Backgrounds?

Phantom Studios

Hello...

I'm a little confused. I want to insert a background in the scene for my character. Is a background the same thing as an environment?

How do I insert a BG to my scene?

Thanks!

Ghost

sriesch

There are several ways that I know of offhand:

One is to just use a backdrop in DAZ Studio, which is some 2D image that gets drawn in the viewport window behind your scene after it has rendered. An advantage is that it's quick, a disadvantage is that it isn't really in your scene, so it won't appear in reflections (and things like chrome materials will look dull and non-shiny), and it will still be there no matter what angle you move your camera to.

Another is to use a skydome (basically a sphere with an image drawn on it.) There are ones for sale, some for free, or you can make your own if you know how. An advantage is that it really IS in the scene, so it affects reflections (including things like chrome materials).

Yet another is to use other 3D objects as backdrops, for example the millennium environment, which I think was a collection of near-2D objects. Because they are in only part of the scene, you'll have to move them around to the right position, and you won't get complete reflections working from the other corners of your scene.

Or you could make a 2D plane and slap an image on it; it would be kind of like a low-budget millennium environment with just one piece to it.

and something something HDRI something I don't know how to use yet.

Or of course you could take your render with a transparent background and combine it with another image via postwork.

Novica

You go up to the top left, under Create to create a primitive, to make a plane. But Backdrop is under Edit (also top left corner.) You select your primitive and then in Surface tab, under Diffuse, you click the square on the left and can insert an image. PNG's work best for me, my studio doesn't like jpgs.