For my renders, I found the ground, road, sidewalks and a lot more. However, what I'm trying to do now is create a sky with clouds. (Or no clouds, that works too.) What I'd like is for the sky to kind of move with the figure, so instead of being an image backdrop, then it's kind of like a prop. I did look into the Skydomes, but I'm not sure how exactly how to use it, of if it works the way I want to. These are the domes that I saw, but I didn't see like a video or anything that gave me an idea of what they do. 

https://www.daz3d.com/orestes-iray-hdri-skydomes--hazy-afternoon

https://www.daz3d.com/green-hills-skydome-and-hdri

Then I saw some clouds that were really nice, but didn't know if they would work with the skydomes that I was considering. 

https://www.daz3d.com/easy-environments-clouds

https://www.daz3d.com/cloudscape-creator--sky-cover-for-iray

https://www.daz3d.com/cloudscape-creator--hero-clouds-for-iray

To be honest, I'm so unsure cause I don't know if I should actually be looking for a backdrop instead. 

3Diva said:

I had an "I need coffee moment" when I first saw the main promo image and was reading the fine print a the bottom I thought it said "Just load into your scene, add figures and pick your nose". lol I was like "har har guys". hahah But of course I had just read it wrong. Oy! Now excuse me while I go make some coffee. 

Bahahahaha!! That made me laugh. (True story - after I read what you wrote about your mis-reading, I had to go back and read it for myself - just in case I HAD actually written it that way. I was tired and maybe a little punchy when I put the main promo together.)

It was a lot of fun putting the set together. The name was entirely Orestes' fault. 

Happy holidays to all our fine customers (and the not so fine ones as well). I, and I'm probably sure Orestes does as well, wish you all the best of the season. Thank you all for your patronage! Without you, we'd just be loons trying to shill our wares on the street, and since I enjoy working from home, I am profoundly grateful.

And thanks to all the other PAs who are participating. There's some really amazing gifts this year. Thank you for sharing your talents with all of us! 

watchdog79 said:
Naturally, the second freebie is amazing too: https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-kitten-poses-and-morph

I do have some scenes in mind with a kitten or two, and this will help me a lot.

Thank you FeralFey, Orestes Graphics and SBibb and Merry Christmas to you all.heart

Awesome, I'm really glad the kitten poses and morph will be helpful for you and your renders. Merry Christmas! :-D

cathan01_wwg1wga said:

Thank you, SBibb, for the Daz House Cat poses and kitten morph. Especially love the expressions. I also appreciate the other Christmas freebies. Thanks to you all and Merry Christmas.

Aww, I'm really glad to hear you like the poses and morph, and that you love the expressions. They were fun to make. Merry Christmas to you, too! :-D

I really like this freebie: https://www.daz3d.com/reindeer-irradiator-and-poses

Awesome, and I love that poses for both Genesis 8 and the new gnomes are included. And the morphing beam is included too. The choice of the name of the product made me chuckle, well played.

Naturally, the second freebie is amazing too: https://www.daz3d.com/sbibb-kitten-poses-and-morph

I do have some scenes in mind with a kitten or two, and this will help me a lot.

Thank you FeralFey, Orestes Graphics and SBibb and Merry Christmas to you all.

Farren HD (G8F)         Adventure Outfit (G8F)        dForce Low Bang Hair (G8F/M)      Orestes Iray HDRI Environments- Autumn Creek 

I really love the Autumn Creek HDRI, you get a lot of options when you pan around/ move the HDRI. This is 03 in the options. Showing you the Luminar results, and btw that bundle ends today so HOP on it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, ask here NOW as there's only an hour and a half left to get that fantastic graphic program CHEAP. I love the sharpen- it offers three sliders for small, medium, and large details, then another one for overall sharpen. You can saturate just the lips, put more color in just the lips, enlarge just the eyes, whiten the eyes, whiten the teeth- it's amazing artificial intelligence. (AI)    You can also change the color hue of just the midtones, the shadows, etc. And the collections,  skies and clouds which come with the bundle are so much fun to play with!

Compare these before and afters, using Luminar.

First is the default Farrin. Second is with Photoshop to fix pokethrough, then Luminar did everything else. Click back and forth. On the closeup one, I handpainted the hair area in Photoshop, but all the lighting, saturation, sharpening was 100% Luminar.

thanks a lot @3Diva   was an HDRI from Orestes ( might have been summmers day ) and yep well spotted  it is indeed Freja wanted an adventurer that looked strong enough to swing through the trees  and keep going ;)

Happy Holidays everyone! Here's a list of the 2020 Daz PA Holiday Gifts! I'll do my best to keep it updated daily.

1 - dForce Myles Beard for Genesis 8 Male(s) from AprilYSH 

2 - Turk Light from 3djoji 

3 - Lil Gnome from Karth 

4 - Plush Cat from Sylvan 

5 - Metal Choker for Geneis 8 Males from tentman 

6 - Mars the planet from Alvin Bemar 

7 - DigiVault's Outer Marker from The DigiVault 

8 - Plumeria Earrings for Genesis 8 and Genesis 3 Female from Hypertaf 

9 - Pudding a la Mode from sugatak 

10 - A Glass and Bottle of Champagne from Muscleman 

11 - Bone Earring for Genesis 8 Male from TwiztedMetal 

12 - Xmas Logs from Wee Dangerous John 

13 - Jepe's WonderPlant CF from Jepe 

14 - The Austerity Christmas Tree - Holiday Ornament from MartinJFrost 

15 - MD Table Clock from MikeD 

16 - Holiday Hallway from Studio360 

17 - Reindeer Irradiator and Poses from FeralFey and Orestes Graphics 

18 - SBibb Kitten Poses and Morph from SBibb 

19 - Cute Christmas Reindeer from ZKuro 

20 - LY Freedom Shadows for Genesis 8 from Lyoness 

21 - Crown for Genesis 8 Female(s) from Amaranth 

22 - Lion Statue HD-Christmas Freebie from Oskarsson 

23 - MMX Fantasy Eyes Mini for Genesis 3 and 8 from Mattymanx 

24 - NG Build Your Own Sitting Poses for Genesis 8 Female (Stools) from NewGuy 

25 - VYK Separates - dForce Skater Skirt from vyktohria 

26 - dForce Arix Hair for Genesis 8 Males from 3Diva 

27 - Bloody Christmas Kiss for Genesis 8 from Esid, FenixPhoenix, and FeralFey 

28 - Flower Earrings for Genesis 8 Females from esha 

29 - SF Xmas Projector from Silent Winter 

30 - Only Dress for Genesis 8 Female from Anai and Belladona 

31 - WinterEyesMe for Genesis 8 from SpookieLilOne 

32 - Santa Laughing Animation for Genesis 8 Males from ThreeDigital 

Okay, just to help clarify things for those just tuning in - if your USC hangs after installing the Accelerator AND you have the Octane Render Plugin you do not have to uninstall Octane, but merely DISABLE it by going in DAZ Studio to the Help\About Installed Plugins...\OctaneRender where you will uncheck the box [edited to correct the next statement - thanks @dawnblade] and then you need to restart DAZ Studio.  I saw some vague comments about Octane Render and DREADED having to uninstall it and eliminate any trace files etc - a real chore. But it was as easy as unchecking that box!  And between the two, I'd choose UltraScenery ANY DAY!  Just thought I would try to help clear that up for anyone not quite sure.
And having gotten it to render in record fast scene-building time, here are a couple of renders.
Moody Monolith
Uses the Australian ecosystem and the monolith prop from Muelsfell Elven Monolith that fits this scene and moody Orestes HDRI lighting so perfectly.

This Autumn Stream scene actually is using TWO generated Ultrascenery scenes (same base, different ecosystems) and both have Render Settings/Matte Fog turned on at about 600 - 800 Matte Fog Visibility (m).  Don't forget to color outside the lines!  It is much more interesting!

Hello,

I'm trying to make a scene inside a bar, and I'm trying to use an hdr for background in front. However the hdri is way too big and zoomed in, I set it to finite sphere and box, and tried scaling it, but it does absolutely nothing. Here's an example of how big it looks in the window.

Is there a way to zoom it out? Or should I use a picture on a plane in front of the entrance as a static background?

 

I had a similar experience with an HDRI by Orestes. Just loading an HDRI of theirs made the gigantic "close up".

What worked for me was to load the HDRI image as usual. Then select Iray for the viewport, and set up a Working Camera-(the HDRI must be viewed through a camera to see it properly as show in the product pics)  Let the HDRI appear. Now you can rotate the HDRI image with your working camera in your viewport to find your desired part. The "nearness" and giant size  do not appear this way. Once you've decided which part of the HDRI you want to use, just stop moving the camera. This worked for me. 

This is as much as I could get visible in a Filament scene before it had a fatal crash - i.e. not much.  Filament doesn't understand Sun-Sky lighting either, evidently.

This is the corresponding Iray render. I only let it render for 2 minutes, just to get a comparison of the scene content.

Well, shucks!  This was the primary reason I wanted to test Filament.  Has anybody tried it with HDRI lighting?  I've been really liking the results I get with Orestes skies or DimensionTheory's Skies of Economy but trying to get the lighting set right is pain. Using the tiny aux window set to Iray preview helps but in the end, a lot of time the trees end up blocking the perfect view I found in the preview.  Very time-consuming...

Intermediate Challenge. DAZ Studio, rendered in 3Delight with post-work in Affinity Photo.
The main figure is the body of "Gregory" (G3M) with the head of "Horror from the Deep". He is wearing part of the "Undead Wizard" outfit, with more yellow added to the diffuse colour. The statuette with six arms is "Eris" (G8F), with a stone shader applied, three copies in the same pose but with the arms in different positions, sitting on a plinth from "LoREZ Statues 1". The pool is the bathtub from "Opulent spa" (with the taps hidden by the plinth. The figure in the pool is "Madelyn" (for "Izabella 7") with a green tint added to her basic skin texture. She's wearing an outfit that came with "Slender Stephanie 6". In the background, the statues are "Adrienne" (for "Victoria 6") wearing the "Lofn" armor outfit. The figure was duplicated and given a mirror pose; the figure and outfit had a stone shader applied. The archway between the statues is from "Stone Borders". The mirror behind it is from "DM's Cave of Secrets". The moon above is from "Dead Corn". The back wall and floor are two primative planes with brick/stone textures added. The 'hand lightning' is from "Orestes Electromancy". The whole scene was rendered in four parts, with the same basic lighting, but with slight tweeking for each render. The whole thing was composited in Affinity Photo.

This whole thing has such a different feel to the usual render, it's really interesting

Not sure if you used that already, for the six armed statue you can hide the rest of the duplicate bodies by closing the exe of the respective bones in the scene tap, which might help with reducing render times. Though I understand that you rendered single items and composed afterwards? Mirroring the pose was a cleverer thing to get the statues like that.

Getting those very different light effects was probably intentional. Wjat I'm not sure about is if you want this to look rather flat, like a painting or if you would like a feel of more depth in this.

So right now I'm staying away from making direct suggestions because I'm not sure which way you want to go with this, so best is, if you have questions to come here and ask them

Intermediate Challenge. DAZ Studio, rendered in 3Delight with post-work in Affinity Photo.
The main figure is the body of "Gregory" (G3M) with the head of "Horror from the Deep". He is wearing part of the "Undead Wizard" outfit, with more yellow added to the diffuse colour. The statuette with six arms is "Eris" (G8F), with a stone shader applied, three copies in the same pose but with the arms in different positions, sitting on a plinth from "LoREZ Statues 1". The pool is the bathtub from "Opulent spa" (with the taps hidden by the plinth. The figure in the pool is "Madelyn" (for "Izabella 7") with a green tint added to her basic skin texture. She's wearing an outfit that came with "Slender Stephanie 6". In the background, the statues are "Adrienne" (for "Victoria 6") wearing the "Lofn" armor outfit. The figure was duplicated and given a mirror pose; the figure and outfit had a stone shader applied. The archway between the statues is from "Stone Borders". The mirror behind it is from "DM's Cave of Secrets". The moon above is from "Dead Corn". The back wall and floor are two primative planes with brick/stone textures added. The 'hand lightning' is from "Orestes Electromancy". The whole scene was rendered in four parts, with the same basic lighting, but with slight tweeking for each render. The whole thing was composited in Affinity Photo.

looks like Davy Jones made it to the challenge

not bad at all

Intermediate Challenge. DAZ Studio, rendered in 3Delight with post-work in Affinity Photo.
The main figure is the body of "Gregory" (G3M) with the head of "Horror from the Deep". He is wearing part of the "Undead Wizard" outfit, with more yellow added to the diffuse colour. The statuette with six arms is "Eris" (G8F), with a stone shader applied, three copies in the same pose but with the arms in different positions, sitting on a plinth from "LoREZ Statues 1". The pool is the bathtub from "Opulent spa" (with the taps hidden by the plinth. The figure in the pool is "Madelyn" (for "Izabella 7") with a green tint added to her basic skin texture. She's wearing an outfit that came with "Slender Stephanie 6". In the background, the statues are "Adrienne" (for "Victoria 6") wearing the "Lofn" armor outfit. The figure was duplicated and given a mirror pose; the figure and outfit had a stone shader applied. The archway between the statues is from "Stone Borders". The mirror behind it is from "DM's Cave of Secrets". The moon above is from "Dead Corn". The back wall and floor are two primative planes with brick/stone textures added. The 'hand lightning' is from "Orestes Electromancy". The whole scene was rendered in four parts, with the same basic lighting, but with slight tweeking for each render. The whole thing was composited in Affinity Photo.

Happy Halloween

Content used:

Headless Horseman HD for Genesis 8 Male

dForce Ichabod Outfit for Genesis 8 Males

DAZ Horse 2

Ember Horse Texture for Daz Horse 2

FSL Rigged and Morphing Atmosphere Props and Shaders

Orestes Iray HDRI Skydomes - Fantasy Moon

Postwork in Photoshop - aslo using Ron's Skulls

Cool.

Happy Halloween

Content used:

Headless Horseman HD for Genesis 8 Male

dForce Ichabod Outfit for Genesis 8 Males

DAZ Horse 2

Ember Horse Texture for Daz Horse 2

FSL Rigged and Morphing Atmosphere Props and Shaders

Orestes Iray HDRI Skydomes - Fantasy Moon

Postwork in Photoshop - aslo using Ron's Skulls

Some toilet paper for fantasy renders...

https://www.daz3d.com/autumn-leaves

https://www.daz3d.com/orestes-falling-leaves

Moshi The Kitten           Hamptons Estate           Caspian for Valentino 8         Orestes Iray HDRI  Abstract Style

If you haven't used the Abstract Style lights, give it a go with reflective surfaces such as window panes. You'll get some interesting colors.
Want this look? 
X / Y / Z Dome Rotation:  80 / 220 / 20 using 05

         "Dude, I'm here for you...but that does NOT include Splashtown USA...." 

Didn't keep my shopping cart as I was going as fast as I could since I was hours late to the party apparently. But here's what I scooped up. My poor credit card! But I had mostly skipped this sale the entire month. Good call!  I really like all of ElianeCKs lights, had just talked about them earlier in the thread. If you see those, consider them! (Since I own them, I can't tell if they're in the sale or not at first glance.) And someone on the thread mentioned Skies of Gaia. I think it was with that cute feathered dragon? Mary, IIRC was that yours?  And I love the first set of Longitude and Latitude so got the second one too!

Skies of Gaia Volume 2 - 40 8K HDRIs for Iray	70477	1	$5.00
Expedition Africa HDRI	69583	1	$5.00
Skies of Sylva - 20 Forest Themed 8K HDRIs for Iray	67977	1	$5.00
UltraHD Iray HDRI With DOF - Outdoor Pack 7 - Get Out	70731	1	$5.00
The Day After	71619	1	$5.00

 

Orestes Iray HDRI Skydomes - Sunrise	69953	1	$5.00
Fantasy IBL - Penthouse Water Park HDRI	69869	1	$5.00
MMX Fire and Smoke for Iray	68271	1	$5.00
iRadiance - HDRI 8K Variety Pack Five for Iray	64749	1	$5.00
ElianeCK Iray Warm Light	64131	1	$5.00

 

Orestes Iray HDRI Skydomes - Night Storms	67809	1	$5.00
Muelsfell Heroic Studio Backdrops with Iray Presets	66023	1	$5.00
IG Photographer's Toolbox: Cinematic Cameras 2	65935	1	$5.00
IG Photographer's Toolbox: Cinematic Cameras	62813	1	$5.00
IG Photographer's Toolbox: Film & Digital Cameras	62815	1	$5.00

 

Orestes Iray HDRI Skydomes - Blue Hour	69469	1	$5.00
IDG Kinetic Lighting 2	64327	1	$5.00
IDG Kinetic Lighting	63743	1	$5.00
iRadiance Pro Series 16k HDRIs - Urban Ruins	60571	1	$5.00
Color Shock 2	59851	1	$5.00

 

IDG Gradient Lights	51271	1	$5.00
Moon 360	49137	1	$5.00
EcVh0's Cinematic Render Resource Kit for Iray	47569	1	$5.00
Longitude & Latitude Lighting and Render Presets for DS Iray Vol 2	38047	1	$5.00
IG Iray Light Probes 2 - Touch of Color	45615	1	$5.00

 

LI Incandescent - PhotoBox for Iray	71385	1	$5.00
Church Ruins - DAZ Studio Iray HDRI Pack	61167	1	$5.00
Skies of Gaia - 20 8k HDRI Skies with Pre-Rendered Terrain for Iray	59387	1	$5.00
Perfect Storm	58385	1	$5.00
Render Studio Iray 'Scenes'	30837	1	$5.00

 

iRadiance - HDRI Variety Pack Four 8k HDRIs for Iray	57775	1	$5.00
IG Photographer’s Toolbox: Photo Lights	55151	1	$5.00
Tenebroso Lighting	49747	1	$5.00
Orestes Iray HDRI Skydomes - Darkest Night	56587	1	$5.00
Easy Light and Render - Spectrum Studio	56245	1	$5.00

 

 

Well, it was a long 50 minutes. :-)

Didn't keep my shopping cart as I was going as fast as I could since I was hours late to the party apparently. But here's what I scooped up. My poor credit card! But I had mostly skipped this sale the entire month. Good call!  I really like all of ElianeCKs lights, had just talked about them earlier in the thread. If you see those, consider them! (Since I own them, I can't tell if they're in the sale or not at first glance.) And someone on the thread mentioned Skies of Gaia. I think it was with that cute feathered dragon? Mary, IIRC was that yours?  And I love the first set of Longitude and Latitude so got the second one too!

https://www.daz3d.com/orestes-iray-artful-flares-hdris-and-props is missing its readme.

Will report.