Praise for a couple of products
SnowSultan
Posts: 3,803
This is how you do HDRIs.
https://www.daz3d.com/iradiance--light-probe-hdr-lighting-for-iray--expansion-4
It's not just the fact that you get so many presets or that it's extremely affordable for an HDRI set if you're a PC+ member, but the utility presets it comes with really make it one of the most useful light products I've ever used. Being able to just click on presets to make noticable changes to things like white balance, indoor bounce light boost, and direction makes it fun to experiment and actually can make what might appear at first to be an overly dark or unusual light rig into something that looks good. I also think this might be one of the few sets that fantasy artists would find useful because it has soft versions of all lights and they don't all give the usual ice-cold outdoor result. This is like a professional version of the free soft HDRI packages from deviantArt that many of us have used up to now.
I also hope that this becomes the new MFD. Lots of material zones and now dForce too. Let's see more expansions and textures for this in the future please. :)
https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-universal-dress-for-genesis-8-females
Anyway, they're both pretty affordable at the moment and I'd recommend you take a look. Thanks for your time.
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Comments
Got both of them and I cant wait to try them out. I use iRadiance #1 all the time and im sure expansion 4 will be just as fun.
I totally agree with you about universal dress. MFD was the first thing that sprang to mind when I saw it.
And, cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap...
:D
Thanks for the recommendations SnowSultan. I am still very new with my DS skills and appreciate it when those with more experience can recommend a product that is worth it's weight.
Well, you convinced me to get the I Probes V4....I have the first set and it is pretty useful. May I also recommend the "Solaris Station" set...it is a beast and only $3.49...this is a steal.
I actually own all of the Iradiance Light Probe sets (this will make set number 5 for me the original and the three add ons plus the new one) I use these almost every day (yes, I usually do 1-2 renders a day). They are great right out of the box, mixed with other light sets, or as a starting point. With and without the background on. Fantastic for portraits with Draw Dome on.
I'm also hoping that the dress is the new MFD. I haven't had a chance to try it yet but I picked it up this morning
Nothing cheap about it; it's one of those items that is worth the price it would be without the various discounts.
My mistake, I always forget about the secret discounts and such. I paid less than 5 bucks for the lights and the dress.
Edit: Slightliy over 5 bucks total. Seperate sales.
They missed a promo chance, if you have all these material zones, show it in the promo with a few beauty renders, show its versatility!
I would miss it if not for this thread. So thanks! Good recommendations.
The dress comes with shoes! Hmmm, wonder when and how I can get it?
Wouldve dropped a render erlier but I had to fix the kitchen sink!
The dress has 29 surface zones. The lights are from https://www.daz3d.com/iradiance--light-probe-hdr-lighting-for-iray--expansion-4 .
Thanks for the tips and descriptions - I had not taken a good look at these items!
I'm glad many of you are finding these products useful. I just wanted to pass along my thoughts while these items are on sale in case anyone happened to overlook them.
Here's a render from the product page of the dress' material zones.
https://www.daz3d.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/u/d/ud_mat_zones.jpg
Here's a really quick one for the kids - just the included shaders and some messing with sleeve and waistband morphs etc. It's a little ropey in places, but nothing that a bit of postwork couldn't fix in two minutes flat. The heels included with the dress were obviously inappropriate (a future flat shoe addon maybe? :) ) and so the shoes had to come from elsewhere. The lighting is the light probe expansion 4.
got both and the dress expansion pack as well. I'm with Snowy, I hope this dress becomes the new Fantasy Gown for this and future Genesis figures!
Oh and keep in mind the expansion for the UD isn't just a texture set, there are new add on items (clothing and jewelry) for the dress. Check it out before passing it up!
I didnt even notice the expansion... Thanks for bringing it up Wolff!
I have all 4 Iradiance light probes from the artist and they are usually my go to lights when doing protraits. Very happy to find the 4th product of this series for just $1.99
Today's release of dForce Renaissance Dress for Genesis 8 Female(s) has a pair of flat shoes, though they look more period than modern. Oddly enough, none of the promo images show the slippers, but you can see them in the texture add-on promos, Lucrezia for the Renaissance Dress.
I can't help but feel like this is the dForce replacement for the Sensibility dresses. The Renaissance Dress original texture mimics an overskirt with the skirt underneath. But I miss the modeled overskirt from Sensibility.
I was delighted by the appearance of the UD and its expansion, these types of dress designed with multiuse are great, the renders multi-tool IMO.
I still make heavy use of the MFD, it still has it, What other dress can you fit to Gen3 or 8 in foreground and have V4 / Genesis mid ground and even Mil-3s in the bg all identically clothed without recourse to a lot of refit fuss or other programs? Maybe if there are UD version brought out for older figures it might surpass the MFD.
Unfortunately I haven't gotten dForce working as yet, and running on Wine as I do, even if I did other users report it running slowly and painfully. So I have to pass up anything too dForce reliant for now.
@GafftheHorse if you look at hte morps included, you should be able to use the dress just fine without using Dforce. Looks like there are plenty of morphs included, so you don't HAVE to use dforce. Unless it says Dforce only, most dforce items have morphs to use for those that don't want to, or can't, use Dforce. A quick check of the list of morphs on any product page will give you a good idea if its usuable without Dforce.
Yes, hence why I said I was 'passing up anything too dforce reliant'. Checking the morphlist, it looks like it does allow for movement adjustment without dForce.
I would argue the need for dForce or not can be hard to discern, The Nikisatez DForce multidress only lists adjustment morphs (adjust thigh back left, back right might be movement morphs, but might be only poke-through), I'd be very wary of that one. It doesn't say 'dForce only' anywhere. Does look really though good and seriously flexible looking. The Femme Fatale dress warns it only has minimal sleeve movement morphs and that needs dForce to look natural on all but the most simple poses, but doesn't say 'DForce only' anywhere on the product page, even though it is for all intents and purposes, dForce only.
I will have to recheck all the dforce items I've been passing on to see if any are possibles I've missed, as the recent dForce items have all been all really lovely, but in all likelihood the ones that have been catching my eye are like Femme Fatale, for all intents and purposes dForce only, even if the product fails to carry that anywhere obvious.
It's like all those poser dynamic items I used to see on other sites. 'Dynamic' being a word that catches the eye like a fishing hook anyway, the exotic naturally flowy cloth second.
Thanks ever so for showing the material zones. I bought the new dress the instant I saw it and I think the aim of the dress is to replace the morphing fantasy dress to a point. I know I'm eager to do some texture expansions for it, and I'll send them to the team for review when ready. Such beautiful work.
I bought the HDRI set on you recommendation, but I'm not very adept at using it (I've been using ghost lights so far, that give great results but are also a lot of work to set up properly). Is there a comprehensive tutorial somewhere on how to use HDRI effectively?
Basically, you remove all other lights in the scene (for now, you can add one or more back if necessary), apply the HDRI, and then use the utilities (rotation especially) to adjust the look. HDRIs are meant to be mostly stand-alone light sets, but you can add other lights if you need additional brightness or shadows.
Thanks, I'll try it that way. Is there a way to select and remove it later?
You can turn draw dome off (same tab as the rotation dials) That will allow the light to stay and the background to go away. Or you can replace it with a different HDRI, which will just switch them out.
Or if you want to do just scene lights, you can change it to scene only
And we just got another very affordable iRadiance set last night. Can't imagine any reason not to pick that up too if you got the 4th one. :)