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@carola: Nice, much better. As lighting is this months theme, I cannot start to bug you about materials and those are not your problem, more a problem caused by the age of the environment prop. (I was thinking of the flat ground. But if you want to make it look even better, try to add some bump to it if it's not there, or increase it, to get the ground to catch some irregular shadows and coming "alive".
@bluemoon: Nice job! Looking good.
Bump? Uhm.. huh.. what? I mean, I've heard it mentioned by you older users a few times, but I honestly have no idea what it is... still haven't learnt even half of the things in DAz I must admit *sheepish blush*
Bump? Uhm.. huh.. what? I mean, I've heard it mentioned by you older users a few times, but I honestly have no idea what it is... still haven't learnt even half of the things in DAz I must admit *sheepish blush*
I'm rendering right now on the machine where I have the old mill environments so I cannot explain using it right now (probably another hour or so until it's done). But stay tuned, I will make a little something to get you going in the right direction, I promise.
Which environment are you using? The ones I found seems to have pretty good ground.
not on an environement, but a demo of how bump mapping can transform something
2nd is a dress without any bump, a dress as it came, 1st is showing how a bump map transsformed it.
3rd shows a close up of a bump, or displacement map.
White is highest, black is lowest, mid grey is flat. This is the bump (or actually displcement) that drives the gathering on the waist of the dress.
OK, here we go!
First, as you have your camera close to the ground, and the texture is just one big one, it will look blocky och ugly, not your fault.
That can easily be fixed (1) in the image below, but selecting the environment prop, select the surface-tab and then select the surface named Tiling Terrain. (If you cant find it you can use the surface select tool, and click on it.). Now locate the parameters named Horizontal Tiles and Vertical Tiles, bump them up from 1 to 4, the result will show when you do a render, see (2).
Now, to add even more life to the ground, you can add a bump map (as it is no one set) (3). The simples way is to select the Tiling Terrain surface again, then locate the parameter saying Diffuse Color. Hold the mouse over the little icon and it will show the texture and the name/path to it, in this case you are interested in the name, ME_Terrain.jpg.
Now go to the Bump parameter, click the little empty icon and select the texture that you found on Diffuse as bump map. This is not a real bump map, this is really not how to do it properly, but without involving Photoshop and a whole bunch of more stuff, this will do.
Now set the Bump to 100%, negative to -1 amd possitive to 1. Test render, depending on the actual texture those figure might need to be changed or just lower the Bump %.
I hope this clears things out a little.
/ Totte
Let's see.... I'm using
Millenium Enviroment (from the Daz shop)
1 LB_Tall grass ground
1 LB_Tall grass
3 LB_coleus
LB_Oak
3 LB_Daylilies
Pointed Leaf plant
Rock
*going to read the above post you made*
Gonna go test out that bump thing, if worse comes to worse.. I simply redo the whole picture. After all, it's just more trianing, which in the end hopefully makes me better :)
Totte, DAZ Studio doesn't let you copy and paste between different shader functions?
Totte, DAZ Studio doesn't let you copy and paste between different shader functions?
You can copy shaders but not separate settings, like copy from Diffuse into Bump.
So, to expand on Totte's and Chohole's information, bump is a virtual optical illusion. Most bump maps use a gray scale image map. The lighter areas create the illusion of the high part of a bumpy surface and the darker areas are the lower part of the bump. The best way to get the full effect of a bump map is to have the light shine on the bumpy object at an angle.
The reason I call a bump map an optical illusion is because the bump doesn't actually create high points and low points in the underlying mesh of the object. To do that, you need to use displacement which Chohole mentioned when she posted her examples. Displacement actually displaces the underlying mesh of the object, and can be more sensitive to the brighter and darker areas of the map. It can also take more time to calculate for rendering.
Not trying to be dense here, but let's say you have an image map loaded into the diffuse shader, you can't just copy the map and paste it into the bump?
Well.... that was.. interesting, and oddly pleasing *smirks*
I basically re-worked the whole pic, took away a few things that weren't needed, changed position on the girl and the pup, changed some of the lights around, and ofc did that bump thing with the ground. And I do like the result, granted I'm sure it's not quite up on par with what you guys want *smiles* But it feels better than the other ones so far, so I think I'm on the right direction atleast. Hmm well, honestly, I'm quite satisfied with this *laughs* It's a little bit dark but at the same time that kinda add to the feel of it, in my opinion that is ofc :)
I am much interested in hearing the verdict from you lovely people though, as that can only make me learn more :)
/C
Personally I think this one looks much better. The background doesn't do the rest of the picture justice though.
My first suggestion is to hide the edge of the ground and the beginning of the backdrop with grasses, bushes, or something else to break up the sudden transition.
My second suggestion would be, and honestly, I don't know how you would do it in DAZ Studio, so maybe a couple of the D/S users here can tell you if I'm blowing smoke or if it's possible... A little trick I do if I'm using a 2D plane with an image as a backdrop is to add the color image map to Carrara's glow channel in the shader tree. This brightens up the background without actually shining a light on it. If you don't use Global Illumination it is no worse on render time than adding lights. It may actually be faster.
I use this trick in this still frame from an animation I'm working on. The astronauts and the pipe they're working on are the only 3D objects. The rest is just a non-animated 2D background I had pre-rendered to save render time. I placed a series of spotlights to try and match my light sources from the backdrop.
That's really pretty. You're right, I think, about it being a little dark (especially the background), but overall this came out very well. You did a good job incorporating Totte's advice on the ground tiling and bump, and the interplay of light and shadow works well.
Keep up the good work!
I like this a lot. You might think about adding a little more illumination on her face. Maybe a little more ambient/fill light in the dark areas of the scene too, to bring out some of the detail (but not much...keep it nice and shadowy).
Not trying to be dense here, but let's say you have an image map loaded into the diffuse shader, you can't just copy the map and paste it into the bump?
Nope (unless it's a bug), you can select it from the list of loaded images in the bump.
What do you think yourself? I think the image got a more life when you changed the ground texture.
And for EvilProducers idea of a glow, you can use the Ambient channel of the shader for the backdrop plane (same as you did with the bump), and just set the Ambient color to a greenish tint and the set the ambient up to like 15% or so, or you can play with the diffuse. But really that was last months contest shaders, but it looks like we have to revisit that again.
What do you think yourself? I think the image got a more life when you changed the ground texture.
And for EvilProducers idea of a glow, you can use the Ambient channel of the shader for the backdrop plane (same as you did with the bump), and just set the Ambient color to a greenish tint and the set the ambient up to like 15% or so, or you can play with the diffuse. But really that was last months contest shaders, but it looks like we have to revisit that again.
I like it a lot more now than I did before :) I am still a bit unsatisfied with the background, but currently rendering a version I think I might like better.
As for last months contest, I'm ashamed to admit I haven't really taken the time to truly look through the contests and everything in here yet, as I have also needed to share my time doing 3d, with gaming as that pesky thing called a real life :) However, installing Daz was probably amongst the better things I've done, even if I haven't even had it a full month yet *laughs*
I'll be back with a new version of Puppy Love in a little while :)
---
As said, here is the latest version :) Did that bump, using the scenery image. And also did add a light greenish tint to it.. was an interesting effect and it also made the background itself a little bit lighter, giving a bit more depth I think.
Thank you EP, Totte and Scott for the nice comments.
I have changed it a bit and tried to make a story with the mysterious second figure, think I might have made it a bit bright.
It's come a long way.. it appears you learned a lot with this picture. I agree the background is the main thing here, it still doesn't match. It looks like snow which goes against the overall warmth in the image.
I think you've done a great job of hiding the edge of your terrain! The lighting on the figures is really nice.
Edited to fix my post D'oh! :red:
It's come a long way.. it appears you learned a lot with this picture. I agree the background is the main thing here, it still doesn't match. It looks like snow which goes against the overall warmth in the image.
Yeah, I've learnt loads, I just hope my mushy brain can remember everything too *laughs* Here's the latest version now, took away the fog to make it slightly warmer but also angled the camera so that the mountains (least I assume they were mountains) were cut out. As I think it was the mountains that gave the impression of snow.
Thanks EP, it looks mor ecozy now that she and the pup is almost surrounded by flowers, plants and grass. A little personal hide out in a backyard or a forest. Or something like that :)
Here is something I have been working on. Any help with the lighting would be much appreciated. I am going for that London fog late in the evening look. I used Uberenvironment2 with the fullmoon effect, also a pointlight above the two characters. Thanx
@carola.ottosson: Now you really got something great looking
@spmwc have you tried with a soft, low intensity distant light with shadows to spread some lights and also cast some realistic shadows on the couple. Also a soft spot lighting the face of the woman..
Thank you *hugs*
Here's an image I did yesterday that pertains to lighting so thought I'd put it up. If anyone wants to see what I did to get it they can look here.
This picture has to be viewed large to get the effect. It is meant to give someone the feeling of being there in this place at this time. To mentally transport them back to what it might be like in this Armory during the middle ages.
[Edit] decided to add some post to final image. The previous one is at the link above.
This image is from Jack Tomalin's Parkside High with Recess. It was retextured then lit with UE and a distant light for sun. The effect was meant to be late afternoon after everyone had gone home. It would also be close to summer vacation as the light and shadows are somewhat direct and yellowish/neutral (just a slight bit of reddish cast but this is countered by a slight bluish cast by the UE, giving neutral but a bit more dimensional lighting.) If it were more spring the lighting would have a bit more reddish cast, in fall... blueish. Light frequency changes with the seasons, that's what triggers different bloom times in flowers, emotional cycles in humans, and probably breeding in animals among other things.
It's a bit of nostalgia for me as I used to clean the rooms when I was in school to earn money. If this picture does it's job, it should trigger a bit of a feeling of being here rather then out playing in the last vestiges of daylight.
Something of note btw.. there seems to be a strange light/shadow effect on and behind the chalkboard. There is only the UE and a single distant light for the sun and this lighting is what we get. It is not a mistake. Although I didn't specifically set out to create that particular light/shadow effect disjunction I did see it irl many times in this exact situation, so when I saw it here, I recognized it for what it was. (If we used a point light instead of a distant light for the sun, it probably wouldn't be this disjointed.) Lighting doesn't always act like we might expect. I used to track down exactly what was creating this disjunction in the real life situations like this in my youth as I found it fascinating.
I made this more specific for the contest (lighting, shadows).
Still in progress, so any help is welcome!
"Scary Story"
1. The 'naked' render
2. Some post processing to make the faces more expressive
They are both very nice, different effects but both good. The only thing I see is the flame in the hand, particularly in the first one.
Oh, what a week.... Whew. Survived. Now I can return to what's really important.
Scott, I thought about your comment a lot this week. It kind of cracks me up that the part of the image you singled out as bugging you is the part I like best, as it looks just like what my real crystal ball does on the wall behind it. (Unfortunately, my crystal ball does not show the future.) So just in case my judgment is screwy, I made two versions of the image and will post them here for any input.
Hi guys, this is my first contest entry, been using DAZ for about 4 or 5 weeks. I have a fair amount of experience as an amateur photographer so I approached the lighting for this shot as I would if I was photographing a model in the studio. I used three spotlights (try to avoid preset lights as I prefer to make my own), the main light is set to the front of the subject and offset about 30 degrees to camera left and set to about 60% intensity. The secondary light is about 30 degrees to the right of camera and also in front of the subject and set to about 20% intensity and thirdly a rim light set behind the subject and about 45% offset to the left of camera and set to about 15% with a blue diffusion layer just to soften it a little more. I was actually more exploring the use of reflective surfaces rather than lighting. Please feel free to offer any feedback, good or bad, it all helps.