you could set different max render time/samples for the aux viewport and final render I would be in heaven.

j cade

...And speaking of, something I discovered not too long ago that I wish I'd known years earlier. Customize Workspace is the best. Once youve added something to the scripts menu (right click > create custom action) you can move it to any other menu, or create a new menu, or new toolbar. For instance, I have a dropdown menu for all my favorite lights (its even organized with submenues) I now rarely ever have to go into the content library for lights. Its amazing how much time I save by just not having to scroll to lights and then back to people.

 

But seriously you can control almost everything with Customize workspace, every shortcut, every toolbar. Its glorious

 

 

MelanieL

j cade said:

...And speaking of, something I discovered not too long ago that I wish I'd known years earlier. Customize Workspace is the best. Once youve added something to the scripts menu (right click > create custom action) you can move it to any other menu, or create a new menu, or new toolbar. For instance, I have a dropdown menu for all my favorite lights (its even organized with submenues) I now rarely ever have to go into the content library for lights. Its amazing how much time I save by just not having to scroll to lights and then back to people.

But seriously you can control almost everything with Customize workspace, every shortcut, every toolbar. Its glorious

Oh wow, what a great idea! I can well image you saving a lot of time that way - I seem to spend ages hunting down the light sets and hence losing my place on whatever I previously had in the content tab. I didn't realise new menus and submenus could be created - I have several things pinned to the "Scripts" menu item, but they are a random mess (order of addition as a custom action). I must try this.... thanks!