Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
It's quite beautiful.
That looks really great, the only thing that irritated me for a moment was something looking like smudge on my screen a little right of the sun. When I looked closer those were birds far away. :red:
Here is an experiment using linear point lights only, except for one uber environment light outside the tent. It still has a lot of flaws and needs a lot of further work, and I guess some spot lights will have to be added after all. But I wanted to know how far it would work with only one type of light.
And I actually went and created a dragon with a velvet surface (once I understood the how to its fun) obviously its still a young dragon, so that's the reason he's a bit fluffy.
I would like to make the flames of those candles smaller. I needed the candels large and I couldn't select only the body of the candle, the flame grew with it.
So, are you going to let the lady read your future to you? Let me hear your thoughts.
Thank you Tobias and Linwelly.
Which candle are you using?
I think you have the light a little too intense for the candle flames. Have you added any colour to the flame lights? They look very white.
Here is an image I found through Google of a lit red candle.
As for letting her tell me my fortune...I would consider it but the dragon is sleeping in my seat.
Edited to add: I checked every candle prop I have and none of them have a separate flame. Something you could try is to take the tear drop prop from Emotiguy and use that as a flame ( it will need to be rotated ). You would need to turn the opacity of the flame on the candle off, then position and size the tear drop and parent it to the candle.
Really beautiful!
I might, however, turn down your supplemental lights a bit, and/or tweak the colors of them. The horse in particular has somewhat of an bluish cast, more so than one might expect in those conditions.
It's pretty cool (of course, I'm a sucker for volumetrics...). You might want to try a tad stronger front lighting, though. As it is, the render is quite dark overall.
Here's a version with the lights on the statue turned "on" so to speak. I feel like the image is stronger as a silhouette, and making the statue dark but not all the way black just seems to get muddy. But decide for yourself.
Here's a version with the lights on the statue turned "on" so to speak. I feel like the image is stronger as a silhouette, and making the statue dark but not all the way black just seems to get muddy. But decide for yourself.
I actually prefer the brighter version. In a lighting contest, it's always so tempting to make very dark pictures with few bright areas; your second version version still has great contrast, and recognizable details. imo (note the caveat), it's stronger that way.
As Kismet said, some color on the lights might be worth trying out. You could also draw more attention the the crystal ball by putting a light in it, or by increasing its ambient level, or maybe with a semitransparent glowing geometry shell. Or you could make the lady more ominous by having a (point?) light illuminate the face from below. If ominous isn't what you're after, I'd think about lighting her face stronger from one side, less from the other, so that there's more interesting contrasts and shadowplay there.
Does the UE light care that it's outside the tent? I'd have thought it illuminates everything in the scene - that should be the point of ambient lighting, after all.
Or maybe you take a cylinder primitive, add a displacement map, and use a 2D prop for the flame. Might be be more hassle than it's worth, though.
As Kismet said, some color on the lights might be worth trying out. You could also draw more attention the the crystal ball by putting a light in it, or by increasing its ambient level, or maybe with a semitransparent glowing geometry shell. Or you could make the lady more ominous by having a (point?) light illuminate the face from below. If ominous isn't what you're after, I'd think about lighting her face stronger from one side, less from the other, so that there's more interesting contrasts and shadowplay there.
Does the UE light care that it's outside the tent? I'd have thought it illuminates everything in the scene - that should be the point of ambient lighting, after all.
Ok I had to make a test on that matter and yes you are right the UE light doesn't care for the tent. This ist the scene as befor only the top image I had the UE light set to 100% and in the other one I deleted it completely. I am thinking I even might go on without the UE. The candle bodies look much more natural and I like th overall atmosphere.
For the other lights, I had some colour in ths candle point light but yes that could be even more. What I will do about the candle flames I don't kow yet. The candles I have from the "InaneGlory's Votive Candle" (I cound't go to the shop page for that one at the moment, it was e freebie in december). As you can see in the darker image now there already was a little point light in the crystal ball that got lost with too much other light.
I guess I will try and see what happens with a distant light and a spot light shinig in from the outside of the tent
Lord . . . have mercy!
I have decided on this one for my second entry. It is a "tribute" to allegorical art, strongly influenced by Rembrandt's style. The Lenten season and this contest inspired the development of this image. Looking forward to your comments and feedback. :-)
I keep asking myself how to improve this one, and I think you're right...it's almost there, no major changes needed.
The only "big picture" sort of thing, I think, is that it still looks a little dark to me, overall. You could keep the environment as is and add a bit more illumination on the figure (not just her face), or increase the overall brightness of the environment a bit. Doesn't need to be a huge shift, but a little would help, I think.
I like the results of what you did with the leaves...that's something I probably would not have thought to change.
I assume you mean the environment sphere? Let's back up a little...
When you load UberEnvironment, it adds two elements to your scene:
- the UE2 light itself
- an environment sphere
Although the sphere does serve as a visual representation for the lighting, the light doesn't actually require that the sphere be visible. Probably the simplest way to hide it is to go to the Scene pane, and click the little "eye" icon next to the environment sphere...this shouldn't impact the UE2 light at all.
Edited to add: the other thing about the UE2 sphere which a lot a people find surprising (I know I did, when I learned this) is that, since the lighting doesn't actually come from the sphere itself, making the sphere larger or smaller has absolutely no effect on the lighting. So some people like to shrink it down to soccer ball (football) size (and make it invisible in render), or expand it (and make it visible) to serve as a skydome.
I think the fog is working nicely...creates a moody, atmospheric feel which is perfect for your scene. The lighting I'd say is a little too even...I'd like to see the figure illuminated more strongly from the front-left or front-right (add a fairly strong spotlight or point light)...or, alternatively, you could go for more of a silhouette feel, but in that case I'd like to see stronger lighting behind the figure.
Yes and no. The specular settings you're using I think would look very convincing, except that the textures are a bit grungy-looking, implying that those objects might not be quite so shiny anymore.
Here's a version with the lights on the statue turned "on" so to speak. I feel like the image is stronger as a silhouette, and making the statue dark but not all the way black just seems to get muddy. But decide for yourself.
OK, for me this is one of those situations where it seems like the image would look better one way, but when comparing results it actually looks better another way. This is something that I struggle with in my own renders all the time. In your case, I agree with you that the silhouette version is more fitting with your message, more appropriate. But I think the other, with the statue lit, just looks better.
Maybe the solution is to find a middle ground: either dim the statue lights, or use some but not all of them. Or you could experiment with layering the two versions together in postwork, if you're comfortable with Photoshop, GIMP, or another image editor.
@Scott-Livingston Thank You, it was very helpful and I figured out how it works. Now it will be a lot easier.
You all have been busy and I am happy to see that some of you are going on to additional lighting projects. Thanks Scott for picking up and providing insight.
So Giovanni, as to your Cristo image. The lighting is very good but I think your Fishing Camp image is a better image. I think this because I see a better control of the light and more interest in the management of the light, through control of the surfaces.
So here is my opinion on your "Lord...Have Mercy" and it is only my opinion. I believe that you are really good and that you are learning to use the 3D graphics tools. So with this in mind I think that you are ready to improve your control over the render. In the case of ...Have Mercy the control of lighting on the figures is a little flat. Rembrandt loved to play with secularity and I don't see much of that in this image. Rembrandt also used light to focus on the main character so in most of his images the surrounding areas are just a bit darker. Not trying to lecture here just stating what I observe. As fionathegood has stated in the past, working with surfaces and lights have to be done at the same time when working with 3D graphics. The placement of light in your image is acceptable but the surfaces of the objects need just a bit more work. Adding bump and glossiness and even subsurface scattering will improve the image's impact on the viewer.
I hope that I have not hurt your zest for this medium you are well on your way to mastering it. It is good that as artists we learn how to use our tools. We have to remember that we are dealing with an entity that is not intuitive but is brilliant when given the correct input in creating an image. The approach to understanding for 3D is much more analytical then traditional artist's work that puts brush or chalk in hand and lets the brain do the work.
Looking forward to what you do, if anything.
Well, glad for the courageous input. I agree with all comments, I actually had the image in a much greater light focus on subject with darker background closer to the Rembrandt approach, but I'm not Rembrandt, there is more light in my life. So a compromise was in order. I may modify the compromise. As for "bump" and "glossiness" I will work on those areas. Stretching is a good thing. Thanks! :-)
I keep asking myself how to improve this one, and I think you're right...it's almost there, no major changes needed.
The only "big picture" sort of thing, I think, is that it still looks a little dark to me, overall. You could keep the environment as is and add a bit more illumination on the figure (not just her face), or increase the overall brightness of the environment a bit. Doesn't need to be a huge shift, but a little would help, I think.
I like the results of what you did with the leaves...that's something I probably would not have thought to change.
I am in a quandary re overall light on all of my renders. Render itself looks ok to me, If viewed with Corel it looks brighter. If viewed with Windows photoviewer the images look much darker. Posted here, on my screen the images also go to the brighter side, on my screen.
I don't know if the image I want is what people see.
Teofa, one of the things I do to convince myself that my lighting is acceptable is to take the image into PaintShop Pro and apply the One Step Photo Fix. If I like the image better when the filter is applied I know that I need to play with the lighting just a bit more. I did that to your image and found that although it provided more detail of the subject it killed the ambiance of the image. So I think your lighting is where it needs to be.
I am in a quandary re overall light on all of my renders. Render itself looks ok to me, If viewed with Corel it looks brighter. If viewed with Windows photoviewer the images look much darker. Posted here, on my screen the images also go to the brighter side, on my screen.
I don't know if the image I want is what people see.
This issue you mention is one I struggled with for a long time until someone put me onto the idea that "color management" settings were probably not consistent from one software program to another. Using CorelDraw, for example, I actually found differences between the default settings and the current document settings, and of course the problem really raises its ugly head when you go the print. The bottom line is this, every program, monitor and printer need to be on the "same page." I found it easiest to calibrate everything to the default settings of the monitor, so that "what you see is truly what you get." Once everything is set your life becomes much easier, it's not perfect, but greatly improved. Hope this helps. :)
Thanks and your welcome. I understand about the "more light". My images tend to be bright and with saturated colors as well. Yes I agree you are not Rembrandt (and I am glad you are not) but sometimes we have to take on the role of the Masters to gain some of their great knowledge and insight. It is good that you tried. I see no fault in producing such images. As I see no fault in the desire to take what the Masters have shown us and adding our own perspectives. All of it is part of the journey and to be closed to such things only limits us. I appreciate your wiliness to embrace such a point of view.
Wow lots of nice stuff as always from everyone. Well here is one of my ideas before the month end.
It's a DAZ3D and Bryce 7.1 Pro combo
Future Dreams
Welcome Xangth. Glad you are participating. I am afraid that I can not help you much on lighting in Bryce, so maybe one of the moderators can come in and provide some pointers. I do think that if a brighter level of light was consider, that some interesting shadow play would come about. The increase in light level would also help separate the girl from the background. Also the background is casting red light but the light on the girl is yellow white. I believe that if the cast light (light coming through the window) on the girl was moved to red there would be better continuity between the foreground and background. How to do this will have to be answered with someone a bit more knowledgeable then me. Sorry.
I ave gone a step further and left the Uber environment light behind and replaced it with.. yes another linear point light outside the tent.
And it toned down the pointlights that go with the candles, adjusted the light colour and the flame colour.
Overall its a bit very dark now. I guess it will take some more renders before I get the right amount of light.
I increased the blueish Pointlight in the crytall ball but it has a nasty habit of shining through that table (shadowns are on raytrace). Any Idea how to fix that?
And I am far to proud of myself that I constucted some lightning strike (stroke...? whatever) from scratch. Now that it's inside that crystall globe there ist not much left of its beauty, so I might go for something else after all. Still a lot to be done but for tonight its enough (euopean Time here).
Need to remember to fix my camera positions... screwed that somewhere on the way, don't like where its now .. :-S
Welcome Xangth. Glad you are participating. I am afraid that I can not help you much on lighting in Bryce, so maybe one of the moderators can come in and provide some pointers. I do think that if a brighter level of light was consider, that some interesting shadow play would come about. The increase in light level would also help separate the girl from the background. Also the background is casting red light but the light on the girl is yellow white. I believe that if the cast light (light coming through the window) on the girl was moved to red there would be better continuity between the foreground and background. How to do this will have to be answered with someone a bit more knowledgeable then me. Sorry.
Given what Dollygirl has said, which prgram did you do your render in. If it was Bryce, then what lighting do you have in your scene?
Alright, you know I see what you mean. I'm glad now that I put all the effort into getting the material of the statue to match the material of the sacred font, now that we're looking at it.
I have been doing a lot with render layers in gimp this time, I've learned a lot. It came out of necessity since volumetrics, uberenvironment, and distant lights don't get along. I did a little more postwork here in gimp, maybe this reaches a better medium?
Lord . . . have mercy!
I'm still working on surface texture issues, with some success I believe. Here is the latest lighting revision. I love this feedback process, I feel this iteration is much more dimensional and in keeping with my vision of what this should look like. Thanks again Dollygirl! :)