Sept 2016 New User Contest "Depth of Field" (WIP Thread)

Holloko · September 2016

I reloaded the ocean and removed the sea foam. I also removed some of the rocks to declutter the look. Thoughts?

dawnblade · September 2016

MN-150374 said:

@dawnblade: There is a free set of Rons Brushes available: https://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/12896-rons-sampler-brushes

As a suggestion for your image, the Lady in the foreground is a bit grainy. Assuming your render is made in 3Delight. You could try to raise the value of the X/Y-Pixel Samples in your Render Settings.

See the images below. It is just the SciFi-Warrior Scene with activated DOF. There is less grain in the background with higer values.

Thank you MN-150374 for the reminder about increasing the pixel samples, and for taking the time to create sample renders! I had increased pixel samples from 3-6 when I first set DOF on, but haven't changed them since. Will do that now before making any other changes and see how it comes out.

Thanks also for the link to the sample brushes! I downloaded them and used the .pdf tutorial yesterday to learn how to apply brushes in Gimp.

Thanks again!

Linwelly · September 2016

Holloko said:

I reloaded the ocean and removed the sea foam. I also removed some of the rocks to declutter the look. Thoughts?

The water lacks the water feeling, not enough transparency maybe? I know on a scale like this water is not really transparent. What kind of water prop is that, and which renderer are you using? The rocks, I think would need more ramdom distribution with the larger ones mostly close and the smaller ones further away. In the moment they look a bit like floating, lacking the feel of gravity. As an idea for reference try looking at photos from volcano eruptions.

Holloko · September 2016

Linwelly said:

Holloko said:

I reloaded the ocean and removed the sea foam. I also removed some of the rocks to declutter the look. Thoughts?

The water lacks the water feeling, not enough transparency maybe? I know on a scale like this water is not really transparent. What kind of water prop is that, and which renderer are you using? The rocks, I think would need more ramdom distribution with the larger ones mostly close and the smaller ones further away. In the moment they look a bit like floating, lacking the feel of gravity. As an idea for reference try looking at photos from volcano eruptions.

Im using 3delight. The water is ocean wide. Good idea to look at some volcano pics. Ill do that.

dawnblade · September 2016

Thank you @Isidorn and MN-150374.

In this version, I increased pixel samples (x and y) to 16, set max ray trace to 1 (it was zero), and used a shading rate of .40 (it was 1).

I changed the blood spatter color and opacity on the charging skeleton's shield, so hopefully it looks more muted. I also added a dragon in the distance coming to the elf's rescue.

Linwelly · September 2016

Holloko said:

Linwelly said:

Holloko said:

I reloaded the ocean and removed the sea foam. I also removed some of the rocks to declutter the look. Thoughts?

The water lacks the water feeling, not enough transparency maybe? I know on a scale like this water is not really transparent. What kind of water prop is that, and which renderer are you using? The rocks, I think would need more ramdom distribution with the larger ones mostly close and the smaller ones further away. In the moment they look a bit like floating, lacking the feel of gravity. As an idea for reference try looking at photos from volcano eruptions.

Im using 3delight. The water is ocean wide. Good idea to look at some volcano pics. Ill do that.

I don't own that set, so no explicit tips from me but what I would advice to check is if the reflection is set to environmental so it actually reflects the sky (if that setting is available). And then to have a look into the opacity settings, and twiddle around with that one a bit. From the promo images it looks like some of the settings handle opacity very nice, maybe load a few other settings in a different scene and look what the different settings are there so you have a basis on what to change.

Linwelly · September 2016

dawnblade said:

Thank you @Isidorn and MN-150374.

In this version, I increased pixel samples (x and y) to 16, set max ray trace to 1 (it was zero), and used a shading rate of .40 (it was 1).

I changed the blood spatter color and opacity on the charging skeleton's shield, so hopefully it looks more muted. I also added a dragon in the distance coming to the elf's rescue.

Nice improvements on this one. Just an idea you could try to add those blood and dirt things to the skeleton itself as well, its very clean right now

Kismet2012 · September 2016

dawnblade said:

Thank you @Isidorn and MN-150374.

In this version, I increased pixel samples (x and y) to 16, set max ray trace to 1 (it was zero), and used a shading rate of .40 (it was 1).

I changed the blood spatter color and opacity on the charging skeleton's shield, so hopefully it looks more muted. I also added a dragon in the distance coming to the elf's rescue.

This is really coming along. You have received some good advice. I love the changes you have made.

Kismet2012 · September 2016

Holloko said:

Linwelly said:

Holloko said:

I reloaded the ocean and removed the sea foam. I also removed some of the rocks to declutter the look. Thoughts?

The water lacks the water feeling, not enough transparency maybe? I know on a scale like this water is not really transparent. What kind of water prop is that, and which renderer are you using? The rocks, I think would need more ramdom distribution with the larger ones mostly close and the smaller ones further away. In the moment they look a bit like floating, lacking the feel of gravity. As an idea for reference try looking at photos from volcano eruptions.

Im using 3delight. The water is ocean wide. Good idea to look at some volcano pics. Ill do that.

I have Ocean Wide. Are you using the skydome that comes with it?

I think what bothers me about the water is there does not seem to be any connection between the water and the land. I cannot really tell where one ends and the other begins.

Kismet2012 · September 2016

veeters2002 said:

Thanks for the feedback DvoraszeniaStudios, isidorn, and dawnblade. I lightened the atmosphere to a little more yellow and less orange-y to try and get the smoke to look more like smoke/steam rather than flames. Had a real hard time trying to get a good heat haze effect on the road. All the effecys that I played with seemed to need more objects to distort in order to work. I ended up just adding some distortion effects in Gimp. Hard to tell, but I do actually think it gave a better motion-looking effect on the truck shadow on the road.

Changes are subtle but I think helped a bunch. Thanks for the great suggestions so far. Still open to any others!

I like the changes you have made...going lighter and to the yellow makes a difference.

Kismet2012 · September 2016

tubbyfalls1 said:

Here's one i'm working on. Not sure the story translates: She stabbed the dragon in the eye before getting flung off.

Perhaps it is where the DOF is focused but I found the sword hard to spot. I am not sure I would have seen it if you hadn't mentioned it. Maybe add some contrast between the colour of the dragon parts of the sword so it stands out a bit more?

Kismet2012 · September 2016

unLight865 said:

...thanks for the info on brushes. I already heard something similar, but wasn't quite sure anymore (didn't get to try it yet).

I wonder how to make the most of the 'Morphing Flames' ?

- they loke pretty much like plastic with the default settings (pic #1) .

I already added some transparency and light emission and they DO look a good deal better now (pic #2) , but I'm still not really satisfied with the result - so, any tips please?

( pic #3 has somewhat higher flames )

I also just tried adding DoF (this thread came just in time - I just recently wondered how to do that in DS)... Here's what you get with WAY TOO STRONG DoF-settings (pic #4) :

<sorry, #4 just crashed DS during rendering (at ~40%) - starting rerender now ; but it already looked quite strange...>

<funny, the rerender doesn't look that strange - before, it looked much like confetti while now it looks more like expected>

P.S.: How do I add the images to the messages' body?

...And yes, I tend to use quite long filenames

( products used: Millennium SubDragon LE, SubDragon Textures 2, Castle Creator, Morphing Flames;

and the clouds-background is from 'Land and Sky' by Tako Yakida at deviantArt [its readme says one should link to his page: http://takoyakida.webs.com ] )

[Update:]

Pic #4 finished - the confetti didn't reappear...

Just now rendering to test the effect of increased samples like one of the tutorials suggests (though it shouldn't be necessary here).

And I forgot to use jpg - updated #4 -> #5 .

Also, you can see in #4 some weird line at the top that DS seems to like placing there - I cut it out in the other pics. On other renders I don't have this - any idea what's wrong here?

Of course, once things look better, I plan to add a few more buildings (anyway want to experiment with the 'castle 2011'-stuff now that I have it) & eventually some figures.

...hm, in the samples re-render ( @ 34%, this time I made a screeny, pic #6 ) , the confetti seems to reappear, though not as extreme as at the first time - wasn't that tip about DEcreasing such things???

I DO know that IRay-renders start somewhat grainy, but the first try at #4 was really extreme, and also a lot brighter then it should have been, considering how far it already was.

Also, #6 doesn't seem to progress past those 34% - *confused* ...

...oh, and a small hint for those who don't see it: The focus actually is on the wingtip in the foreground .

[/Update]

The DOF is strong. I realize you plan on adding more buildings but did you consider a different camera angle and concentrating on the Dragon and the building? Just a suggestion.

Kismet2012 · September 2016

Shinji Ikari 9th said:

Here's version f. I rendered the dang thing this afternoon and forgot to post it until now.

Looks good. I love the attitude each individual seems to have in their walk.

dawnblade · September 2016

Kismet2012 said:

This is really coming along. You have received some good advice. I love the changes you have made.

Thank you so much, @Kismet2012! I found some free cobweb brushes so I might add them to some of the spaces between the wood rails.

dawnblade · September 2016

Linwelly said:

Nice improvements on this one. Just an idea you could try to add those blood and dirt things to the skeleton itself as well, its very clean right now

Thanks @Linwelly! I'll give it a shot!

Shinji Ikari 9th · September 2016

Made some changes to my angry Cheetah Girl yesterday, so here's version b.

Shinji Ikari 9th · September 2016

And here's a few idea's I had these last few day's that wouldn't leave me alone, so here they are for feedback.

P.S. the last one is hot out of the Iray renderer.

Shinji Ikari 9th · September 2016

Kismet2012 said:

Shinji Ikari 9th said:

Here's version f. I rendered the dang thing this afternoon and forgot to post it until now.

Looks good. I love the attitude each individual seems to have in their walk.

Thanks Kismet, I'm glad to read that.

Knittingmommy · September 2016

I have a start for my entry this month. Since I don't really feel like as much of a beginner, anymore, where Iray is concerned, I'm working in 3Delight this month since I'm still not comfortable working in that render engine and I'd like to improve my skills there. I'm working on an Old West Town. I haven't decided if there will be people and make it an actual town or have some animals in it and make it a ghost town. What I have is a very basic start. I'm using Flipmode's Outback for the ground. I've left the plants in it for now. I haven't decided if I'm going to go for an old Outback town or if I'll keep it strictly American Old West. I don't really have that many great environments for an Old West town. So, this one will have to do. I have to go through my stock of plants and see what I have to switch it around if I decide to go American. I might have to tone down the orangy color of the ground if I do that. I'm not sure yet. It's still in the very preliminary, what the heck am I doing type of stages. But I kind of have my camera where I might want it and my DOF blocked off to kind of figure out where I want everything. That's all subject to change as I work on it, of course.

Any input welcome. Lighting is going to be a pain. I know what I'd do if it were Iray, but I still have a hard time with lighting in 3DL. Right now I just have the Skybox and lighting that comes with the Outback environment with all of the default settings.

MN-150374 · September 2016

@Dawnblade: Well done!

@Holloko: Looking up some reference photos. I agree with Linwelly, in your image there is some Reflection missing on the water surface. But it should not become polished mirrorlike. Probably a displacement map could simulate a waved surface?

@Knittingmommy: As suggestion to populate your scene, what about birds and horses?

unLight865 · September 2016

veeters2002 said:

P.S.: How do I add the images to the messages' body?

unLight865 - The way I do it is to first attach it as a file. Then open in a new tab. Delete the "thumbs" from the url and hit enter. You should now get a full size image. Paste url into the "image" box, size if need be, and you're good to go.

Knittingmommy said:

I upload the image file with the attach file. After the message is saved, I go back to my message, click on the gear icon and click on edit. Then, I open my image in a new tab, right click on the image and choose copy image address. Back to my message that I'm editing, I put the cursor where I want the image, open the picture box icon from the editing tools up above, paste the image address into the url slot. Make sure to change the width of your image to 800 px. Save your message.

Thanks for the advice .

Will try it next time - am currently a bit exhausted after trying to catch the catch-up ( ketchup?? ) sale literally in the last minute...

( actually it worked - but I need to make my item-selection use less time it seems... )

( Is there likely another one this month? I missed a few to me rather important parts - G3Clones & pwShadersBundle... - though, does the latter make sense in IRay ??

Also missed the Dragon3-Bundle when it recently was on sale, but the selection here is simply too large to get everything, anyway... )

P.S.: Is there a way to turn off that damned auto-lineinsert here? Sorry for the formulation, but at times it makes formatting my posts quite unnerving...

Back@Topic:

Any hints on improving my flames' looks?

Also,

Holloko said:

Any other ideas from anybody about how to make the water look better?

Maybe add more reflection/metallicity to them?? Or apply a more appropriate shader to them ( somehow remember the texture-paths and such before doing so, though ) ?

They look a lot like plastic, judging by their lack of reflections - somehow remembers me of my first flame-render on p2... Thus propably I also should try a few different shaders - problem is, I have only one emissive one ( and also don't know how/if I can open finished shaders in the shader-editor to apply emission myself ) .

Anyway, nice pic of yours there .

Linwelly · September 2016

Knittingmommy said:

I have a start for my entry this month. Since I don't really feel like as much of a beginner, anymore, where Iray is concerned, I'm working in 3Delight this month since I'm still not comfortable working in that render engine and I'd like to improve my skills there. I'm working on an Old West Town. I haven't decided if there will be people and make it an actual town or have some animals in it and make it a ghost town. What I have is a very basic start. I'm using Flipmode's Outback for the ground. I've left the plants in it for now. I haven't decided if I'm going to go for an old Outback town or if I'll keep it strictly American Old West. I don't really have that many great environments for an Old West town. So, this one will have to do. I have to go through my stock of plants and see what I have to switch it around if I decide to go American. I might have to tone down the orangy color of the ground if I do that. I'm not sure yet. It's still in the very preliminary, what the heck am I doing type of stages. But I kind of have my camera where I might want it and my DOF blocked off to kind of figure out where I want everything. That's all subject to change as I work on it, of course.

Any input welcome. Lighting is going to be a pain. I know what I'd do if it were Iray, but I still have a hard time with lighting in 3DL. Right now I just have the Skybox and lighting that comes with the Outback environment with all of the default settings.

I'll try to give you a hand with the 3delight settings as far as I can. For starters alsways check your lights if the shadow setting is on and put it to raytrace.

Knittingmommy · September 2016

MN-150374 said:

@Knittingmommy: As suggestion to populate your scene, what about birds and horses?

I'll see what I have. I know I have horses. I'm not sure what birds I have.

Linwelly said:

Knittingmommy said:

I have a start for my entry this month. Since I don't really feel like as much of a beginner, anymore, where Iray is concerned, I'm working in 3Delight this month since I'm still not comfortable working in that render engine and I'd like to improve my skills there. I'm working on an Old West Town. I haven't decided if there will be people and make it an actual town or have some animals in it and make it a ghost town. What I have is a very basic start. I'm using Flipmode's Outback for the ground. I've left the plants in it for now. I haven't decided if I'm going to go for an old Outback town or if I'll keep it strictly American Old West. I don't really have that many great environments for an Old West town. So, this one will have to do. I have to go through my stock of plants and see what I have to switch it around if I decide to go American. I might have to tone down the orangy color of the ground if I do that. I'm not sure yet. It's still in the very preliminary, what the heck am I doing type of stages. But I kind of have my camera where I might want it and my DOF blocked off to kind of figure out where I want everything. That's all subject to change as I work on it, of course.

Any input welcome. Lighting is going to be a pain. I know what I'd do if it were Iray, but I still have a hard time with lighting in 3DL. Right now I just have the Skybox and lighting that comes with the Outback environment with all of the default settings.

I'll try to give you a hand with the 3delight settings as far as I can. For starters alsways check your lights if the shadow setting is on and put it to raytrace.

Thanks. I'll check those settings. I don't know what they are set at right now.

ewcarman · September 2016

@Knittingmommy - Ghosts? Like a ghost town?

Knittingmommy · September 2016

ewcarman said:

@Knittingmommy - Ghosts? Like a ghost town?

Maybe. I'll have to think about it while tracking down assets to use with it.

social_stigma · September 2016

Thanks for the input Kismet. Made a few tweaks.

dawnblade · September 2016

Knittingmommy said:

Any input welcome. Lighting is going to be a pain. I know what I'd do if it were Iray, but I still have a hard time with lighting in 3DL. Right now I just have the Skybox and lighting that comes with the Outback environment with all of the default settings.

Here is a good lighting video that Val Cameron from Dreamlight made for 3Delight, and here is his video for render settings, again specific to 3Delight.

If you don't have reflective surfaces in your scene, you can set Max Ray Trace Depth to zero, which will help speed up your renders. I think the default is 2.

Shading rate's default is 1. The higher the value the faster the render but your image will be grainier. Values less than 1 will produce images that are crisper, but can take a very long time to render. I mistakenly set mine to .20, and it was still rendering 36 hours later. I've seen recommendations for between .40 - .80. Here is an article about it with sample renders.

Pixel samples: See the excellent comment above by MN-150374, with 2 sample renders of a sci-fi scene. Sorry, I don't know how to link to a specific comment.

Hope this helps!

kanegs · September 2016

Saphirewild · September 2016

kanegs said:

Just a couple things I see with this render.....1. you should not have any of the things in the mirror DOF, 2. I tink a little less DOF on the items on the dresser would be better.

Linwelly · September 2016

kanegs said:

Very nice idea and the DOF fits good. The only thing bothering me are the flames in the back, do you have a different pro you could try as fire? or tone down the amount of light coming from it, especially the red part.

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Sept 2016 New User Contest "Depth of Field" (WIP Thread)

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