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How would I make "God rays" in Daz...?

bleybourne_772d5802c5bleybourne_772d5802c5 Posts: 67
in The Commons

Hi all,

You know sometimes when it's cloudy, off in the distance there's a gp in the clouds and you can see an actual shaft of light shining down through the gap? They're called God Rays by some people.

How would I render one in Daz? I can use a spotlight or similar, but the light isn;t visible in a render, only what it illuminates.

Any thoughts on how I could do this, or is it something I would need to try to add afterwards, in Photoshop?

Comments

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,704
    edited July 2015

    I do godrays in photoshop. That's the easiest way.

    1. To do this. Render your image normally.

    2. Bring into photoshop. Duplicate layer

    3. Overexpose bottom layer.

    4. Using eraser tool on top layer, with a brush that is shaped like a ray... Something like ron's light & Shadows or a set from Envato that looks like the spotlight you want.. Erase top layer and the over exposed bottom layer will be revealed.

     

    For smaller rays, you can use a brush with a white color on a layer and use the screen layer adjustment.

     

    Hope that helps.

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • SlimerJSpudSlimerJSpud Posts: 1,456
    edited July 2015

    This category of things is called a caustic in 3D. There are several items in the store that can produce God Rays. They can be a true caustic, which is a little heavy on compute resources, or a simpler setup with a prop and a special camera. Two that come to mind are:

    http://www.daz3d.com/atmospheric-effects-cameras-for-daz-studio - I have this one, but haven't used the godrays.

    http://www.daz3d.com/simple-godrays

    Search in the store for 'atmospheric' or 'godrays'.

    Post edited by SlimerJSpud on
  • DarkSpartanDarkSpartan Posts: 1,096

    Have you noticed a sort of haze in most of those drawings? A fine atmo haze that is nearly invisible would do wonders.

  • ScavengerScavenger Posts: 2,674

    Sickleyeild, who made the Simple Godrays, also has a free version at ShareCG: http://www.sharecg.com/v/72345/related/21/DAZ-Studio/SY-Easy-Godrays-DS.

    I don't know the difference between the two.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001

    RawArt has a simple Iray fog cam...

    http://rawart3d.deviantart.com/art/Raw-FogCam-535959358

  • Jason GalterioJason Galterio Posts: 2,562
    edited July 2015

    With Iray I use: http://www.daz3d.com/atmocam-for-iray

    With Luxrender I use: http://www.daz3d.com/reality-4-daz-studio-edition

    Not that it is a bad thing, I try not to use brushes and such during post work to create them. Only because I don't think I suceed at it.

    However I do use a double render technique where I will render one version of the image with the god rays, then a second without. I can then layer them together and tweak the effects a bit depending on the end result I want to achieve.

    In order to create a reasonable version of this effect, you have to keep in mind what is causing it in reality (no pun intended). A ray of light will never be visible in a scene, real or rendered. What is visible is the particles in the air that the ray of light is reflecting off of.

    Knowing this makes it easier to replicate believably. For example:

    I used Reality to create a box of "fog" encompassing the scene. I then created a tiny sphere primitive that I applied a glass shader to. I further reduced the visibility of the sphere by taking the Opacity down very low.

    I then replicated the sphere through a "Save Subset" and Merged the new scene back in. I randomly moved the sphere then repeated the process. Geometrically increasing the number of spheres.

    Post edited by Jason Galterio on
  • bleybourne_772d5802c5bleybourne_772d5802c5 Posts: 67
    Jason Galterio said:

    With Iray I use: http://www.daz3d.com/atmocam-for-iray

    With Luxrender I use: http://www.daz3d.com/reality-4-daz-studio-edition

    Not that it is a bad thing, I try not to use brushes and such during post work to create them. Only because I don't think I suceed at it.

    However I do use a double render technique where I will render one version of the image with the god rays, then a second without. I can then layer them together and tweak the effects a bit depending on the end result I want to achieve.

    In order to create a reasonable version of this effect, you have to keep in mind what is causing it in reality (no pun intended). A ray of light will never be visible in a scene, real or rendered. What is visible is the particles in the air that the ray of light is reflecting off of.

    Knowing this makes it easier to replicate believably. For example:

    I used Reality to create a box of "fog" encompassing the scene. I then created a tiny sphere primitive that I applied a glass shader to. I further reduced the visibility of the sphere by taking the Opacity down very low.

    I then replicated the sphere through a "Save Subset" and Merged the new scene back in. I randomly moved the sphere then repeated the process. Geometrically increasing the number of spheres.

    And you made an awesome image with it - very cool!

     

    Thanks for the ideas everyone. I don;t use Lux or Iray (mostly because I have no idea how and don;t really have the time for research at the moment, so I'm just using the default Daz 3delight). I'll have a look at the store object6s and have a play with the freebie and see what I can come up with. I consider myself a middling photoshopper, so may be able to do something in post as well.

  • srieschsriesch Posts: 4,243

    If you decide to do it via postwork, consider keeping it a separate layer or something if possible so that if you ever need to rerender the scene (because you found an error you didn't notice right away, or decide to make improvements, or wanted it rendered at higher dimentions in the future), you will be able to simply reapply the postwork layer in a few seconds instead of having to start over from scratch by modifing the new rendered image by painting on it.

  • DaWaterRatDaWaterRat Posts: 2,885

    I used to do a couple using pwGhost and a cone primative, actually.  Haven't tried that in a while, though, and it was for a single ray.

    it might be plausable to do something similar with tiled transparency maps using 3DL

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001

    There's a 3Delight volumetrics shader included in Studio...UberVolume.

  • MarshianMarshian Posts: 1,465
    edited December 2015

    Hi Hey Howdy— Sickleyield and I just released a new product based on our Celestial Bodies series. This new product for Iray features emisive surfaces, smaller figure-scaled rays, and fractals. Here is the store page with link to instructional video: Expanded Godrays Iray

    We feel this is a great solution to creating Godrays, the quick and easy way.

    I'll be watching this thread if you have any questions: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/33923/expanded-godrays-celestial-bodies#latest

    Post edited by Marshian on
  • IkyotoIkyoto Posts: 1,159
    Serene Night said:

    I do godrays in photoshop. That's the easiest way.

    1. To do this. Render your image normally.

    2. Bring into photoshop. Duplicate layer

    3. Overexpose bottom layer.

    4. Using eraser tool on top layer, with a brush that is shaped like a ray... Something like ron's light & Shadows or a set from Envato that looks like the spotlight you want.. Erase top layer and the over exposed bottom layer will be revealed.

     

    For smaller rays, you can use a brush with a white color on a layer and use the screen layer adjustment.

     

    Hope that helps.

    old school Pro tip. good call.

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