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Sigurd, I do get a bit caught up in the details. But when I pose or have them move, stuff that doesn't look right jumps out at me. Anyway, start with a base G8M figure, build into your basic ENDO. Tag properties you usually tweak into the favorites folder. Now, even though it isn't technically a Scene, or Scene Subset, name and save the Scene with just the character. Anything you have tweaked on the character, including hair, textures, ERC's, D-Forms, clothing, etc., is saved. Start again with the next different body type, and save as a different name, repeat as required! Now if your in the middle of a scene, and need to build a quick character use the Merge an existing file folder Icon (third from the top left in my layout) go to the Scene folder:
C:\Users\terry\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library\Scenes
and voila, you just pulled in a fresh to modify baseline character!
Hope that helps. T-D
Wow! Thanks. That seems easier than I thought it would be. I have been playing with Daz for over 7 years now and I have never used the Favorites function. Go figure. Will get to work on that right away!
Is there anyway we can apply these to a character we already have or do we have to start from scratch? Just wondering.
I'm not sure if I'm following along correctly, but my current workflow involves loading a G8M figure, let's say Dain, as an example. I then go to my Saved Files section in Smart Content (look in appropriate location for your saved shaping presets) and double click on my "starter" shaping preset. In this case, it's "G8M-ToonishStarter-1". Only the parameter dial settings in that shape preset are changed on Dain, all his other parameters remain intact. I've got a couple of these shaping presets saved, one for a heavier physique and one for a leaner one. I'll be adding more as I revise my character physique styles.
Not sure if this helped or not, Sigurd. Like I said, I might not have understood what you were asking. Apologies in advance if I have. :)
Lee
This is really a wonderfully informative thread to read. Thank you all for your knowledgable input.
If you save your settings as a Shape Preset, you can then load on a pre-existing character. The Favorites tags will not be saved, any deformers will have to be saved separately, I have had no luck with that, because they usually don't align correctly if not put back onto a baseline figure. Also no ERC's are saved. So ultimately I ended up just building the preset character from scratch.T_D
More playing with lighting and using AME with various characters.
Here's Vini with some Swole, Scar, other miscellaneous morphs, and about 50% AME Body dialed in.
Lee
Well done, Leemoon, looks to me like you have allready developed your "distinctive style".
Very distinctive! Good work.
Thank you for the flattering comments, terry_duquette and Sigurd! I feel like I still have a ways to go with respect to learning DAZ Studio. Thankfully, I've always enjoyed tinkering around with software (former software engineer here) to see what I can make it do. A lot of what I learned using Poser for 20-something years carries over to DS. It's supremely fun to experiment with various settings and techniques and see what I can come up with. Thank you both again for the kind words!
Lee
Here's what I *think* might be my final/keeper version of this figure. Just for those who might be interested in seeing what AME can contribute to G8 Male characters/character blends.
Thanks go to Sigurd for inspiring me to follow this general physique type and especially to DMaster for creating these wonderful products (AME and ASE, in particular)!
Lee
Wow! Congratulations - He looks awesome. I especially like his abs, traps and lats. Perfect shape and definition. I wish I could get my renders to look this nice.
I just finished my character today also. I have felt a little like Pygmalion and got a little obsessed tweaking and sculpting trying to get everything to match up with what I see in my head. Tricky thing that. I finally got to the point where I cannot see anything that I would change. I look at it and think hmmm, maybe a little larger in the upper arms and I adjust it. Then I look at it and go maybe a little smaller and decrease it 5%. Then a little less and decrease it another 5% and finally I look at it and realize it is just right and I realize that is where it was when I started adjusting it a few minutes ago. After doing this a few times I have to realize this has gone as far as it can go with this figure. My last adjustment was to make him a little stockier. It is late here so I will post him tomorrow. Once again great job leemoon!
Absolutely great job, Lee.
Thank you so very, very much, Sigurd!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who makes those small changes just to undo them. I will definitely fuss over a character's shape to try to keep the proportions and style in keeping with my creative vision. It's often that I will walk away from a character and return to it after a day or two. Sometimes I need to give my eyes and brain a break and look at the character again with a fresh mindset. I definitely have way more failures than successes when tweaking a figure to my liking. LOL!
My current batch of renders have used the Render Camera and some of the BOSS Light Set cameras (6-Full Length - Front and 1-Face-Front). I'm sure I've tweaked the settings a little. I'm fond of 50mm focal lengths and will play around with ~125mm focal length from time to time.
The Environment Dome is using one of the Fast Production Light images, FPL004EnvMono.hdr. I have 2 supporting ghost lights which are flat plane primitives for some supplemental fill and rim lighting. I like this simple set up due to the relatively quick rendering time. I generally have the Environment Dome positioned to fire the primary/bright light source directly front to back (dome rotation around 315 for the FPL004EnvMono.hdr if I recall). The primary ghost light is usually on the right and front side with Point At set as the figure. The secondary ghost light (rim light) is on the left side, above and behind the figure and also has Point At set to the figure. I adjust the size and distance from the figure on the 2 ghost lights to get soft lighting coverage on the areas I'm interested in highlighting. It seems like I started with one of the BOSS Light render presets for the render settings but have since tweaked those into my "universal" setting that yields good quality at reasonable speed, always using Iray, even though I'm limited to CPU rendering. I've also been using Iray preview A LOT lately to see the changes in materials, posing, lighting, etc. as I set the scene up.
I usually swing the camera around the figure to get the shadows and highlights to fall roughly where I want and then tweak the ghost light positions and/or figure Y-rotation to get everything looking the way I want.
Once I get a render that I like, I save it out and push it through Photoshop Elements for some super simple enhancements. Generally, I duplicate the main image into a new layer so I can work on the layer and refer back to the untouched original image. On the new layer, I use Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Color Curves and then Increase Midtones. Then I do the same thing again with Increase Contrast. I may or may not do an Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Color for Skin Tone, though I often do and always set the color temperature slider down to the blue/cooler end of the spectrum. I might apply some sharpening. If I then turn the image into grayscale, I'll sometimes add a tiny amount of film grain from the FIlters menu. After checking the final adjustments on the layer against the original render and am satisfied with the results, I save the layered image as .PSD and then flatten it and save it out as .JPEG (or other format as needed.)
Sending the render through Photoshop gives my renders a little extra something. Likely because I don't set up the render, lighting, and/or materials properly in DAZ Studio to begin with. LOL!
I hope some of this helps folks experiment with the various settings in DS. I do love seeing all the incredible renders that you all share here!!
Lee
Thank you very much, inquire!! I've had a lot of fun working on him.
Lee
leemoon, Wow you put a lot of work into your renders. I am going to try some of your tips and let you know how they work for me.
Thanks!
I do put some work into my finished renders. Whether it's effort well spent is debatable! LOL. I'm still working my way around DAZ Studio and have a lot to learn.
I've also made 2 pre-configured scenes that I've been loading at the beginning of every DAZ Studio session. They have the render settings configured, the BOSS Lights Environment Dome set up, the BOSS Lights Cameras loaded, an "Inspection" camera loaded (I use it to go close-up on areas like hands, to see how the posing is going without messing with the render cameras), the 2 ghost lights loaded, and the BOSS Lights Backdrop prop loaded (but turned invisible.) The only differences between these 2 pre-configured scenes are the 2 ghost lights. In one scene, the ghost lights are on and in the other scene, the ghost lights are off. So as soon as I open DAZ Studio, I load one of these 2 scenes. Then I load my figure(s) and sometimes apply a starter shaping preset (as mentioned in an earlier comment), and start morphing and posing the figure(s). It's quite quick to get started by using my pre-configured "starter" scenes and shaping presets. I'll keep adding starter scenes and starter shaping presets as I learn more from all my tinkering in DAZ Studio and using AME/ASE! :)
Thank you for the inspiration and the great comments, Sigurd! I hope you find something useful in my ramblings. :)
Lee
Leemoon, now you make me want to work on lighting and post processing, but usually I am to impatient! Keep up the great work.
Leemoon = LM = Lighting Master.
Thank you!! You are all too kind! :)
I put together a very basic empty scene file that I was originally using before I made the transition to HDRI environment lighting. This sample scene uses the Sun-Sky settings instead of an HDRI environment dome. It also has the 2 simple ghost lights that I've been using.
Originally, I used this scene to set up my figures due to the omnidirectional effect of scattered sunlight. Adding the 2 ghost lights gave me some creative control for adding highlights.
Things of note if you wish to experiment with it:
1) It only uses basic render settings that are somewhat set up for Iray rendering.
2) The 2 ghost lights need to have their Point At parameter set to the figure you load.
3) The Sun environment has been desaturated to give a monochrome look. Playing with the SS Blue-Red Tint parameter in Render Settings can change the color tone of the scene as desired.
4) After loading this scene, load a figure and then select both ghost lights (Fill Light and Rim Light) and set their Point At to the figure. Turn on Iray Preview and rotate the Perspective Camera around the figure to see how the lighting looks/changes from various angles.
5) Move the ghost lights around to achieve the lighting coverage that you prefer (or turn them off.)
6) Change the Dome Orientation Y to rotate the sun around the figure.
7) Select the figure's head and use the viewport Framing thing to center the camera view on the figure's head. This can give nice rudimentary head portrait lighting, considering there's a fair bit of skylighting coming in from all angles. Try different Y-rotations of the figure along with rotating the camera around the figure to get some nice shadows. Try moving the ghost lights to different positions to see the effect they have. Also play with scaling the lights as this will change the light intensity.
8) IMPORTANT! If, like me, you don't have a dedicated Iray compatible GPU or a less powerful CPU, then turn off Iray Preview when morphing, posing, or moving the figure. The lag when doing so with Iray Preview on is terrible. LOL! Applying materials and moving the lighting and camera will respond pretty well with Iray Preview on.
9) Have fun! I hope that this sample scene will be of benefit/inspiration to those getting started with lighting or who want to try something a little different.
Thank you all for the support and kind comments! Special thanks to everyone who has been showing off their great results with AME. You give me great inspiration to try new things!!
Lee
Thanks much! I tried playing with it a little. These are my latest/final version of Scott Mainz. I included a render from my usual setup and the same pose with leemoons file (altered/messed up by me). I am still playing with it. Both of my children prefer the newer version. If you compare the two, it is quite dramatic the difference that lighting can make. I will continue to play with the lighting and dome see if I can tweak it a little. I would like to have it show a little more definition in the muscles without too much shadow hiding detail.
Thanks again leemoon!
Sigurd, I also agree with your children! Now I really have to look into lighting, previously I have just added a spotlight or two to accent the split biceps talked about earlier in this forum. I always noted some of my HDRI's did seem to enhance certain characteristics, but I switch around so much, I didn't really pursue it any further.
Leemoon, I will give your lighting a try, looks like I will be in high experimentation mode again!
Thx. TD
You're very welcome, Sigurd! Scott Mainz is perfect. You've created an awesome character. I'm very impressed by your skills.
I'm glad my sample scene has inspired you to try out some different lighting. When I used that lighting setup, it was mainly to see texture and pose details. The global illumination tends to flatten geometry detail due to the very soft shadowing effect. Replacing the Sun-Sky dome with a good HDRI map can eliminate or lessen the global/omnidirectional lighting while giving quick renders. I'm definitely a fan of the Fast Production Lights for Iray (apologies if I've butchered the name of the product). The included HDRI maps are wonderfully done, as are the various presets for direction and tone mapping.
That said, you've done an excellent job using my sample scene! There's lots to experiment with in the Render Settings pane, as you've already discovered.
Here's something I played with a few minutes ago. You can see how I altered some of the environment/dome settings to get the lighting a little contrasty from left to right. Note that the figure is turned 90 degrees and the render camera is likewise rotated 90 degrees. The sun is now coming from the left side, but I decreased the sun scale down to a small size. This eliminates the main/strong shadow from the sun, yet I think it provides a tiny spot for the corneas to reflect in head portraits. Also, the Fill light has been stretched to about 250% on the Z axis and down to 50% on the X axis. This gives more even top to bottom fill light on the figure. I probably moved the Fill light slightly as well, but don't recall at this moment. :)
Thank you so much for sharing your images of Scott Mainz! Always great seeing your work here, Sigurd.
Lee
I love to experiment! Part of my being a retired software engineer. LOL!
I hope you find something useful in the sample sun-sky lighting scene, Terry. I definitely prefer to use HDRI lighting supplemented by ghost lights for the type of renders I do. When I put together the sample yesterday, I made it without any extras so that anyone with a minimum DAZ Studio install could try it out. Lighting is so important in 3D renders and I'm still finding my way with it in DAZ Studio. Lots to learn and share as I discover what I like!
Thanks again, Terry!
Lee
leemoon thanks for the compliments. The last pic looks awesome! His face looks great! Lots of character. I am going to start playing with Kjaer 8 now. He looks so much like most of my family (which made it difficult to get those procreation permits I had to obtain before we had children). Anyway, thanks again for the scene file. I will continue to play with it.
Attached same render but without dome.
AME-ified version of (not so) Awful Emperor. I turned Awful Emperor way down and dialed up Swole plus my usual blend of other morphs. Additionally using aging morphs to give the character a bit more of a mature look. At least that's what I was going for.
The render is using the lighting scene that I've been using for a while now which uses an HDRI dome not the Sun-Sky environment.
Lee
You're welcome, Sigurd and thank you!
I picked up Kjaer and like him a lot. Haven't done a finished render with him yet, but he's definitely going to be showing up in one soon!
Your dome-less render looks great. I've played with reducing the sun and keeping the sky scattering active (I think that's what was going on) to get even illumination in the scene. The ghost lights added the highlights. Replacing the sky dome with an HDRI dome can really give a different look and that's what I'm currently using.
Lee
Wow! I really like the reflections on his skin. Way cool.
Well here is a completely original character, started from a celbrity Face Transfer. All my usual tweaks, 35% AME etc. Lighting is Leemoon's, with a couple of tweaks in the ground color, Film ISO, Saturation and Gamma settings. TD
Great job terry_duquette ! This is really making me look forward to the G8F AME! I was originally not thinking much about it but after playing with the G8M version I am thinking it will be great.