Rendering Dark Eyes in IRay
OK, I’m stumped in getting reflections on eyes that are black or dark down. Been working on it a couple of days now.
Have tried adding super bright lights, light angle/placement, and trying different materials. Nothing.
Attaching a file that’s fairly large at 6.6MB-- hopefully that’s OK. If not, let know & will reduce. Wanted members to see detail in eyes.
1.) Am getting some reflection (sunglasses) in his eyes but nothing from two lights: spot & distant. Sunglasses pooped into picture reflect lights & object in foreground. Glass mug placed in there with pencil behind it look OK. So I can't figure out what's wrong with his eyes! 
This is the best IRay is going to do for G3M?
2.) Read a topic about shaping different eye parts & different settings for parts such as sclera & so on. I think that was expert users talking about tweaking G8 though. No luck on G3M based “Darius.”
Is there a ‘cheat sheet’ or a long, step by step tutorial for better eye reflections?
I looked at the DAZ tutorial, and he explains where to go, but abruptly ends with “now just play with the sliders.” As if it was that easy! : 0 !
Other tutorials I didn’t seem to apply, or were out of date? 3Delight?
Any help appreciated because kind of bummed out. Even on sale, character cost a fair amount of money & still needs aviator style glasses for comic/graphic novel art I do in photoshop. Can’t very well invest in that until I know whether his eyes are going to work.
Final question, couple of topics mention iRay kits specifically for eyes. Had a look at two of them, and one might work if no tutorials or cheat sheet.
Anyone use "Macro Eyes for Iray Browns and Exotics"? Has black/darkbrown eye & works with G3 figures, but it's not on sale right now.
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Comments
You might want to take a look at this:
You have to fiddle around with the position of the light (start close to the cam) a bit and with the size of the light source to get the result you want.
It gets more tricky if the distance to the character gets bigger, but for a close shot like yours this should be quite easy to set up.
I made very good expierences with that technique.
Kind regards, Eagle99
The problem is likely with the surfaces, I suggest DimensionTheory's Project Eyeray to quickly solve this problem with any G3 based character.
Thanks for replies. Sorry about poorly written topic. I must have been really tired! ; )
@ Eagle99
Tutorial looks promising. Will have a detailed look at it & material for download.
@ Evilded777
Do you know if it has Black / Dark-Brown eyes? From product pages, the samples don't seem to show one. Think it' son sale though...
At the risk of being overlong:
Found a topic from 2015 where a couple of expert members were tweaking I-Ray when it first came out?
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/54239/fiddling-with-iray-skin-settings/p1
If still around, thanks to “8eos8” and “ZarCondeeGrissom” for sharing settings & screenshots of settings.
Based on what they shared, here are mine. Will be listy, but maybe if I give more specific information, members might be able to zero in on something. : )
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Use iray water, thin
***Caution! Do not set “thin walled” in cornea off.
Shaping tab:
Cornea bulge down to 1 = flat & very little reflect
Cornea bulge at 100 = some reflection. (mesh still looks OK.)
*** CAUTION Iris Correction -6.7% before a white ring appears
Iris Correction at 0 (mesh looks like it’s *behind* sclera & not part of it. (Side effect of more round cornea?) Entire eye appears recessed from lower eyelid which should be contiguous with eye.
(put cornea & all moist surfaces to ‘Water, thin.’)
Editor tab, Eye Moisture, etc.:
Refraction index: between 1.333 & 1.4 (water)
Metallicity 0
Base color .50 .50. .50
Diffuse roughness 0
Translucency weight 0
Dual lobe spec weight 0
Glossy layered weight 0
Share glossy inputs = off
Glossy color effect = scatter only
Glossy reflectivity .90
Glossy roughness = .070
Glossy anni-something = 0
Backscattering weight = 0
***Refraction Index = 1.01 (CAUTION - this setting will hide part of sclera & show as black in render even if looks OK through the camera.)
Refraction weight 1
Refraction color = ? ? ? (Doesn’t matter? Default = 1 1 1)
Refraction roughness = 0 (or risk light above if too flat. Max gives a total white for ‘voodoo zombie’ effect)
Abbe = 0
Glossy annie-something rotations = 0
Base thin film = 0
Base bump = choose a map ?
Normal map = choose a map ?
Metallic weight flakes = 0
***Top coat weight .40 (Viewport, shows eyelashes reflecting in eye - undesirable pattern. Doesn’t show in render. At zero, the eyes are flat & look pasted in. Another important setting?)
Top coat color - (makes no diff? default is 1 1 1)
Top coat color effect = scatter only
Top coat roughness .070
Top coat Layering mode = freznel
Attachment is image of face cropped from 2922 x 2192 render - now his hair looks like clay because am flooding him with light? : 0 !
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Edit: Dec. 2018 - weeding out too many files at imgur. PM if find broken links.
Just a quick update. Problem largely solved thanks to tutorial.
Knocking myself out with eyeballs & overlooking lights. Duh!
Results just using cornea & suggested changes to lighting. : )
Also checked out tutorial for "Render Studio Iray" Looks really good, but he's a pro.
Anyone use Render Studio Iray? Might add to wishlist, but would need more feedback from experienced users. Not on sale & kind of pricey.
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Edit: Dec. 2018 - weeding out too many files at imgur. PM if find broken links.
Ah, nice... he's alive :) ... looks great!
I don't own Render Studio Iray but it looks very nice. A good light and camera set is always nice to have, at least as some kind of verified starting point for your scenes.
What I can recommend are the BOSS lights: https://www.daz3d.com/boss-pro-light-set-for-portraits-promos
and for a wider variety of HDR Skydomes I can recommend this : https://www.daz3d.com/iradiance-light-probe-hdr-lighting-for-iray
If you want to learn more about lighting in general you might also want to take a look at this: http://3drender.com/light/index.html
It's not DAZ Studio specifc, but gives you a very good understanding on what is what when setting up lights in DAZ Studio.
Finally I can recommend this guy here: https://www.youtube.com/user/wphosting/featured
He has many helpful videos about lighting and Iray in DAZ.
Kind regards, Eagle99
Yes, one could always do the work for one's self, good solution.
I don't usually recommend buying a product, as I usually do it myself... except when it comes to eyes because Project EyeRay is just that good. And yes, there are brown eyes. I do not, at this point, recommend the Gen8 version. That may change. For the first time, I am not an immediate fan of the latest generation of figures.
Thanks. The more tutorials the better. ; ) Will check them out.
One thing I've noticed, he looks better outside where I'm using Terradome3. So inside lighting & trying to setup diffuse lighting rather than just flooding them... Might have a look at "BOSS lights" after tutorials.
Yes, learning what all of these sliders do will take some time, but that's the plan. Good to know about "Project EyeRay" though. With indoor renders, have noticed G2M seems to have bright schlera that's almost glow in the dark. Face is in subtle shadows/diffuse light, but eyes really stand out compared to V8 who is the 'star' of scene.
That leads to another question. : )
What makes you say not impressed with G8 yet? I'm curious, because I probably made a mistake in using DAZ "Learn on Our Dime" coupon to get 'SuperHero' Vicky 8 essentials-starter pack.
She is huge! 6 feet tall or something! Pose Vicky sitting in a chair (incognito & not as Superhero) talking to side-kick. Thigh length on V8 looks too long compared to G3 Male. Have to scale down to 97% & she still looks 'Olympian' rather than human proportions. Also notice very few everyday wardrobe items for G8 series. Most are for G2/G3. Is that because, mesh artists just haven't had time to create new ones or update? Or G8 release might have some problems?
Very important to know before I invest in more than just basic wardrobe for them.
So thoughts/opinions on G8 series very much appreciated.
Thanks for reading & have a happy halloween!
Yes V8 is rather tall isn't she? The base female for the 8 line is not that tall and should be in your library, or available for download for free as she is part of the base starter package essentials that come with. Genesis8 Male as well. Also, most of the clothing for G3Females fit just fine on G8F. I haven't had one yet that hasn't transferred well with minimum tweaking. But not the shoes.
As far as what's better about the 8 line, in my opinion, the expressions are way better and the posing as well. And, you can use the G3F skins on her as well.
So DAZ has a gallery. Didn't know that... Liked “Storm Queen.” Something about her expression & way it’s rendered. I she a DS character? An image like that would probably take me a month in Photoshop w/Wacom tablet & still probably couldn't draw something that reailstic. : )
Anyway good to know about (legacy?) clothes & G3 will fit G8.
One last question before and will leave off for a while.
Every comic / graphic novel series needs a villain! Found one DS character that’s very close to an arch-enemy I draw who they never quite catch.
Unfortunately “Garrett” isn’t on sale & character requires the M8 base that is on sale.
1.) How often does DAZ have sales events?
2.) Correct in assuming M8 is just male “Superhero” proportions for G8M? i.e. A bit 'larger than life' but basically same morphs & “Powerpose” will have more points to tweak facial expressions than say G2 or G3M.