Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 9
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I stopped getting notifiations for the thread late yesterday, so this evening when I looked it up I was behind by 65 posts. Boy, everyone has been busy today!
Glad you found it useful. I'm not a big fan of videos myself, and even though English is my native language, I just find most are too slow and hard to follow unless they have really good resolution. The ones that come with this product are good which probably adds to the cost. I've been waiting on getting 3 & 4 until their price igoes lower.
Wow, I'm sincerely honored to be on that list! I am pretty good at keeping quiet when I don't know too though lol.
@Novica, just emailed you :)
Hi Novica
Thank you for the info - that was what I thougth, but you fooled me with the suggestion of nothing outside the window. I thought magic was happening, because if I don't set something outside the windows, I get the ugly chequered 'void'. I haven't tried using backgrounds yet, but will take a look at the freebies. From a quick look at your linked thread, it looks like I could use Photoshop or whatever to create backgrounds. I like making extremely blurred photos of flowers etc, which I think would work well - sort of the visual equivalent of ambient music maybe?
Okay, this is taking too long, aka all afternoon, into evening. Obviously, instead of a quickie, I'll give some fun tips and show you how to tweak things. Let's get quite a few products in here and spend time on it. (Started around noon.) Tackling something hard, dark room (black, gray, red) with black and red clothing. Why not? I want to chat about keeping your character separate from the background.
Modern Room Bedroom Tara 2 HD (Victoria 7/8) GeeGee Hair (Gen8F)
NOTE: Male Clothing! Cool Casual for Genesis 3 Male(s) Brrrrr for Cool Casual thanks to @sickleyield SY Ultra Templates Genesis 8 Female
Cold Weather Outfit (Gen8F) (boots only) Be Seated For Her (and tweaked a lot) Fabric Gazebo
I feel like I'm doing RRRR, putting things together based on the order of what I bought them. This is actually kinda fun. ( @RGcincy, remember when we did scenes based on the order we bought them? I'm at it again. And I had to laugh, Brrrrr had a RED shirt option, and GeeGee Hair had a red handband, both go with the room!)
A Ghost Light Tutorial for this room: First for newbies: If you're new to Ghost Lights, this is what it looks like when you load the lights. Put them where you want them (and there's easy Bend, Swing, etc sliders.) Click Apply Before Presets, they disappear, THEN you apply your lumen, etc settings. If you don't own Ghost Lights, WISHLIST THEM. Now! (To show the red planes again, click Debug.
But you don't really have to- I've mentioned this before but as a reminder- TIP: Use the Surface Selection Tool and they will outline in a nice gold, easy to see. I never Debug!
This first one is a 500k/300k selection on the lights, as you're looking at the image, the 500k is the open sided Ghost Light, the 300k is the wall. I like to (again) have a bit asymmetrical lighting and use a filler Ghost Light on the ceiling, shining straight down. The shadow you see outside the window is the BUILDING, Ghost Lights do not throw shadows.
Then an 800k ceiling light, final render. And kudos to the vendor, the white Diffuses were already a dull gray, I darkened them a bit more. For this to work, your ISO should be 135 (my standard go-to setting) with Exposure Value 13.49 I do have to wonder why a bedspread would be reflective and more like ice than a soft spread (see the black figurine/lamp reflecting? (This is out of the box, I didn't fix it.)
Okay, I very rarely try men's clothes on women, and Cool Casual works like a charm for the clothing with SY's Ultra Templates. No pokethrough, and it's so amazing to use a Genesis 3 MALE clothing set on a Genesis 8 FEMALE. I darkened the pants so the fastener isn't attention getting. Womens go to the right, men's to the left.
Cold Weather Boots WILL go under those pants, if you 1. increase the bulk of the pants 2. increase the shins of the pants. Both are in the Adjust part of Actor. (no need to go to Scene.) Vendor did a nice job on the pants. I will remind folks I did not like the jacket of the Cold Weather Outfit, IMO it had too many folds/morphs. I'd still buy it if it were grealy discounted. The shoes are usable, nice boots, pants and gloves are form fitting, nothing unusual. The boots are the main draw IMO, with the separate band and buckle.
Fabric Gazebo is excellent to fill your outdoor scene right outside a window. Note the plants extend past the piano window too. TIP: Remember to slide your grass back or it will provide a nice grassy carpet for your room! TIP For Newbies: For interest, leave little gaps showing more of the background. For instance, I rotated the camera so vegetation would show at the top of the piano, and that same window shows at the bottom, under the piano. It adds more depth to the scene.
TIP: intersect the head with a background item but don't have them line up. Note the black bar with the round lights? Her head slightly covers one of them, but I made sure it didn't look like it was attached to her head. The hair, piano, and light all "overlapping" adds depth. Had I spun the camera to my right (moving the view to our left) then that depth would be lost as her head would be in front of only a background window. Also see the itsy bitsy tip of the piano past her shoulder? That adds depth too. But we can do better.
Another example (six renders later, still tweaking) is that folding chair outside. It was being cut in half (the "x") by the window bar running vertically. Note how the chair steers clear of it.
TIP: I'll show you an example- Make sure lines do NOT line up. Look at the extended foot and the rug. That's a no no. So when I show you the improved version, trying to keep that black bar/round lights, piano, and hair together, I have to change up the foot.
Too many times I've seen things just blob together- take the time and get your figures and backgrounds DISTINCT and separated. Let's keep going, as this gal's body merges into the piano, particularly that elbow area.
TIP: Your clothing should match your season, with the understanding it can still be green grass and fully leaved trees and drop to the forties at night. (Example, where I live, Panhandle of Florida.) But you don't HAVE to be stuck with the season of the prop. I changed from green Summer to late Summer/Fall by adding Orange and Red to the Diffuse, and dark Olive/Brown to the grass. Put in the appropriate backdrop, and what a difference!
TIP: If the hand pose isn't good with the differing camera views, MOVE THE HAND. In this case, the second example- by simply lowering it so there's more horizontal, the hand won't get lost and it's more dramatic.
How fast does this render with a character, hair, two sets? 82% in 8 minutes. 93% in 15 minutes. 96% in 18 minutes, done by 20 minutes.
Now let's talk about the changes. If you're playing with a room and a character with clothes that are blending with the room, change one, both, or the other in Diffuse.
In Diffuse, here's what was added/changed:
1. the white of the rug- gray.
2. the lights on the wall- gray
3. the piano- lightened from black to a dark gray/black
4. her pants- lightened from dark black/gray to lighter dark gray.
5. her shirt- added a bright hot fushia purple because the Diffuse was already white, no way to lighten that.
Added a background to change the season. (Keeping with Autumn, it's a orange/gold scene purchased elsewhere.)
TIP: To create distance/ keep the background from becoming distracting: Added a plane in front of the gazebo, Iray UberBased it, added a glass shader so it wouldn't be grainy, lowered the opacity to 8% and made it a light gray/blue. I do this instead of messing with windows. That way, I can put vegetation in FRONT of the plane if I want to, and create a multi-layered distance effect quite easily. NOTE THE TREE BEHIND THE PIANO. It is in front of the plane. The gazebo is behind it.
When you're working with windows and looking out, if you mess with opacity of the windows, everything outside is stuck with that. By creating planes and putting vegetation/props/buildings in-between, you can create the mood quickly. (Create a default scene with planes already set up, load your set and bingo, you're set up.)
TIP: Be careful- the Ghost Light should be IN FRONT OF the plane.
TIP: Put an emissive / point light behind things which need to stand out. That elbow in front of the piano has a point light between the hand/arm and the piano. See the difference? I've got to do postwork the leg pokethrough. I'm not done yet, but wanted to post what I have.
Okay, this is weird. This isn't looking at all like the popup. Click on it and the pants should be lighter, (but are showing up WAAAAY lighter than the image), the elbow shows up in front of the piano, etc. Very strange! I like that there's more ground under the piano in the background, and the dramatic sunset is off centered and in that window. The change of seasons really makes a difference, with the reds inside the room and the autumn orange outside.
The forums are really screwing with the images. I did an exact duplicate of the one above, fixing the pokethrough, and the pants are showing up coal black. So for right now, just ignore the pokethrough.
Edit: Here's one with the light in back moved. The pants and piano are showing up much lighter in the popup, don't ask me what's going on, it looks so different from the attachment AND image below, which is DARKER than the original! Just click and you'll see the lighter version. Sigh.
Here is a new purchase from the other night. Thought I'd put this together as I've been digging into lighting of vairous types. The sparkel shaders are pretty nice I use them on different things.
First time using the Southernlights. Wide screen they creat a nice sky.
Description
Mind bending the universe.
Made with...
@novica great tips and tutorials.
Here is Miranda Hair with the Hair Lustre Shaders for Iray. The model is a mix of Genesis 3 morphs.
Very nice image. The hair looks awesome.
Those are both lovely! Your images aren't doing funky things. It must not like me tonight LOL. Love the skin on the character mix, it's really soft and just the right amount of sheen. And Lily looks ready to conquer the universe, love the details on the outfit too.
Thank you. I was surprised how much I liked the Miranda Hair. It came in the Monique 8 bundle.
Yes, I remember well. It was fun to see how sets would combine, surprisingly well in many cases.
Great set of tips - thanks for the detailed writeup!
Looks lovely! that is a good hair
I like the look of the outfit recolored maroon and black. Nice job.
Okay, we're at 16 comments and 30 are allowed before the thread is closed. I have a dilemma as I will be leaving in the morning and won't be here when the thread closes. It takes awhile to start the next thread, I've been working on it and getting ready to "launch" it so it will be available for activity to continue WHEN THIS THREAD IS FULL. I will put a note on it to not post until this one closes. Please DO NOT POST ON IT YET.
Moderators- as usual, will you please put a link to the next thread as the last post when you close it- appreciate it.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/212231/new-novica-forum-members-tips-product-reviews-pt-10
I got Holiday Nook which is 3Delight and as I don't have the Iray addon I used Uber Base and set the lights and fire to Emissive.
2017-11-18 02:06:06.161 Total Rendering Time: 4 hours 17 minutes 46.51 seconds
Thanks for the tutorial Novica. I know what I’ll be practicing tomorrow.
@barbult - Lilly looks great. Love how her eyes match her clothes.
Just an OT for those who want to holiday shop or just get a fantastic deal- this is a bit earlier this year so wanted to point out Bath and Body Works (dot com) is doing their amazing $3.95 per bottle (that is 12.95 and 13.95) on shower gels, foaming bath/shampoos. They are already sold out of one Vanilla but there's still one left, and by the time most of the general public gets up tomorrow morning and starts shopping, that may be gone quick. From several years experience, anything cranberry, vanilla, or apple goes FAST. And candles are on sale too. For ANYTHING on the site, enter the code FESTIVE and you get another 20% off that, which pays for the shipping and you still are discounted about 3-4.00.
Just thought you might want to know. (I got Warm Vanilla Sugar, Coconut Mint Drop, Winter Candy Apple, Snowy Morning, Sweet Pea, Wild Honeysuckle, and Plumeria in my first order.) Limit 15 per order, and you can order more than once and the code works. My nieces and sister LOVE this stuff, so I am literally done shopping! (At these prices, they get 5 bottles each. 19.75 x .80= 15.80 per person. A great deal! Since there is a limit, I did two orders.) Great for office gifts, it's very practical yet luxurious. The scents are awesome!
Just sorry the image(s) are wonky. The pants are darker, the piano is even a bit darker, but the elbow shows up nicely. Can't explain why the forums have the popup as ultra light, the image in the post ultra dark. Neither really show what the final render did. Just use the techniques and ignore the "result" which isn't displaying properly. NEVER had this wonkiness before! Signing off, back late tomorrow. Be sure and watch for the new thread to be activated when we reach the limit here.
The sales are pretty good now. Managed to pick up a couple sets I wanted for their parts so I can kitbash them.
I picked up a couple of BYOBs, now that all the items are available at once.
ETA: It's odd how quiet this thread is now, with only a few posts to go to hit 3000, close it, and move on to the 10th thread in the series!
Does anyone recall a new shark being released in the store recently? I looked for shark, but I don't see it. I thought it was great white and came with its own HDRI. I feel stupid, since I'm pretty sure I saw it.... But now I can't find it.
It was by Allesandro AM (SP?), they guy who makes fur and LAMH.
There was a recent hammerhead shark and also a great white shark by Allesandro_AM in October but they show up as a 404 missing page (found by searching Google)
The commercial thread is still there for the great white, but the product link is 404, as RGcincy said.
Bummer. Well I was just thinking of getting it.... hopefully it’s not gone forever.
Well, here is another item. As, I'm in the work with various lighting and shadow mode.
Scene was simple. A plane, a shader, terraluna, a girl, outfit and sprites. Then of course working it all together.
Description
Loving all the cool things in the store.
Don't have my notes handy. When I do I'll add other components utilized.
The floor was created with a plane and shaders.
Made with...
@cismic Fun posing and love the sparkles. Great combination!
I'm back, spent all day doing photography for a Christmas card (not mine, I was the photographer.) SO much fun! With Santa, an Elf, and a horse, how can you go wrong? Can't get into details (I will share it after the card is released) but it was out in the country, we drove an hour over to Alabama to private property and it was beautiful. A very unique twist, you'll see in a week or two.
Okay, if I am counting correctly this is the 30th post and DONE. Thread 9 can be closed. We're at 554,470 views for the 9 threads as of yesterday, and 11,517 NEW VIEWS on the first 8 threads, as of Nov 18th, 2017. Your renders and recommendations are being seen and appreciated.
Thread 10 is here, PLEASE remember to bookmark it or you'll wonder where we went. (And if there's nothing going on, you know there's something wrong. There's always daily posts from the wonderful forum community. Couldn't do it without you!) See ya on Thread 10.
Cathie/Novica