Poser/DAZ Studio WorldBall Render Gallery
3dcheapskate
Posts: 2,689
This thread's for anybody who's created images using the freebie Poser or DAZ Studio WorldBall for the background and (main) lighting.
Please feel free to post any images meeting those simple criteria, whether they're WIPs or finished artworks. Also any hints/suggestions on how to make best use of the worldball, or how to overcome problems.
I'll start the ball rolling with four variants of exactly the same scene - "You Watch My Back...".
Between renders I just swapped WorldBall environment set and adjusted the WorldBall yRotation (after parenting the Sun and IBL to it!) to get a nice lighting/background combination.
DAZ Studio 4.5 renders, 65mm focal length:
- Dinokonda and Victoria 4 from DAZ
- V4 Hippogriff Rider outfit from Content Paradise
- Pretty3D’s Fantasy Warrior Hair from Renderosity
- V4 texture is one of Syltermermaid’s from Pretty3D/Artraiders or Content Paradise
- Sword, shield, and WorldBall (lighting and background) are mine - Cinderside, Grasslands (Evening), Misty Mountains (Dawn), and Sand respectively.
(All non-free content used in this render is legally owned by myself - or my alter ego with the wallet!)
I did a bit of playing with the bump and displacement on both figures - I've never liked plain old flat surfaces! Also used my ShieldTMS shader for the shield, and fiddled with the DS materials on the sword (the default DS mats are really messed up!)
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Comments
I really like that purple one, since the back light isn't harsh enough to wash out the details on the figures.
Me too, that's the one I've got on my desktop. I couldn't put my finger on why I preferred it, but you're spot on - it's the softer light.
Worldball in PP2012. I did change your lighting from shadow map to raytrace because it was causing her face to glow due to SSS, and I did turn on IDL (I'm still learning this thing).
V4, Devon by Silver, Tamesis by Surreality, Look at Me Eyes by Raiya , Kleo Dreads by AprilYSH (mats by Surreality), Riae Outfit by Val3dart, Rocky Flats by FirstBastion
Minor postwork on the second one to brighten the colors.
Very nice! The postwork makes a big difference - did you try brightening up the lighting in the scene first before deciding to use postwork?
P.S. Most of the WorldBall lighting is fairly dull by default. But you can edit the Sun/IBL colour/intensity values in the WorldBallData.txt file to suit your tastes. The balance between the Sun and IBL is very personal too - default settings are fairly arbitrary, so you may want to adjust that too. I also used a rule of thumb that the total intensity of the Sun and IBL should be 100%, so I have intensities of 50/50, 60/40, 30/70, etc. There's no reason to stick to this - in fact on the latest environment set I used 100/100 because the rule of thumb just didn't suit.
If you edit those settings in the WorldBallData.txt file then it will always load the environment set with your preferred settings, not my default ones.
Yea, I was busy trying to figure out render settings and learning why her mouth was glowing and all of that, that I completely never even thought to up the intensities. lol
Thanks. :)
/edit
Here's a 2nd attempt, without postwork this time. Since the postwork did actually change some of the colors (points to eyeshadow), it may be hard for me to duplicate that without post unless I tweak colors in the mat room.
It's interesting to view original/postworked images side-by-side. Out of the three I like the colours in your postworked one better - more vivid, especially the hair. I guess some things are best left to postwork!
I just used a simple tweaked preset from Nik Color FX on that and nothing else.
Simple's good!
Anyway, here's another couple of worldball renders, posted elsewhere as 'Too Hot To Swim' (DS4.5) and 'The Martian Warrior' (P9). Y-fronts version of the latter, to pass the scrutiny of the forum gateway guardians! ;o)
I'm pleased to say that I seem to have met the original goal - I spent 95% of the time working on the pose, textures, camera setup and composition without really even thinking about the lighting/background. When I switched it on it was more-or-less what I was hoping for - a few minor tweaks to the world (adjusting Sun/IBL intensity/balance, rotating the world - bit awkward in Poser that, how do you parent lights to a prop?) and a bit of fine-tuning of reflection and specularity and I was happy. But them I'm easily pleased!
Very nice!
I can't help with parenting lights. I actually just bought PP2012 literally like a week or 2 ago and I haven't learned all the ins and outs yet. I'm thinking it might be possible in the hierarchy window? I haven't tried. lol
/edit
I almost forgot, in the Poser version, I add the Worldball.py script from Runtime\Pythin\poserScripts\3DCheapskate to my Python Scripts window and launch from that. Every time I try to load it, it asks me where the Worldball.lt2 is at. Am I even loading this thing right? lol
/edit 2
I can't figure out how to parent a light. lol You can't drag/drop it to the Worldball and if you go to Object > Create Grouping, you can't drop it into a group, either.
/edit 3
I THINK I got it. Click on the light > Object > Add Constraint. Click on the prop you want to parent to and you'll see a Constraint Grouping under it. Now when you rotate the ball itself, the lights rotate with it since the Constraint is parented to the ball. Do this for each light, picking the ball itself each time. You'll get Constraint Grouping 1 and 2. Name each one to the light they're constraint to (for? whatever lol).
Hmmm... I get that as well! But I'm just running the script from the PP2 icon. My guess would be that it happens when the Worldball.py script and Worldball.lt2 files are in different runtimes (I have about a dozen!), but that's just a guess...
There's a PP2 icon? LOL damnit
Ok, found it. Which one do I use? I have one named Worldball Setup with a snake in the upper left corner, and one in a subfolder next to it Environments\Worldball.pp2.
The setup w/ the snake shows a figure with snow and a blue sky, the second one just shows a green dude in a wireframe sphere (this one isn't labeled DS3.4).
The one with the snake - but it calls the same Worldball.py script, so you'll get the same problem. (the snake is to indicate it's calling a Python script!)
P.S. the script loads the worldball prop itself (just a big sphere) from the WorldBall.pp2 file (that's the green dude one), and the lights from the WorldBall.lt2 file (that's the one it asks you to locate! ), and then does the clever stuff about reading the datafile and letting you select the set you want. It's a pity that it seems to have difficulty with the easy bit!
P.S.#2 if anyone has the DAZ Studio version installed too there'll be an extra green dude icon in the same folder as the snake one, but with the name 'WorldBall Setup DS 3,4' - if you run that from Poser it just loads a big sphere, nothing else. I know, I've made that mistake a few times!
Actually I didn't get the lt2 error with the Worldball Setup.pp2. It works very smoothly and a lot quicker than loading the .py itself from the main runtime. lol
/edit
I take that back. It's not even asking me to find the lights. Guess I'll need to remember to load them from the lights section every time.
I'll have to get this Poser loading issue resolved. I know it's possible to create the sphere and lights directly from the script, without needing the extra PP2 and LT2 files. Not sure when I'll be able to get round to that, but it's up near the top of the list now! Thanks for the feedback.
Well, I did find a reference that was wrong.
The folder is light, not lights, but I changed it and saved it and it still doesn't load the lights.
That's about all I can help with as I never learned python (I did used to code webpages in html/css/php/etc so code reading in general comes pretty easy). lol
/edit
Wait, no, it works. I forgot to set lights visible in the hierarchy. lol
Just tried that out - no such option in Poser 6/8, just Change Parent, which is disabled.
The Add Constraint option's there in Poser 9, and if I constrain the Sun to the worldball it now rotates with the worldball, but it seems to be in completely the wrong position now?!
Oh, I'm working with PP2012. I can't help you with positioning. Poser lighting eludes me to begin with. I just bought it like 2 weeks ago. I'll have to load a side by side one day. DS on one monitor, Poser on the other, load the respective worldballs and check the light positions.
The folder is light, not lights, but I changed it and saved it and it still doesn't load the lights.
That's about all I can help with as I never learned python (I did used to code webpages in html/css/php/etc so code reading in general comes pretty easy). lol
/edit
Wait, no, it works. I forgot to set lights visible in the hierarchy. lol
Well spotted, you're a star ! Just corrected that on my machine and the worldball now loads like greased lightening in Poser 6 ! I'll have to roll out that fix now... (if anybody wants to do it manually it's line 327 in the script)
Now as far as wanting to load them without the separate pp2/lt2 files, you're on your own. LOL
Thanks for the Worldballs, I'm enjoying using them Just a couple of fairly basic renders using the lights that load with them (only change is a bit of rotation to get the bit of background I wanted) and a simple spotlight on the main figures ...
ETA: Oh, and a tiny bit of Photoshopping in the foreground of the first one, to add some Ron's Weeds.
They're beautiful! Just one observation - the shadows on the girl in the second one look a bit harsh to me,especially if you compare them to the shadows under the trees on the island in the backdrop. That's probably my fault! The default light setup for Danny's island definitely isn't right - I know I had to adjust the intensities for my Too Hot To Swim render on the previous page.
And the worldball's doing its job nicely, and unobtrusively - i.e. providing something not too bland, not too complex, to show off the figures against, and providing lighting that matches them to the backdrop.
The fact that you used an extra spotlight kicked off an interesting (although rather obvious!) train of thought. In the real world you can't easily turn down the sun or block out the background lighting*, but using extra lights isn't unusual (e.g. fill-in flash when you're taking a photo of somebody against a very bright background). The default light settings for each environment set should be set up to provide a baseline illumination to which you can add extra lights without needing to adjust the Sun/IBL.
One other suggestion that I've seen in many, many places - a tiny bit of blur on the main figure, especially around the edges might help. (I overdid it on my Martian Warrior render - to tell the truth I checked 'Depth of field' by accident, and rather liked the result! )
*not strictly true - you can put up off-camera nets and screens, etc...
Yes, I think you're right about the shadows. I didn't have the spotlight casting any (just wanted to brighten up her face and skin with a bit more diffuse) but maybe I should add another light at a different angle to get lighten the shadows the "natural" light is casting.
I've just done a bit of experimenting. The default intensity values for the island set are 100% for both IBL and Sun, and with these values shadows seem quite bright. Reducing the IBL intensity (or disabling it) was the only way I could make the shadows darker.
I assume you wouldn't have disabled the IBL intentionally, so I'd guess that you're using DAZ Studio? I've noticed (known issue 4 in the readme) that sometimes the IBL doesn't seem to work when you render. I've no idea why this happens, but manually deleting the four WorldBall items (WorldBall, Ground, Sun, and IBL) and re-running the 'WorldBall Setup DS 3,4' usually seems to resolve it.
P.S. If I'm using DAZStudio I always tend to do a test render now with just the IBL lighting the scene, just to make sure it's working!
P.S.#2 There's a post about this on the main worldball thread too, post #6 - Do Your Figures Look Too Dark In Your DAZ Studio WorldBall Renders? If you're using DAZ Studio and the IBL never seems to be working then you've probably got the files installed in the wrong place (due to an error in the installation instructions!)
That's interesting, I am indeed using DS4.6 - I'll have to have another play and see what happens when I do the delete/rerun you suggest. I'll also read the ReadMe more closely. I'm not on my rendering machine at the moment as I use a laptop for internet browsing, but I'll check the libraries are setup correctly as per the forum post you point me to next chance I get.
ETA: Though I think they must be as the first pic seemed OK from a shadow point of view?
Just tried the same thing with the grasslands daytime set . I have to apologise for Vicky - she said I was taking too long and she was bored, and then she started getting fidgety...
Both Sun and IBL are 50% by default, and (at least with DAZ Studio) you probably need to turn them up a bit, or add an extra light like you did.
Regarding whether the IBL was on for your render? I don't think it's possible tell from this.
Hints On Reflections And Depth Of Field
This is a composite of two renders using the 'above the clouds' set - one for the backdrop, one for the figure. I've posted it here because of two hints on worldball use that struck me while doing it.:
1) If you have reflective stuff in the scene plug the environment set's reflection map into them! Obvious really, that one... (*but maybe not all surfaces)
2) I was experimenting with depth of field, and found that including the backdrop in the render really slugs the system. So I aborted the render, made the worldball itself invisble, and re-rendered - much quicker. I then made everything except the worldball invisible and did a lightening fast backdrop only render (no depth of field). A bit of Gaussian blur in GIMP, overlay the proper render, and ended up with this.
(Poser 9 worldball render, no extra lighting, AO enabled with default settings)
*I used a different reflection map for the shield because I wanted a ground-coloured reflection
Sample Renders Using (Almost) All Environment Sets To Date
I'm just doing a small job that I should have done 2½ years ago, and I did a few test renders in Poser 6 using the worldball. I thought the results were a nice overview of the environment sets so far. (After the initial scene was set up each environment set was loaded and rendered without any further adjustment)
Fairly random order, here's the first 12...
...and another 12.
A Chedi That's Seen Better Days
I'm finally fixing the materials for a couple of my old props - the chedi and the dha. This is a Poser 6 test render of a full chedi (morphless) from the CBB(beta) with the new, almost-ready, 'Seen Better Days' MC6 applied. Worldball/grasslands evening set for backdrop/lighting
Camera: 50mm focal length, F2.8. I used the focus distance guide (View > Guides > Focus Distance Guide) to focus on the edge of the chedi dome.
Lighting Adjustments:
- Sun: intensity=100%, Ray-traced shadows, blur radius=2.5, min bias=0.8
- IBL: intensity=75%, AO on, strength=0.7.
- Scene AO options: max dist=0.058, bias=0.005, samples=3
Render Settings:
- Automatic > one-up-from-Final (just to see what it does!)
- Selected 'Smooth Polygons'
- Selected 'Use Depth Of Field'
(I initially rendered with AO bias 0.0009, without 'Smooth Polys'. When I set Smooth Polys I got odd artifacts. reducing AO bias to 0.0001 made them worse, increasing it gave me this)
I Love This Place (Plus Hints On Correcting Sun/IBL Light Intensities)
I've been playing around with focus/lighting/shadow options in Poser recently, learning the difference between IBL and IDL, and that AO doesn't sit well with IDL, but seems fine with IBL. Also trying to get to grips with AO and bias settings.
Also discovered how to control depth-of-field and motion blur in DAZ Studio
This is another Poser 6 test render for my chedi texture, this time with the sand set from the basic worldball. A few alternative versions over on my ShareCG page here http://www.sharecg.com/v/71639/view/1/3D-and-2D-Art/I-Love-This-Place. I've already mentioned that all the default light intensities probably need adjusting. Here's a rough approach that seems to work for me:
1) Make sure you have some fully-in-shadow and fully-in-sun bits of the background environment visible in your render.
2) Make sure you have some fully-in-shadow and fully-in-sun bits of a fairly big prop visible in your render.
3) Render using the default worldball settings.
4) Increase the IBL intensity until the fully-in-shadow bits of your prop 'look right' when you render. +25% is a good first try
5) Increase the Sun intensity until the fully-in-sun bits of your prop 'look right' when you render. +25% is a good first try
6) Increase/decrease IBL and/or sun intensity by 5% and render (repeat until you're happy...ish)