Dracorn's Tips n Stuff for Newbies and the Curious

dracorn

Thanks, MN-150374!  I always appreciate additional tips that can help out.

Oooh!  Those are great tutorials for UE2 and the 3 point light set up.  Thanks!

Would you know of any tutorials for creating 3Delight shaders?

MN-150374

There is the free Shader Mixer Tutorial: https://www.daz3d.com/shader-mixer-tutorial-i

And one of the older New Users Contests was focused on Shaders: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/29938/new-users-contest-october-2013-wip-thread

Sadly I do not know much about creating 3Delight Shaders. And probably less about categorizing content. I have to take a closer look at your first tutorial at some point.

dracorn

Thanks for the links!  I also found some YouTube vids on Shader Mixer as well. 

If you have lots of content, then you will need even more patience.  It took me a few months to do it, but now I love it, and diligently categorize everything as soon as I get it.  I especially like having texture sets in the same folder as the items.  Also, it makes finding the Poser stuff so much easier without having to go into Figure, then Pose and maybe Textures or Prop.

MN-150374

For the shader mixer, @algovincian posted some references there: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2282121/#Comment_2282121

For the categorizing, I am planing to build a new PC. The plan is to start from scratch with my content library. I imagine to install a few products, do the categorizing, install the next package of products and so on. But yes, probably this will take month for me too. :-)

AndyS

Hi,

nice tutorial and good prop.

On note to UE2:
there isn't any need to scale the UE2-dome. Simply hide it (the dome - not the light !!) does the best job.

dracorn

Thanks, AndyS!  Thought there would be an easier way to do that.

dracorn

Dramatic Lighting Tutorial – 3Delight with UberEnvironment2

I wrote this tutorial for people who are curious about 3Delight, or those who don’t have expensive, fancy video cards and blazing fast computers. 

Dramatic Lighting Concepts

These are the basic concepts of lighting with emphasis on dramatic. 
Key Light - the main bright light.  This is your main light source.  For dramatic lighting and shadows, I put this light is off to one side rather than in front, so that one side of your subject is lit and the other is in shadow.  Distant Light is often best for this one.

Fill Light.  This is your front light.  It's used to fill in the front of your subject but is usually lighter than your key light.

Ambient Light - This is an additional overall light without shadows that fills in the spaces where the other two left off. This light must be set low - 30% or lower.  If it's too high, it will wash out your shadows.  Use UberEnvironment2 or AoA's Advanced Ambient Light.  You will get more depth with UE2 but a faster render time with Advanced Ambient.

Scene Contents

Here’s a list of items I used in this scene:
Victoria 8 with Lorellin G3F skin.
G3F Leotard
Window Seat
G8F Base Pose Sitting B

I made a few changes to the pose:
Legs: moved them out a little bit so the heel wouldn't collide.  Abdomen Lower: Adjusted the Side to Side so the hand would rest on the seat.  Here’s the base with standard lighting:

Add UberEnvironment 2

I wanted to add a stock photo in Environment as a background and precisely place it.  Since UE2’s Environment sphere is designed to hold an HDR file, I won’t be using that.  Turn off its visibility. 

Background and Photo

I used this royalty-free photo from Pixabay:
https://pixabay.com/en/scotland-landscape-scenic-mountains-1761292/

In Photoshop (or Gimp), flip it so that the sun is on the right, then crop it to a square.  I also increased the brightness and contrast. 
For precise placement, add the photo to a plane.  The plane is 10 meters and Z Positive.  In the Surfaces tab, add the photo to the Plane's Diffuse.  Position the plane behind the window and off to Vicki's right.  This way it won't interfere with the spotlight coming through the window.

Please note that the background picture below is not the one I eventually used, but… alas, my scene file corrupted, and so these screen shots and renders will have to suffice.

I also changed the red cushion to a more neutral leather color (DG Shader Essentials). 

Problem – Picture Isn’t Showing Through the Glass

After fighting with this for a while, I figured out why – there was some sort of problem with the 3DL materials on the glass.  It was a Daz Studio Default Shader, however just re-adding dzPlastic didn’t fix the problem.  I had to change it to Omnifreaker’s Simple Surface, then back to DS Defaults, dzPlastic.  Both of these are found under Shader Presets. 

If Reflection color is black, set it to white and Reflection Str to 100%.  Make sure that opacity is set to 5%.  You can also make the Diffuse slightly gray or blue – this will also counter the brightness. 

Key Light – Sunlight

I chose a spotlight for this rather than a distance light.

Add a Daz Studio Spotlight. 
Click on the Camera View and choose the spotlight.  Move the spotlight so that it is behind the window and slightly to the left of Vicki.  You want to see the side of her face, so it looks like this: (You will get the positioning circle if the spotlight is also selected in the Scene tab. 

Light Color

Select the spotlight in the scene tab and click on the Light tab.  Change the color to match the sunset – use a mid-range color.  I don’t have the number because I couldn’t get back to my corrupt file.  Change the Shadow Type to Raytraced (Software Only).  If your render is slow you can use Deep Shadow Map instead of Raytracing, but the shadow quality won’t be as good.

Leave the shadow intensity to 100%.

Set the Intensity to 200% and the Intensity Scale to 4.  I want the light so bright it is almost washing out the side of her face.  See how this also creates the window pane shadows and even brings bright light onto the wall to the left?

dracorn

Dramatic Lighting Tutorial - Part 2

The light is pretty good, but can be more dramatic.  UE2 is still too bright and so is the inside lighting.
In the Light tab, select UberEnvironment 2 and turn the Intensity down to 50%. Now we're getting some nice light.

Interior Light

There is still too much ambient lighting, so let’s have an interior light on and turn UE2 even lower.
Create a Linear Point Light and stick it into the ceiling and move it to the left some.

Set the color to 240 239 255, turn the Intensity to 50%, Fall off start 80, Falloff End 250, Shadow Type = Raytraced.
Turn UE2 down to 20%.

Here's where UE2 really comes in.  Set it too dark, and then bring it up a little at a time until the features in her face are lit as much as you would like.  My last render was UE2 set at 25%.  I went back and wanted to up it to 30%, but that’s when my file corrupted, woe is me.
So here is my final:

Saphirewild

Great tutorial Dracorn I am off to use it in my next render!!!

I will post my results as soon as it is done!!!

dracorn

NEW TUTORIAL

I should have posted it in this thread, but it's in my render thread.  Here is a link:

How to Fit Old Shoes to Genesis 8 Using Geometry Editor

When Autofit doesn't work on your favorite shoes from a previous generation and Vicki's toes are sticking out, you can auto-hide Vicki's feet whenever the shoe is loaded.  Way cool.

Go from this:

To This:

dracorn

Tutorial on Age of Armor's Advanced Lights for 3Delight

A friend of mine just picked up this lighting package, so I wanted to provide some tips.  For anybody who is new at 3Delight, AoA's Advanced Lighting Bundle is one of the best lighting sets available.  It renders faster than UberEnvironment2, and has the ability to shine or not shine on objects - something you can't do in Iray.

EDIT:  Link to product:

https://www.daz3d.com/advanced-daz-studio-light-bundle-19

General Tips

• Start with the Advanced Ambient Light as your base.  It has a pretty good radius, but if you need more room, you can go to the Lights tab, click on Lights and increase the Light Radius (Meters).  
• Note that Shadows are disabled for the Ambient Light.
• Add a Distant Light for sunlight or moonlight.
• Add a Spotlight for additional light.

The Power of AoA's Advanced Lights - Light or not Light Surfaces

• Note that with later versions of Daz Studio, part of this is broken, and only the Diffuse works, but this is still highly useful.
• Lighting Control allows you to "flag" a surface that has a Diffuse Value of 99% as Illuminate, or Don't Illuminate.  
• Use that to add light to a subject without lighting anything else around it.

1. Select all the surfaces that you want to be lit (or not to be lit) and set those Diffuse Strength values to 99%.  If you are using multiple lights, you can set them to 99.1, 99.2, etc.  Write these down.
2. Create your light and click on Lighting Control.  Change Flag Surface Shaders With, then choose Diffuse Strength Value of, and then set the Diffuse, Ambient or IOR Value to the same as the desired surface.
3. Finally: If Surface is Flagged, choose Illuminate Flagged Only or Don't Illuminate.  

To Make Something Glow

• One way is to make the Ambient Color light and increase the Ambient Strength.
• Another way is to set all the glowing surfaces to Diffuse Strength 99%.  Then create an Ambient Light and use the above settings to Illuminate Flagged Only.  Then set a Linear Pointlight next to that surface to mimic emissive light.

Example: Mandala: Mermaids

I really made use of AoA's Light Control in this render:

Here's my Scene Tab.  

I wanted spotlights to create rim lighting in complementary colors for each mermaid, but I did not want that same light to shine on the adjacent mermaid.  I created a Spotlight for each Mermaid and since there were multiple spotlights, I changed the Diffuse Strength on each mermaid and her hair and clothing all to the same value: 99.1, and reflected that value on in the Lighting Control on her spotlight.  The next mermaid was 99.2, then 99.3 and so on.

Screen prints of settings for Spotlight on mermaid (shadows are set to zero):

Ambient Light Settings for Whole Scene (no Lighting Control):

dracorn

Here is a close-up showing the colored rim lights (click on the thumbnail to enlarge):

Saphirewild

Thanks so much @dracorn for this tutorial, I am going to work on this tomorrow and I hope to have something posted real soon.

Illidanstorm

dracorn said:

 

 

Here's a pic of my People Category, Women, where I have my characters sorted by figure type.

 

Just curious on which categories you put after _G3F. I'm looking for a new way to clean my smart content and sorting it by figures seems nice.

dracorn

More Info on Categorizing - Examples of My Folders:

People Folders

My G3F folder is not nearly as sub-categorized as my G8F folder.  I did create a Characters folder and added the pre-load characters there.  I rename the files and add the generation after each character name.  Here's a pic:

I let my G8F folder follow the same categories as the Daz Studio Formats folder.

dracorn

Clothing Folders

Here are some pix of my clothing folders.  I have them categorized by Men/Women, but also by item.  The item categories help with kit-bashing - ever try to find a candle or a skull when you know some packages had them as a bonus?

After Women/Men, then I subcategorize by genre, and then finally list the clothing items.  I often rename to shorten the name and add the generation - that helps me know what to pick during autofit.

   

Here is my Jewelry folder.  Since most of my jewelry comes in clothing packages, these sub-categories help me pick what I want.

Finally my shader folder.  I started with 3Delight shaders, then added an Iray folder for all of those.

dracorn

I recommend drawing up a basic diagram of your categories before you start - especially if you have lots of stuff.  I periodically change things around.  

Make SURE you back up your metadata!  You don't want to lose all of this.

caswellp_d3db340e20

Hi,

Very useful tips, but before takin the plunge [and trying not to FUBAR the process], can you give some further details regarding;

NOTE:  Smart Content Original Files will Now be Listed under Default

How do these listing apear in Smart Content [automaatically, created, ???].

Idiot proof details please ....  :)

Paul

 

dracorn said:

 

NOTE:  Smart Content Original Files will Now be Listed under Default

This is my Smart Content folder with all my categories.  The original Daz categories are under the Default folder at the top of the list.