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I've pretty much given up on the Sun option. It's too random, hard to use, and has so many weird effects.
It also seems to slow renders, when I've tried it.
Can't imagine how setting the SS node would give unpredictable results. It does the same thing as the sundial -- sets a simple direction. Unless Iray is really messing up, the length and direction of the sunlight's shadow can only come from the direction of the sun. There are no other variables.
Maybe you could post an example?
Unpredictable as in knowing what that direction is until you set it. So if you've rendered a scene and then want the sun light from over in a certain direction, oh woops, that's not where the sun is. Then you have to jigger around with the times until you get what you want, and then maybe time of year. Or try using a node, which can also be weird.
I suppose I'm wrong, it's not unpredictable, it's inconveniently hard to predict.
Can't you just rotate the dome to get the direction you want?
... I'm an idiot. Yes, yes you can.
(I didn't know you could do that)
If you look at the normal top-down view of a scene, east is the bottom of the screen, west is the top, north is right and south is left.
If you set the scene's latitude & longitude to your approximate location (42 North, 3 West (= -3) in my case), the sun will behave pretty much as you see it out of your window for a given time and season. Although whether your model is oriented accurately is another matter.
Hey, yes, I created a "Sun Setup" for my purposes too. First I tried it with an inactive Distant light, but the sun-direction seemed some way offset of the position of the distant-light. Then I tried a single camera pointed at the scene-center - same problem. The Sun-angle differed up to 90° in a random direction (left or right). I now use a sphere parented to the scene center.
Thanks for the hint with the spotlight size. I'll try that to see if I get softer Shadows.
Another thing I noticed is, that regular skydome-images get very bright and lack of contrast, even with envivronment-intensity set to 1. Do I have to edit that in photoshop before loading it to DAZ?
I've never used a light as a sun node, and while it's an alternative -- I find it's just easier with a camera.
While the sun setting says "Sun-Sky Only," that's not accurate. The dome still plays a MAJOR part, and any translations (rotation, orientation, etc.) is going to "offset" the direction of the sun. So, while you can look through the SS Node object (light, camera, whatever), and point it a specific direction, the dome itself is going to then offset the actual direction of the light.
HDR images are inactive in Sun-Sky Only mode, so there is no reason to set any translation values for the dome. Return everything to the defaults, and try again. In Sun-Sky Only, the dome doesn't provide any specific light, but it does act as an environment, so keep that in mind. Options like Environment Intensity are still active in Sun-Sky Only. Increase it and you get a very bright, hot day!
I assume by "skydome images" you mean images you use for the Iray Environment Map. While this option can give you a background, the nature of most such images is that they are woefully inadequate to serve as HDRs for Iray's environment dome. This is why you can set EXRs and HDRs for dome maps -- these contain MANY more times the dynamic range than can be recorded in the typical JPG, PNG, or TIF file used as a backdrop.
True (and properly made) HDR images also have the correct gamma setting; random image files often have no color management profile tagged in them. What happens is that D|S applies the wrong gamma correction to the image, making it too bright, and likely also throwing off all the colors.
If you haven't done so already, do a search here for free HDR maps. A good one to practice with is this one, free from Pixar (for non-commercial use only):
https://community.renderman.pixar.com/article/107/luxor-jr-panorama.html
It features a single VERY bright point light that is the sun. It casts a distrinct shadow. It's also scaled just right to use as a background using the Environment Dome's default settings. Note that this HDR image is set so that the sun comes from the north. This means the sun will be behind your figure, assuming a standard scene load where the camera points north. Try rotating the dome to about 270 degrees or so for a nice off-angle light and shadow that's in front of your subject.
The list in my sig is a good place to start for HDRs usable for lighting...some for both lighting and backdrop (same image)...
You CAN use an emissive skydome prop to light your scene, but it's SLOW. Much better to use the environment features of Iray. If you have a skydome texture you're pleased with, use it as the environment map and turn the dome ON. If you make the dome a finite sphere, you can then scale down the dome (using dome scale modifier and dome radius) to something that looks good. Don't be afraid to REALLY reduce the scale and radius of the dome. If you turn on the NVIDIA preview setting, you can view it realtime. You can also use the dome rotatation to spin the sky texture to your liking. Remember that rotating the dome not only rotates the sky texture, it also turns the direction of the light in the scene.
You mentioned that when the sky was the correct shade of dark/light, the rest of the scene wasn't correctly lit. Tip: If you like the ambient color of the light and sky, but need "sun" or "moon" light, try adding a sphere to the scene and add the emissive ubershader to it. If you make a very small sphere and put it up high enough in your scene, it will cast hard shadows the way the sun/moon does. Be sure you raise the color temperature (6500 for warm sun, 8000 for clear blue sky) and REALLY up the luminance on the sphere's shader. It makes one feel very god-like when one can move the sun wherever one wants! If you prefer softer shadows, make the sphere huge and just offscreen. A big object emitting light nearby makes soft shadows. A small object making light far away makes sharp shadows. Obviously, you'll need to adjust the luminance accordingly -- the big object won't need to be as bright. Use the NVIDIA Iray preview mode to fine-tune the lighting with this method.
1) Turn on NVIDIA Iray preview mode. This is slower (perhaps much slower, depending on your GPU), but it actually renders your preview window with Iray. Even with a lag, it allows you to rotate the dome and adjust other "lighting things" without having to test render.
2) Not every HDRI map is appropriate for use as a background. If you've sucessfully used it as a skydome texture in the past, however, it will probably work. Your best bet is to make the dome a finite sphere and make it much smaller. Just like any 3D texture, if you stretch it too much, it gets blurry. The techniques used to make the HDRI maps can also limit the crispness. If the creator used a mirrorball to capture the sky, the results won't be as good as if they had used a lens-based approach. However, a mirrorball can be purchased for under $30, whereas a good wide-angle lens and rotation rig will be hundreds of dollars. The good news is that clouds can look good even slightly fuzzy. Other things... not so much. The best detail-inclusive skydome set I've used is Dumor 3D's apocalyptic plant HDRI set, http://www.daz3d.com/apocalyptic-plant-outdoors-set-1-iray-hdris. Amazing details in this set!
Hey,
yup, I figured the dome rotation would mess up the light direction and played around with it. But even with everything set to default or to 0 it deviated from the desired direction. Maybe I just did it wrong, I'll work on that at the weekend, too ^^
Concerning Environment Maps: I know that JPGs are not meant to serve as proper Envivronment Light ;) But my problem is: I can't use random HDRIs for my scenes :( my former Skydomes were rendered in Carrara for a special purpose (i.e. they contained the setting and landscape matching to the scene I was doing). I now add them in photoshop afterwards but when I use depth of field there are some nasty outlines on the borders between rendered image and background T_T Therefore I was putting my hopes into your method to implement JPGs / PNGs as Backdrop and add the light via external source.
Which version of photoshop do you have? You can actually "fudge" an HDRI from a single jpeg, but I think you need CS5 or later. I've done this in CS6 and it's not perfect, but works well enough to provide a decent background. You would need to adjust the exposure of your original skydome photo (using the exposure setting in PS) several times and save each version as its own file. You can then file/automate/merge to HDR pro and compile the separate exposures into a single HDRI. Like I said, it's not a "true" HDRI, but something that is functional.
Note this only really works if the texture you're using started off as a spherical skydome. If it's a strange eliptical blob, such as the lava planet, it isn't going to stretch onto the environment dome properly.
Maybe you can look around for a non-dome backdrop, and reconfigure your backgrounds to use these as surfaces. There are a number of "cove" backdrop props that allow you to control curvature. Perhaps one of these will work. You might need to re-orient the backdrop on a per-shot basis, but at least you'd have your background image AND the benefit of the full environment dome. You can use an HDR for the light; simply turn off the Draw option as you don't need it. You're using the HDR image for its lighting, not its picture. Place the backdrop at whatever distance is necessary for proper DOF effects.
Using an image on a *small* emissive dome could work, but A) it would be terribly slow and B) if you use it as a main source of illumination, how well that works depends on the image. A space scape isn't going to put out a lot of light, being mostly a depiction of The Void.
I tried my double dome/cutout sun thing, and it worked like a charm. Easiest approach I've tried so far.