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i'll try to show step by step how FesliyanStudios does shadows in Cycles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke7plNnwYl0
Fig 1
1 - create a plane, large enough to catch the figure's shadows. i applied the default diffuse BSDF material to it (matte)
2 - place a sun-light , the sun "size" can be reduced to produce sharper shadows, here 0.04. Intensity 1
3 - select the plane by right-clicking on it
Fig 2
4 - type M, this is the shortcut for the "Move to Layer" command,
5 - i click on the 2nd square to Move the Plane to Layer 2
6 - i Shift-Click the 2nd square of the "Visible Layers" selector to make Layer 2's content visible
Fig 3
7 - Go in the Render Layers Tab
8 - Use the + button to add a Render layer, rename it to "ShadowPlane", rename the first Layer "Amy"
9 - Associate Amy with render layer 1 by clicking on "Amy", then on the first "Layers" square
10 - Associate ShadowPlane with render layer 2 by clicking on "ShadowPlane", then on the second "Layers" square
Fig 4a
11 - Select the ShadowPlane layer, Expand the "Passes" panel, check the "Shadows passes
Fig 4b
12 - Change one of Blender's views into a Node Editor view
13 - Select the "Layers Editor" type of Editor
14 - Turn on the "Use Nodes" option
Fig 4c
15 - Add a second Render Layer node using the Add/Input/Render Layer menu
Fig 5
16 - We should 've done it earlier but it's still time, go in the Renderer settings panel and turn on the Film/Transparent option
17 - render your scene ( you can lower the sampling values to get a rough idea. Notice how the renderer does 2 passes
18 - using the Add menus, add a Color/Mix node and change its type to "Subtract"
19 - Connect the Shadow-Plane Layer's Alpha and Shadow outputs to the Image inputs of the Subtract node
20 - Using the Add menus, add a Converter/Set Alpha node
21 - change the set Alpha node color to Black
22 - Connect the Image output of the subtract node to the Alpha input of the Set-Alpha node
23 - Using the Add menus, add a Color/Alpha-Over node
24 - connect the Image output of the Set-Alpha node to the first Image input of the Alpha-Over node
24 - connect the Image output of the Amy Render Layer node to the second Image input of the Alpha-Over node
25 - connect the Image output of the Alpha-Over node to the Image Input of the Composite node
Fig 1
26 - render and save the composite render as an RGBA format like .png
this png image has an alpha layer, ideal for compositing
Fig2
in PaintShop i did a "Selection from alpha channel"
and i pasted this as a layer, over my background image
then i deleted part of the shadows that were spilling over the stone ramps
Someday someday, i'll have a script that performs all that in 1/100th of a second
Fig 3 ... why not rty ... wall shadows !
Fig4 Tada ! ... doing the final composition was easier in PaintShop , notably, coloring the shadows
Okay, so now I know how to get the shadows to work but where can I find good background plates that would match with my models. I mean Victoria 4 and Genesis 2 Female.
I'm not going to try with an HDRi background because you said it yourself that it won't make a good background plate. Any keywords I can search on Google Images or..? Deviantart? Free websites?
Thanks in advance. :)
Okay! Thanks a ton mate!
Sorry for bothering you again Casual, but can't it be possible to composite the HDRi background with the model and shadow in Blender Cycles? I mean look like she's standing there? I know you showed the method with using another program but not Blender Cycles.
The first image shows how it's turning out when an HDRi is applied and your method of shadow catching is used.
The second image is the PNG which is turning out to be perfectly okay. I mean complete transparency.
So I hope you understand my question.
Peace.
Casual,
I know you mentioned that you might attack the materials issue (specifically the glossy) situation when exporting materials using mcjTeleblender 3.0. I wanted to let you know that I am using the newest, test version of Blender's anticipated 2.75 release. With this, and actually the last few releases, I am finding almost all materials, (hair, clothes, shoes, etc.) to be exported with incredibly high gloss.
I can't even seem to control the gloss mix to the extent I need to with the export settings. I am currently at a gloss factor of .01 (not even sure if the script allows that) and a roughness factor of .5. I wonder if when you revise the script, you can make it allow whatever gloss factor is actually entered in the script control box? There may be other fixes that you know of but that one seems to be a biggy. I can almost always correct the situation by going into the diffuse/gloss mix node setting and lowering the gloss influence value.
IRAY in DAZ looks very powerful but I just can't fathom giving up the node versatility and the user interface of Blender. It is so much more powerful. Maybe DAZ will keep making strides forward to allow some of the robust functionality that Blender provides while still maintaining a non-intimidating user interface for novices.
I NEED mcjTeleblender!!! ;-}
I dont have a lot of experience using the Blender compositing nodes
and using a paint program like Paintshop had the advantage that i could easily colorize the shadows and lighten them
what i did is,
i turned rendering Off for the figure and shadow-catching plane,
i turned Film/Transparency Off
Not having moved the camera, i rendered this
So i obtained a render o f the background from the same point of view as was used to create the Figure+shadow image
In paintshop i loaded the background, loaded the figure+shadow PNG image
used Paintshop's "Select/Alpha"
this selected the figure and shadow only
Copy
and i Pasted it over the background as an image
Then i selected only the shadow areas
and lightened it and colorized it, a bit of yellow
If you search youtube for "Blender Cycles Shadow" you will find examples where they do this compositing task - Chroma-Key/Green screen video tutorials also inevitably do this step
it's always important to set the Specular Color of the surfaces in Daz Studio's surfaces Tab darker than the defaults
there's an issue i want to fix also, the default Glossy type in Blender is now GSX or a name like that, and it was Beckman previously
in my tests it didnt make much difference
if i recall correctly, the Gloss Factor and Roughness factors, are used mostly by the Teleblender-2-compatibility mode
and/or when you are dealing with a some shaders. So when working with teleblender3 mode, the Daz-Studio-Surfaces-Tab settings for Glossiness and Specular strength and Specular color must be carefully set ... because they will be applied in Blender's node trees
i tend to avoid teleblender's Gloss Mix node, i'm old school ya know, i was raised on the Gloss-Add nodes :)
the other important tip is to convert the complex shaders used by figures like Genesis into standard DazDefault shaders
because it helps TeleBlender find the surface properties, and because the obj/mtl exported file is more complete when using DazDefault shaders
it's always important to set the Specular Color of the surfaces in Daz Studio's surfaces Tab darker than the defaults
there's an issue i want to fix also, the default Glossy type in Blender is now GSX or a name like that, and it was Beckman previously
in my tests it didnt make much difference
if i recall correctly, the Gloss Factor and Roughness factors, are used mostly by the Teleblender-2-compatibility mode
and/or when you are dealing with a some shaders. So when working with teleblender3 mode, the Daz-Studio-Surfaces-Tab settings for Glossiness and Specular strength and Specular color must be carefully set ... because they will be applied in Blender's node trees
i tend to avoid teleblender's Gloss Mix node, i'm old school ya know, i was raised on the Gloss-Add nodes :)
the other important tip is to convert the complex shaders used by figures like Genesis into standard DazDefault shaders
because it helps TeleBlender find the surface properties, and because the obj/mtl exported file is more complete when using DazDefault shaders
Thanks for your quick response Casual. It seems like almost every material I deal with has this gloss issue. The materials are set up perfectly in DAZ but when exported, the introduced values seem to throw everything off. This is happening with the majority of materials I export using TB 3.0.
I'll try to do a test export with a garment or hair mesh and will provide specific screen caps on the export parameters and the resulting node setups with sample renders. Then I'll tweak the node values (not changing the node configuration) and show the resulting render. Maybe that will help as you consider any changes you may wish to introduce. You really do have a great product and for us Blender users, it is unique and unmatched.
Alright, thanks man!
Huge props. And considering I'm doing Blender Cycles for a while and I couldn't come up with this trick really explains how bad I am with these.
You're the man!
Finally got it to work. Not my best one though.
hi,
i just got mcjGeoSender and i don't know where to put it or how to open it in daz - help?
note that mcjGeoSender's purpose is not exactly like mcjTeleblender, and not truly related to Blender
what it does is, it helps you export a series of animation frames as OBJ files
and fix a few issues that were preventing Blender from loading them
It's old, so i dont know if it works with DS 4.5, 4.7, 4.8
using mcjTeleblender you could produce the same series of OBJ scene files
mcjTeleBlender has been updated more often and works well with new versions of daz Studio 4.5 and up
if mcjGeoSender is not compatible with the new DS4.7+ then i'll update it on my site today
But to answer your question specifically
mcjGeoSenderScriptsFeb18th2012.zip
should be unzipped in a Daz Studio Content/Scripts folder
mine are in C:\Program Files (x86)\DAZ\Studio\content\Scripts\mcasual
nowadays people install it in places like
C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library\Scripts\mcasual
once installed there
you can find them in your Daz Studio Tab under
Daz Studio Formats / Studio \ Scripts \ mcasual
or
Daz Studio Formats / My Library \ Scripts \ mcasual
-----------
Good News ( good news for me too )
mcjGeoSender works with the latest versions of Daz Studio 4
in the image below, i animated a cube over 30 frames
used mcjGeoSender to export the 30 frames as 30 onj files
then i imported the 30 obj files back in Daz Studio
( since blender has a different system of axis the cirle of cubes is vertical instead of horizontal
thank you - your scripts are the bomb (bows)
i already have a tab full of your scripts, i didn't put this one in there because it had so many other files attached - i wasn't sure
i'm just exporting objs, not going to Blender
the folder shows in the content tab but, the pane is empty - let me reload daz...
—————-
Good News ( good news for me too )
mcjGeoSender works with the latest versions of Daz Studio 4 ( tested on DS 4.8 Public )
in the image below, i animated a cube over 30 frames
used mcjGeoSender to export the 30 frames as 30 obj files
then i imported the 30 obj files back in Daz Studio 4.8
( since blender has a different system of axis the circle of cubes is vertical instead of horizontal
yeah, still not showing folder contents - i just pasted the entire folder (mcjgeosender_files) in the scripts folder - the folder shows but, it's empty
this zip file?
https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjgeosender/mcjGeoSenderScriptsFeb18th2012.zip?attredirects=0&d=1
note it has to be in a MyLibrary/scripts folder or in a Content/Scripts folder
not in the Daz Studio scripts folder
-----
also, your Daz Studio must have that Content folder in its list of Daz Studio Format content folders
you can see that list in Daz Studio's Edit/Preferences/Content Library / Content Directory Manager panel
Oh YaY DS 4.8 IRay has super easy to use Ground Shadows
that's a different download, altogether - boo-ya - i works
thank you
it saves materials every instance - i'm trying to find a copy of geosend - it's nowhere to be found - i'd even pay for it - i need to export obj files and it took all night
thank you
mcjGeoSender the script works in Daz Studio 4 without the need for the mcjGeoSender.dll plugin
also mcjGeoSender the script works in Daz Studio 3 without the need for the mcjGeoSender.dll plugin
but it's way slower than DS4
so i created the mcjGeoSender.dll plugin for Daz Studio 3
if you use Daz Studio 3 and have the mcjGeoSender.dll plugin
you need to put that DLL file in daz studio 3's "plugin" folder
there's a DLL for 32 bit and one for 64 bit
on my PC i have
mcjGeoSend_32bit.dll placed in c:\Program Files (x86)\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio3\plugins
and
mcjGeoSend_64bit.dll placed in c:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio364\plugins\
if the plugin is installed like that
the mcjGeoSender script will detect its presence and use it to accelerate the export process
okay - i have 4.8 and maybe i'm missing something but, it doesn't use just one .mtl - it was saving all night and all today til i canceled it - it saved materials everytime - so, i'm just trying to get daz 4.8 to export sequenced objs and one .mtl file
what do i have to do?
i thought i needed that .dll
hey, i'm overworked right now and didn't get what you said - okay - i got it - get the dll from the script - thank you
but as i was saying, the dll is only available for Daz Studio version 3, i wont work with DS4.7
and the one-mtl-file option is indeed only obtained when using the plugin and DS3
i will now see if i did include the option in mcjTeleBlender .... which does let you export animation as series of obj files ...
awh unfortunately mcjTeleBlender also requires the DS3/Plugin in order to get the one-mtl option
what i'll do is, right now is, i'll write a script for Daz Studio 1, 2, 3, 4....
that quickly opens your .obj files and changes the
sentence that reads for example
mtlfile myscene44.mtl
with
mtlfile myscene.mtl
so all the obj files will now share the same mtl file
the myscene.mtl will simply be the first mtl file typically myscene000.mtl but renamed to myscene.mtl
okay, the 64 .dll is in the plugins folder:
C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\plugins
it still creates multiple .mtl files
i restarted it - same thing
it's fast, tho
read the preceding post -
i'm writing the script , it will be ready in a few minutes
wow.
let me donate to your paypal...
this wont be necessary, plus i dont have a paypal, if you insist you could give me a $5 Daz Store coupin or gift certificate i'm not sure
======
i think the script will play it safe, it will save the modified .obj files under the same name, but with the prefix "out"
instead of overwriting your obj files
so it will be your call to delete the originals or not
i could add a "Delete button in the script itself" also
i need your email to purchase a gift card
thanks again