Seeking recommendations for new users
SnowSultan
Posts: 3,781
I may have a chance to recommend Studio and DAZ content to some potential new users and was wondering if anyone would like to suggest a combination of skin texture and HDRI that they think would give good, quick results to a new user without the need for material or lighting adjustments. I've been doing this since 1999, but also I postwork the heck out of my raw renders and also use slightly older content, meaning I probably don't have the latest, most realistic textures with optimized Iray settings out of the box.
I'm a little curious myself to be honest, as I keep seeing really photorealistic renders in the gallery here and even with all my experience, I don't know how you're coming up with them. ;) Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
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Alrighty, well thanks anyway. Guess the first suggestion I'll be passing on to new users is that they don't really need to look to the forums unless they want to complain about how vendors need to make more male clothing that won't sell or to let us all know that they won't be buying the latest release. :)
Just saw this, I'm getting ready to go out the door, but will respond with more detail later. But, I often use the default HDRI that loads with DS. IMHO it kinda get a bad rap, it actually works very well to give a strong main light, and an opposing rim light when rotated propely.
OK, I'll try to help a bit more. First let me say that I'm not hugely into photo-realism, more into simply realistic 3D, but since no one else has responded, I'll do the best I can. The image below is probably my best attempt to date at something that might qualify as photo-realistic, but there are still some definite "tells" that let you know it isn't. For the most part though, I think the skin/shaping is very good, that is due to the quality of the figure and textures more so than my skills (I did adjust the shaders to my liking, but all the details were in the original figure/textures (Chameleon Rose for G8F over at Rendo). The scene is lit with the default HDRI, rotated 20 or 25 degrees. I also added on spot light for additional rim lighting on the upper left.
If I were to recommend a figure/character from the store here, it would be on of bluejauntes characters, either Misumi HD or Sahel HD. I don't own either one yet, so this is just based on the promos, and what I've seen other people do with them here in the forums, and in the galleries. I do plan on getting at least one of them, because they are so good, even though they eren't really "hy style" (and was going to get Sahel ... but missed the sale deadline
). But, photo-realism is sooo subjective, others may have vastly different opinions.
For HDRI's, I think most, if not all that are sold in the store are great quality. The default HDRI in DS will not work for a background, so if your potential users are looking for that, then they will need to get something "better". The down side to an HDRI is that the lighting is a part of the image, so other than rotating the dome, you are sort of stuck with the vertical light angle (though this can be modified to a certain degree adding your own lights). For a new user, I might recommend getting some of the free HDRI's that can be downloaded from links that can be found at the free HDRI thread HERE on the DAZ 3D forums. This way they can explore different images, and begin to get an idea what HDRI's available here (or elsewhere) they might prefer, rather than getting something that isn't their style.
Hopefully some of the people who are really into photorealism will respond after reading my feeble attempt
Hope this helps a little!
Gallery Link
Time after time when I see it, those renders are raising the bump, normal, & glossy settings and doing nearly nude renders or face closeups with 3 point lighting. Where there are any models or HRDIs in the background they tend to use depth of field but usually they have a studio style background and sometimes some form of bright halo lighting. The lighting angles used tends to emphasis gloss and contrast and obscure the hair via brightlights and halo effects when the hair style is not condusive to hiding it's faults in other ways.
The Genesis 8 human material defaults are better for that than the old equivalent for Genesis 3 but not exceedingly so.
When I did about those renders done like that I'm of the personal opinion those really aren't more realistic but are simply more distracting, obscurring, and dramatic so they are better 'art pieces' really more than being extremely more realistic.
Dustrider: Thanks very much for replying. Yeah I've actually had some success with the default HDRI, I've been trying to use it more often so I can base postwork techniques off a predictable light setup.The link to all the free HDRI resources will be a big help to new users, I'll actually check a few of those out myself. Nice render too, thanks for sharing.
nonesuch00: True, clothing is probably the biggest giveaway that an image is a render and not real because it's the least photorealistic of our available content. Nudes and close-ups usually look the most realistic. Do you have a favorite texture for close-up renders?
My Altern8 skin shaders. I know I'm biased but I do think it enhances most skins. It also comes with a couple of render settings as well as a couple of HDRs and a few other render helpers like dome rotation presets and scene temperature settings.
@SnowSultan l’m still learning Daz Studio and I’ve found the HDRI images at HDRI Haven to be really good. I think they are in the list DusRider linked to. (l’m on my iPad and I’m all fingers and thumbs when I try to copy and paste on it, lol).
No, I like all the DAZ Originals for Genesis 8 (that I've bought, I can't afford many). Of the non-DAZ Originals, I've bought many, such as D.Master, Virtual Worlds, Lyoness, Darwin's Mishaps, FSW (or something like that), RedzStudio and so on, and I honestly can't complain about any of them, but for realistism attempts I prefer to stick to any DAZ Original because they are the same settings used for each of them and adjust the lighting and glossiness as desired for consistant results. .
I will buy Altern8 from DivaMakeup next time it's on sale as it has a many presets at adjust tone mapping and the various tranlucency, SSS, and other shaders channel layers in Genesis 8 to acentuate details like veins that are usually overwhelmed by the DAZ Originals Genesis 8 settings. I'm not particularly keen on memorizing the DS iRay proprietary configuration and it's approaches since it isn't documented completely or very good for unknowlegable hobby people like me so a product like Altern8 is a one time splurge and bargain. Also I rarely attempt realistic renders as I always find big faults with my attempts at it and I prefer toons anyway stylistically.
If you want great skins "out of the box" without adding a shader I really like:
Edward 8
P3D Riza for Aiko 8
Darius 8
Floyd 8
Pix Tilwig for Edie 8
Elijah 7
Lee 7
Those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.
Altern8 looks like a great product, so that would definitely be something to consider for new users to get the most out of their potential purchases (it's on my wishlist
).
Diva's Lori character for G8F is another one that I've seen some great out of the box renders, and depending on the interests of your new users, she might be a perfect character for them.
One of my favorite free HDRI's is Luxo Jr from Dylan Sisson (he works for Pixar), it's a top notch HDRI, and IMHO a good one for beginers to learn with.