Workflow, lighting, surfaces - your suggestions would be appreciated!

SnowSultan

I have a pretty awful 3D workflow. I'll pose a figure, then adjust the camera, then repeat that for about six days (seriously, it takes me forever to 'get it right'), then take a look at the materials...and if I don't give up right then and there because nothing ever looks the way it should out of the box, I'll usually just drop in a lighting setup I'd made on an even more boring day (like key and edge distants, or an uberenvironment/advanced ambient and a distant light), render, and take it to Photoshop for massive color correction. When it all comes together, I suppose I look like I know what I'm doing, but it's very random and not very enjoyable.

If you wouldn't mind sharing a little about how you work, could you tell me if you mainly set up your lighting or materials first? What's made working with 3D so frustrating for me over the last six months is that I can put two textures, both by DAZ, under the same lighting and one will always look way too dark or saturated or something - which makes me think that the problem is with that texture's material settings. Some use strong and very specific SSS values and others use completely different shaders, so that's a possibility. However, I also find it hard to believe that almost nothing EVER loads with the materials properly set, so the problem may be me and the kind of lighting I use.

In general, I like using lighting and materials that do NOT give IBL/photorealistic results (because it's hard to postwork renders that do not have a lot of contrast). A basic, one-shadow primary light and some sort of global light at a low value to remove solid black shaded areas is what I've used for quite a while now. The problem is that, for whatever reason, this sort of lighting isn't working well with some textures, and I don't know whether to stand firm with my lighting and adjust the skin shaders or assume the texture is right and try to change my lighting.

I may be one of Studio's most veteran users, but lately I feel like I've totally forgotten how to get anything to look the way I expect or want it to. Perhaps new ideas from more forward-thinking users can help me figure out where I got lost. :) Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

SnowS

icprncss

Lighting is a priority as it sets much of the mood and tone of a scene but not where I begin. Materials are below lighting as lighting changes always affect how the material appears in the final render.

My workflow begins outside the app. Either thumbnails or larger sketches. Occasionally, I've even resorted to chess pieces if I couldn't get it to work on in 2D. When you begin a scene, do you know how you want it to look at the end?

Szark

Concept First or just trawl through my content library until my muse slaps me around the face and an image is born.
Set the main scene up with main subject matter in position.
Look through the Perspective camera finding good POV's dropping in anew Camera when I find one. I usually end up with about 6 cameras and then try to narrow it down to the final POV,
Add lights which depends on the scene. I light every scene from scratch every time. I never use the same light set up twice unless I am doing a serious.
Test Render Low res
Adjust Materials
Test Render
Adjust Light
Might Adjust props and/or pose of the figure
Test Render
Adjust Materials
Test Render a little higher res
Adjust Lights
If I have one material that needs more work I revert to spot rendering.
I do this for a number of days and sometimes weeks. It all depends what type of image I am doing.

What I find helpful is understanding the Surface Pane like the back of my hand so setting up surfaces can be quicker than it used to be.
Lighting is another thing I seemed to have latched on to but I still find each scene a challenge to light.
The artistic side is another matter getting balance takes some serious thought, time and inspiration.

SnowSultan

@iceprncess: I have a general idea of what I want to make before I begin, yes. Yesterday I tried lighting first and adjusting the materials to fit and that actually worked fairly well. If I'm going to have to adjust materials regardless, might as well just do it once.

Thanks Szark, your workflow sounds slightly less disorganized than mine (but still artistic enough to be a little all over the place like anyone creative). ;) I prefer using similar lighting in every scene so it's more predictable, then I mask every important surface with Mask Creator and adjust like crazy in Photoshop. Seems no matter what shader we use or complex lighting we set up, there are many things that are just done faster and more effectively in postwork.

Thanks very much for your thoughts.

icprncss

I can't give you one single workflow as mine will vary by client, job, and tool set. Workflows between Poser and DAZ Studio are different as well as differences between DS3A and DS4.x.

Which apps are you using now?

Szark

ROFLOL That sounds about right. It works for me.