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If it's an Area Light, the only way to get soft shadows is to raise the size/scale of the emitter.
I see, any size you can recommend!?
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I'm assuming you're using the default emitters included (plane). You should get quite softer shadows with 300%. The downside is that your objects will have much wider highlights, both diffuse and specular.
Tried that, and I'm still getting an ugly hard shadow under his chin.
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What I really want is more like this, which I got with UE.
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PS add a spot with no shadows around 25% intensity, diffuse lighting only
Thanks Szark, I'll do just that!
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My pleasure and you do have Shadow strength control on Area lights and now Spots in DS 4.7 + so in theory you could try adjusting the shadow strength of one area light to reduce the dark overlapping shadow.
That got it!
I pointed it at his head.
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nice one Rogerbee
Thanks for that,
I was experimenting for now as I'm getting Wowie's Photo Studio Kit 2 on Wednesday so I'll be using his light sets from thereon in as they best complement the skin MATs he's done.
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Just a quickie with Rob laid over what I did with Bjorn. Wowie's MAT will blow this out of the water, Wednesday can't come soon enough!
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And now for something completely different...
Muskettu and I had a conversation the other night about the support scripts for RSL (3Delight) shaders and how the Daz scripting docs are not very clears, especially when translating some of the Attributes into something that DS can actually understand, without throwing a hissy fit over syntax errors.
Well, the end results were that Muskettu cobbled together the proper scripts to get a 'standard' 3DL volumetric shader that I'd been trying to get working, for a while. FastFog is an RSL2 shader, which means, it's more 'modern' than most of the other volume shaders . That means it can take advantage of the more modern features.
Now on to the specifics...
FastFog, out of the box, is set up to use light categories...same thing that makes AoA's lights and shader faster. It's also got some pretty simple controls. It's an 'interior' type sahder...it needs to be attached to geometry, not a camera.
Now, I don't have AoA's lights...so I'm a bit short on lights that have an 'exposed' category feature. The DzSpot, DzPoint, etc in Shader Builder have it, but it's hidden, by default. They also have shadow problems (like they are 'off'...as in 'not connected' off...not switched off), and for some reason I tried the 'traditional' edit fixes and couldn't get them to work, so I bypassed all of that and brought in the 3DL 'standard' spotlight. It has the category feature (SB wants to hide it, by default, but that's easy to 'fix). Also, to have controllable shadows, you'd need to slog through all the DS scripting that involves...not too difficult, but more work than is needed, because it be very easily to have shadows 'hardwired' on...which for a volumetric/fog light is exactly what you want...
So, this combination...the 3DL 'standard' spot and FastFog will render this 800x800 with GI lighting (EnvLight2), with occlusion 'on', in about 2 min 20 secs on my machine. Without occlusion it comes in at 2 mins 8 sec and without EnvLight2 (just the spot), it comes in at an astounding 22 seconds!
UberVolume takes a lot longer than that.
...interesting effect, but there are those of us who are not into, or skilled at, scripting and messing with RSL so we have to rely on the "slower" to render volume options.
Eyes look good, something I really struggle with; but the spec on the skin seems a bit off - reminds me a bit of the old days and how Poser mats looked in DS.
Now that it's done...it's done. It could now be packaged up and distributed without the need for the end user to do anything other than set some settings...like any other light/shader. In fact, the controls are a lot easier to use than UberVolume. Of course some presets could be made and stuck in the package...add some promo shots and make it all slick and glossy...but that's work for another day.
Now that it's done...it's done. It could now be packaged up and distributed without the need for the end user to do anything other than set some settings...like any other light/shader. In fact, the controls are a lot easier to use than UberVolume. Of course some presets could be made and stuck in the package...add some promo shots and make it all slick and glossy...but that's work for another day.
Mmmm, all sounds very intriguing, look forward to seeing progress.
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Eyes look good, something I really struggle with; but the spec on the skin seems a bit off - reminds me a bit of the old days and how Poser mats looked in DS.
The eyes are MATs I did based on Spyro's tutorial:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/6376/P75
The skin was a quickie to see what it looked like. Once I get Photo Studio Kit 2 and have Wowies MATs to work with, I'm sure the skins will improve beyond measure. UberSurface2 is still the best for skin from what I've seen on here.
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Would these work with Darius if you were using UberSurface2 as the shader?
http://www.daz3d.com/skin-masters-for-darius-6
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EDIT:
Mmm, perhaps if you changed their shader to that it would..... wouldn't it!?
The default lights support tagging in the 4.8 beta.
Yay!!!!
Seriously....it isn't that hard to implement. I guess it never was a high priority, until someone came out with a surface shader that utilized it, too. Most of the RSL code for lights, I've looked at, has had the __category function forever.
And speaking of lights...here's another one.
This one is the 3DL for Maya spot.
It has a host of controls for shaping the beam, many of which I'm not sure what 'sane' starting values would be. Several shadow controls...along with colored shadows (now if I could just figure out how to actually get it 'right'...just need to figure where to add it...probably making both the shadow and light colors mappable to start, gobos). Falloff.
And probably have very little chance of 'breaking' whenever there's an update to DS or the renderer.
And probably have very little chance of 'breaking' whenever there's an update to DS or the renderer.
And since it is compiled with the source code included....it will automatically recompile with 3DL updates...
Had a bit of a play with UberSurface and Swidhelm's Alien (An old favourite.) and I came up with what you see below. What do you think!?
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Needs more gloss. :)
These renders almost looks like they're pulled from an arch viz render. :)
That they do, what were they done in?
You were right about the gloss. Oddly, on Swidhelm's Alien, if you want more gloss, you dial it down on the shader. 5% is as low as I dare go. Looks better though. I added bump and normal maps to enhance the detail.
This is the closest I've come to how it looked in the promo renders, though I bet I could do more with UberSurface 2
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I think UE2 tries to compensate for the way the DAZ Studio coordinate system is rotated as compared to the 3Delight built-in "world".
Who's up for some fog? Here are the scripts Mjc mentioned:
http://mustakettu85.deviantart.com/art/3DelightFastFog4DS-DAZ-Studio-4-8-recommended-522974250
Follow the readme, and you should be up and running in no time...
Don't forget to download 3Delight Studio Pro to get the actual shader.
I think UE2 tries to compensate for the way the DAZ Studio coordinate system is rotated as compared to the 3Delight built-in "world".
It's the Envsphere...it's got some real funky geometry...I think it's negatively scaled.
Ok, the last Alien still needed something more, so I added in Specular 2 at 30%. Now we're getting there I think. I also did the Aliens version.
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