February 2022 - DAZ 3D New User Challenge - Lighting and Light Effects
Linwelly
Posts: 5,956
New User's Challenge - February, 2022
Sponsored by DAZ 3D
Are you new to the 3D World? Are you at the beginning stages of learning 3D rendering? Have you been around for a little bit but feel you could benefit from some feedback or instruction? Have you been around awhile and would like to help other members start their creative journey? Well then come and join the fun as we host our newest render challenge!
Each month, there are two different challenges: A Beginner Challenge and an Intermediate Challenge.
So which "Challenge" should you choose?
Follow the Beginner Challenge if you are:
- New to the New User Challenges
- New to Daz Studio
- Newer to 3D Rendering in General
- Or if you have not participated in the February Lighting Challenge
Follow the Intermediate Challenge if you have:
- Participated in the New User Challenge for awhile
- Know the basics of Daz Studio and would like to learn more in depth topics
- Been using 3D Rendering Applications for awhile and feel comfortable with learning Intermediate Topics
- Or if you have all ready participated in the February Lighting Challenge
*Please be sure to list in your post which Challenge you are participating in*
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Beginner Challenge:
"Lighting"
This month's focus will be on how you light your image. Lighting is what defines and enhances the viewer's experience when looking at an image. Lighting helps a viewer to "see" the story. The presence of light, or the lack thereof, provides us with the ability to believe the world we are looking at. It can tell us if an object is round, whether it is close or far away, what colors were used and even if the surface is reflective. As an artist, it will be your ability to master the use of light, that will set you apart from the others. Below is a source list of lighting tutorials, articles and videos that will help you understand how to use your software, the different techniques used to light a scene, and the theory behind why lighting is needed. This list is not comprehensive; it is just a starting point.
Also, keep in mind the topics we've covered during previous challenges. Build upon what you have learned to create a compelling image to light this month.
This year of New User challenges is just getting started. So far this year we have covered :
Composition
Inspiration:
Check out the amazing entries and discussion in last year's Lighting Challenge.
Other Helpful Links:
When following tutorials, be cognizant of the different applications (Bryce, Daz Studio, Poser, Carrara Blender, etc.) and different render engines (3Delight, Iray, Reality, etc). Techniques for one may not apply directly to another.
How to Use Your Software:
DAZ Studio
VII - Lights
Daz 101: Lighting (video)
Point Lights, the Basics
DAZ Studio Lights Tutorial - Presets - 3D Software (this contains undressed characters that's why it has a warning at the start, just so you know)
3Delight IBL or HDR type lighting environments
UberEnvironment2 - Made Easy
UberEnvironment2 Basics
Learning UberEnvironment 2 Return to Topic
Uber Area Lighting: The Basics
commercial for 3Delight
IBL Master (store link) IBL Master Discussion (forum discussion)
Iray
Creating and Lighting a Scene with Iray in DAZ Studio by SickleYield
Lighting and Tone Mapping in Iray by SickleYield
Ghost Lights: Interior lighting Tutorial
commercial for Iray
Ghost Lights (store link to one of several sets) Ghost Light Discussion (forum discussion)
Emission Profile Master (store link) Emission Profile Master Discussion (forum discussion)
Poser
Poser Pro 11 Tutorial: Lighting, Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjCkDHWX6VM
Poser Pro 11 Tutorial: Lighting, Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_paY90kz40
POSER Tutorial Lesson 3: Lights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3m4Xy5lPrE
Carrara
Chapter 14: Setting Lights
Bryce
Artist’s guide page 125
Thoughts on Lighting in Bryce 7.1 by Rashad
Bryce: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C772CuZ6RgI
Bryce: http://www.bryce-tutorials.info/bryce-tutorials/lighting-and-skies.html#
Bryce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-Pe-IVp_dY
Theory:
Mastering Lighting in Blender the first 25 minutes of the video is relevant for everyone not just blender users.
Lighting Basics:
http://www.amaanakram.com/lightingT/part1.htm
http://www.3drender.com/light/3point.html
http://bensimonds.com/2010/06/03/lighting-tips-from-the-masters/
I will be checking in as will the rest of the Community Volunteers to try and help with anything you all may need.
For a list of the current contest rules, please see this thread: Challenge Rules
Closing Date: February 28, 2022
Intermediate Challenge:
"Light Effects"
This is a general render challenge with the focus on using varous Light Effects, such as Gels and Gobos. We are providing you with some links on the topics from a variety of sources.
Gobos can be used to make interesting shadows and patterns, such as leaves, window blinds, geometric shapes, etc. Your imagination is the only limitation.
Gobos and Gels can be used in both 3Delight and Iray. There are many products in the DAZ Store or, if you are really adventurous, you can try to make your own.
This is as well where you can play around with bloom and all the fancy sliders in the tone mapping and environment settings
Gobo and Color Gel Lights Definition, Explanations and Examples
Gobo / Gel Light Definition
Color Gel
Gobo Light Portrait Examples
Gel Light Portrait images Examples
Gobo vs Light Gel
Gel Light Tutorials:
DAZ Studio Tutorial – Light Gels and “no poke through”
Daz Studio Lighting Tutorial - Gel Lights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-BUXBjeQ9w
Daz Studio Iray Tutorial: How to Make Your Own Gel Light - text tutorial
Tone mapping and environment:
Tone Mapping DAZ Documentation
DazStudio Iray Render Settings - Tone Mapping - Guide With Examples (DAZ Forum Discussion)
Daz3d Tutorial | How To Use Tone Mapping (youtube by Steven Davis)
[Tutorial] Lighting and Tone Mapping In Iray (DeviantArt tutorial by SickleYield)
Environment (DAZ Documentation)
Below is an example of what we mean by "Light Effects".
This image has been resized to fit in the page. Click to enlarge.
Closing Date: February 28, 2022
Here's my start for the Beginner challenge this month.
Title: Underwater Treasure
Intermediate
First shot at this challenge; I used a Gobo and a volumetric cylinder to make the beams of light. Feedback appreciated!
Well done. I might like to see some cuastic effects though to help illustrate it's under water.
I just want to say i appreciate much Linwelly's opening posts here.
Best luck to participants!
Thank you for the suggestion! This is my second version with caustics added
Beginner Challenge
So I was going for some artistic mumbo-jumbo with the lighting on the black side and the shadows on the white side. Harder than it looks because I had to use multiple spotlights to wash out the shadow cast by the model. (More likely I just did it the hard way).
I'd like it if the light didn't reflect off the hair so much but I couldn't make that work.
sorry for the late response during the weekend the forum wasn't accessibel for me and then I had some internet trouble locally later on.
@aprilshowers2065 that's a great start and yes the added caustics help the impression. you might think about ahving another ray of light further in a distance? This might be a bit of a challenge to render though. more cirtical I think is that we get to see a bit more of her face, right now it's turned away from the light source and in shadow. you coulr rotate the character a bit or add some cheating lights round her head (linear point lights)
@Alewis478 this is a fantastic idea and you have made it work really nice. maybe the hat is making thinks a bit more difficult than needed, but then it adds a nice effect. For the hair you need to check the parameter settings surface, reduce glossiness if its applied to the hair take out the dual lobe completely, if there is a top lyer reduce glossyness there as well. though I got to say that I like the little shine
Version B here for the beginner challenge.
Found an explosion prop that I added to try and have some more urgancy to his fleeing. In reguards to my goal on this, I'm aiming for a silloite effect without him being too dark.
@Linwelly, you weren't the only one with problems getting on the forums, I was getting an error message myself.
@Shinji Ikari 9th what you are looking for is rim light, you can achieve that by adding one or two spot lights behind the character facing roughly the direction of the camera, so that a bit of light passes along the sides of the character. crank that light really up high to get a good effect. you can as well try to use bloom in addition to that
Lighting seems to make the biggest difference in getting nice renders, so it's great to have a challenge that will make us practice that more!
I came across some stills from Apple TV's MacBeth, which had huge spaces, flooding light and atmospheric haze, all in grayscale rather than more contrasting BW, tall windows, shadow play. I don't know what the actual tv show looks like, but those stills made a huge impression. I wanted to try out some stuff inspired by that style and started with this one.
I used a natural sky hdri with environment intensity way up and a couple of ghostlights to really give the feel of light flooding through the window, provide enough light to catch some details of the walls and dress, and create rim lighting for the main character. I then switched to a BW render setting.
Alone (Beginner challenge, Daz Studio)
@Linwelly, thanks for your feedback, I gave it a try in version C here along with changing the HDRI settings to a nighttime setting since he's coming up on the exit in case the default lighting from outside was affecting what I was going for.
The spotlight will more then likely need tweeking, but this is closer to what I had in mind.
Thanks @Linwelly. I added a bit more light on her face and tried adding another ray of light to the background, although I'm not sure how noticeable the latter is.
Title: "Saxophone incredible talent show"
Beginner Challenge
@Linwelly I've been going through some of the tutorials and they're great. Thanks!
@Shinji Ikari 9th More dramatic now with the changes. The glow of his visor, and the subtle glow of the fire against his sides work nicely.
@aprilshowers2065 Nice color palette for this one and use of DOF.
@HLEET_3D Love her expression, fun!
I've been continuing with ideas inspired by the grayscale stills from Apple TV's Macbeth. I've worked on this render over several sessions and iterations this week, building on the previous challenge elements, like composition and instancing as well.
I used a sky HDRI rotated to provide the angle of lighting I wanted along with a bright spotlight. I worked on incorporating shadow play and also some atmospheric haze to create a seemingly endless space. I wanted the setting and lighting to capture something a little dreamy and surreal, and love how it's turned out.
In an endless dreamscape (Beginner challenge, Daz Studio, 2nd entry)
deleted
@sapphireBlue those are some fantastic images already I adore the lady in front of the window, the only thing I could think of would be to add some bloom to that, for the second one, the lady with the colums I have the impression that the attention is a bit lost with all the similar grey tones, one idea would be to brighten the mist up so it gets almost white and leaves a stronger contrast to the lady or you could try to use Depth of field to keep her in the focus
@Shinji Ikari 9th yes this is getting closer, you as well might want to try some bloom
@HLEET_3D the saxophone player: you've got soem interesting light use in there already (beside I think her expression is hilarious) I really like the shadows she's casting from the different spot llights, you might even want to enhance the effect, making the spot lights stronger and I'm not sure what and if you have that, reduce the strenght of the environmental lights (HDRI) so she's even more exposed there. you migght want to check if you have the camera light on and turn that to off.
for the gobot light one I don't think I understand what difficulty you had with that, maybe post a screenshot of what you tried and what happend? The i can tra to help you with that. I don't know the mood renderer, could you add a link to that product (if it's a DAZ one). Also please keep in mind the TOS we play by here, I have the impression that bodice is see through which would not be allowed
@aprilshowers2065 yes this has gained more depth, maybe that pearl could have a stronger glow? I still feel like her face is too far in the dark
Intermediate challenge Swamp
@dhouck So much detail! Very atmospheric. : )
@Tangled up with Ink Scary! Nicely done expression.
@Linwelly, thanks heaps for the tips! : )
First entry: I tried to use bloom, but because the lady's silhouette is right in front of the window, even low bloom settings start distorting her outline quite significantly. I might try some other things to see what can be done.
Second entry: This one took a bit of experimenting. Working through your tips, I decreased DOF much more, moved the haze closer and let it go into white. It definitely reduces the overall grayness and increases contrast for the scene, making everything stand out more. Thanks again for the insight and suggestions! : )
In an endless dreamscape (Beginner challenge, Daz Studio, 2nd entry) - Updated
Don't know if I'll be able to get any more renders done this month, my laptop has started acting up again and is bogging down like the old desktop I used to use.
Titel: Kontakt Ruschestraße
@dhouck this is a wonderful work, I like very much the difference in the light temperature from the cool moon light and the warm lights that come from the house and the lamps, the only thing I can think of you could try is adding a bit depth of field but actually not too much
@Tangled up with Ink considering yourself a beginner is perfectly fine. you chose nice contrasting colour for your image, you could help that effect of the red light bouncing off your creature with an additional spot light with the same red/yellow colour you got for the door, and placing that spot on the right behing her so that it works as a rim light. That's not where it really comes from but it will increase the dramatic effect
@SapphireBlue That turned out really nice, very good, looking forwar to what you come up with the other one
@Shinji Ikari 9th I hope your computer doesn't die, you could try removing all the zip files from the DAz prooducts, they end up hogging quite a lot of space
@Fettbemme welcome to the new users challenge you made a great start, I like how the light comes from that one side, sounds like some secret meeting is about to take place. I would actuially try to darken the environment a bit more to give that contrast a bit more room (check if the camera light is on and try a render wiith the camera light off) Falls du Unterstützung in deutsch brauchst kann ich dabei auch helfen.
Thanks @Linwelly. I tried boosting the light from the pearl and adjusted it slightly; it made her face a little bit brighter, though I'm not sure how noticeable it is. Like the new glow around the pearl though