New User Contest - July 2014 (WIP thread)
Scott Livingston
Posts: 4,340
New User's Contest - July 2014
Sponsored by DAZ 3D and smay
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 contest...
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"Atmospheric and Volumetric Effects"
This contest is designed to help you focus on incorporating volumetric effects, fog, mist, dust, crepuscular rays ("God rays"), etc, in your renders..
Intent: Using atmospheric and volumetric effects to set the mood of your image
There are various techniques you can use to achieve this, depending on your software, and we will be providing some tips and links to tutorials that should be useful for users of Bryce, Carrara, DAZ Studio, and Poser. Please note that whatever software and technique(s) you choose, in order to qualify for the contest the effect should be be created in-render and NOT in postwork.
I will be checking in on the WIP THREAD 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 :Contest Rules
***Please remember to post your final entries to the Entries Thread, and include the title and the name(s) of software you used.***
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Closing Date: July 31st 2014
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Comments
Tips and Tutorials
(more to be added)
General Tips and Information:
* Be prepared for long renders. Most or all of the techniques discussed below require a lot of time and memory to render.
* Make sure your render settings are good enough. For example, in DAZ Studio, this may require you to use a lower shading rate than you're used to, as well as increasing pixel samples and/or raytrace depth.
Bryce:
Streaming light or "God rays" effect - a 25 minute tutorial by David Brinnen
Bryce 10 minute lighting project - crepuscular rays - a tutorial by David Brinnen
Using the Sky Lab in Bryce, by expertvillage
Beginning Bryce - Bryce Weather by Robin Wood
Carrara: (thanks to holly wetcircuit for compiling these)
http://carraracafe.com/tag/volumetric-cloud/
http://carraracafe.com/tag/realistic-sky/
Some sample scenes (download)
Sunbeams / “God rays scene (download)
A bit out of date (references bugs that were fixed in C7 but still the most comprehensive tutorial http://www.sharecg.com/v/30164/PDF/Word-doc-Tutorial/Carraras-Realistic-Sky-Editor-Demystified
DAZ Studio:
UberVolume
Official UberVolume user guide (written for DS3, so some of the details may be a little different)
When the Spotlight Falls, the Dance Begins UberVolume tutorial by Greywulf - site is down as of this writing, so here's a link to a cached version; also see the following post
Forum thread with additional tips and information
Age of Armour's Atmospheric Effects Cameras
Atmospheric Cameras for DAZ Studio - Official User Guide
Other Methods
Create your own DepthCue/Fog Camera with the ShaderMixer by NeilV_1 (see following post)
Easy Godrays by SickleYield (see also: Simple Godrays)
Volumetric Lighting in DAZ Studio (old tutorial that predates UberVolume; you could experiment with combining some of the techniques discussed in this tutorial with UberVolume)
Poser:
Volumetric Atmospheres by Smith Micro
Creating Fog in Poser by Nerd3D
Product Links:
Note: while it is possible to create atmospheric effects in any of the programs listed above without additional purchases, there are some products available in the DAZ 3D store that are designed to facilitate this process and/or expand your options. Some of these products are listed below.
Atmospheric Effects Cameras for DAZ Studio
Simple Godrays
Expanded Godrays - Celestial Bodies
Fog Tool Deluxe III
Camera Magic: WaterCam DAZ Studio
Tips and Tutorials, Continued
Create your own DepthCue/Fog Camera with the ShaderMixer by NeilV_1 (DAZ Studio)
1. Open the ShaderMixer tab, go-to File-> New and choose Camera in the opening window, here you can give as well a name to your new camera.
2. A new tab with the camera name opens in the ShaderMixer.
3. In the left-hand panel choose, drag ‘n drop Volume in “All bricks -> Root” to the empty building area.
4. Do the same with “All bricks -> Function -> Volume -> Fog-Simple” and place it to the right of your first brick.
5. Now connect “Fog-Simple Color” to “Volume Ci” and “Fog-Simple Opacity” to “Volume Oi” by clicking on the corresponding Fog-Simple node and dragging to the corresponding Volume node.
6. In the Fog-Simple node you can change right now the value for “Start Distance” (the default of 500 is far too low for most of the scenes, a good beginning for an average scene is about 2000) and the Background colour (i.e. the colour of the fog, haze) or you can do it later in the camera parameters.
7. By clicking on the Diskette symbol you can save these settings for later use.
8. Now click on the “Apply” button in the right-hand lower corner of the tab and you get the usual dialogue window to create a new camera, apply the settings of the current camera or copy the settings of the current camera (not a good idea in this case). If you have set up a camera for your scene choose “Apply active view port transforms” or go with the default placement and adjust them.
9. Now hit the render button (don’t forget to “look through” the right camera or you will not see any difference!).
Be sure to have framed your scene without any empty background or use a skydome since the fog is only applied to actual surfaces and not to “empty space”.
UberVolume Tutorial by Greywulf (DAZ Studio - relevant portion quoted because his site is down as of this writing)
I have 2. Help me choose which one. to run with. :P
Me personally I'm leaning more towards the snowy one. reminds me of skyrim a bit. :)
Rendered in Daz 4.6
Thing about the mountain render is that is actually only 2 planes. A water plane, then a regular plane with displacement maps to give it volume.
I used deformers and zbrush to make the mountains and dips to create a small lake and a few ponds.
A word to the guys that don't know what zbrush is. Zbrush is an amazing tool and a absolute must have for any real artist. It's expensive but WELL worth the coin. It will change the way you view 3D.
Thanks for the walkthrough! I had never opened that tab before :)
This gives a uniform fog effect over the whole render, correct? If so, is there a way to have the fog increase with the distance, so that the further away parts are foggier?
this tool is pretty handy. http://www.daz3d.com/fog-tool-deluxe-iii
This is what it's capable of. This was meant to be a sample render. But it turned out to be better then i had planned. hehe!
The lighting is great for a standard 3Delight render with default DAZ lights.
I may just end up using this render for the contest instead. What do you guys recon?
That sure looks handy. I'd like to get the basics first, though :) (Also, DAZ is sucking enough money already ;) ).
You can post as many different WIP's as you like in this thread. But you do have to limit yourself to 2 in the entries thread. ;-)
I really like this one. Sometimes we come up with better stuff when we are just playing around. Not so much pressure for it to be perfect I think. :)
Dreamlights Stage FX Beams works fine in DAZ Studio:
http://www.daz3d.com/stage-fx-beams
http://www.daz3d.com/stage-fx-le-for-daz-studio
http://www.daz3d.com/stage-fx-pro-for-daz-studio
Still a WIP, obviously. The second dude's hand isn't fully posed, among other things.
There's both the haze effect and a volumetric light, though the latter might be set not dense enough. All that muck in the air definitely calls for different kinds of lighting.
Still, any thoughts?
Very good Start here, your on the right track for sure.
Experimenting with Octane Render.
Worked on Dude #2 (not yet happy), added a smoke prop, fiddled with the lights.
Title: Sandstorm
Rendered in DAZ Studio 4.6 with 2 AoA Spotlights, 1 AoA Ambient Light and AoA's EZ Volume Camera.
I am still not happy with the colour of the sandstorm. According to images of sandstorms I Googled it should be more orange than brown. Will need further tweaking.
Very nice. I like how the flying hair and cloth gives the impression of strong winds.
wow! that's neat. i like that. You should add more stuff to it though. book self's n what not.
The environment is great. The lighting is just wow.... a ghost in the hallway would really make that baby shine.
like a haunted hotel type picture.
wow! that's neat. i like that. You should add more stuff to it though. book self's n what not.
The environment is great. The lighting is just wow.... a ghost in the hallway would really make that baby shine.
like a haunted hotel type picture.
Thank you danwat801. Have a few ideas on where to go next, people in gas masks being one of them.
people in gas masks being one of them.
That would be cool too. :)
wow! that's neat. i like that. You should add more stuff to it though. book self's n what not.
The environment is great. The lighting is just wow.... a ghost in the hallway would really make that baby shine.
like a haunted hotel type picture.
Thank you danwat801. Have a few ideas on where to go next, people in gas masks being one of them.
Great idea bobfisher. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks.
The Title is COMFORT
please let me know what you think thank you
Is it a foggy day or a foggy night?
There's some very nice stuff going on here. Just something else to think about: Atmospheres, fog and clouds can be used to not only set a mood in the traditional sense. There's also using these effects to sell a larger space, to sell scale between different sized objects and also add visual punch and dynamic looking effects. All of which help with the overall feel or mood of the picture. There's more to a cloud, than just a cloud!
Hopefully some of these will provide a little inspiration.
Great images evilproducer. I especially love the upward camera angle in the B&W image and an excellent point about the atmosphere and scale.
So many things to remember. :shut:
Sandstorm
Another updated version with the poses of the figures tweaked and I lightened the volume effect slightly.
Nice picture so far!
Can you get whirls and eddies in your volume effect? Something to make it a bit less uniform?
Great images evilproducer. I especially love the upward camera angle in the B&W image and an excellent point about the atmosphere and scale.
So many things to remember. :shut:
Thank you! :)
Not atmosphere related, but to help sell a large scale, low camera angles help as well!
@ evilproducer
Very nice renders. Just wondering how much was done in render and how much in post as this month we have to get our effects without postwork.
Looking really good
A localized dust cloud can be done very easily with a plane primitive (similar to how Jepe's props work). Of course, that's a bit cheating, since it's not a volumetric effect. :)
I have a set of Jepe's props and was just experimenting with it to see if I can make it work.
The rules state it has to be done within DAZ and not through post work. ;-) I believe Jepe's props qualify.
If not, please tell me know.
I have a set of Jepe's props and was just experimenting with it to see if I can make it work.
The rules state it has to be done within DAZ and not through post work. ;-) I believe Jepe's props qualify.
If not, please tell me know.
I'm not a mod or anything, but I'm certain Jepe's props (or a DIY version) qualify just fine - however, that way, you don't learn as much about volumetrics and haze effects :) That's all I'm saying.
I'm not a mod or anything, but I'm certain Jepe's props (or a DIY version) qualify just fine - however, that way, you don't learn as much about volumetrics and haze effects :) That's all I'm saying.
Good point.
I am using AoA's EZ Volume Camera and I am trying to enhance the effects from that camera...not replace them. Especially after all the work I put into getting the effect close to what I wanted. You should see all my test renders. I didn't think I was ever going to get it to look right.