Render Compositing

MelissaGT

Hi there - I'm hoping to get some assistance on compositing renders in photoshop, specifically ones with DoF motion blur. Here's a link with a prime example that I'm trying to replicate...with the same outfit oddly enough - 

https://www.daz3d.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/d/f/dforce-wet-and-dry-dark-fantasy-outfit-for-genesis-8-females-01-daz3d.jpg

I'm assuming that the image was done in three passes...rain...figure...environment. I gave it a shot...with KA's Iray Rain and Stonemason's Urban Future 5. Got an awesome setup, but I really want to make the character pop from the background by giving it that DoF motion blur. All seemed to be working fine...I did a layer with the background...a layer with the rain...and when I got to the layer with just the figure, the lighting on her doesn't match perfectly. Which of course, why would it...because she's being influenced by the environment's emissives as well as my three point lights. I've attatched some examples...this first is the full single test render with everything (I only let it run for a little while so it's pretty rough). The lighting on her was perfect. The second shot is the layer with just her (obviously my .png has a clear background). All I did was just hide and unhide what I needed for each layer. 

*Edit* Aaaand of course the files won't attach and keep throwing errors. WHATEVER. Here are the links via Imgur - 

Griffin Avid

It looks like more than just DOF. I'm seeing post work effects.

Also spatial tricks....Her position to the police car looks off, and the angle too - so it looks like they had fun with the background and placement concerns came later.

A lot of post-work filters cause that slight motion blur effect- where everything behind her has that double-line. (Daz) DOF doesn't really do that.

The people in this CGIworld and on this forum are so nice, you can probably track down the PA from the product, ask about the promo (who did it if they didn't) and get the full answer on how they did it.

MelissaGT

I'm figuring there was a lot of post-work done in PS...that motion blur is easy to accomplish with a simple filter. Then there's the other stuff like you said...a moderate amount of post work is something I'm comfortable with. My issue is with the lighting...compositing layers from my one scene resulted in the lighting on my figure not matching...because the emissives from Stonemason's scene are also influencing her...that don't get added when I composite her alone. Then again, in the reference image...the lighting on that figure doesn't exactly match the background either... *shrugs*

TomCatOliver

I think if you render the figure alone using the canvases feature, you'll get her on a transparent background, but still lit by all the lighting in the scene.

Been a while since I had any need to do it, but if I remember correctly, you'd create a "beauty" canvas, make sure that alpha transparency is selected, and add the character, hair, clothes etc to the nodes list.

MelissaGT

Odd_Platypus said:

I think if you render the figure alone using the canvases feature, you'll get her on a transparent background, but still lit by all the lighting in the scene.

Been a while since I had any need to do it, but if I remember correctly, you'd create a "beauty" canvas, make sure that alpha transparency is selected, and add the character, hair, clothes etc to the nodes list.

I tried reading about that last night, but it honestly read like another language to me...do you have a link to a tutorial? 

*edit* I think I found a good tutorial here - https://www.deviantart.com/snowsultan/art/Iray-Canvas-Tutorial-565641976

I'll give it a shot because it seems like it will fix my lighting issue. 

JonnyRay

@Sickleyield has a nice tutorial on getting started with cavnases. There are definitely more tricks you can use by rendering this way!

Canvas System Tutorial Daz Study Iray by Sickleyield