Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 9

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  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,116
    edited November 2017

    I picked up Seasons Greetings.

    This is the first render straight from the box, Rendered in Iray with the default 3Delight shaders.

    2017-11-16 19:51:34.016 Total Rendering Time: 18 minutes 33.91 seconds

    Click on image for full size.

    This is the second render that has been Iray Uberised.

    2017-11-16 20:34:56.876 Total Rendering Time: 17 minutes 54.94 seconds

    Click on image for full size.

     

    seasons-greetings-001.jpg
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    seasons-greetings-002.jpg
    1280 x 720 - 681K
    Post edited by Fishtales on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited November 2017

    @Fishtales  I have that and haven't ever rendered it! (one of thousands, sigh.)  Edit- I'm clicking back and forth and don't see much of a difference between the two. 

    Coming up from me are Pepper (Gen8F), Cardigan Dress Outfit, Nick Hair, and Interior Room and Furniture (which you'll really like)

    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,636
    edited November 2017

    @ cismic  I use mars 36O a lot. But I found myself using hdri a lot less since the upgrade. I kind of wonder if something has changed since the last update since I swear hdri used to look better.

     

     

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,116
    Novica said:

    @Fishtales  I have that and haven't ever rendered it! (one of thousands, sigh.)  Edit- I'm clicking back and forth and don't see much of a difference between the two. 

    Coming up from me are Pepper (Gen8F), Cardigan Dress Outfit, Nick Hair, and Interior Room and Furniture (which you'll really like)

    I did the same and couldn't see any difference either :)

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited November 2017

    This isn't a brand new render, but my last entry in Ati and Overdrawn's contest. The new -to-me item is Stonemason's Winter Castle. The background is Eternal White Skydome and HDRI from Flipmode. I used the HDRI, and set the environment value low to darken the image. The candle flame is from SY's Fast Flames Iray and enhanced to light the woman's area using KA's original Iray Ghost Light Kit.

    Vigil

    Vigil, by L'Adair

    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • TaozTaoz Posts: 9,939
    edited November 2017
    Fishtales said:
    Novica said:

    @Fishtales  I have that and haven't ever rendered it! (one of thousands, sigh.)  Edit- I'm clicking back and forth and don't see much of a difference between the two. 

    Coming up from me are Pepper (Gen8F), Cardigan Dress Outfit, Nick Hair, and Interior Room and Furniture (which you'll really like)

    I did the same and couldn't see any difference either :)

    As far as I understand that's because Iray automatically applies the Iray Uber shader if an object doesn't already have an Iray shader.  

    Post edited by Taoz on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    @ladair  That snow looks realistic, and so do the mountains!

    @Taoz   That's what I had heard, but I wasn't sure if it did it to everything in the scene. So that would be yes apparently.

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    Taoz said:
    Fishtales said:
    Novica said:

    @Fishtales  I have that and haven't ever rendered it! (one of thousands, sigh.)  Edit- I'm clicking back and forth and don't see much of a difference between the two. 

    Coming up from me are Pepper (Gen8F), Cardigan Dress Outfit, Nick Hair, and Interior Room and Furniture (which you'll really like)

    I did the same and couldn't see any difference either :)

     

    Fishtales said:
    Novica said:

    @Fishtales  I have that and haven't ever rendered it! (one of thousands, sigh.)  Edit- I'm clicking back and forth and don't see much of a difference between the two. 

    Coming up from me are Pepper (Gen8F), Cardigan Dress Outfit, Nick Hair, and Interior Room and Furniture (which you'll really like)

    I did the same and couldn't see any difference either :)

    As far as I understand that's because Iray automatically applies the Iray Uber shader if an object doesn't already have an Iray shader.  

    This is true. It gets applied at the time of render, which explains why the first render took longer. For something like this, a quick out-of-the-box render, there isn't much advantage to converting the items in the scene with Iray Uber Base. But if you're creating your own, more complicated scene, kit-bashing from a number of products, with a lot of test renders as you go along, you'll save quite a bit of time in the long run if you apply the Iray Uber Base as you go along.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited November 2017

    Cardigan Dress Outfit (Gen8F)        Pepper (Gen3/8F)        Nick Hair (Gen3/8)      Interior Room and Furniture

    Okay, killing four with one render.

    The set's walls can be individually hidden and it's really easy to render. I always appreciate that! This scene has one Ghost Light to our left, up and slightly tilted so it's not a direct light from the side. Again, nothing fancy (didn't set up scene outside of window) but just showing the set. I like the patterning on the rug, where it goes over the end toward the camera it really gives it depth (like egg-carton pop ups, if that makes sense. And I mentioned when this set came out, the windows aren't the "typical" framed windows, there's a nice geometric layout of smaller and rectangular windows which give them character. 

    22 minutes 56% (can't stand here watching it, busy doing things, but that will give you an idea.
    Did check just now, it's 31 minutes and 82%.   Now it's 46 minutes and 86%. This is really SLOW. I also have two walls hidden, and one plant taken out.   The render is only 843 x 900 pixels.   96%  1 hour and stopped. Don't know if it's the Mitchell settings or not, or the set, but there's only one Ghost Light (which is speedy) assisting with the lights (Still Pro Studio) so those render quickly. Moving on though. Anyone else rendered the Interior Room and Furniture, and if so, how big was your render and what was your time/settings? Gaussian, Mitchell? My Render Quality was only 1.0 so that's not an issue.


     

    pepper Interior Room Furniture.png
    843 x 900 - 1M
    Post edited by Novica on
  • cismiccismic Posts: 629
    Novica said:

    Okay, killing four with one render.

    The set's walls can be individually hidden and it's really easy to render. I always appreciate that! This scene has one Ghost Light to our left, up and slightly tilted so it's not a direct light from the side. Again, nothing fancy (didn't set up scene outside of window) but just showing the set. I like the patterning on the rug, where it goes over the end toward the camera it really gives it depth (like egg-carton pop ups, if that makes sense. And I mentioned when this set came out, the windows aren't the "typical" framed windows, there's a nice geometric layout of smaller and rectangular windows which give them character. 

    @novica I like the lighting. But, I find white rooms hard to light and render at times. Perhaps I should listen to Eric Clapton when doing white rooms. I wish there was some more information on lighting light rooms and white rooms
     

     

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,583
    Novica said:



    @Taoz   That's what I had heard, but I wasn't sure if it did it to everything in the scene. So that would be yes apparently.

    Almost -- if the scene used custom shaders they might not translate, but the standard shaders will.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,116
    edited November 2017

    Here is a 3Delight render. No background and lights from Ruined Cottage.

    2017-11-16 21:48:15.162 Total Rendering Time: 4 minutes 44.5 seconds

    Click on image for full size.

     

     

    seasons-greetings-003.jpg
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    Post edited by Fishtales on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,636

    A lot of sci-fi stuff is white or gray. The only way I can light them is using gray in the diffuse. My usual method is to remove the ceiling and use a sunk sky or interior hdri. Emission lights are slow to render on my machine so I don’t tend to use them although they look great. 

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    Novica said:
    Did check just now, it's 31 minutes and 82%.   Now it's 46 minutes and 86%. This is really SLOW. I also have two walls hidden, and one plant taken out.   The render is only 843 x 900 pixels.   96%  1 hour and stopped. Don't know if it's the Mitchell settings or not, or the set, but there's only one Ghost Light (which is speedy) assisting with the lights (Still Pro Studio) so those render quickly. Moving on though. Anyone else rendered the Interior Room and Furniture, and if so, how big was your render and what was your time/settings? Gaussian, Mitchell? My Render Quality was only 1.0 so that's not an issue.

    You mentioned walls can be hidden. Did you remove any of the walls? If so, light is escaping and Iray is still running the calculations for it, out in the "environment." I seem to recall you can replace a hidden wall with an Iray Section Plane Node and it will allow the light to bounce back into the room, but it's invisible to the camera. Or make the wall a Ghost Wall, (all credit to KA for the inspiration.) Just locate all the material zones for the wall and set Cutout Opacity to 0.000001. (I did that to a plane under a character when testing dForce and the dress pooled onto the plane!)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited November 2017

    Ditto. Gray in Diffuse (Surface pane) is your friend. Also, turn DOWN Burn Highlights in Tone Mapping, and increase the Crush Blacks. (I go with .15 or so for the Burns, and .35 for the Blacks, if the scene is mostly white. And adjust from there.) 

    And poor Valandar, we don't feature very often (See, I DID remember when you joked about it months ago!)  but we all use the products, so shoutout to @valandar for the Pens and Markers!  (I keep telling PAs to PM me if you want to be featured...)   Note the print on the markers, there's a company listed. Nice details! 

     

    pens and markers.png
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    L'Adair said:

    This isn't a brand new render, but my last entry in Ati and Overdrawn's contest. The new -to-me item is Stonemason's Winter Castle

    Vigil

    Vigil, by L'Adair

    The snow and mountains look very realistic.
    Yep, I hid two walls, I do it all the time and haven't noticed such a time increase. I had it on Dome and Scene, if that makes any difference (I  keep forgetting to check and see what I have that on, I'm so busy with Tone Mapping.) And Infinite Sphere, which I'm sure didn't help. Thanks for the reminder on the remedies. I wish I could remember half of what I already know, but it just zips in and zips back out again. 

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited November 2017
    Novica said:
    L'Adair said:

    This isn't a brand new render, but my last entry in Ati and Overdrawn's contest. The new -to-me item is Stonemason's Winter Castle

    Vigil

    Vigil, by L'Adair

    The snow and mountains look very realistic.

    The mountains are part of the HDRI from Flipmode's Eternal White Skydome and HDRI. I think they are compiled either from photo resources or very detailed renders. The snow is part of the Winter Castle product. Oddly enough, they are 3DL shaders. They render beautifully in Iray. I tried converting them with the Iray Uber Base and the snow disappeared! I was mistaken. The snow is Iray, and custom shaders at that! (I feel awful about posting incorrect information. Sorry.)
    blush

    Novica said:

    Yep, I hid two walls, I do it all the time and haven't noticed such a time increase. I had it on Dome and Scene, if that makes any difference (I  keep forgetting to check and see what I have that on, I'm so busy with Tone Mapping.) And Infinite Sphere, which I'm sure didn't help. Thanks for the reminder on the remedies. I wish I could remember half of what I already know, but it just zips in and zips back out again. 

    It could also have something to do with all the white. Try applying a wallpaper-like shader, (maybe a floral print fabric?) and see if the same scene renders faster. When you have a bit of free time, of course. LOL
    laugh

    ETA: I'd try it myself, but I didn't buy that particular product.

    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    edited November 2017

    Alondra for Monique 8 and that stunning Pasquale hair. I did crop it a bit, while it doesn't show anything that you don't see in promos, its close.  You can see the full render at Deviant Art

    ALONDRA G8F CROPPED.jpg
    1236 x 1550 - 387K
    Post edited by IceDragonArt on
  • cismiccismic Posts: 629

    Alondra for Monique 8 and that stunning Pasquale hair. I did crop it a bit, while it doesn't show anything that you don't see in promos, its close.  You can see the full render at Deviant Art

    @IceDragonArt :- I like it. The lighting is very nice and the fire gives off that warm feeling.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    cismic said:

    Alondra for Monique 8 and that stunning Pasquale hair. I did crop it a bit, while it doesn't show anything that you don't see in promos, its close.  You can see the full render at Deviant Art

    @IceDragonArt :- I like it. The lighting is very nice and the fire gives off that warm feeling.

    Thanks! 

    I used Marshian's Iray Rim Light Rig for the fire highlights behind her and Kindred Art's Ghost Light to help light up her face.  Will probably do a bit of post work to bring out her eyes a bit more.  And who knows where that will end up lol.

  • cismiccismic Posts: 629
    cismic said:

    Alondra for Monique 8 and that stunning Pasquale hair. I did crop it a bit, while it doesn't show anything that you don't see in promos, its close.  You can see the full render at Deviant Art

    @IceDragonArt :- I like it. The lighting is very nice and the fire gives off that warm feeling.

    Thanks! 

    I used Marshian's Iray Rim Light Rig for the fire highlights behind her and Kindred Art's Ghost Light to help light up her face.  Will probably do a bit of post work to bring out her eyes a bit more.  And who knows where that will end up lol.

    @IceDragonArt :- Not sure if it would apply to this image. But, with low light shots I've bumped up the gama to 3 in most cases. Still keeps great lighting while helping with light bounce due to iray. Well, I probably don't know what I'm talking about as I always experiment and save projects often. Still it's a great image. :-)

  • EtaminEtamin Posts: 129

    Hi Novica

    I have a total noob question.  Sorry, I am also such a noob with the forum format, I tried to quote you but got that messed up too...

    In your  'killing four with one render' post, you said 'didn't set up scene outside of window' , but it doesn't have the ugly chequerboard 'void', so did you put a background there to get a neutral tone?

    Thanks, Peter

  • cismiccismic Posts: 629

    @IceDragonArt :- I use the H/V ghost lights a lot. Very versitile.  Maybe not desinged too the hide setting works on other lights and not just ghost lights too.  I have started to use the flat ones really close to skins at settings of 2 - 5 it's barely noticeable but, when rendering you can see the difference in an image. 

    In this image the first one without ghost light the second with and rendered for the same amount of time 4 hours each. I think I need more exprimentation on how close to get with iray etc. The luminance set at 40 @6500

     

    AfterGhostLight.png
    1491 x 926 - 1M
    BeforeGhostLight.png
    1502 x 922 - 2M
    GhostLightPlaceMent.png
    755 x 198 - 95K
  • cismiccismic Posts: 629

    There are some interesting items in fast grab right now. I'm thinking about this item now. https://www.daz3d.com/perspectx-family-room

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited November 2017
    Etamin said:

    Hi Novica

    I have a total noob question.  Sorry, I am also such a noob with the forum format, I tried to quote you but got that messed up too...

    In your  'killing four with one render' post, you said 'didn't set up scene outside of window' , but it doesn't have the ugly chequerboard 'void', so did you put a background there to get a neutral tone?

    Thanks, Peter

    Hi Peter,  @etamin

    Yes, not sure how much you know, so just in case-  I just went to Environment, clicked Type and selected Backdrop. Then underneath the word Background, there is a downward arrow and you click that, go to Browse, and select what image you want on your backdrop. Check out the free backgrounds in my signature. wink

    Post edited by Novica on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    cismic said:
    cismic said:

    Alondra for Monique 8 and that stunning Pasquale hair. I did crop it a bit, while it doesn't show anything that you don't see in promos, its close.  You can see the full render at Deviant Art

    @IceDragonArt :- I like it. The lighting is very nice and the fire gives off that warm feeling.

    Thanks! 

    I used Marshian's Iray Rim Light Rig for the fire highlights behind her and Kindred Art's Ghost Light to help light up her face.  Will probably do a bit of post work to bring out her eyes a bit more.  And who knows where that will end up lol.

    @IceDragonArt :- Not sure if it would apply to this image. But, with low light shots I've bumped up the gama to 3 in most cases. Still keeps great lighting while helping with light bounce due to iray. Well, I probably don't know what I'm talking about as I always experiment and save projects often. Still it's a great image. :-)

    Knowledge is power, I am always open to suggestions and things that may work to improve things so thank you!  Very cool little experiment there with the super close ups I would never have thought to try that.  I use the Ghost Lights in almost everything.

  • Taoz said:
    Fishtales said:
    Taoz said:

    I've stopped buying HDRI. I used to be a total addict, but I find too much sameness in the quality of light and they don't produce results I can use.

    I use them rarely too, it's mostly because I'm looking for some clear or just slightly clouded dome skies which seem to be hard to find in a good quality. Maybe I'll just stick with Dreamlight's which is just a set or presets for the IRay sky, but at least it hasn't any artifacts.

    I find that the dome changes every HDRI that I put into it, even high resolution ones. I don't know what it does but they are either not sharp or are lighter than they should be. It might just be my settings though but I do get the odd one that is 'nearly' the same :)

    The lack of sharpness seems to be common and one of the reasons I'm not much for HDRIs that includes environment. Not sure what the reason is either, maybe they're just low resolution pictures that are upsized (if that makes any sense with an HDRI?). The one I've used here is 328 MB and genuine high resolution I assume, at least it looks pretty sharp to me. I've tried to reduce the size to 1/4 but then it gets very blurred.

     

    The lack of sharpness is because in most renders you are only getting a very, very small portion of the full HDR as the background. Open an HDR in an image editor sometimes and compare how much actually makes it into the shot. So they need to be around 8k to stay reasonably clear, and more like 16k for large images or really good sharpness retention. Here's a pretty good article that talks about this.

    http://adaptivesamples.com/2016/02/23/what-makes-good-hdri/

  • cismiccismic Posts: 629
    edited November 2017

    Here is a test image with Kallisto and lighting entirely scene and surround by 6 ghost light panels. Top, bottom and all sides. Now, adjusting the lights little by little to see what can be done. The light behind was set at lums of 1M with the Backdrop a night spooky moon image.  Was 56MB after 43 minutes. Will render this over the weekend. 

    Exposure Value 20.04,Shutter Speed 8000, F/Stop 10, ISO 135 Vignetting 2, Saturation 1.40, Gamma, 3.0

    The hair was actually setup as all black, even with the philw hair shaders also using all black, This setup kind of gave the gray, white, black appearance. The dress would not work with Dforce at all. Crashed once, then when from base pose to this pose and blowups like a brain mushroom. After that just received error that says unable to load simulation. will try again another day. Nah, the last sentence is mine. 

     

    Two By Two.jpg
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    Post edited by cismic on
  • TaozTaoz Posts: 9,939
    edited November 2017
    L'Adair said:
    Taoz said:

    As far as I understand that's because Iray automatically applies the Iray Uber shader if an object doesn't already have an Iray shader.  

    This is true. It gets applied at the time of render, which explains why the first render took longer.

    If you keep the first (or any) render of the current scene open when you do the next, it will also start rendering faster (= shorter total rendering time) because a lot of stuff is already in memory. It's probably the Resume feature that keeps stuff in memory because it's needed to continue the open render. When you close all renders of the current scene, that stuff will be cleared from memory.

    It will take up some memory of course so it may not be a good idea if the scene is large and is close to using all the memory (it may drop to CPU rendering then) but with smaller scenes like test renders you do many times it may save you a lot of time.

    Post edited by Taoz on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    cismic said:

    There are some interesting items in fast grab right now. I'm thinking about this item now. https://www.daz3d.com/perspectx-family-room

     

    Showcased that here this past June.

This discussion has been closed.