How to IRAY light this scene Please?
MKeyes
Posts: 474
Okay, I tried most of yesterday. And kindah got close to sorta what I wanted, well a little bit, LOL. Anyway - it started the render too late in the day and after 5 hours, I simply HAD to go to bed. It was after 11pm and so when I woke this morning, my computer had shut down - and I couldn't get back to Daz to save last render.
So I'm back again, earlier to try again and this time, light it right I sure hope.
BUT - I need help. I have not learned Iray - not even close enough to get this scene right. Please anyone with some Iray know how, what would be the best way to light this scene? I don't want it too BRIGHT - they are in the woods after all. But I have no clue how to work the sun and get it at the right angles - or a soft light to enchange this scene. I just don't want it going for hours only to NOT LIKE it!
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Comments
I don't see that you're using a dome in the scene itself, so start by making a copy of this scene, and work in the copy. Then:
1. Go to the Iray Render panel.
2. Click the Defaults button to return all the settings to normal.
3. Click the General category.
4. Click Dimension Preset, and choose Custom. Enter an image size of 500 x 500. This is for testing purposed. You can change it later.
5. In the same General category choose Auto Headlamp-Never.
6. Click the Environment category. Alter the following if they are not already set this way:
Environment Mode: Dome and Scene
Dome Mode: Finite Sphere
Environment Map: Click the arrow, and choose the 'DTHDR-RuinsB-500.hdr' file. It's located under 'Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\shaders\iray\resources'
Dome Rotation: 60
Get into the habit of setting up your lighting using a consistent camera direction. I use Front, which is facing North. That puts the shadow from the 'Ruins' HDR at a slight angle when the dome is rotated to 60 degrees. If your scene will be shot facing West (Left), you can rotate the dome to get the lighting angle you want.
Now just render. You should get enough light for this scene for a basic render. You can add lights and adjust settings after your first render.
If it's too bright, use Tone Mapping to adjust the brightness.
If it's too dark, first try to increase the Environment Intensity setting in the Environment category. Don't try to compensate with Tone Mapping. That will brighten the scene, but there may not be enough light in the scene for Iray to render it without taking forever.
Your screenshot doesn't show if you're even using Iray as the renderer, so please check that. There aren't any scene lights, so the only light for an Iray render can come from the Environment Dome, or the Sun-Sky. Either will produce lighting without adding lights. For starting, the Environment Dome with the 'Ruins' HDR is the easiest to use.
I like the composition of the scene and the poses of the two characters. What I would do is use just the sun and sky setting with the sun high in the shy set so its light strikes the side of the males tattooed face and highlights the front of the women's face.
One method that works well for me when trying to find that perfect sun angle is to use an extra camera just as the sun node. Then you can view the scene through that camera and move it around as if you were the sun looking down. Use the ground shadow setting at the bottom of the render environment settings to adjust the harshness or softness of the shadows.
If those are actual jungle or forest props in the scene you can move them around so that their shadows enhance the scene in the way you want. Also if the single sun light source isn’t giving you all the light you want you can always add some emissive light planes for some additional fill.
A lot if not all of what you do with the lighting will be based on the mood of the story you are trying to tell with the image. Tryout all the different methods of lighting to get a fell of what works best for you in given environments. Some settings such as indoors offer different challenges then outdoors and require other light setups. Just have fun with the learning process.
Bsett, Great ideas, but this user is having trouble with extraordinarily long renders, and not knowing Iray lighting in general. It's mentioned here, and in another thread. Hence my suggestion to start with the basics.
Just as an aside, if someone is having trouble with slow renders, mesh lighting is likely to make things worse. It's better to use a spotlight with its emitter changed from Point to Disc or Rectangle, and then enlarged to use as a soft shadow fill. The Width/Height dimensions are in centimeters, so an emitter 100 by100 is a meter square. That makes for a pretty soft fill. Area lights (via the D|S Spotlight luminaire) are lighting primitives built into Iray, and so they are much more efficient, in both render time and memory footprint.
Well my limited expericence with Iray lighting has been that for outdoors using just the sun and sky (no draw dome at all) have given me some of the fastest render times with most being under a few minutes.
First... I just got back on the computer and it's later AGAIN, hahahaha - oh well. So I'm just now seeing the reply posts. THANK YOU BOTH!
Second... I'm smiling because I'm going to PRINT THIS OUT... both comments and then read it on paper as I follow along. Tobor... as I'm already scratching my head, I will definitely do my best to follow your instructions... I have a feeling you have probably given some excellent advice here!
Third... bsett - THANK YOU... I will certainly that THAT on board as well. Tonight looks like I'll be setting it up to render TOMORROW... so I can stay awake through to the end. And YES... the props are real, using one of STONEMASONS masterpiece props... the woods one? http://www.daz3d.com/return-to-the-enchanted-forest - That one...
As for the scene... this is one of the illustrations from my novel, "Saoirse" about the Irish Slaves and their genocide - a part of history no one likes to feature for some reason and when they do, they alter the TRUTH. I've been working on this novel a long time. And it helps my writing to illustrate the various scenes as I, this time, for the first time, I'm going to illustrate a novel of mine. WORK - oh man work! As my novels always far exceed 350+ pages, and more often than not, over 450+ - and it doesn't look like this one is going to be any less. BUT - I want to give my loyal readers some more with this one!
So the lighting is EXTREMELY important to me, as is this historical fact-fiction I'm writing.
Oh, I would agree. Some people have trouble knowing how to aim the sun, though. The standard day/time/timezone settings can be daunting, and explaining about the sundial or using a Sun-Sky Node can take up a lot of pages when it's all said and done!
@MKeyes, if you're still having trouble with slow renders, for testing turn off some or all of the foliage. Do test renders to see which, if any, might be contributing to slowdowns. Depending on how it's done, vegetation can have a significant impact on render times.
Uh... stupid question number one - uh... what do you mean by - "Making a copy of this scene?" - You mean save it by another name? So it's in there twice?
Mercedes- you do know that you can set up the viewport to show you your Iray setup results, like the spotrender when using 3DL? (the other renderer) To the left of the textbox that says Perspective View (or whatever view you have) is a round ball, click it for the dropdown and you'll see the last one says NVIDIA Iray. Click that and give it a minute or two to change over- you can see your changes that you make. No need to wait for a final render.
Also, take out things from the scene, as suggested- and I start with hair. Close the eye of it over in Scene tab, which hides it in the Scene, and do your lighting tests with the hair/clothes gone. It will speed up the spot render.
Cathie
Correct. When making big changes to an established scene you've slready spent time on, make a copy, and then if things get worse, you can always go back to your original.
*Eyes big and lost!* I know you must be busy, but could you do a quick print screen for that? I was really good with the regular lighting, but I really want to take advantage of the Iray - it's either get to know it, or go back to Reality - which I know a bit better. But I really like what I see with the IRay renders... any tips on how to use it, or a link to a tutorial I welcome!
Okay... here is the 500 X 500 - and it's waaaay better than what I started with... but the lights need something more. There is an atmosphere missing - it's the evening, should be dark, but - if I make it too dark no one will be able to make them out. So I need to find a way to do this scene with more shadows, and a nighttime tint of bluish? With perhaps mist of slight fog? I have to finish working on their skin, they were wearing oils/fat which is significat to the story.
I'll try and see if I can add those things.
There have been a number of different ideas in this thread. What did you do to create the scene far? That would help in making further suggestions.
LOL, not much other than change the 60 rotation to 90 to see how it would look. I'm back on it this morning however.