Iray light tips for good eye reflection
I followed all the recommendations I read on setting eyes ( cornea morph, iray shader water)
but I can not reflect on the eyes . There are some general tip I can share me about the lights
to achieve that effect . I suppose they are the lights.
Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
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Comments
Is there anything for the eyes to reflect?
What lighting setup are you using? When the renderer is set to Iray you get a default environment light, but the sun is shining from off to your right. If you go into the Render Settings tab and click on Environment, there is a dial for Dome Rotation. This turns the environment dome clockwise; turn it so that the "sun" shines onto your character's eyes and reflects back towards the camera. (Note that you can't actually see the effect of this until you render.)
Use lights that come with default DAZ and hdri image.So far I can only achieve random reflections do not understand what kind of light can produce.
I would achieve that effect at will. In the first two images are only the lights by default(Camera lamp and environment, no apply lights) .
In the last used a hdri and apply set of lights that come with DAZ iray default .
These aren't random reflections. They are the reflections you'd expect given the light sources.
The camera headlamp will produce exactly what you see in the image on the left. Digital models don't exhibit red-eye, but what you're seeing is the same thing you get in real life: the light from the camera headlamp is bouncing right back into the camera. In a human, you'd get the red from the eye retina.
Go at this systematically:
1. Turn off the camera headlamp. The reflection from it when the character is facing srtraight on is unflattering.
2. Be sure there is no reflection opacity mask in any of the eye materials. Otherwise you'll see the "painted in" reflection rather than a real one. Many character textures come with these reflections, and you either have to choose another eye texture that does not have the reflections, or remove the mask (or, often more easily, replace with a solid black image).
3. If you use an HDRi, be sure it has a strong light source in the direction the character is facing. Many "HDRis" are little more than pretty pictures, and they lack the dynamic range to produce quality reflections. The HDRi image included with Daz is pretty good for general lighting, but is too blurry for distinct reflections of the type you may be wanting.
4. Increase the strength of the corena bulge morph, if it's not already 100%. Some of the morphs don't apply much of a bulge.
5. For interesting reflections, try an emissive object, like a plane. Crank up the light and place off to one side of the subject. If the light is bright enough to illuminate the subject with adequate detail, it is bright enough to cast a reflection in the eyes.
You can get red-eye...but you need a much better model of the eyeball. That's because the renderer is following the laws of physics and using some pretty accurate models of light behavior. Without a complete and properly surfaced eye model, no, it won't show as red-eye...
#4 is extremely important...the bulge is one critical part of the whole setup that needs to be present, or you might as well stick with the fake, painted on reflections (yes, you can get good reflections in 3DL, too, with a good cornea bulge morph!). The faked reflections are primarilary because the eyes were never modeled close to reality...no proper bulge among others thing.
#3...even a blurred 'lighting only' HDRi is better than nothing...at least there will some reflection.
I have understood that render settings option can be set so that the camlamp light
automatically shut itself off when one light has been added.
Now I understood the logic which is always work for me.
One emissive light placed at an angle of not more than 60 degrees to the camera is needed.
Thus there will always be eye reflections .
I took as a reference to the character set only for light but for this particular ,
you have to take into account the angle of the camera.
Thanks for the suggest
Whether or not the Headlamp actually does switch itself off automatically depends on which other lights are in the scene. All the basic D|S lights (point, spot and distant) do this properly. The Iray environment light does not — you will have to go into the camera's Parameters tab and turn off the Headlamp yourself.
Also, note that the Headlamp is not a render setting option, it's a camera option. There is one on every camera in your scene; switching one off will not affect the Headlamps on any of the other cameras.
Yeah I know. I use the first image just for show a test image with eye reflections. And I Know the cam lamp is on in this scene because there are no other lights except for the environment light. And the auto head lamp is a render option. I think I ve put attention to forum to learn for you. Thanks a lot for your help.
Lighting is key to great looking renders. It is also a skill that requires some patience, practise, and research to learn.
Proper light highlights in eyes is tougher to get than you might expect, but it is what makes eyes pop and look lifelike. Professional photographers face the same challange. Use their lighting techniques (there are many books on the subject). :) A correctly placed reflector or area light does the job nicely.
Just throwing in an HDRI and hoping is not going to do the job, unless you get very lucky.
To get your first success with this, i would put a bright light right into their face. If you see the light reflecting, you know what you are doing. Then go from there adjusting. Or maybe test with a piece of glass and not the eye to make sure you have an easy target.
Once you learn how to get this to work, you may find times it's optimal for the scene. Other times, maybe not so much. Don't be ashamed to use the cheating methods of opacity maps with baked in reflections in those cases :) I switch methods based on my needs.
I no expect get lucky. I try to understand the basic logic behin the light in DAZ/Iray. I know I need more practice. I dont understand why I cant get eye reflections with spot lights pointing the eyes. I vary the distance, position, and intensity and no got result until I used emissive light. Is very hard for me...
Unless you change it, the spotlight emitter is a point source -- quite small. You can increase the size of the emitter in the spotlight, even change its shape. You want to enlarge the emitter, for two reasons:
1. A larger emitter produces softer shadows.
2. A larger emitter produces a larger reflection in the eyes.
To change the emitter size, go to the spotlight, and choose the Light group. Change Light Geometry from Point to one of the flat plane emitters, disc or rectangle. The default size is 10x10 centimeters. Enlarge to maybe 30 or 50 cm.
Crank up the Luminance until you get the effect you want. The default luminance of 1500 lumens might be low to get the reflection you want.
Free tip: Aim the spotlight using the SpotLight 1 view in the viewport. Use the camera controls to position the light so that it's about 30-45 degrees off to one side of the character, at about eye level. Aim the center of the spotlight view directly into the face of the character.
For testing eye reflections, turn OFF all but the light you're setting up, including any light produced by the environment dome (change to Scene Only). After you get the eyelight spot set up, you can activate the other lights, and environment.
Attached are two quick renders showing what I mean. Both have regular G2F Optimized MAT applied, Mjc's cornea morph, and nothing else.
1. Spotlight only, 30x30cm rectangle, 7000 lumens, positioned about 30 degrees to the right of the character, slightly above eye level.
2. Spotlight and standard HDR "Ruins" environment, with the dome rotated 70 degrees.
I can reproduce your results. Now I see I need large lights. Thanks a lot for your tips and patience.