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Jaderail, I knew you were going to want lights!!!(not much experience with them,but here goes). This is my first attempt adding lights.:P
spmwc - Way better. That looks very natural and she's now conveying more emotion. Play with the facial morphs since even the tiniest thing can add more Umph. So far, really good. :D
sithkitten Can you bend the strings on the model? I don't want to comment without knowing that. :)
Honestly, I haven't tried yet... Probably, but I can't answer that for sure.
Yes, I'm a chicken, and was hoping I could get away with not going there. ;)
HAHAHAHA I don't blame you! Then make sure the left hand is not too close to the strings. Even the fingers resting on the string gives a slight pull, and the right hand isn't touching the strings. Currently the thumb on the right hand looks like it's plucking, and the right hand looks like something is being played, but the strings don't correspond. Also, bend one of the elbows and slant the body. If you look at the orginal, harp players move their body with their hands to reach comfortably (and to get into the music). I love the influence mixing with the new picture. It's yours, but definitely based on something pretty cool to see. I think I'll end up liking yours more though.
Oops! I got so caught up in the hands, I forgot about the rest of her. Thanks for the feedback. I'll work on your suggestions for sure. Glad you like the different angles. 3D cameras are a bit more flexible to work with than the real deal!
Well you coukd listen to some soothing harp music while styudying how the hands / body etc move
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlLj-B7hqL8
I was working on another entry called "the Woman in the Mirror" and when applied the HSS to V4, I get alot of speckling where shadow should be. Are there any settings I can tweak to make that go away?
Thanks! Those girls are awesome! Never thought I'd hear Metallica done as a harp duet.
Thanks! Those girls are awesome! Never thought I'd hear Metallica done as a harp duet.
Yeah. My son put me on to them. I am a country music fan (amongst other sorts of music) and they have done a great version of the Johnny Cash standard "Ghost riders in the sky".
Hmm... Now that you mention Ghost Riders (one of my all time favorites!)... I'll bet I could finally create the image I always have in my head listening to that song now. Never tried before, because I couldn't do it justice, but 3D is awesome for doing surreal, colorful stuff. Think I need to learn more. :)
Perhaps that could be a future contest? Making art out of the imagery music inspires in our heads?
One of my fave inspirations for images I have to admit. I have several images in my Gallery inspired by the lyrics of songs.
trying to figure out the problem but I guess that the HSS has SSS and that will "eat shadows" (I've seen that myself. Try to lower the specularity on the skin a little (now Szark will comment on if this is the right path to take).
It all depends on a few factors.
First off I found maxing out the SSS Shading rate to 128 works nicely. I am in the middle of some tests now and I am finding using a SSS shading rate of 128 and Fill lights with really soft deep shadpw mapped shadows and Key light Raytraced Shadows I can get away with lower Uber Environment settings. At present I am using the EU2 Quality Preset 2Med and I am hardly getting any speckling in the shadows. If you are using All Raytraced shadows then this might need increasing. All this is also connected to the Advanced Render settings Max Raytrace Depth should be 1, better if it is 2 (DS4.5 Default) and Shading Rate at least 0.20.
So what I need to know is what lights you have and what your advanced render settings are and what shader you are using, Hss, Uber Surface etc. Just select a surface and look at the top of the Surfaces Pane and it will state what the shader is.
Thank-you.
I have four spotlights aiming down from the ceiling, a fifth aiming at the window on the far wall and a sixth aiming up at her face-low intensity. The shader on her says . I know i applied the HSS though.
All of the lights have no shadows except the sixth spotlight aimed up at her face. That is deep shadow with default settings.
The render settings are:
Render settings look ok apart from Shadows Samples, try increasing to 24 if you are using soft shadows or deep shadow maps and just round the shading rate off to 0.20. :)
Ok select ONE surface like the face and it should state what the one shader is. HSS it probably is as you applied it, silly me you said a few post up. Doh!
If increasing the Shadow Samples I would increase the SSS Shading Rate, in the Surfaces Pane, to 128. They are the only two things I can think it could be.
No effect unfortunately. Is there a way to remove the HSS once it's applied so I can doublecheck that is the problem?
Did you try both suggestions?
You should have in the Shader folder in the Content Library (not Smart Content) Pane under Daz Studio Formats a Daz Studio Default shader to return the surfaces back to defualt. Or you just reload the skin preset (if you used a preset).
yep, tried both. No effect at all that I could see. It just seems to be where ever there is supposed to be some shadow-i threw a pointlight near her back to test it and much of it disappeared. She just has no shadows now lol.
Here's with the texture reloaded. It still has the speckling. I'm wondering if it's just bad lighting on my part.
That is your Render Settings. Your Pixel samples X Y and your Shading Rate. The Higher your Pixel Samples the clearer your Render will be and The Shading Rate will clear up your Shadows the lower you go. Try .5 or .2 for shading rate and see if that helps. I'm not sure it will in a Spot Render because I always do full Draft Renders then go to higher Render settings.
bluemoon: I like your updated pose better, and the sparks are a neat effect. You might consider experimenting with different camera angles...I'd like to see more of the smith's face and expression. Maybe that's just me, though.
spmwc: A lot of improvement, with the lights and adjusted pose. I like her expression--I do think it conveys that challenging look you're going for. As far as the lights and shadows are concerned, I would like to see either more intense light, or softer shadows...or maybe a bit of both.
sithkitten: Beautiful pose and composition. I wonder if there's more you can do to draw the viewer's attention to the focus of the image (which probably should be the harpist's face, in my opinion, though you could make a different choice). Also, you might try a little ambient (or fill) lighting to break up the darkness of the shadows...I'm not sure this would be an improvement but I'd like to see how it affects things. There are various ways to do that...here's a quick tutorial on using distant lights for ambient lighting: http://wiki.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/tutorials/dazstudio/studio-lighting00#ambient_lights Alternatively, you could use UberEnvironment2, or an UberArea light, or a number of dim spotlights...
SGCBearcub: I think the pose looks good. I'd continue experimenting with the lighting and shadows. I'm surprised you're getting so much speckle with the shading rate you are using, but maybe increasing the x and y pixel samples will help, as Jaderail suggested. Maybe try 8 or even 12 instead of 4.
yep, tried both. No effect at all that I could see. It just seems to be where ever there is supposed to be some shadow-i threw a pointlight near her back to test it and much of it disappeared. She just has no shadows now lol.
Here's with the texture reloaded. It still has the speckling. I'm wondering if it's just bad lighting on my part. The only other thing I can think of is posting the surface settings for the Torso and see of any settings are off. What happens when you change the shadow to Ray Traced Shadows?
Increasing Pixel Samples X and Y may improve things but it is my understanding that those settings are mainly for Anti Aliasing. As you say Shading Rate is the key factor but in this case it is set to 0.21 and with that lighting I don't think that is the cause. Shadow Samples were also increased but had no effect so I am thinking no raytraced shadows or Uber Environment providing any ray tracing at all but SSS etc are raytraced functions. Just a hunch. ;)
Increasing Pixel Samples X and Y may improve things but it is my understanding that those settings are mainly for Anti Aliasing. As you say Shading Rate is the key factor but in this case it is set to 0.21 and with that lighting I don't think that is the cause. Shadow Samples were also increased but had no effect so I am thinking no raytraced shadows or Uber Environment providing any ray tracing at all but SSS etc are raytraced functions. Just a hunch. ;)
I tried increasing pixel samples, no effect. I took another look at my lighting though and found that there wasn't really any lights casting shadows where the speckling is. I have a test rendering now to see if the ray-tracing on the new light helps.
Thank-you so much for all the suggestions. I really appreciate it.
Thank you Scott, I adjusted the lights as you suggested. Here are my settings. I only used three lights.
1) Spotlight: Above and to the left of her as my main light
Intensity 100 up from 60
illumination-On
Spread angle-60
Shadow type- Raytraced
Softness- 10 up from 5
Shadow Bias- 1.00 (Not really sure what this does)
2) Fill Light: Above and to the right of her
Intensity- 50 up from 30
illumination- Diffuse only
Spread Angle- 60
Shadow type- Raytraced
Softness- 100
Shadow Bias- 1.00
3) Pointlight: Inside the building behind her
Intensity- 900 up from 800
illumination- On
Shadow type- Raytraced
Shadow Bias- .010
With such a bright light outside; I think the interior would be more shadowed and darker. It is a heavy stone building and windows tend to be typically small.
I agree the Point light as a Ambient Fill Light is not as good as Using a low set with low settings Distant light with Shadows off, and as Said before the Fill Light should be much lower. That would make the Figure POP more with a Darker Background behind it.
Thanx, BWSman and Jaderail. Is this anything close to what you were looking for. Took out the point light and replaced it with a distant light.
Distant light set at:
intensity-10
illumination-On
No shadows
FillLight- Intensity at 10
I would Ramp your Fill Spot back up some but the room looks much better. And Turn Shadows off on it as well you want all your shadows from one Main light 99% of the time.
I think that's much improved already, with the brighter key light and softer shadows. But I also agree with BWSMan's and Jaderail's comments on the interior and the fill light.
Edit: oops, responded before I refreshed the page! Yeah, I like the latest version even more. Nice work!
Thanks for the comments!
Hmm, shadows... I'll try messing around with a light back there, maybe it'll look good. The "set" is an approximation of a theater I've done a lot of photography at and I tried lighting it like the real world place. But this ain't the real world, so I'm free to experiment, right? ;-) Thanks for the tutorial links! Can't ever have enough of those.