Best 3D lights?
I'm not exactly a new user. I haven't been as into Daz as I used to be.
Essentially, I'm new all over again because it has been a long time.
Still, feel free to move this to the correct category.
I'm looking for lights that really make figures pop out and look three dimensional.
Of course this is "Daz3D", but I recall an old period of terrible renders from DeviantArt.
I don't want my re-entry into this amazing program to look as bad as those used to.
(Granted, there were some good D.A. shots as well)
Regardless, what would you suggest for decent lights? I'm not looking to move them around and adjust so much.
I used to have lights like that. Some kind of freebies I don't recall the name of that gave a wonderful realistic appearance.
What are your best suggestions? Free or pay files are okay either way.
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Comments
It does not matter which lights you use, but it does matter HOW you use them.
There are a lot of light sets out there in the store, but non of them is a "one click" solution. You will always have to move and adjust them.
Do a google search about the "3 point light system" as a good starting point.
Actually, there was a set of two lights that were one click solutions. They never had to be moved or adjusted.
They had something to do with toon lighting. I don't remember the name exactly.
I wish I still had them. This is a fresh install on a new computer.
Three point lighting descriptions leave a lot to be desired and require way too much work.
Spot lights, glow, tint, distant light, rotating. I had the best lights. Curse my confounded memory!
Are we allowed to link to personal pages here? I could show you old examples of old scenes on my now unused DeviantArt page.
Or I could add imgur links if that's permitted.
Are you rendering in 3dl or Iray?
You can link or add images to your posts.
I have some toon lights that I think came free, and some that came with purcahsed products from 3DUniverse.
I seemed to have stopped soon after I found the best lights. My renders used to be OpenGL, I think.
Did those free toon lights render in more 3D appearance than before? If so, where can I get them? And which ones from 3DUniverse?
I'm not as familiar with DS 4.9. My morphs are all gone, everything's different.. I think this one used to be M4. (That isn't grain, but artistic canvas overlay in a photo editor)
She's an import from the program XNALara:
He is too, on M4's body:
You will never get good renders from OpenGL. Switch either 3Delight or Iray and as othes have said learn to set up the lights for the scene you are creating.
It might've been 3Delight, not OpenGL. It's been years. And no. I have done that. I know how to do that.
Spotlights are all I had to manipulate in the past. I'm looking for decent 3D lighting.
It's not the light, it's the shadows. Look at how the 'toon characters were represented in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Everyone was imitating that '3D' look for years after that. Seems to me that a lot of the less satisfying renders I see on Deviantart or wherever are 3delight renders where the lights are simply not casting shadows at all.
In 3D rendering, lack of shadows is probalby the quickest way to say, 'this is fake' there is...(that includes occlusion/sef shadowing). Our eyes need the shadow (including self shadowing/occlusion) to help us see in '3D' (or, really, just see).