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Hiya
Is there still an issue with installing both Advanced Ambient and Spotlight via the .exe files? Installed them manually the other day but can't fix them in Daz even when doing a search for them or when looking in the Age of Armour folder.
Many thanks
Jay
Not to my knowledge... Well one person has contacted me but last I heard everything is working.
So you are not finding them in the content library or they are there but just not working correctly?
Hi, thank you for the quick response.
They've appeared to have installed in the correct Daz folder when I look at the C_drive, but I cannot locate them in Daz when going into the lighting folder or by searching by product. If I look in the Age of Armour folder I can see Uberlight and its various items but no Ambient light or Spotlight
Many thanks
Jay
Interesting.
Maybe it put the presets in some other folder. Try doing a hard drive search for "AoA Ambient Light.duf" and "AoA Advanced Spot Light.duf" and see if they show up in a folder that is in one of your content folders.
Please let me know if that works or not.
I will do! Will update later today. Thanks again
hi, thanks for the response. I believe it's working. I just have to try out the gobo more and get use to the point lights. Couple questions though, for the light should it be moved after adding it or pointed to something? And for the spotlight any good lighting tutorials to help learn where to place them in the scene to use them? I haven't tried just loading them and pointing them
Sorry for the slow reply. I had friends visiting and took a some time off for the Holidays.
It might be good to start a simple scene with just the advanced spotlight and maybe a sphere and a plane. Render that and just make sure the light is working at all. In some rare cases the lights don't install correctly so if it just renders black then that might be the reason. If it doesn't render be sure to post here or PM me and we will make sure we get it working for you.
Great images everyone. I am so happy to hear everyone is getting such good and fast results.
Happy New Year!
Got it! My installs were in a total different place to where I expected. Even searching manually didn't find them, but got them now. Thanks again for the very quick replies, looking forward to start using them now!
Cheers
Jay
Wonderful to hear :)
I made a few images showing a basic 3 light, portrait setup.
Lighting is a real art so it takes a lot of experience and a developed eye to design great, creative lighting. There is no single setup that fits all situations but the standard 3 light portrait configuration is generally a good, simple starting point.
DISCLAIMER: The info below is a broad generalization. These are general suggestions for simple scenes but are, in no way, steadfast rules.
This system uses 3 lights:
The Key light which establishes the base style and drama of the subject. Think of it as your main light. Key lights set the base feel of a scene. In an outdoor scene your key light would likely be the sun. The angle of the sun strongly effects the feel of the scene. If it is directly up then it is probably noon time and shadows are pretty short. If it is at a low angle then it is sunset or sunrise and there will be long dramatic shadows.
A Key light used on a stage works similarly but the drama is often based on how different the angle is from the camera. If the Key light is near the camera (and pointed the same direction as the camera) it tends to create very small shadows and even lighting. This is called "Flat Lighting" because 3d shapes, like faces, tend to look less shapely. Think of how a candid snapshot looks in a dark room when you use a flash... It is generally not very flattering or exciting.
The further from the camera's position that you move the light, so it is more to either side of your subject, the more dramatic the image ends up looking. If the light is directly to the side of someone's face you get what is called "Split lighting" because it splits the face where one half is in light and the other half is in shadow. If you place the Key light behind the subject, opposite the camera, then you have a silhouette. Both of these are very dramatic but may not be flattering for all situations.
The height of the Key light is also important to studio portrait lighting. Lights directly above the subject tend to make harsh shadows around the eyes, under the nose and under the cheek bones. This tends to make people look skeletal and serious (because you can't see the eyes).
Key lighting coming from low angles is not common in real life. Sunlight never comes from below you (unless you are in space I suppose haha) and room lights are usually on the ceiling. Windows are generally more than half way up a wall and the sun shining through them is up in the sky. Because we so rarely see strong light coming from down low, it looks unnatural when we do. The lower light is the more unnerving it looks. Think of the thing you did holding the flashlight under your chin when you told ghost stories as a kid. This doesn't mean never to put the Key light lower than your subject's eyes but just be aware of the unnerving feeling it creates.
The Fill light is generally on the opposite side of your subject as the Key light. Fill lights are usually softer and a lower strength than the Key light. It is generally used to lessen or remove shadows, filling in some dark areas so the shadows from your Key light are not so harsh. Photographers often use a large "Soft Box" or reflector for the Fill light. The Advanced Ambient light does not exactly replicate the look of a Soft Box but it is similar and generally works well for this... especially with a short-ish radius and falloff set to 100%.
A Rim light is a light placed behind the subject. This creates a thin band of light which outlines the subject and separates it from the background. In real life, hairs (including very fine hairs on the arms and face) tend to be strongly effected by the rim light and can show brightly even if the light is directly opposite of the camera, behind your subject. This doesn't happen in 3d with the shaders we commonly use (though it does to a degree with the AoA Subsurface Shader). Because of this the rim light needs to be offset a little bit to either side of the subject and slightly above for the rim light to show. But the further to either side you move it, the less harsh or dramatic the rim light will be.
Now the other big thing is the strength relationships between the 3 lights. The greater the Key and/or Rim strength is and the lower the Fill / Ambient light is, the harsher and more dramatic the effect. When the Key and Rim very bright, but the Fill low, the effect is a bit like someone stepping out of the shadows in a 40s detective movie... Especially if the Key light is way off to the side, behind or above the subject.
If the Fill/Ambient strength is turned up high, so it is providing most of the light, and the other two lights are set to a low level, then the result is a softer, usually more comforting feeling. This usually looks a little more like common portrait or fashion photography but you should still use some Key and Rim light because the shadows and highlights they create help define shape and make a more interesting image. When using an ambient light only, the scene usually looks too, unnaturally, soft.
Once you have the 3 lights set up in angles and strengths that give the look you want, you can always add more accent lights to give a little more glow to the face, a specular light right from the camera angle to get a gleam in the eyes or a light raking across the background. It is usually better if you get the main 3 lights dialed in very close to what you want first before adding more lights though.
I hope this helps.
This is very helpful! Thank you. :)
( I checked with AoA before posting this... )
For another read on the same topic, I have a similar tutorial on my blog Three Lights. I used standard DS spotlights and have a slightly different workflow, but the concepts are the same.
Control over the lights would work much better using AoA's shaders. And the fill light in particular is going to have a softer affect using the Adv Ambient light than a spot. But sometimes seeing more than one way to accomplish something can help you find the way that works best for you.
Thank you for sharing that as well. :)
Thanks you guys, I'll have to try playing around with lighting when I get home
as I am playing around with LAMH player I noticed a flag for Garibaldi hair on AAL
if LAMH player works without crashing it would be nice to have a flag for it also
I would like to have that ability also. The advanced lights read surface settings, called Tokens and Attributes, in the file that is sent to the renderer. If the light detects certain values in fixed Attributes then the light knows that surface is flagged.
Unfortunately, the LAMH shader writes dynamic Attribute names which change. Because of this the light never knows what Attribute name it should look for on the hair.
It is sorta like saying "Hey spotlight... If you see Bob in the scene then don't illuminate him." But then Bob keeps changing his name hehe.
That might have changed now that the LAMH plugin has been updated. I hope to get some time in the next few days to look it over and see if a LAMH flag can be created. If not maybe I can contact Alessendro and see if he can have the LAMH shader output a fixed token or attribute that the lights can read.
It would definitely be nice to have the flagging ability with LAMH.
Jeremy Brim has some good lighting tutorials on his website and links to others that you may find helpful with lighting.
http://3drender.com/index.html
I also recommend you check out his book too if you can.
The latest beta version of LAMH now uses "optimised Fiberhair" to enable rendering in external packages (Poser, LuxRender, Maya, Vue, Octane etc) that will include U.V.'s and custom textures (official release date unknown, but allegedly 'soon').
I don't have a clue if the changes will translate into ability to add an LAMH flagging option or not... but it might ;)
I used Advanced Lights to help speed up motion blur render time...
I did these 2 renders one with default light and the veil is see through, the second I added AAL and now the veil is no longer see through, can you tell me what settings to change to make it see through and why the light makes it more solid?
It isn't completely opaque in the 2nd image, Kharma. You can still see her nose and cheekbones. Does the veil material have some settings in the Ambient surface?
JohnnyRay the ambient is 100% and the opacity is 100%
Ambient color? texture?
Is there a map on the Opacity? Because if there isn't a transparency map, I don't see how it was the way it was in the first image...
Ambient color? texture?
Is there a map on the Opacity? Because if there isn't a transparency map, I don't see how it was the way it was in the first image...
So I tried a different light setup ( preset for Andrea - IBL) and this is the settings and results, the veil is a little more transparent than the AAL.
ok will test that shortly ... turn down ambient...
It looks to me like the veil is still transparent but the shadows are just darker on the face.
There are a couple things which could account for the differences. In your first image it does not appear that there are any shadows so light would pass fully through the veil, illuminating the face and making it show more in the render.
In the render using the Andrea - IBL setup, it looks to me like Uberenviroment is not using AO shadows or, if it is, the shadow color or strength is very light. In either of those cases the effect would also be that the face is more strongly illuminated, allowing the face to shine through more clearly.
First, just check that you have the latest update of the ambient light installed. The update was released around the 21st of December 2013. That update addressed a bug where some surfaces would receive darker AO shadows than they should have when near a transparent item. It looks like you are using the updated light so it shouldn't be the problem but I just thought it would be good to double check.
Make sure the light is set to Hitmode - Shader and not Primitive. Primitive hitmode makes things render much faster but at a cost of less accurate shadows from transparent items.
There are a few solutions to get more light to shine through the veil onto the face. One is to look in the veil's parameters tab and set Cast Shadows to Off. This will cause the veil to cast no shadows at all which should help the face shin through better but might not look quite realistic. Have a try and see what you think.
Another solution might be to keep Cast Shadows on but set the veil's opacity strength to 50% or so. This will allow more light to get through the veil onto the face. This is probably the best option.
A third trick is to turn down the light's AO Strength a bit... maybe to 75% or 50%. That will make shadows less rich and less believable though. For realism I generally suggest that AO/shadow strength always be set to 100% and black for the shadow color but sometimes fudging those settings a bit can be artistic, pleasing and useful. It's worth a try to see if it gives you the look you want but try adjusting the veil's Opacity Strength first since that is the most physically correct solution.
I hope these help and work to get the look you are after. If not let me know and I'll see if I can find a solution that does work :)
one advanced ambient and one standard distant light with raytraced shadow used in this image.
Thanks for all the advice on settings...I will try these methods today and see if it works... I have to assume the first post where the veil is see through is because it is using the DS default lights so there are no shadows?
Transparency looks ok to me here:
your transparency is 100% better than mine turned out, did you have to adjust any settings on the light or material, and if so which ones? I am still trying to achieve that look. Thanks for posting your render :)