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Yeah, that's how the Aux window is setup, if you look at the first screenshot, upper right corner. I messed with the Fstop so much I didn't even see that it had gone into the negative, as I was watching how the character fit in the box vs the numbers. That was it-thanks!
Thank you zarcondeegrissom,timmins.william, & tjohn- I knew it was something simple that I just wasn't seeing, and it was b/c the fstop was in the negative digits.
@ timmins - How did you do the lighting in this image? (page 25)
I've been trying to achieve the same look with an outdoor scene lit by the sun and environment dome, but the shadows always have very hard edges to them whereas in your image the shadows blend seamlessly into the directly lit areas. Did you use photometric spots and points, or is there some shadow blending setting in the Environment pane that I'm somehow missing?
Also, a more general question to everyone...
Does anyone know a way to crank up the environment intensity in the Environment pane without completely bleaching all of the colour out of the sky? And without bathing everything in blue?
I'm trying to achieve a look where the shadows are very light by increasing the environment intensity and decreasing the SS sun disk intensity - but still keep it looking like its a relatively sunny day outside. Basically I'm trying to keep the colour intensity of the second image, while producing the shadow transparency of the first image.
I'd also love to know if theres a 'shadow softness' setting for the SS sunlight that I'm missing somewhere?
Yes, try using the "Sun Haze" slider.
Yes, try using the "Sun Haze" slider.
Oh yes, so it does... thanks 8eos8. I think I was avoiding that setting because it rinses the blue out of the sky, but then I suppose thats what would happen in reality in order to get softer shadows outdoors.
Wow, that makes a huge difference to the quality of my renders. Nice!
Great, glad I could help. :)
Yes, you certainly have. I've worked out as well that I can add a slight amount of blue tint using 'SS Blue-Red Tint' and get the blue sky back too. I think this was the answer I've been looking for for the last few days :)
Another interesting setting is SS RGB Unit Conversion, I don't really understand the explanation in the docs but if you set it to 0.318 then it matches pretty well with the lighting from an HDRI in the environment map (if you have the sun coming from the same spot in both). That can be useful when you have an HDRI that doesn't cast strong shadows (like from an sIBL set) and you need to fake them with sun/sky.
I don't understand how to use HDRI images at all. I gave it a try once by putting the HDRI jpg into the environment map and it just blocked out the SS sun completely. I've always assumed that HDRI and the sun-sky can't both be used together. It would be great if they could though, cos I miss my old clouds. Plain skies just aren't very interesting...
I do actually have some HDRI skies, but no idea how to use them correctly.
Oh yes, so it does... thanks 8eos8. I think I was avoiding that setting because it rinses the blue out of the sky, but then I suppose thats what would happen in reality in order to get softer shadows outdoors.
Wow, that makes a huge difference to the quality of my renders. Nice!
...used that in the picture of the two girls at the bus stop to simulate filtered sun.
Oh yes, so it does... thanks 8eos8. I think I was avoiding that setting because it rinses the blue out of the sky, but then I suppose thats what would happen in reality in order to get softer shadows outdoors.
Wow, that makes a huge difference to the quality of my renders. Nice!
...used that in the picture of the two girls at the bus stop to simulate filtered sun.
But in your bus stop image you have the sky still blue and with clouds. How did you manage that if you were using sun-sky?
...I used a backdrop plane with a high resolution photo of Zagreb as the texture. Part of the test was to see how well the foreground imagery blended with a photographic background
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for sharing the details :)
I think there's a strong tendency, with unbiased rendering, to try to simulate EVERYTHING.
But, really, every tool is potentially useful, and a lot of biased tricks, like inserting various image planes in spots, can work quite well.
...that's how I got the misty look in my train station scene, Simply a huge cube primitive with the Iray Water Dispersive shader and adjustments to the refraction roughness, weight, cutout opacity and all reflectivity turned off.
I don't understand how to use HDRI images at all. I gave it a try once by putting the HDRI jpg into the environment map and it just blocked out the SS sun completely. I've always assumed that HDRI and the sun-sky can't both be used together. It would be great if they could though, cos I miss my old clouds. Plain skies just aren't very interesting...
I do actually have some HDRI skies, but no idea how to use them correctly.
A jpg isn't really an HDRI; those kinds of files have .hdr or .exr extensions. (HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, which jpgs don't have because they only use 8-bit color) But if a jpg comes with an HDRI set then it's meant to be used as a backdrop, as Kyoto Kid already mentioned. There's a thread about that here: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/54158/
And then to get the sun in the scene, you have to fake it with a spotlight placed off-camera, or use the sun-sky to render the shadow and add it in post (or render it as another backdrop to use for the final render). It would be a lot easier though if we could use sun-sky and the environment map at the same time!
I've tried the .hdr in environment map too, but it has the same effect. Yeah, 3Delight had the benefit that distant light could penetrate a skydome - I'm not sure why the sun-sky light in Iray can't penetrate the environment map (I'm sure theres probably some technical reason) but it is a real nuisance.
Edit: Thanks for the link - why are there 2 separate threads for Iray Tips & Tricks?
*palm-face moment*
Oh! The penny has finally dropped as to what you guys are suggesting! Using a stand-alone skydome to create a backdrop image and then using that backdrop in my scenes. I get it now.
For anyone who's as slow on the uptake as me (this method comes courtesy of Dumor3D from his thread, except that he used HDRI):
Step 1:
In a new scene I loaded up a camera and a character and pointed the camera in the direction I wanted and switched off the headlamp.
Then I loaded FirstBastion's skydome from Dry Mud Desert and added an Iray emissive shader to it and played with the temp and lumin values to get the look I wanted (from the skydome - not the character).
Then I hid the character so that the skydome was all I could see in the viewport.
Then I rendered that image of the skydome as a jpg.
Step 2:
Without moving the camera, make the skydome invisible in the scene (thus allowing the sun-sky to work again) and make the character visible again.
In the environment tab (not the one under 'Render Settings') select the image you just rendered as the 'backdrop' in the diffuse colour map.
Render the scene.
This gives you the nice skydome image in the backdrop as if the skydome was actually there, but also gives full sun-sky control over the lighting on your character. Sweet!
Please forgive the rough image - its just there to illustrate the point. I'm aware it looks very basic.
Edit: So we can use Skydomes with Iray - it just requires a bit of fiddling. Horray! :)
Yep, that's how you do it. :)
Arg...just killed half an hour searching and I can't find whatever magic word the forum wants to get me what I need.
I remember reading at least once, that a certain setting caused light banding on skin, like a stripe around the middle of each thigh on G1. I can't remember what that setting was, but I've got that effect and very much want to get rid of it.
Seems to be connected to the texture seams...also a stripe upward from that band (inside thigh) and a bright strip under the armpit/bicep.
Its 'shading rate', I think, on the skin surfaces. You need it below 4 I believe. Ideally closer to 1.
Thanks so much 8eos8, and Kyoto Kid and timmins. I've been wrestling with that particular problem for ages now and it had me in a choke hold and was refusing to release it even though the coach was insisting it do so (metaphor taken too far?).
I kept restricting my character lighting based on what it was doing to the sky, but now I won't have to so much!
Edit: In my defense, I had no idea what a backdrop actually was until about an hour ago lol
That sounds familiar, but I can't find that name in my surfaces.
I don't think Shading Rate is an option if you've converted your skins over to Iray uber base.
If you haven't though... Make sure your character is selected, then go to the 'Surfaces' tab and expand their surfaces tree out. You should see a branch called 'Skin'. Select that and it'll select all your skin surfaces at once for that character. Expand the 'Skin' branch and you'll see 'Subsurface Scattering' - Shading Rate should be under that.
Ah...naturally. Of course I already converted them, lol. Now I get to poke and prod to switch it back, change the setting and reconvert. Whee...
Er...are these supposed to be G2-only features, with that skin branch? I'm using G1, but at one point I did try to copy/paste between the two to borrow the new skin shader. Perhaps that's the problem. The setting's been set in the background but there's no node for it on G1.
Grr. Can't even hack the binary DUF file to kill the setting.
Ah could be, sorry. I only use G2 figures and I assumed that the fix was the same for both but maybe not.
It seems to be. I reloaded a fresh G2, noted the default shading rate was 32! Dropped it to 1, then repeated my copy/paste after switching to Iray shaders. Result is very different and I've got settings to tweak, but that fixed the problem. Thanks much for helping me nail it down.