AWE Shading Kit for DAZ Studio and 3delight

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  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621

    @RAMWolff

    The two skin types are under SSS presets. And AFAIK there is indeed an update in the works.

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,146

    Ah I see them now.  I'm just used to the drop down within the Surfaces.

    Also now that I got the ring issue taken care of now my Iris is really really dark.  It's a green eye color and is fairly light so wondering if you have a suggestion on how to get that looking as it should rather than so dark.  I've played around with allot of the settings but it's still just rendering too dark.  Plenty of light in the scene.  

    Glad to hear about the update!  YAY.

    Thank you! 

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,146

    Hmmm, clicking on the SSS presets I'm not seeing any changes in any of the values of the skin when scrolling through.  All my values are still in place.  Unless this is internal and I'm not going to see any changes but upon rendering it looks the same to me.... 

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    edited October 2018
    RAMWolff said:

    Ah I see them now.  I'm just used to the drop down within the Surfaces.

    Also now that I got the ring issue taken care of now my Iris is really really dark.  It's a green eye color and is fairly light so wondering if you have a suggestion on how to get that looking as it should rather than so dark.  I've played around with allot of the settings but it's still just rendering too dark.  Plenty of light in the scene.  

    Glad to hear about the update!  YAY.

    Thank you! 

    Hmm only thing I can think of is increasing diffuse strength... and no problem mate:)

    ETA: Haven't played with the global settings yet, maybe increase some exposure or similar things for the iris?

    Post edited by Sven Dullah on
  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,146

    Diffuse is all the way up to default 100%

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    RAMWolff said:

    Diffuse is all the way up to default 100%

    Try the Global Illumination Exposure on the iris!

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,146

    Found the solution.  Using the AWE Glass 3 worked the trick to bring the brilliance back to the Iris and keep that damned ring away!  Using AWE Glass 1 brought back the ring (FYI) !  

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    RAMWolff said:

    Found the solution.  Using the AWE Glass 3 worked the trick to bring the brilliance back to the Iris and keep that damned ring away!  Using AWE Glass 1 brought back the ring (FYI) !  

    yesTks!

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621

    I strongly recommend using a camera with depth of field enabled when doing final renders! If you don't want things to get blurred out, just increase Field/Stop to 500 or more! Some things like transmission parameters can behave in weird ways without itwink

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,146

    Will the Depth of Field with FStop at 500 be included in the update?  

  • Mustakettu85Mustakettu85 Posts: 2,933
    RAMWolff said:

    Will the Depth of Field with FStop at 500 be included in the update?  

    It's just a camera setting. I think you do create a gazillion cameras while setting scenes up, right? So you'd need to enable DoF and set the f-stop on all of them.

    It's annoying, but I don't think there's a way (yet?) to have DS create custom cameras right away.

    Actually what I personally do is re-using a scene subset file where I have saved several customised cameras. So that they are all DoF cameras with meaningful f-stops (and all the display colours and visibilities set the way I want, too). You can add any .duf or script to the "Scripts" menu of DS to have them handy.

  • Mustakettu85Mustakettu85 Posts: 2,933
    RAMWolff said:

    Hmmm, clicking on the SSS presets I'm not seeing any changes in any of the values of the skin when scrolling through.  All my values are still in place.  Unless this is internal and I'm not going to see any changes but upon rendering it looks the same to me.... 

    SSS presets (Skin1, 2, Potato, Apple etc) only change the subsurface scatter and absorption depths and "colours". If nothing changes when you click, DS may have lost focus in the surface tab. I've run into this several times lately - you think you do have surfaces selected, but DS doesn't think so. Especially if you were using templates ("Template 1" etc or "Skin-Lips...") to select those surfaces. 

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    RAMWolff said:

    Will the Depth of Field with FStop at 500 be included in the update?  

    That's already included with the DS cameras, when you create a new camera, for some reason the DoF is turned off, so you have to manually enable it in parameters/camera with the camera selected. Field/Stop defaults to 22, which is pretty strong IMO, meaning everything outside the field will be very blurred. That's in relation to the camera's focal length, so if you use wideangle settings ( focal length of 45 or less) the blur is not very strong, but if you zoom in the blur will get stronger. I usually start by setting F/S to about 60-80 and go from there.

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,146

    Actually I have quite a few sets of lights that come with cameras with DOF settings included.  I guess I could dig those up and copy those over to the Wowie folder.  I just hate having to go here and then there and then over there to apply settings and load stuff.  I like everything in subfolders right under the published artists name, makes it easier for the end user in the long run.  

    As for the SSS settings, nope, I always make sure that the surfaces that I want the effects or settings to be applied to is selected.  

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    edited October 2018

    @Mustakettu85 kindly provided me with this piece of information:

    Sven Dullah said:

    Looks nice! So exactly how is depth of field interacting with the anisotropy settings?

    You mean technically?

    Anisotropy is like a smearing of the highlight along an axis. IRL it happens when the surface has fine relief in the shape of narrow parallel bands - with hair or thread on a spool, they are fibers; with brushed metal, these are what remains between the tiny grooves formed by the tool during processing. Each of these bands gets a highlight of its own. So the highlight is spread perpendicular to the fiber direction.

    Somehow there is this undocumented feature in the 3Delight raytracer that when it renders without DoF, it only takes the most pronounced surface relief into account when rendering highlights. With DoF, however, every minute detail on your bump map is traced.

    So if you have a relief map with grooves, it will create strong anisotropy.

    PS It's not just about anisotropy, but actually all highlights interacting with relief. With anisotropy it is visible as a smearing of highlight, while if you have a "generic" relief, it just makes the highlight become rougher as you increase the relief strength. It makes for way more lifelike and interesting effect IMO.

     

    Post edited by Sven Dullah on
  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    edited October 2018

    An example of how DoF affects the final result:

    Lamp shade with DoF

    image

    Without DoF

    image

    DoF enabled.png
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    DoF disabled.png
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    Post edited by Sven Dullah on
  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    RAMWolff said:

    Hmmm, clicking on the SSS presets I'm not seeing any changes in any of the values of the skin when scrolling through.  All my values are still in place.  Unless this is internal and I'm not going to see any changes but upon rendering it looks the same to me.... 

    SSS presets (Skin1, 2, Potato, Apple etc) only change the subsurface scatter and absorption depths and "colours". If nothing changes when you click, DS may have lost focus in the surface tab. I've run into this several times lately - you think you do have surfaces selected, but DS doesn't think so. Especially if you were using templates ("Template 1" etc or "Skin-Lips...") to select those surfaces. 

    I've noticed this too, re-selecting the item and the surface(s) does the trick.

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,146
    RAMWolff said:

    Diffuse is all the way up to default 100%

    Try the Global Illumination Exposure on the iris!

    It's slightly better, acceptable now for my desires but still not as brilliant.  I already have a dark green eye map for another skin pack I have in mind I can't imagine how dark that will render with the current settings I've cobbled together.  

    Looking forward to the update for sure!  :-) 

    Also, on the SSS for bringing out the translucency for the ears, nose and finger and toe tips... is there a setting or SSS I can try or is there such a setting in development?  

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    RAMWolff said:
    RAMWolff said:

    Diffuse is all the way up to default 100%

    Try the Global Illumination Exposure on the iris!

    It's slightly better, acceptable now for my desires but still not as brilliant.  I already have a dark green eye map for another skin pack I have in mind I can't imagine how dark that will render with the current settings I've cobbled together.  

    Looking forward to the update for sure!  :-) 

    Also, on the SSS for bringing out the translucency for the ears, nose and finger and toe tips... is there a setting or SSS I can try or is there such a setting in development?  

    Well try adjusting SSS scale and -phase! As wowie mentioned:

    If you need more SSS and already have SSS strength at 100%, you can try using a higher phase value. Be careful though since it's exponential. For example, 0.9 will be way more than two times stronger than 0.8.

    You can also mix more of the diffuse texture by playing with 'Use Diffuse Texture with SSS'. This multiply SSS with whatever you use for diffuse texture, leading to a generally darker, more saturated output. This is separate to using a texture in the subsurface color/strength slot.

    Finally, if you want less SSS showing through (outside of the usual tweaking of scatter/absorption values), you can increase diffuse strength and dial down Global Illumination Exposure. I found small negative values ie -0.25, a nice compensation to adjust for very bright diffuse textures in addition to use low diffuse strength

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    RAMWolff said:
    RAMWolff said:

    Diffuse is all the way up to default 100%

    Try the Global Illumination Exposure on the iris!

    It's slightly better, acceptable now for my desires but still not as brilliant.  I already have a dark green eye map for another skin pack I have in mind I can't imagine how dark that will render with the current settings I've cobbled together.  

    Looking forward to the update for sure!  :-) 

    Also, on the SSS for bringing out the translucency for the ears, nose and finger and toe tips... is there a setting or SSS I can try or is there such a setting in development?  

    Well try adjusting SSS scale and -phase! As wowie mentioned:

    If you need more SSS and already have SSS strength at 100%, you can try using a higher phase value. Be careful though since it's exponential. For example, 0.9 will be way more than two times stronger than 0.8.

    You can also mix more of the diffuse texture by playing with 'Use Diffuse Texture with SSS'. This multiply SSS with whatever you use for diffuse texture, leading to a generally darker, more saturated output. This is separate to using a texture in the subsurface color/strength slot.

    Finally, if you want less SSS showing through (outside of the usual tweaking of scatter/absorption values), you can increase diffuse strength and dial down Global Illumination Exposure. I found small negative values ie -0.25, a nice compensation to adjust for very bright diffuse textures in addition to use low diffuse strength

    SSS uses diffuse maps for SSS if I'm not mistaken. I guess you could make your own SSS strength maps to get exactly the effect you want, haven't gotten that far yet;)

  • wowiewowie Posts: 2,029
    edited November 2018
    RAMWolff said:

    It's slightly better, acceptable now for my desires but still not as brilliant.  I already have a dark green eye map for another skin pack I have in mind I can't imagine how dark that will render with the current settings I've cobbled together. 

    It may be because your diffuse textures for the iris are way too dark. You could raise the limits on diffuse strength. AWE Surface will automatically clamp textures to 1, but it will still 'push' color values in the textures below that number.

    RAMWolff said:

    Also, on the SSS for bringing out the translucency for the ears, nose and finger and toe tips... is there a setting or SSS I can try or is there such a setting in development?

    For extra backscatter, I'd recommend raising the subsurface phase just a little bit. With a strong enough direct light from the back, you should get pretty strong translucency effect.

    Post edited by wowie on
  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,146
    edited November 2018

    Hmm, I dont' think my Iris is too dark or too light, tried very much to make sure it was in more human terms of color and lightness..... This is my medium green.  I have a dark green as mentioned that I think would render almost black using the set up I have currently for AWE.  Not getting this issue at all with iRAY or middle of the road 3Delight.  I think the Glass shader is causing this but I've checked and double checked to see if there is a revealed value that may be causing the darkening of the Iris from the shader but I can't find it... 

    This is a prerender screen shot.... 

    Iris too dark.jpg
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    Post edited by RAMWolff on
  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,146

    Point #1. the bump default for this shader is set too high in my opinion.  150% works great if the maps used have allot of micro detailing but most merchant resources don't have allot of that going on.  Your only going to get that sort of effect if there is a normal map slot but there isn't one in AWE so that leaves that out. I've set mine to 94% and like it allot better.  Also as you can see I did fiddle a bit more with the eye settings and I'm PRETTY happy at this point.  I did this yesterday so I have no recollection of what I did!  LMAO  Old brain yadda yadda yadda.... 

    Point #2. I'm seeing allot of firefly activity on the skin surface, not sure what slider I would use to reduce that for final renders.  I guess I need to look, perhaps, at the suggestion of using the DOF settings which I've not looked in too just yet.  Keep in mind allot of end users are not going to want to mess with DOF, nor I if I can avoid it as I've not had great luck using that EVER!  

    Point #3.  Lacrimal / Eye Socket set up to 150% is going to make that look very striated to the point it looks more like wood than soft, wet flesh.  I've set that down to 35%..... 

     

     

    Iris with more tweaks but there is a slight ring still.jpg
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    Iris with more tweaks but there is a slight ring still Improved.jpg
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  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    edited November 2018
    RAMWolff said:

    Point #1. the bump default for this shader is set too high in my opinion.  150% works great if the maps used have allot of micro detailing but most merchant resources don't have allot of that going on.  Your only going to get that sort of effect if there is a normal map slot but there isn't one in AWE so that leaves that out. I've set mine to 94% and like it allot better.  Also as you can see I did fiddle a bit more with the eye settings and I'm PRETTY happy at this point.  I did this yesterday so I have no recollection of what I did!  LMAO  Old brain yadda yadda yadda.... 

    Definitely tooo bumpy for my taste, might work well for long range shots. And there is a normal slot, only hidden, because it's still being worked on. You can try it at your own risk;) Eyes are getting closeyes

    RAMWolff said:

    Point #2. I'm seeing allot of firefly activity on the skin surface, not sure what slider I would use to reduce that for final renders.  I guess I need to look, perhaps, at the suggestion of using the DOF settings which I've not looked in too just yet.  Keep in mind allot of end users are not going to want to mess with DOF, nor I if I can avoid it as I've not had great luck using that EVER!  

    Are you talking about the render process or the final result? I have never seen fireflies in a final render.

    If you don't want to mess with DoF, just set the F/Stop to 1000+ and it doesn't matter much what focal distance you use.

    It's kind of weird that people go for realism and don't use DoF or motion blur;)

    RAMWolff said:

    Point #3.  Lacrimal / Eye Socket set up to 150% is going to make that look very striated to the point it looks more like wood than soft, wet flesh.  I've set that down to 35%.....

    A I said I think eyes are looking quite nice, you can still try removing limits for diffuse strength (the cog wheel) and push it a bit, if you need to. ( Like 130% )

    Post edited by Sven Dullah on
  • RAMWolff said:

    I think the Glass shader is causing this but I've checked and double checked to see if there is a revealed value that may be causing the darkening of the Iris from the shader but I can't find it...

    You could check transmission and/or opacity. For a perfectly transparent surface, transmission should be white and opacity 0% (and enabled).

    RAMWolff said:

    I like everything in subfolders right under the published artists name, makes it easier for the end user in the long run.  

    This is why you aren't a DAZ PA, right? =) Irreconcilable differences here.

    RAMWolff said:

    As for the SSS settings, nope, I always make sure that the surfaces that I want the effects or settings to be applied to is selected.  

    Then keep an eye on the subsurface settings and click on the presets. They work, I just checked.

  • RAMWolff said:

    Point #1. the bump default for this shader is set too high in my opinion.

    ...Point #3.  Lacrimal / Eye Socket set up to 150% is going to make that look very striated to the point it looks more like wood than soft, wet flesh.  I've set that down to 35%..... 

     

    So you did the right thing, you adjusted the default. This is what default values are for - to be adjusted according to the maps you have on hand. It's the same for each and every shader out there.

  • It's kind of weird that people go for realism and don't use DoF or motion blur;)

    Where's the "shakes hand, shares beer" smiley here? Damn, I hate the whole GIF/meme culture and the facebook/messenger overdose of smileys, but too few isn't right either...

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,146
    RAMWolff said:

    I think the Glass shader is causing this but I've checked and double checked to see if there is a revealed value that may be causing the darkening of the Iris from the shader but I can't find it...

    You could check transmission and/or opacity. For a perfectly transparent surface, transmission should be white and opacity 0% (and enabled).

    RAMWolff said:

    I like everything in subfolders right under the published artists name, makes it easier for the end user in the long run.  

    This is why you aren't a DAZ PA, right? =) Irreconcilable differences here.

    RAMWolff said:

    As for the SSS settings, nope, I always make sure that the surfaces that I want the effects or settings to be applied to is selected.  

    Then keep an eye on the subsurface settings and click on the presets. They work, I just checked.

    Yea, my products, as few as I have are at Hivewire and Renderosity, I can do as I please to make sure the end users experience is as easy as possible.

    As for the shaders and being able to use various strengths I agree, but for newbies seeing these sorts of results, esp on close up renders WILL be off putting.  If Wowie and Co want to try to make this another VIABLE option for those that don't want to be chained to iRAY then steps needs to be taken to make sure that included shaders are in line with what the end user expects without having to dive into the Surfaces tab to fiddle endlessly.  Just saying!  wink

  • RAMWolff said:

    for newbies

    end user expects without having to dive into the Surfaces tab to fiddle endlessly

    I guess you're confused about the intended audience of the _shading kit_: the end user is not a "newbie", but a power user or a content creator. The latter should, in turn, use the shaders included to produce ready-to-render presets that "newbies" would consume. 

    You cannot expect a brand-new shader to ship with a comprehensive preset library to cover all the existing characters, can you? Imagine the price.

    Even DAZ included a very limited number of presets for Iray Uber Material (and one thing Iray Uber is, it's not "newbie"-friendly, or user-friendly at all). The rest they left to the userbase, as usual.

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,146

    Ah yes, I understand.  Wasn't trying to be difficult but as always, my way, is always to make the end users experience easy as I can.... forgot that this was a kit to build upon.  blush

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