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Don't apologize or waste your time telling me what you think of my art... Tell me what you think will make it better and how to do it. Focus on the solution. If your not helping somebody Mr. StratDragon, your wasting your time and let me tell you something friend.. Your time is valuable and I'm extremely grateful that you and people like and all the really damn talented people in this community enjoy sharing and making great art yourself.
What you think of my art is none of my business but if you think you have an idea to help me improve then by all means, walk me through it friend.
I want to help everybody around here be the best that they can be and if people like my ideas, cool, I love sharing. I'm not in this for the profit.. We should be here to be useful to each other. Have a great day and be blessed.
Here is a suggestion. Line your lights up with the shadows in your background image and expose your lights to the same levels as those images. At present time your renders look like the lighting you would see when a photo is taken directly in the sun and the subject is cast in shadow, too dark to have much detail. Your bright colors on dark backgrounds look more vibrant because the they stand out against that background but they also begin to look very unnatural. If your goal is to fool the viewer into thinking they're looking at a photo image and not a computer generated that technique is not lending itself to any realism, just bright colors.
Here's another suggestion, when you don't use or understand piece of software dont make universal accusations fact when they are your own options. Try using the prefix IMHO or my personal experience with, and again if you did that was my apology to you, but I don't apologize for my own art, let alone anyone elses.
Those of us who adopted LuxRender when it became available did so because were tired of being limited by what 3Delight failed to provide, we were and still are the non-conformists of the bunch, IMHO anyway.
But a great tool makes the amateurs look like a master. Of course all tools have limitations, you shouldn't try to fly your car off a cliff, it wasn't designed to handle it.
Do you think people design cars so only 'masters' can drive them? Of course not, we design things so everybody can drive like a master by keeping it simple in design, and remember this... form follows function.
Everybody that is a tried and true professional in his unique area was once a total amateur with no clue. Everybody has different strengths and weaknesses that and any real 'artistic master' is still a person that is always learning something new. There are no masters in a free thinking collective, only the realization that we all have something we can learn.
All tools have limitations. Don't be a tool. :) LOL I wonder if you could make this picture in LuxRender as easily as I did in 3delight where it took only a few minutes to set up and 15 minutes to render.
A car's sole function is to allow you to transport yourself from one place to another. It's not a tool you use to create other stuff.
I have to be honest, and I'm really not trying to be mean, but to say that a great tool should make an amateur look like a professional just tells me that you have no respect whatsoever for the actual skills and hard work of a true artist. It sounds like you think that a paint-by-numbers set would make someone as worthy of accolades as DaVinci, and that's outright garbage. The time and work and skill that a person puts into whatever they do is something one should respect and appreciate, but I just don't know if you recognize this. The day when humans can just sit on their butts and push a button to make art or anything else is the day we stop being human. People who get off their @sses and WORK are the ones who innovate, not the ones who sit back and expect their tools to do it for them.
Don't sweat it im not the best either. I dont sit there & tweak the heck or rebuild maps which is what gives alot of great artists great results in 3Delight Lux octane ect... Im just happy to be able to produce quality looking long winded stories. I am actually remaking my very early stuff when I feel i really sucked. I old followed by lux remake
I like how you managed to get so many characters into your picture.. that seems to be one thing that can be troublesome is populating your pictures with a many different characters.
I found what works for me is to create them one at a time, save them and then later load and place. It would be great if there was a product in DAZ where you could load real crowds into the scenes.
I remember seeing one somewhere but all the people looked fake to me. I keep thinking of the special effects I see in movies and then I remember I'm on a beer budget.
Thanks for being AWESOME! I still think you made this GREAT! I love working together.
I like how you managed to get so many characters into your picture.. that seems to be one thing that can be troublesome is populating your pictures with a many different characters.
I found what works for me is to create them one at a time, save them and then later load and place. It would be great if there was a product in DAZ where you could load real crowds into the scenes.
I remember seeing one somewhere but all the people looked fake to me. I keep thinking of the special effects I see in movies and then I remember I'm on a beer budget.
Thanks for being AWESOME! I still think you made this GREAT! I love working together.
There's a product on Renderosity that allows you to load background characters as billboards. I think I'd rather render my own and composite them in myself. Or use the Lorez characters available here at DAZ.
LOL the render with the "line" was pulled for its subject matter didn't think of it my bad...Apologies to the mods..
I dont mind and believe it or not it really does not add to render times cause unlike 3Delight hair does not slow a lux render down alot of times scenes like this take under and hour what kills lux is alot of lights or alot of converted to light objects.A great tool lux has is the refinement brush. My 32G machine does allow scenes like this to load without too many issues issues that may chug a bit more on the notebook.. Would covering them to a billboard not make them look flat?
Yes I pre build them all, build the sets load & pose the materials are usually done on each character then re applied through "saved shaders" when Reality borks them up. I always run a quick test of the set before loading characters. I am really used to adjusting the materials that will give me what I want also shaders are your friend...
To be honest with you, I gave up on LuxRender a long time ago. It makes pretty pictures but when things like textures and sets turn out to be different colors because of different settings or whatever, added to it the long time you have to wait to see what your set up is going to look like, I found its not a product I'm attracted to and I've stated that to me its not worth the effort when my current focus is on improving my abilities in 3delight and Vue.
For some reason people act like this is a competition and if I don't like one engine then all hell breaks loose just because we all must use these tools. Go figure... but I really don't care about the thing at all. I'm just having a conversation about improving materials for the most part.
One of the things that does bother me is how come my props and buildings are looking gray and washed out in LuxRender? How do we know what clothes would work and have the proper coloration. Picture provided as an illustration using the new Ranger outfit.
These things I did want to know... then I gave up and moved on.
The other big question I have is where can I find star trek assets.. LOL
You have to set your "collect textures" from the 1024 value to 100000, then it will also pick up higher res textures. I had that same problem, and using the higher setting worked miracles.
I've recently added LuxRender to my DS, and I think it's as good a tool as 3Delight - in the end, you will have an image, which quality depends a lot on how skilled you are in handling everything. It's amazing how different the same set-up looks when rendered with a different engine. Throw in Carrara or Poser (or any of the high-end software), and there's a another option to get a render quality which is giving off a different feel. :-)
For your Trek, have you tried this thread? http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/33725/
To be honest with you, I gave up on LuxRender a long time ago. It makes pretty pictures but when things like textures and sets turn out to be different colors because of different settings or whatever, added to it the long time you have to wait to see what your set up is going to look like, I found its not a product I'm attracted to and I've stated that to me its not worth the effort when my current focus is on improving my abilities in 3delight and Vue.
For some reason people act like this is a competition and if I don't like one engine then all hell breaks loose just because we all must use these tools. Go figure... but I really don't care about the thing at all. I'm just having a conversation about improving materials for the most part.
One of the things that does bother me is how come my props and buildings are looking gray and washed out in LuxRender? How do we know what clothes would work and have the proper coloration. Picture provided as an illustration using the new Ranger outfit.
These things I did want to know... then I gave up and moved on.
The other big question I have is where can I find star trek assets.. LOL
No one's acting like it's a competition, you're taking any assertion that it takes hard work and patience as if that constitutes a competition.
No one's telling you what to use. You keep telling people that their wasting their time because they aren't using something that's quicker and easier, like you.
How long did that render take? It looks like you gave up on it too soon. It looks that way, I think, because you didn't let it run long enough.
It really is matter of working with the materials for example sometimes Reality will load what daz has witch will look too pale and glossy you need to darken the specular and lower the glossy values or sometimes lighten the specular and crank up the gloss to get good PVC leather look. Its one of many many examples I just learned as I went & like alot of folks go to the forums..
There's a product on Renderosity that allows you to load background characters as billboards. I think I'd rather render my own and composite them in myself. Or use the Lorez characters available here at DAZ.
I've seen MOM too, looked lame. I'm surprised nobody has ever just went out and taken pictures of crowds to populate stands and other venues. I'm surprised nobody thought to make a DAZ product that would load in realistic crowds for the background. Then you'd have to do pitchforks or cheering... LOL Tricky business .. just hard to find pictures of crowds to add in. Hmmm
You pictured a menu or program I haven't even seen yet.. how did you pull up the materials for 'Reality 2.5'?
Compared to Gen 3 and Gen 4, Genesis and G2F/M are much lower resolution.
DAZ Studio has instancing that should aid you in crowd placement. Predatron sells a number of lower resolution figures (human and animal) that will allow you to use large numbers of them in a scene.
The Pro version of Send in the Clones will allow you to randomly place different figures. Note, the regular version only handles props. You need the pro version to place figures.
The MOM crowd control isn't any more lame than using billboard plants. Billboards are very easy on system resources.
You can also purchase the Decimator plugin for DS to lower the polycount on figures to make them easier on system resources.
If you look in the DAZ Knowledge base under Bryce tutorials, you will find one called Making of the Massive. It gives some tips on how to create large scenes and armies. It uses Bryce but there are many useful tips.
The older Bryce Master's tutorial Smoke and Mirrors also gives you some tips on how to handle large numbers of figures.
I've used Lux but am far from adept at it. Very little of my work calls for an unbiased render engine.
No one's acting like it's a competition, you're taking any assertion that it takes hard work and patience as if that constitutes a competition . . .
And the topic title, reiterated in your render a few posts up, comes across as a bit of a challenge. It's not just that those of us with years working with 3D art tools and supplies who aren't fooled -- the vast majority of 3D game players wouldn't be fooled by your work either, nor would many in the increasingly-savvy general public. It's good work, sure, but it's not even close to that so far.
Back when Reby Sky for V4 came out I saw Randy Lloyd do work so realistic that he could seamlessly combine upper-body photos of Reby with lower-body DAZStudio renders when he needed a pose change without reshooting, and that was years ago. Of course, nobody's saying you have to be doing this kind of thing . . . except you: “I can fool you.” You haven't yet. :-/
"Instancing".. what is it and how do I use it?
The statement "I can" only implies the possibility. I doesn't say the past tense 'I fooled you', just that "I can"... never know. It doesn't say you've been fooled at all. Think about it, "I can". The point of the discussion is to talk about how this would come about someday. Just because it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean you can't teach me how to do it. Last I checked, I had access to a lot of tried and true professionals here. You need some help, ask for it. I'm asking questions...
I think he was being tongue & cheek but I could be wrong... If you don't have Reality then I don't know what you are using
http://www.daz3d.com/luxus
I tick a box in my render tab that says, "LuxRender via Luxus" and whammo!
Ha yooz using Luxus different deal don't know it
Well what do you have? I'll try that because I need something that lets me adjust the materials and it looks like your program does that.. and your picture showed it had a preview feature.. I want that one.. LOL
I would need to know how to fix the materials for the streets (grey looks hideous) and brighten up the buildings.
You know, I actually own "Send in the Clones" Pro 4 and it just sits there, I haven't been able to figure out how to use it. It honestly just does my head in trying to figure out how to get it to work. It just sits there.. taunting me.
Not sure you're communicating that effectively (especially given the most common usage) . . . maybe update the topic title with something that sounds less confrontational?
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& some of us are happy with reality I like to be able to this (older one now) I have an insane amount of lux renders
It sparked your interest, didn't it? Got us all talking... Show me your tricks on how you would fool people. What would you do?
The specific Reality thread is no longer allowed here due to the vendor parting ways with selling the product here and I cannot post outside links just do a google search. Another tease for good measure....LOL
"Instancing".. what is it and how do I use it?
Instancing renders multiple copies of the same mesh in a scene at once. Products like the Lost World take advantage of this.
You know, I actually own "Send in the Clones" Pro 4 and it just sits there, I haven't been able to figure out how to use it. It honestly just does my head in trying to figure out how to get it to work. It just sits there.. taunting me.
Dragonstorm includes documentation. Read that first. Play with it. Load a ball prop and play around with it until you figure it out. It takes time but hands on is one of the best ways to learn. What's the point of buying a plugin if you never use it? Instead of worrying about renders and such, set aside some time and just play with the various tools. Make mistakes. We probably learn more from our mistakes than we do from anything else.
Greetings,
Just for fun, I [strike]put[/strike] quickly threw this image together to answer a question someone had about what refraction and instancing are. The glasses are all instances, and the lenses are using high refraction rates.
This was done with Luxus and rendered in LuxRender. In order to set the refraction I added Luxus Materials to the surfaces (select the surfaces, and in the options menu add Luxus Materials, volume, glass2, IIRC), and set the refraction to 1.5.
Note the areas of light on the other side of the glasses, where the light has been condensed, exactly like a real lens will do. This effect is not typically visible in a 3Delight render, because it's not actually tracking the light correctly. It's a subtle thing, but in the end our recognition of the world around us is the sum of subtle things.
As for the few Luxus renders shown before, I'm more than a little confident you aren't lighting them correctly. The one using Stonemason's Utopia Lab clearly has everything in shadow, for example, which explains much of the flat look. (Shadows flatten everything, so lighting will be critical.) The motorcycle shot looks like it's using the default if-you-do-nothing-else sun-ish light.
As much as I respect @bobvan, his stuff isn't necessarily optimal for showing LuxRender off very well, as the lighting is usually extremely understated in his pieces, and many of the textures (like the floor on the most recent post, and the tabletop texture in the kitchen scene) end up being too 'perfectly repeated' and flat to feel very real.
There used to be a Reality thread where lots of folks posted their renders. Sadly no equivalent Luxus thread has taken its place.
-- Morgan
Thats cool I respect your opinion. From my own quote from a post above. "Don’t sweat it im not the best either" Im just happy to be able to produce quality looking long winded stories.