Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 7
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One thing I love about the thread is when you folks post great products and I'm saying to myself, "Gotta get that!" and I already have it, sitting there neglected. So much stuff! I particularly like your clouds Rich- they are truly floaty and add alot to the scene.
LOL, my Lucille Zombie and your Demonaro should go out on a date. He's one I don't have, can't think of when I would use him anytime soon. You did very nice with the White Point change, I like that one better too, although they both are very nice. I particularly like the lighting up at the top. I haven't had a chance to use the Ghost lights yet. I'm already laughing- picturing you trying to pick your Top Three to Top Five the end of the month. Going to be hard! So far, Clown Wigs has a spot for me, they're fun. But it will probably get bumped as the month goes by. (Arrgh. Tough decisions!)
Hi Novica. Sorry I haven't been around for a while. 2016 was a mess.
Thanks for post the link to the hilarious Dave Barry Year in Review. Nice to be able to laugh at it all. 
Here are 10 of my top DAZ favorites for 2016:
TerraDome 3 Iray
iRadiance - Light Probe HDR Lighting for Iray - Expansion 2
Mec4d PBS Shaders vol.2 for Iray
George HD for Genesis 3 Male(s)
Riccardo Hair for Genesis 3 Male(s)
Ivan 7
Tyler Hair for Genesis 2 & 3 Male(s)
Urban Sprawl 3
Legacy UVs for Genesis 3: Michael 4
Elianeck Lights Package 3
These are beautiful, Rich! I love how Sacrament turned out. The lighting really highlights the lovely architecture. I seriously need to play with Ghost Lights soon!
Darwin's walk though? I could always use more pointers! Could you link me? :)
But of course! Here it is. And I'm trying it out in my art thread here.
I know! When everyone was doing their top 10 and I'd be saying to myself "I need to get that" and then discover I have it. I'm focusing on using what I have right now.
Something like this? I'm not sure this looks quite like a date but demons don't have the best etiquette.
OMGosh, I laughed out loud. I don't think my gal is too impressed with her date!
Folks- do me a favor? When you quote a post with images, can you resize them to about 300 pixels high so they're more of a reference and easier to scroll through the posts? (If you go to the image icon after you click the images, you can just change the height and that'll do it. Although we don't MIND admiring Rich's handiwork again...) Appreciate it.
One thing I'm curious about- A couple months ago when I was sitting in the car waiting on my son at the orthodontist, I actually went on Daz site with my iphone6S (which is huge) and I really could see a difference with how the site looks. Even with my 575px high images, I had to scroll. Do any of you use your phone to be on the site? I'm curious as to what image size works best for you.
Okay- question on the Ghost lights- what is the debug option? Edit- never mind. It makes it show up again. I was afraid to click it but I saved and then clicked. (Chicken Little here)
@luci45 Happy to see you, hope 2017 is much better! I was wondering how often good ole George was going to be on the Top 10 lists, he's really unique. Your lighting is always so nice, I'm glad you're pinpointing which ones you like best. Have you got any of the renders of Michael 4 textures on Genesis 3 handy? I really should go through my M4's and look at those. There's some really neat materials and a nice variety.
It restores the red and black checkerboard pattern so you can see the light to resize or reposition it. Unfortunately, I believe it also removes any of the preset settings you've made. They are pretty easy to reapply but someone has already asked KindredArts about adding an icon which maintains settings. By the way, the vendor has been very active on their support thread in Commons which is really good to see.
@Llynara Thank you! I'm following you both now. :)
Okay, I'm just starting with Ghost Lights (happy to let the rest of you be the first, and the guinea pigs...) But here's a few ideas that I'm sure you've already thought of. With a bit of a twist. Bear with me, but this is what I'm trying so thought I'd share.
Load a figure into the viewport. Very important. She/He will be your reference. You will put them in the middle of the light setup, like they're in the middle of the room. (You can actually load a room to help you set this up, it may help. Just delete it before you save this.)
Create a stack of horizontal lights, and a stack of vertical lights. (I did 9 in ceiling, and 6 in window) By stack/pile I mean just create, create, create and do NOT move them. So it looks like you just have one square, because they're all together. Then go to File>Create> New Group and name the first group Ceiling Lights and create a second group called Window Lights.
Then move the Ceiling Lights Group up to the ceiling (all at once, that's why you grouped them) and place them three across and three rows. Now you have ceiling lights for a room. For the window group, do three windows on the left, and three on the right.I Y Scaled them to make them medium/large.
I then saved this as a Scene,(!!!!!!Ghost Lights) because it's so easy to do Merge and they're right there at the beginning of all my scenes. I did not Debug so all the squares are showing, and I DID NOT APPLY ANY PRESETS. You now have a handy-dandy light setup ready to apply the Presets. So why the figure?
So the next time you want to do a set, load it first. Then do File>Merge and choose !!!!!!Ghost Lights. When it loads, if you don't see your figure (they may be embedded in a wall!) select your figure in Scene. If you click the + out in viewport with the object selected in Scene, you'll zip right to them (a helpful tip for when you have huge sets, too. Click on any object and zip right to it.)
Once you have your figure (and the lights you set up) in view) MOVE YOUR SET so the room you want to light will line up with your figure in the middle of it. Simply turn off any window lights that do not make sense/ you don't need, or move the window lights left or right to line up with the windows. Same with the ceiling lights, take out what you don't need/ turn them off. All you need is to choose the intensity and other presets.
Ta-dah.
Thanks Rich, I had tested it in the meantime. I went through the thread and he is doing a nice job supporting the product, I just wished that video slowed down as it is actually kinda worthless so far as showing how to use the product. Way too fast. (and that wasn't the intent anyway.) But he's on the thread to answer questions and doing a stellar job that way.
So if we don't like the colors offered, has anyone tried to Surface change them or used any neat products to pattern them?
I posted this in the Commons, but thought you'd like the render time information too. This is using 5 of the ghost lights. Now, can anyone tell me what character this is? In Scene, it just says Genesis 3 female, and for the life of me I can't figure out which one I used. I'm headed to bed and will be gone most of tomorrow, so don't think I'm ignoring you when I don't reply. Carry on!
My computer is fast so this won't be everyone's results, but the time below was the closeup portrait so the speed with the lights is very good.
2min 43%
2:30 68%
3:00 85%
3:12 90% iterations 1125
3:52 96% 1248 iterations
4:14 97% 1393 iterations
DONE 4:26 seconds
@Novica
No idea who she is but what I try to remember to do is go into the scene tab and add the character name in front of the base name e.g Keshi-Genesis 2 Female. This is also handy for props with generic names like big04 which I changed to rosepetal-big04 :)
A possibility is going to the surfaces tab and looking at the names of the maps there to find the characters name ...
Yeah, I normally name the characters but got sidetracked. But thanks to Kerya's suggestion, I know this is VYK Faith for Gen3F and Teen Josie 7. Her eyebrows look so different on mine IMO (and better. Some of the promos they look drawn on. She's got great eyebrows!)
Your portrait turned out vey nice! I like the soft lighting. How were the lights positioned?
I'll attempt to do a jpg image for you when I get home- driving son to an orthodontist checkup- out the door. (Edit- and there's a little trick to one of the lights, I was going to explain later when I had time to do a writeup.)
Of course I am late to the party!!!
To find what character you used you can also go to shaping --> currently used
Was tough to pick only 10!
Mec4d pbs shaders vol 2 (I use them all the time, her shaders are top) https://www.daz3d.com/mec4d-pbs-shaders-vol-2-for-iray
zev0 aging morph (and growing up morphs) http://www.daz3d.com/aging-morphs-3-for-genesis-3-bundle
ultra scatter https://www.daz3d.com/ultrascatter-advanced-instancing-for-daz-studio
ivan7 et ivan7 HD add-on (I use this HD add-on on most not so young men) https://www.daz3d.com/ivan-7 et https://www.daz3d.com/ivan-7-hd-add-on
terradome 3 https://www.daz3d.com/terradome-3-iray
bethany (I add a little of bethany to give a more real person look http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/272321) https://www.daz3d.com/bethany-7
UHT2 (use it on most hairs) https://www.daz3d.com/uht2-ultimate-color
render studio iray https://www.daz3d.com/render-studio-iray
Eva7 (got her with the $5 deals et am surprised to really like her and her skin) https://www.daz3d.com/eva-7
little ones (could not get all of them, maybe later) https://www.daz3d.com/little-ones-caucasian-for-genesis-3
Since there's a new Nutcracker in the store today, I thought I'd do a render of an older one (released in 2006, no longer in the store). The new version has some different features (different hat style, crown option, fibermesh hair, round base, greater variety of textures) while the old version had poseable arms and legs plus a lot of facial morphs (which I can't tell if the new one has or not). Here's a comparison using DAZ images:
New:
Old: 
Since I had a ready-made-scene with Demonaro, I just substituted in the old nutcracker to make a Christmas nightmare:
I still haven't decided on my last 5 for last year lol.
Medieval Scriptorium for sure although I don't have any renders handy
Hex Arcanum for Genesis 3 Females.
Terra Dome 3 Iray.
Once I figure out the rest I will do a complete post with all of them.
Well, my "BOO" Portrait/Room Lights (Boo is a mini setup, not a full ghost. You could still do a lot more!) are wall and ceiling lights basically.
Here's the approach I take on portrait lighting.
Overall-even lighting is boring. IF you're trying to be logical, choose a direction to have the light, and stick to it, whether you're coming from front, side, top, or bottom. You can have softer fill lights from other directions, but if you want dramatic lighting, then make it dramatic logically. Example: the portrait shown used center as the very dim overall light.The light on one side was brighter because I want the left side to be more powerful. Keeping that in mind, the left, above was brighter than right above. Then there was a center, slighly behind the figure as another fill, strong enough to do rim lighting for the hair and shoulders.
What's the secret I referred to? Make one of the right lights BLACK OR DARK CHERRY BLACK. Look closely at the edge of Faith's face (and particularly on the top half of her neck) on the right. That is a dark cherry black light helping to outline her and add to the shadows. For ghost lights, I used the whitish blue light, went in to surfaces and changed the color there.
From somewhere in the front, have at least one "fill" dimmer light. In this case, it can be any of the 1-3 lights.
So, many of the lights go floor to ceiling, and you can shorten them as needed. If you only want to the waist in regular light, just shorten. The lights in back and the full length on the sides makes this a setup for rooms, so you can have both a room setup and your main character nicely featured at the same time. Simply reduce the "portrait" lights and rely more on the room lights. (3,4,5 in front for the room, 8 and 9 for the middle of the room/ windows, and 10-15 in back, depending on if there's windows or you want light by 11-12.
Remember to save one default set of lights (with the squares showing) and rename it immediately, then you can manipulate the squares. Then "debug" them.
I found the easiest way to test the lights is to have Surface open and just change the lumens from there frankly. You have to, if you go over 1000k anyway.
Next post, I will show you 1000k on each of the lights. All using Daylight. You can imagine the combinations you can get. Do note the upper numbers, as predicted, are not for portraits, they will light the end of a room but not the character. This 15 light setup is for portraits and room, and to light the character in the room and be subtle about it. Simply use the portrait lights and dim them.
These are all with film ISO 120.39 and exposure value 14.32. This is just to test the lights, I am not changing anything to make a test position look better. If you raise/lower the amount of lighting, any of these will give good results, particularly in combination with others in the set. 13-15 are for the back of the room, if your figure is rotated around, you will be surprised at how the figure is lit (there is a post showing the figure rotated and you'll see it there.) These all show the figure facing FORWARD.
FYI- Remember to do ISO first, because that moves the exposure value slider. If you want MORE light, then move exposure value to a lower number. I personally like 13.65 in general, with ISO's around 120-135. After that, go to Environment Intensity over in Environment and increase that in small increments. There's really no reason to keep increasing ISO to the point of it being grainy (as mentioned in the Ghost thread)- just take advantage of the exposure or environment intensity settings.
These start with light 1. All are Daylight, 1000K. Your results will differ depending on how far away from the character you put them, how much tilt, etc. My "Boo" lights are general placement, for a lot of combination options for presets.
Lights 1, 2, 3, 4
Lights 5, 6, 7, 8
Continuing on, starting with 9.
9, 10, 11, 12
Then the back of the room, so the character is only faintly affected (13) or not at all (14, 15)
Thanks. I struggle with lighing always and I love good lighting.
Here are a few renders of M4 textures on G3M. I hadn't really done any that I liked, so I did these today. I wouldn't recommend the product (Legacy UVs for Genesis 3: Michael 4 ) if you are picky or for closeups - a lot of the M4 textures aren't really good enough for Iray and/or don't have good specularity maps, and are just hard to do anything with. I bought it mostly for my old Phoenix66 characters and have had only OK results. I think the render of Sol (one of the DAZ Elite Males) is good - he has excellent texture maps. So these are Callum, Sol and Shaw. Oh, and I didn't like the M4 eyes so I used Project EYEray on the eyes and had to change the UV maps on the eye parts to G3M.
@luci45 Wow, Sol looks so real I can almost imagine a trickle of sweat running down his face when he gets warm!! All of them are so good! I love your George combo.
Your lighting is quite nice, I love the rim lights on the hair and collars. I have the Legacy UV product but it has been SO long ago since I used it, I can't remember what it was on. The Phoenix66 and Morris characters sounds familiar though- remember a year or two ago (yikes!) when we all did Phoenix66 renders on the thread for Render the Vendor? Maybe I used it then.
@xmasrose Better late than never! I haven't tried Ultra Scatter yet, but it sure is popular. I imagine it's a big time saver. Also heard a lot about the Render Studio Iray. The UHT Hair Shader products are so easy to use and totally agree with that one too. Wish we could pick more than ten- love your list!
@RGcincy- that one Nutcracker in green also looks quite demonic! There's a big difference in those old and new ones, it's a shame the old one isn't still available because he's totally different. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the light tutorial! I'll have to study it, there was a lot more to it that I was expecting. I'll also have to BOOmark this.
So the 400 px renders are taking a minute forty three seconds.
Here's a combination that I tested. The first number is the light, the second the lights:
2: 800k which is the front right and used as a fill
3: 100k the center fill
8: 400k for the left, to add light but keep the right side dramatic
9: 700k for the right, that's the drama
The character is facing forward in the first one. Then we'll see the variety we can get, using these same lights, by just Y rotating the figure toward the light (our right) and away. One way I test my light setups is to see how versatile they are- and I love "happy accidents" like when I set them up looking good facing Front, but another rotation looks even better. So here they are, rotated around. I started at front and rotated her front-left-back-right-front. Some of these are 3/4 turns, I didn't want precise side turns.
This is turning her to our right so it would be left as you tug on the cube. It's the second one below.
Here's the fourth one, facing BACK. That's what makes the presets so versatile.
So for me, where I have the lights passes the test because I can get multiple effects by simply rotating, that look good. Happy rendering, hope this helps!
Oh you are SO bad.
You only have about twenty minutes, but if you like kit bashing (and are very creative) Pretty3D's store is stacking due to the Get Fit sale and the 30% off PC+ non DO items. Things (bundles) are about $4, many things are $3 or so. Some hair products, some skirts, some tops, some boots, etc. Can't remember what new release I had, think it was a PC+