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An "idiot noob proof" light set?

jenniferhugheyjenniferhughey Posts: 404
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

I'm really new and have tried reading up, lights and how they affect the characters confuse me. SO..wondering if there is an idiot proof studio set where you plop the character in, click a few buttons and the lights are all set. I bought a couple light sets but sometimes I can get them to work, and for other renders, they don't and I have no idea why. I want a transparent background and little to no shadows and able to render shiny metals without making the character too bright if that narrows things down. backgrounds might be nice but mostly I prefer to take my renders into PS and finish.. Any ideas? Sorry to bug you guys so much. I have learned a lot in the past few days though :-) Thank you!!

Comments

  • RobotHeadArtRobotHeadArt Posts: 917

    Are you using Iray or 3DL?

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,120
    edited February 2017

    Basically you use HRDI images in iRay rendering and need a nVidia video card that has enough ram to render the scenes you make. 90% of the complaints in the forum are from renders that haven't went through enough iterations. CPU renders are notoriously slow until that start to look OK.

    If you don't want to use HRDI images then you the built in Sun & Sky selection.

    Otherwise wait for someone to come by & recommend portrait studio style lighting presets you can buy in the DAZ Store.

    Post edited by nonesuch00 on
  • jenniferhugheyjenniferhughey Posts: 404

    Oh sorry Iray.

  • jenniferhugheyjenniferhughey Posts: 404
    nonesuch00 said:

    Basically you use HRDI images in iRay rendering and need a nVidia video card that has enough ram to render the scenes you make. 90% of the complaints in the forum are from renders that haven't went through enough iterations. CPU renders are notoriously slow until that start to look OK.

    If you don't want to use HRDI images then you the built in Sun & Sky selection.

    Otherwise wait for someone to come by & recommend portrait studio style lighting presets you can buy in the DAZ Store.

     

    I have an Nvidia GeForce960 which hasn't been a problem so far..just some renders turn out way too light, others too dark, others the metals don't have a shine or are too dark. I really think its a light issue and I really don't want to putz with it anymore. Hoping someone has a solution from the store.

     

  • evilded777evilded777 Posts: 2,464

    Sorry but there's nothing that's idiot proof. Every situation is going to demand different lighting conditions. The things you describe could well be from a combination of things, bad lights, bad materials....You will do better to learn about lighting and materials than just hunting for the perfect one click solution.

  • RobotHeadArtRobotHeadArt Posts: 917

    It sounds like there might be an issue with either how you are setting the scene up or the materials themselves if the metal isn't shiny.  Do you have an example of what it looks like?

  • jenniferhugheyjenniferhughey Posts: 404

    Bummer. I didn't realize you couldn't just set up a studio and use it for every render. I am tearing my hair out over the last couple renders I have done and still can't figure out what the deal is with the metals. I just don't know enough to troubleshoot. maybe I should leave those for when I have more experience then :-(

  • jenniferhugheyjenniferhughey Posts: 404
    edited February 2017
    RobotHeadArt said:

    It sounds like there might be an issue with either how you are setting the scene up or the materials themselves if the metal isn't shiny.  Do you have an example of what it looks like?

    I've set different lights, messed with the render settings, used different materials(iray) I am just lost. I have a thread on this, and people have suggested things but they don't work. The metal is always dark no matter what I do. I am at a loss, the second pic I was able to get the metal to look shiny and light(missed the second earring) Maybe just something is corrupted with this setup and I should just start from scratch.

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    Post edited by jenniferhughey on
  • jenniferhugheyjenniferhughey Posts: 404

    This one was shiny? Maybe just something is corrupted with this setup and I should just start from scratch.

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  • RobotHeadArtRobotHeadArt Posts: 917

    The metal looks like it is dark because there is little light hitting it and it looks like there is nothing else in the scene to reflect light back to the metal.  Here is a example scene setup and lit three different ways.  The metal is the silver Iray shader that comes with DAZ Studio.

    The first one there is nothing else in the scene besides the character and two lights.  Because the character is floating in an infinite black void, when the light bounces off of her it goes off into empty space.  Since nothing reflects back the only shiny parts of the metal you can see is where the two lights are for the most part directly hitting them.  The second the character is standing in a corner and there is a floor.  This causes some of the secondary rays to bounce off the floor and walls giving the metal more shine.  The third the character is lit by the Sun-Sky setting only and since there is lots of light and a sky/ground to reflect it the metal looks very shiny even though it is the exact same material as the other two renders.

     

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  • SixDsSixDs Posts: 2,384

    Very nicely explained, RHA.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,804

    The metals issue is also being discussed here http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/148556/my-jewelry-won-t-texture-with-metals-for-iray#latest . Please don't start multiple threads on the same topic as it just leads to people wasting their time going over ground that has already been covered.

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