June 2017 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Scenes and Landscapes
Linwelly
Posts: 5,956
New User's Challenge - June 2017
Sponsored by DAZ 3D
Are you new to the 3D World? Are you at the beginning stages of learning 3D rendering? Have you been around for a little bit but feel you could benefit from some feedback or instruction? Have you been around awhile and would like to help other members start their creative journey? Well then come and join the fun as we host our newest render challenge!
"Scenes and Landscapes"
This month's focus will be scenes and landscapes. If you haven't noticed when you look at images made by the various 3D software some of the packages do a lot better then others in treating an expansive scene or a magnificent landscape. Ones that come to mind are software such as Bryce or Vue. Both have some built in features that make those wonderfully big expansive images come true. DAZ Studio on the other hand does not have any handy dandy features built into it but if you know the tricks there is no reason why you can't get those same kinds of results. For this contest we will be exploring the principles of how such scenes and landscapes are built and how to control the environment to create the sense of expansiveness a scene or landscape creates for the viewer.
There are some key elements that should be considered when creating a landscape, they are the inspiration, lighting, perspective and depth of focus. I have gathered some links for you that talk about each of these elements.
Inspiration:
Photos and Renders:
Landscapes
starscape photography
Perspective and Depth of Focus:
What a Painter Considers
What a Photographer Considers
Transform 3D Renders: Part 1
http://blog.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/tutorials/transform-3d-renders-part-1/
Transform 3D Renders: Part 2
http://blog.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/tutorials/transform-3d-renders-part-2/
Bryce 7
Things to consider when setting up your landscape:
As stated by Jon A. Bell in his book, 3ds max 6 Killer Tips, "For more realistic outdoor scenes, especially if you're seeing a distant horizon, you should always add a slight amount of atmospheric haze.... If you look at a distant mountain range (or if you don't have one right outside your window, just grab a travel magazine or pretend), you'll notice how colors become muted and washed out with distance. You can use just a slight amount of atmospheric fog (it depends on the scale of your scene), and the colors will determine the clarity or quality of your "atmosphere." For clear outdoor settings, using a slight bit of white fog is desirable; for sunset or urban settings (where the air might be more polluted), a slight yellowish or reddish cast makes your horizons look better." In DAZ Studio you have a couple of options in getting that affect. The first would be to add just a tiny bit of DOF so that the objects become a bit more blurred and muted. Another way is to have a volumetric camera that will add the fog feature to the render.
Lighting:
Approaching Realism in DAZ Studio and Gamma Correction Demystified
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/54913/
Using HDR Files In DAZ Studio 3delight renders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okaYS1jeAew
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/37753/
Handy tools for DAZ Studio ( note: these can help but are not in any way necessary):
https://www.daz3d.com/terradome-3-iray
https://www.daz3d.com/ultrascatter-advanced-instancing-for-daz-studio
A forumpost from the June 2015 landscape contest with some very handy information
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/832212/#Comment_832212
Bryce 7.1
For a list of the current challenge rules, please see this thread : Challenge Rules
Closing Date: June 30, 2017
I will be checking in as will the rest of the Community Volunteers to try and help with anything you all may need.
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Comments
These are a couple of older 3DL renders I created for New User Contests.
Please feel free to offer feedback on the images.
would you please let us know, if you did postwork it. The "lone ranger" image is great, lighting, colour composition, dimension ...
In the "forest" image I like most that the fog works so well.
I´m rendering in Iray, not at least because I think that Iray forgives more mistakes. I´m a bit surprised about 3Dlight rendering
The first of these was done using Stonemason's "After the War", going along the lines on an urban lanscape.
-=-
I bought the setting of this second scene also by Stonemason this week "Through the Woods".
These are both older renders created using 3DL. There is not postwork in either. They were New User Entries. The forest render was for Atmosphere and the Lone Cowboy was Lighting.
I do tend to agree that Iray is more forgiving than 3DL, at least for me. Some are able to get the best out of 1 or the other and some can create amazing images in either engine.
I like your start with the Urban Landscape. I can't help but think it needs smoke rising from the rubble from either the trucks passing through or possibly fires that are still smoldering in the rubble.
In your 2nd image the lighting seems a bit off. I am missing shadows and possibly some dappled light.
Nice start on both images.
Nice start ther Shinji!
What I would like to say to everbody is: you don't need to have a large set or scenery to make this challenge work. You can use one small terrain and use that three times a bit rotated to each other, arranged with a bit of distance to make it look like a large place. I really encourage you to look at this hint https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/832212/#Comment_832212
though the programs names ther are Vue and Carraca the system works the same in DS!
You can as well use a terrain and scale it up, or only scale up the y scale to create mountains. And the ultimate tool is the d-former to rearrange your places or even start out with a primitve plane ( use a high level of divisions) and apply some ground shader.
Just don't be shy to mangle your sets.
I will put up another axample from my days of New user contest:
here is a screenshot with the top view of my scenery and some (well written
) comments on it, below is the scnee that resulted from it ( 3dlight once again)
Added some smoke props to make it look as if things are still smoldering in the ruins, as well as make it look as though the convoy is kicking up some dust.
P.S. Thanks for the feedback on my opening renders Kismet, and Linwelly.
Also I like your example that you shared Linwelly.
Nice. That really adds some dimension to the image.
well, seems that this month is no contest, so lets play a bit.
Landscape is not my favorite theme. It lives from atmosphere and depth. Look at Shinji´s ruins scene or Kismet´s Lone Rider. This is still over my head.
I do not have that much props to create a landscape scene ( shoot all my powder in April), but I can improvise well. So I did simply go an other way. The base is laid
Playing around can lead to some interesting discoveries and techniques.
I like what you have so far. Your clouds are giving you some good depth and the bright colours are fun. The little house in the water is providing a sense of scale.
There is a black spot in the upper right of the image just above the cloud that is distracting. It looks like your camera angle is just outside the area of the background?
I have no good Landscapes in DAZ, so I chose the Dystopia City Blocks but in my first test rendering, I saw a irritating reflection on the street. Is that a conflict between the shaders and Iray? I use DAZ 4.9
I like the idea of using those for the city scape. As you say I would expect the high reflection to be a result from shader transfer to Iray. The city block originally were intended to look at from the distance so they might lack at the details a bit. but you could try to select the highly refelctive surfaces and tone down the refelctivity/ specularity /glossyness. Take a look if Iray created a top coat or something for the street. Will be a bit of fiddeling with the shaders to get the result you want. Eventually you can look if there is a bumb map in place, if not you can create on from the diffuse map. (ask again if needed. I can tell you then)
The you can go a different way altogether and take it at face value, say your future town is like that, alter some of the surfaces to emissive in various colours and tone down the environmental light and add some magneto flying cars on you glossy street.
Main point is that you add some kind of depth using atmosphere.
Mhh, after some trys, to eliminate the reflection, I take Linwellys idea and use her instead in a different way.
I changed the scene in a night scene and the street look now, like after a rain.
I still have a lot to do. (DoF, light, atmosphere and I tend to turn off the dome, but now the scene looks much more realistic to me. :)
Double post, please erase.
Ui , that looks great
Kismet sayd "The little house in the water is providing a sense of scale "
I have exactely the same problem. The water was intended to be fog
No proplem, set the fog a little lower, make him blue, put a ship in him and use him as water.
And yes, the street in my pic looks not exactly like after rain, but it go in the right direction.
I think that was just me. I was working with water and "saw" that in your render.
Depending on the type and newness of the asphalt it can look shiny when wet. Especially at night.
I am looking forward to all your additions Daybird.
Hahaha, thanks ! Now I can stop fiddeling to make it identifiable without making it real live
@daybird : "No proplem, set the fog a little lower, make him blue, put a ship in him and use him as water.
"
bad boy! But you are so right. I tend to go on with plan B if that, what I want achive, dont works. Your proposal would be exactely one of those examples
So, here is the next version.Toon shaders ( DS default) does´nt work for iray, is´nt it ?
At the moment I have no inspiration, what is still missing in the picture. I could add more elements, hmm, but I don´t think it is necessary. I like the kind of minimalism.
Not bad at all, but I have a problem with the light in the background.
You can see how it produces a shadow in the left and a even darker shadow in the right corner.
Oh and maybe a light refraction in the water surface would turn out great.
But you are not the only one who has problems with the light...
How all can see, the light from the car on the right side produces a irritating mirror reflection on the building.
I should´nt have to explain the image. So I see, that it does not speak for itself. The concept is still the same. What , in the eyes of others, looks like water is still fog. Have used an other fog prop, but it obviously did not solve the issue. So, thanks for your feedback !
What looks like shadows on the background/sky, is none. I tried to get an uneven sky without using just a picture on a flat plane. The wax shader, applied on something you would not expect, brought the best result. It gave me that dark part on the right, which looks for me like a mountain in the far distance. The brighter area in the center I just have ignored because I would remove (or change ) it afterwards. What a light refraction on the fog surface makes, I will test. But for now it seems that I should be fucused on the logic of the image itself.
Even that the reflection on the street is not optimal, you made a big step forward by adding the cars. I´m not that familiar with the dystopia city prop since I have used it only 1 time. But I mean to remember, that adjusting the surfaces singlewise is very limited. In case it is so, I would think that the perspective you choosed allowes you to move the car a bit deeper, so that the reflection does not reach the wall. Or simulate the entrance into a tunnel ?
However, your scene can go in various directions, from clean downtown up to drama. And all would make sense, I like it
But you are not the only one who has problems with the light...
How all can see, the light from the car on the right side produces a irritating mirror reflection on the building.
Indeed it does. :/
Second and greater problem is, that I had choose the random city button and so the whole city is one object without any part that I can change in a single way -.-
*hihi* I'm sorry with the fog, but you see....it's june and the people have the beach in mind....so you must make a beach scene *hrhr*
you have that creative eye. You will find a solution
nooooo, I don´t want tooooo *lol*
It is a very peaceful scene.