Diomede's Studio Sketchpad
Diomede
Posts: 15,173
2 renders in Studio per week
Decided to commit myself to skill building that is related to Daz Studio. This includes other programs that are used for functions that Studio doesn't focus on. Even though I have had good intentions to try to learn Studio, I find myself falling back on the programs that I know now, especially Carrara. Will always love Carrara and keep my thread there, but some of the shiny new toys are Studio only. I want to be able to use the new toys as well. So, I am trying to commit myself to 2 renders related to Studio per week. It might be a simple still life render of something I try to model after watching a Blender tutorial, or it might be an attempt at a more polished image of Daz-purchased content destined for one of the many challenges. When I do start posting, your suggestions for improvement will be most welcome.
If I don't post two Studio-related renders by the 10th, feel free to remind me of my intentions. Polite reminders are appreciated. But I started this thread in part because I expect that I will need an occasional more forceful reminder.
First up, a golden oldie. I sorted DIM by date. One of the first products that I bought from Daz was the Millenium Gorilla. By the 10th, I am committing myself to posting a Studio render with the millenium gorilla. As further incentive, I will check around to see if I can use it in something eligible for one of the various challenges.
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Comments
Cool. Looking forward to seeing what you do in DS! :)
Awesome will be looking forward to what you come up with. Holler if you run into any snags.
Looking forward to seeing what you do. Gorillas got you off to a great start!
Looking forward to it!
Slogging through. I am not used to having to leave a program to make adjustments. Here is a WIP with the gorilla. I'm just trying to get used to the navigation and where to find stuff. Ultimately, I want to have the gorilla sitting in his study reading a book next to the fireplace, maybe with a glass of wine on a table. Here is the gorilla in his chair. It is a start. I really don't know how to adjust the shaders after the preset has been applied. The chair is an old prop with shading domains for the leather fabric and wood legs. I simply double clicked an Iray leather preset to replace the fabric and he same for the wood legs. Similarly, the shirt for the gorilla has shading domains for the sleeves, collar, and vest. I simply applied an Iray shader preset fabric to the shirt. Same for the glasses.
I then did a default Iray render.
Long way to go, but first step taken.
You can adjust the shaders under the surfaces tab. I am at work right now but will get a screenshot for you when I get home, after dinner if no one else chimes in before then.
And here's a good overview of the various Iray shader settings:
http://sickleyield.deviantart.com/journal/Iray-Surfaces-And-What-They-Mean-519346747
Thank you, and thanks to SicklYield. That link is exactly what I need. I'll take a more careful look and post an improved WIP.
Well, I'm behind already.
Am starting very much at the beginning. I just watched the first couple of videos on the Daz Help page. This is what I got by following along as best I could. Here is an Iray render of a pink wall, well, mostly a pink wall. There is also a genesis 3 character pointing off in the distance. So far, the instructions focus most on the smart content pane. I will watch the lighting video next and post that.
Baby steps.
Here is my second render and I already have a problem. I followed the lighting video on the Daz website. I tried to have 3 point lighting with a strong light from the right. I inserted three spot lights and pointed them at the Michael 7. See screenshot of setup. But the Iray render has very flat lighting. See render. I have a feeling that I didn't disable the default light but I thought the guy on the video said that the dome light would not affect and indoor scene. Doing something wrong. Hmmm. Not sure what I did wrong.
In the render settings, what do you have the Environment Mode set to? Some of them (like Sun-Sky Only) will inhibit practical lights, meaning that only emissive surfaces will light the interior scene.
Let there be light!
Please. Seriously. I'd like the lights to work. As per TangoAlpha's suggestion, I have set the render environment setting to scene only. I then put two spot lights in the scene and used the point at function to aim them at the Michael 7 figure.
Yet, no light.
Here I have attached screenshots of the settings and the render. I'm missing something simple, I bet. There is a box somewhere that needs to be checked or unchecked. But where?
Don't use Intensity for Iray lights, at least not for Photometric lights - instead adjust the Luminous Flux. You will also need to adjust the Tone Mapping settings - the ex[psoure value iss et of a bright day outdoors, which won't work for an artificially-lit interior.
@Sickleyield has a very good 3 point light tutorial for Iray on her DA page. I used it to set up my default 3 point light set up for test renders for testing products. I wanted something that newbies would use to try and light things and they haven't bought any lights yet. I found the settings a little too high for my personal tastes so I decreased them just a tad, but the tutorial is great and so is the information. Once you are done setting up your lights make sure you save them as a preset so you can use them to get started on future projects.
Thanks, Richard and KM. Rather than struggle with my own lights, I double-clicked a light preset. Got an Iray render.
Calling that a victory for this weekend, but still don't understand the difference between some of the panels and choices.Jus need to keep putting the time in - and need to unlearn some ways of doing things in other programs. Appreciate the link to Sickleyield's lighting tutorial. I notice that she has more links wihin that DA page on lighting. Will work through some of those additional links and hopefully return to my gorilla with reading glasses project.
Still a long way to go, but I think I understand some of what was going wrong with the lighting As Richard pointed out, I was adjusting intensity instead of lumens. So my first gorilla post above used the default lighting. For this one, I was able to add 3 spot lights. I am encouraged. I will try to clean up the gorilla's shirt and see if I can change the lighting to have a lamp and a fireplace. If so, I will pop over to the new user forum and ask for additional tips.
Thanks again, Richard and KM.
Lighting in Iray still frustrates the heck out of me. I learned enough to satisfy myself that I can do it if I have to and enough tthat I can add or subtract light and move things around and then I just bought the light sets that fulfill most of my needs both indoors and out. I am a much happier person lol. I do continue to pay attention to things like this because I can't seem to help myself in wanting to KNOW if you know what i mean. But I love my pre made lights sets.
Yep, me too. I love learning the process about most things with DS, but lighting still frustrates me. I can set up a light set, but I find it so much more headache reducing to use my favorite light sets and adjust as needed. :)
Not to mention the time saving aspect.....But in the mean time I will be following along here anyway lol.
The first page of my thread has a page of references, go to the Tutorial section and scroll down to Iray. There are THREE tutorials on lighting, with explanations on what the settings are and screenshots of the step by step, on how do do a lantern shining, good portrait lighting, etc. It's very detailed.
I tested this long ago, and intensity works well when tweaking Iray lights- and is good for using in conjunction with tweaking the lumens. It's actually easier than increasing lumens (and super high numbers are not unusual, aka, 60,000 can even be "average" depending on where your spotlight is.)
One tip- out in the viewport, if you select your spotlight, it not only becomes the view, it becomes your LIGHT. When you move around using it as the view, you are directing the beam. If you choose the Iray rendering out in the viewport (to the left of the "Default Camera" word at the top of the viewport, click that dropdown) you will see real time where the light is hitting and your changes with the intensity (and/or lumens) Takes the guesswork out of it. If you have your render set up already with a different camera, it's easy to click back and forth to it to see how the light looks from there.
Novica, Thank you very, very much.
Also change the light geometry from a point to something like a disc. That'll give it physical size (you can set X & Y [x & z in Carrara terms]). Add a couple of 0s on to the luminance value - this value can get very large if you want a decent amount of light, especially if it's small. The bigger the light's geometry, the more light it throws out.
And you thought this thread was dead?
I have updated The (Male) Content Creation Support Group Thread in the commons area. I entered a basic tutorial for creating a custom G3M morph that also changes limb proportions and adjusts the skeleton to match. I intend to create a custom clothing outfit tailored to the new shape. Tutorial starts here.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2394546/#Comment_2394546
I do hope to get back to learning Daz Studio. Will have to find a way to commit myself to hourly tasks as others have done. Suggestions welcome.
Glad its not dead! I'm still determined to learn Carrara, but man, I need to work on my time management lol. Although I remind myself that real life is important too lol.
Speaking of real life, congrats on the big weekend (referring to graduation).
Cheers! Unless I am mixing folks up, in which case, never mind.
There are too many things for us all to be interested in. I'm usually better at learning new stuff if I have a project in mind I think if I have a couple of renders in mind that involve a custom character, and maybe some props with moving parts, and a special surface or two (reflection?) - then I will be better about doing some Daz Studio exercises on a regular basis. That is what I tell myself, anyway. We will see if I can keep posting here.
Thanks! You got the right person lol. She is my youngest so after Sunday they are all grown up and able to go out and conquer lol.
I have a tendency to go from one point to another to another and then come back around and work on the first point for awhile. Seems to be how I learn best but sometimes, it annoys the heck out of me lol.
Thanks for letting us in on your learning curve. It's super helpful to watch someone else struggling with the same things I'm trying to get.
Hi Diomede, how are you finding the render times? Why are you using Iray and not 3delight? Because it's the latest?
I have a crappy card and the Studio renders compared to Carrara take forever.
I bought AOA lights (he was a Carrara Challenge supporter) and the ambient one renders very fast (relatively) - highly recommended (3delight tho?)
if you do have an OK Nvidia card and want fast iray renders use interactive in the renderer
it does not do some of the fancy stuff like displacement but certainly for animation or stuff you are going to postwork anyway it is sufficient
@Headwax - so far, it takes a lot longer to render in Daz Studio than C8.5, but that may be because I don't know how to optimize render settings yet. I will be doodling with both 3DL and Iray for a while so I learn at least the basics of each. From a practical standpoint, I think the product trend will be toward Iray optimized shaders, so I want to be at least familar with it even though I personally am not particularly interested in the focus on skin texturing that seems to be a major point of focus in the community. So, I guess the answer is yes, because it is the latest.
@Wendy - thanks for the info, I do have an Nvidia card.
@chameleonsdream - thanks for the encouragement. Full disclosure - there will likely be a lot of false starts and misleading information in this thread as I inch up the learning curve. Please feel free to make any suggestions or criticisms at all.
I have made a conforming space suit for the 3DUniverse Gramps character. Easy for me to use with VWD in Carrara, but it may be a good object to try to learn how to texture stuff in Studio. Here is the Carrara render. I will be trying to learn how to get the glossy reflections, etc. in Studio.
Carrara Render - will try to do similar in Studio - at a minimum, need to learn textures, blur, and ultrascatter