Novica & Serene Night's Renders, Tips, Tutorials & Product Reviews Part 1
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It's z translation (did 151.88) and Y to lower my genesis a bit (-5.21)
All you do is move your figures forward in the scene!
This image was 3,333 wide by 2500 tall.
To create a photo backdrop-
Edit>Backdrop.
Hope Genesis doesn't go to the next pasture, it would freak Nova out!
TIP:
If you are photographing for backgrounds, get some closeup, medium distance, and long distant shots. The amount of space you leave above your main subject (aka fence, building, whatever) determines how much leeway you have in changing your camera angle up. I had no leeway (but was doing this to show you the way to the bridge, in my defense. Lawyer, lawyer, lol!)
BTW, there's a GREAT video tutorial on how to cast shadows onto a photograph/ backgrounds. YES! It's true! If I wanted to take time with this (which I wouldn't, I'd go reshoot and get a tad bit further back to leave more composition above the fence) I could actually throw shadows on this background. Carnite's a genius! (Yes you are gal!) Go, Shader Mixer! And in my first week of trying the studio, I was able to follow her and do a D Former! (WOW. She's really that good!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SEBV2GHJHA My little cottage in the hills looked SO good!
So newbies and mediums, and oldies- if you haven't seen her videos you are missing out bigtime! Watch this one, and part 2, on how to create shadows on your backgrounds / photos!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo2OVy9tf8E&list=UUmcv_IW_FsFaFLUDPaojagw&index=7
TIP: Working With Primitives: By HeraldOfFire
***
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/20319/#298200
you can follow the thread / ask questions. HOF is a genius in my book. (And very nice- I PM'd and asked for permission to link the info.)
First. a useful tip when working with primitives: make sure you have enough segments to work with later.
There are several ways you can work with primitives. The simplest of them is to simply click on it with the surface selection tool and, under the surfaces tab, assign a texture to the diffuse color. You can at this point add displacement, bump and other handy maps to make it really pop out. Of course, this will cover the whole primitive in the same texture and may not be exactly what you’re after. Which brings me to…
The polygon selection tool can be a godsend for working with primitives. It allows you to select individual parts of the primitive and assign them to their own surface. This means that one cube, for example, could have each face using a different texture or colour. Having segments is vital to getting the most out of this tool though, as you’ll need polygons to select. Make your selection with the left mouse button (CTRL+Click adds to a selection, ALT+Click removes from the selection) and then right click and go to Polygon Assignment -> Create Surface from selected. From there you just name it something meaningful and use it like any other surface.
As I have mentioned in some other threads, my sons are learning LightWave. They are total newbies so imagine my delight when they used the teacup tutorial and put one of my favorite images on it as a reflection. It was funny to see our faces on another one (NO, you can't see THOSE) because we were all distorted. (For me, an improvement.) Thought I'd share.
TIPS On Surfaces, Materials, & Shaders By Scott-Livingston:
It's a new users contest but Scott-L made sure everyone got some good basics. Thank you for helping everyone!
Here's the thread:
***
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/19908/
Okay, we've got a line of severe storms/tornadoes (7 in Mississippi so far) headed toward the Florida panhandle, so I'm headed out to put Nova in the pasture with the sturdy barn (due to hail) but wanted to show you the second image in the story. The first one, Kaetl finds and reassures the baby dragons, this one freezes the moment they hear something in the woods- a split second later. This was the image I started with, and relates to my tip for newbies:
TIP:
1. Get your character posed SOMEWHAT and in a graphics program, circle the areas that you want your nuances (small details) so you don't have to try and remember all of them. Think of it as your checklist
2. Determine your priorities. That shoulder thing-a-ma-jig up by Kaetl's face is giving me FITS. I wanted to leave a space (many of my circled areas are spaces as it adds depth to the scene-(leave space between body parts/clothing and body such as the shoulder thingies)
3. Then move the view cube and rotate your figure around to that general starting point. Then start fine tuning your figure. It's really great when you already have your figure clothed and some lighting established, but keep in mind when you see these next posts (throughout tonight or tomorrow) that the lighting isn't done, the hands have not been tweaked so far as the fingers which will curl up slightly (do the startle reflex and you'll see what I mean. I've already raised her shoulders and elbows)
So here's my "Checklist Starting Point" with a couple hours of posing. I've labelled them with numbers and will come back and tell you what the consideration is- see if YOU can guess in the meantime. (Think spaces, what's showing and not showing, etc)
THIS IS NOT A SPOT RENDER.
And btw, it's definitely not the view I ended up with! And still not done. Haven't touched the lighting, which will take me days as when Kaetl raised up, she got into several spotlights that were subtle (going to the waterfall!) It's like a glowing neon blue Kaetl!
Back from the barn, just in time. Did five horses, not just Nova- couldn't stand leaving them out in flimsier shelters. Nasty stuff! (7 tornadoes in Mississippi from this same line of storms. Hope everyone is safe that's in the path of this line.)
I'll be getting you inside shots of the barn too- in case you want some backgrounds.
Anyway, here we go. Refer to the image in the previous post. I opened a new window and have them side by side. THIS IS MY WISHLIST, what I hope I can accomplish, but I will have to possibly compromise. They are NOT in order of priority. I'll get to that. Here's my "nuance" list- (picky things.)
TIP:
Watch your foreground figures and objects- are they lined up with the background? Your lines from your foreground objects look better if you don't have them the same as the background lines- aka- think of a table top lining up with a straight horizontal line from the background. Yuck. Also, you don't want something to appear to be "laying" on top of something. Like...
#1. tail tip has to be above or below the log- it shouldn't look like it is resting on it.
#2. same thing, there is a plant in the background (too dark to see as this isn't rendered) and the tail tip can't be on that either- or resting on the stone section to the right.
#3. space between hand and those scales. This was a challenge when coupled with that shoulder thingie.
#4. #5. Space between feet, and purple dinosaurs back foot is in motion, want it to be off the ground.
#6. front tooth not in crotch. Still trying to work around that. (This is just the starting pose, remember)
#7. snout of green dinosaur either overlapping ,or space between, it and the green dinosaur.
#8. two things- hand away from body/ dinosaur, with gaps between fingers showing. Coing to curve that pinky finger as mentioned before, and all the fingers a bit. That happens when you startle. (Try it.)
#9. that shoulder thingie- has to be nestled behind her head, not just barely touching it- too distracting- or has to have a space. This is a priority.
#10. Other shoulder thingie- would like to have a space, not a very high priority compared to the one by the face.
#11. Tail tip not on log or on top of plant. Not a high priority compared to the other items.
#12. Green dragon's eyes- both must be showing. Priority. Also...
#13- not marked- would like for both of Kaetl's eyes to also be showing.
Working on it. The first one on the left is the one you saw with the circles. Take a look at the areas I had circled and you'll see how I'm turning the cube to better achieve my "checklist." Still no lighting done- and I did a render last night (took several hours) so I could see what the actual lighting is (it's the same as the Babies First Bug, remember- no changes yet) and then I'll start on posing and lighting. CLICK TO ENLARGE.
EDIT: Kaetl'ls eye shows more, there's more space between her hand and the green dinosaur, and the purple dinosaur has more head action. The purple one won't have the full advantage of viewing the noise from the woods that Kaetl and the green one have- the purple is facing the other direction. You'll hopefully enjoy the storyline when you see what comes out of the woods!
For new users, hope you don't fall into the pitfall I did. Somehow I missed the "spot render" information, so as I was putzing merrily along on the first one (and created a nice little scene) in the viewport, with gorgeous, meticulous blues, pinks, and purples- when I spot rendered it looked like poo-poo. I had not done anything with surfaces- my dinosaurs were BLACK, Kaetl was yellow- it was awful. I literally started back on it from scratch on most of it and glad I did.
And new users should note, and it's easily seen, HOW BIG A DIFFERENCE your viewport is vs the render. Wow, Kaetl's chest armor is way too bright, she has purple on her armor, etc. (That's because she raised up, and is in the waterfall spotlight.) So the image shown is the viewport vs the render. Its the same image as the SECOND one above, the one I had already tweaked.
When you do spot rendering on the highest setting that is using the 3Delight render engine, in case you didn't know.
That brings me to my next tip:
TIP:
Although you should spot render little sections, think about doing a big spot render then a screenshot into a graphics program (I use Corel Draw) so you can reference it. By doing that in the current (second render that I've been showing) I can adjust lights and tweak things without constantly doing tiny renders- I do a couple things located near each other, then spot render both. The second image below is the one I will keep open in Corel Draw as I work in the studio.
CLICK TO ENLARGE.
I'm going to let any of you who want to "jump start" a render by practicing with lights, or seeing how these work for you- get the opportunity. I'm going to give you the location of the objects in this scene (the translation and rotation) and then the light setup. It might just save you some time and give you some ideas. You won't believe how many spotlights/lights were in the first scene to get the little nuances (one thin band of light on a hand that was found nowhere else, etc One pillar had four spotlights (pink, blue, purple, pink)
Here you go- if you want to follow along as I tweak the lights from Babies First Bug to this second render "What Was That?" and try the lights on objects you place where mine are- let's see what we come up with! I will be giving you the light coordinates as I do them. I have a big job to do first, shutting them all off and seeing if I can pinpoint what's the biggest impact. There's a lot of lights that interact with each other. For now, to get you setup with where to put your objects/people- (I would put a person where Genesis is. I'm going to give you some hopefully really good lighting!)
This will be the Lights Made Easy Video Sets 1-4 Material. COMING SHORTLY You'll get to see all these lights turned on and off in the studio!
T is translation and these are all X / Y / Z, the R is Rotation and again, X / Y / Z coordinates.
Genesis (Kaetl):
T: 26.74 / 35.46 / -60.28
R: 17.38 / 9.72 / -11.56
Green Dragon:
T: -1.47 / -7.80 / 0
R: 2.46 / -2.65 / 1.48
Purple Dragon:
T: 19.39 /-23.67 / 41.71
R: 2.97 / 118.01 / -3.27
Point Light
First up, a good Point Light for low lying objects, lighting kneeling objects (will light from the knees to about the waist.) This is a good filler light, so starting with this one. There is no rotation for a Point Light.
Color: light blue 219 / 230 / 255 (good for moonlight in forests)
Intensity 53.3%
T: 122.66 / 7.39 / 103.88
Scale: 95.3%
You can move it over if you want it more centered, but this will get the object on the right (as viewing it, the green dragon) nicely lit as well as the object on the left. The tails are not lit- a nice drop-off effect to add to depth.
This lit the green and purple dragons' noses, legs and chests. (The nose about halfway up.)
I may increase the intensity and have this as more of a main light, just depends.
EDIT: THIS IS SPOT RENDERED.
Next Light: SpotHairTop
Keep in mind this is CUMULATIVE- I am adding lights and not turning off any others that we have already done unless I mention it. So you have the Point Light One already on. (the filler from the front.)
Wow, found a big light source change. This was only doing the top of Kaetl's hair in the first render (Babies First Bug) but look at what happened when Kaetl stood up and the dragons moved slightly- without her head blocking that light, this really lit up that nose!
This IS SPOT RENDERED.
So let me give you the location of the Spotlight and the settings from the first render so you'll have a starting point to play around. I'll be toning this down for sure if I keep it. Perhaps you can use it for dramatic lighting, so here's the coodinates-
SpotHairTop (it's original name)
T: 109.36 / 313.48 / 100.83
R: -79.65 / -8.62 / -12.00
Scale 100%
Color: med blue 167 / 161 / 255
Intensity 54.2
Spread Angle 5.35
The shadow softness was 39.3% when it shone on the hair and in this photo.
From a 5.35% spread angle, look what you can do with this light if you increase that. This Spot Light is a great tool for lighting your lower areas in a scene! It lits up the backs of the dinosaurs, and look at what it does to Kaetl too!
The numbers are the spread angle. Nothing else has changed from the settings I gave you on this "Spot Light Hair Top."
EDIT: As you increase it, it lights up the background. I am going for dappled moonlight effect, and making this all one even lit surface is boring- but I still have to see what the other lights are doing. This might be another good "toned down" filler light. Otherwise, I'll make it smaller angled and do spotchy lighting like through the trees.
These are not spot rendered. They have been increased in intensity so you can see them.
This is with several of the lights being tweaked, some of them off, some of them moved a bit. I am still having to go light by light to see what changes EACH OTHER- the lights intersect and actually turning one on can dim another one, instead of adding to the scene. It's really rather cool. What I did do last night is make the chest light more of a pink as the other lights are blue and I didn't want the breast plate hot white. Ill post more with the camera settings (you've only got a few of them, but no, I'm not leaving you hanging!) So here's a render with the lights still in progress.
TIP: Want Some Monsters Fast? Get Them From Your Cupboard!
OMGosh, I am playing tonight! Gonna share a great product that you will just laugh at.
Monsters In My Cupboard gives you random monsters, and you change the shape, materials, and monster- then you can dial XYZ translations, add more morphs- it's so much fun. Here we go! (Bear with me, having to do screenshots)
First, the promo, then the base monster that you need to load first, and how to load him.
Poser Formats>My Library>Figures>3D Universe-Toons>Animals>Monsters In My Cupboard
After you load the base monster, you stay in Content Library, and do this. Then your last step, in the next post, is where the fun begins! This is where the "randomizer" buttons are. NOTE: They won't be in a Parameters/morph section!
First up... push button, push button (be sure you double click, actually.)
And this last group, I saved the last two. The very last one is my favorite. You just might see Kaetl with a new friend, lol!
And I'm sure with the lighter colors, you can probably adjust the surfaces (diffuse, ambient, specular) and get some more colors too! When I do that, I'll share it here of course.
I couldn't resist plopping one of these in with my two dragon babies. Not going to spot render it, this is just to give you an idea of these cuties. I only changed the eyeballs on the dragons and kept the poses the same (for the second render I'm working on.)
"No One Wants Me."
I will be continuing with the light setup hopefully tonight, but that got me a-thinkin' when I opened my scene so I'm posting this instead for right now-
I am going to share a tip that I think might help even medium experience users- one that easily tweaks products and may make you pause when considering purchasing products that you otherwise would think, "I won't ever use that."
TIPS WHEN CONSIDERING PRODUCTS: Kit Bashing, Supersuit, 'Can I Y That?':
1. First of all, for newbies who don't know the term (and I've never seen this actually defined but I think this is right. If not, you folks following this studio let me know) there is KIT BASHING. That is (I think) when you take odds and ends from a product, and don't use the entire thing. If something is Fast Grab and you like the ground, see if it's included first of all, lol, then think about getting it. See if the outfit is one piece, or two, if you like the shirt or bottoms, so you can use just the piece you like.
2. Consider the Supersuit.
Many times you can use collision and smoothing and put pieces of clothing over each other (and you simply MUST watch the YouTube Supersuit Tips and Tricks video of using that as your collision/smoothing object. Randall Lloyd is SO good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO9AQlzdrfg
3. THE BIGGIE:
Can you Y it?
Translation Y- the greatest invention of them all if I had to cast my vote for the translations (moving objects)
Y is up and down- and when you view a product, THINK ABOUT SIMPLY DROPPING PART OF IT BELOW THE PLANE. Here's a new way of thinking-
You're looking for a background piece of architecture that is subtle, carved, not too fancy- and you see a majestic temple in Fast Grab for a couple bucks. "WOW," you think. But majestic is just that, rising with power waaaaaay up there. So, buy it anyway, and drop that sucker down below the plane (floor) of your scene. I wanted to have the arch in the background, so about 90% of the temple is bye bye under the floor. I then raised it so only part of the stairs is showing.
If I wanted to have the buildings overwhelm the characters, I really could have driven that point home by raising the building. It's also easier to make a character come out of a building if it isn't buried, lol! :)
So next time you shop, ask, "Can I 'Y' that?"
THESE ARE NOT SPOT RENDERED AND HAVE BEEN LIGHTENED IN COREL SO YOU CAN SEE THE BUILDING. THE CHARACTERS ARE NOT IMPORTANT.
EDIT: Note the arch in the background of the first one (and go back to original post showing it in full glory- I lowered this set SO much to get that arch just right with the dragonfly). Note the stairs, the columns (do the skulls show or not?), what appears behind the characters, and of course, the feeling of disrepair as the log goes up the stairs...etc, etc, etc. Totally different looks just using the Y.
For my 1,000th post (from Sept 11th 2012 to April 13 2013) I would like to spend it sending out a warm and fuzzy to the ultra, ULTRA considerate, caring, and supportive CV team and volunteers, and the forum members. You have made me feel SO welcome and supported me no matter how often you encountered my "I-still-don't-get-this" posts. (And that is 88.957% of my posts, according to Spock.)
And this isn't everyone, and I'm sure I'll miss some folks, but here's the tip of the iceburg on some of the most awesome folks I've ever met on a forum!
Special mention to Jaderail, Szark, Scott-Livingston, Totte, Richard, Hellboy, Chohole, Tramp Graphix, Miss B and Pendraia (always popping in to help everyone), Serene Night (my very first PM, so supportive!) These are the people who refused to give up on me (along with many others) such as with hair (Scott-L of course- and geometry shells) photoshop (Hellboy), reviewing my videos (Szark and Scott-L) and subsets (poor Szark and Totte were with me minute by minute at 3am-4am my time as I tried to populate stupid ferns! It's NOT copy/paste- it's a scene subset, duh.)
None of these people ever gave up when I didn't "get it." And thanks to everyone, the entire forum members, for their support. So prepare for another thousand posts as I try to learn and share it here. These forums are the best in the world in my opinion.
Love ya all!
Cathie
keep up the post Novica, we are watching :)
Hugs
Hugs back, watching yours too :)
TIP: Genesis Content Creation Guide By Hellboy
For those of you further along, Hellboy has provided some information for you here on content creation. All waaaaay above my head- but I'm trying to make this studio for all levels of folks. (and feel free to pitch in when you see tutorials, or if you've written one- post a link!) He states this is "a guide of the steps involved in creating the conforming figure out of your mesh."
Have fun!
***
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/14421/
Congrats on 1000 posts. And you're learning so much, so quickly! :) I'm enjoying this thread (though I admit I haven't read every post yet). The horse stuff should definitely come in handy, when I get around to working with DAZ Horse 2.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you SO much!
If you need any horse related / ranch related shots to do renders from, or backgrounds, let me know. We have two ponds (one with a rope bridge! one with a regular walk across bridge), woods, deer, hay corrals, riding arena, two round pens, tack room, hay room, wash rack, and of course pastures and covered hay corrals. (In case anyone wants to model any of this.) And of course, a big 8 stall barn.
I'm still taggin' along, following you all over the forums, lol. I know whenever someone asks a question, you / Szark / Chohole / Jaderail /Totte are quick on the draw to help. Won't be long before you're a moderator too :)
Cathie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Typ7eP8SsVU
You really need to see this- really neat what they've managed to do. It's from the Art Studio thread:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/20489/
My favorite move is between 1:38 to 1:41. Why not pop in to their Art Studio if you like it and let them know- lots of work in this! And btw, did you notice the people in the background moving too? The lady having a conversation is moving her arms as if in a natural chat. Love the details!
Okay, so for those who want to plop characters down and get the coordinates for a multiple light setup, we'll continue.
Let's do something a bit different though- I am going to show you how I access what each light is doing BY ITSELF.
TIP: How To Keep Your Lights' Impact Straight When You Have Quite A Few
First, I increase the brightness and pick a neon color (we're going to use HOT PINK) then I change the angle (no translations or rotations, just the ANGLE)
Second, I make a log with photos of the angle which I am going to share with YOU :)
Why? For future renders, I can look at my log and if a character is in that vicinity, I have my light setup and angles to try. Think of it as the DAZ Product Library (loving that in many respects!) with photos of all the lights and what they do to a character in that vicinity.
But also- for the render I am ON, when I have multiple lights going, it's easier to flip back in the photos and see what light is doing what. My viewport is SO different than the spot render, it isn't funny. By doing it this way, I know what I am adjusting even with multiple lights on. (Yes, they do impact each other, but it will give you a good starting point, particularly if you have a LOT OF LIGHTS. Ever feel overwhelmed? This system works wonders.)
To get us back on track, remember your figures must be in these positions for these lights to look the same. Since your characters will be different than mine, you should get some neat surface glows/ light dapples that are totally different. (And if you are totally new and want to use the same figures, be my guest. The dragons are from 3D Universe, and just use a Genesis figure of your own.)
So again, to plop your characters or objects of about the same height (important!):
T is translation and these are all X / Y / Z, the R is Rotation and again, X / Y / Z coordinates.
Genesis (Kaetl): Use these coordinates for objects as high as a kneeling person, if you want somewhat similar light effects)
T: 26.74 / 35.46 / -60.28
R: 17.38 / 9.72 / -11.56
Green Dragon: Use these coordinates for an item on right, as viewing it- about to middle of thigh of a 5'6" - 5'8" person
T: -1.47 / -7.80 / 0
R: 2.46 / -2.65 / 1.48
Purple Dragon: Same as above, only your object will be on your left.
T: 19.39 /-23.67 / 41.71
R: 2.97 / 118.01 / -3.27
The SpotChestFaceThi Light
Here goes a Spotlight setting from Render 1 (Babies First Bug) that I will start experimenting with for "What Was That?" The color is hot pink just to show YOU where it will hit your objects. Okay newbies-(other users just go below to #4 get the translation/rotation settings)
1.Go to Create>New Spotlight.
2. Name it SpotChestFaceThi
3. Make sure it is selected in Scene
4. Go to Parameters and click Transforms, and you can type in these values by just clicking on the numbers. This will be your Spotlight location.
T: (translation-X/Y/Z) 226.58 / 304.35 / 217.47
R: (rotation- X/Y/Z) -54.45 / 31.20 / -16.35
EDIT: Added- Scale is 100%, but X/Y/Z Scales are 21.5 / 23.4 / 26.0
5. in Shadows (still in Parameters) the bias is 1.0 and the shadow softess is 40.7% for these images. Shadow type raytraced.
The hot pink I am using is 255 /0 / 128 and intensity 101.7%. It's NOT what I will use in my render, this is just to catalog where this light is hitting. Here we go trying our angles!
The Images:
FIRST IMAGE IN SET IS VIEWPORT, SECOND IS SPOT RENDER. See how this will speed things up as you work on the render? I know what is doing what when tweaking more than one light.
THESE HAVE ALL BEEN COLOR INTENSIFIED SO YOU CAN EASILY SEE WHAT IS AFFECTED. The very last photo is NOT.
Photo 1 First, if you want just the chest area, a small glimmer, set the angle to 0.75
Photo 2 The center of the chest, a hint on the cheek, and a glow on the helmet is 2.25
More coming in a few minutes.
Photo 3 Upper part of the chest, glow on helmet piece (or hair on side if no helmet) and more of the cheek is 4.50. None of these affect from waist down.
Photo 4 Now for the fun one- get a speckling on the ground plane, a slight glimmer on the left arm (as you are looking at it, and look close- this is a neat nuance!) and the top of her thighs get lit too. LOVE the glow on her shoulder armor, and of course you can see the headpiece and face have much more light. If I switch to light blue, this might be what I keep.
Photo 5 The other lights turned on too. Still using the hot pink though.