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How does the shadow softness setting of the Advanced Distant Light relate to the shadow softness setting of the DAZ distant light? If I copy settings from a DAZ distant light to an Advanced Distant Light, everything seems to work well, except the shadows are much harder than they were with the DAZ light. Is there a formula I should use to adjust the shadow softness setting to get back to what I was seeing with the DAZ distant light? (I read the PDF for the distant light, but I didn't see this info there.)
The softness goes up to 1000 instead of the normal 100, so try a multiple of 10 as a starting point e.g. if normal softness is 30% then maybe try 300
Thanks for posting the great renders Storypilot and nDelphi.
While I'm at it, sorry if I ever miss thanking anyone. I know I missed commenting on a few a posts while back and I felt bad. I wasn't meaning to be rude... just sometimes tired and absent minded. I think i'm getting old hehe.
Sorry about the confusion. I was a bit torn on how to approach that. The DS Default Spotlight always seemed too limited in the range of softness, though you can turn the limits off. So when I made the advanced spotlight I upped the dial range. Later, when making the Distant light I figured I should use the same math as the spotlight for the softness.
The advanced light shadows are based on degrees and I think the DS defaults use radians. In addition mine uses a half angle so the conversion works out to about 1DS to 28.5ADL ratio.
Fortunately DS parameters can do math! Thanks DAZ Developers! So let's say your DS distant light has a setting of 20% and you want to match that setting in the advanced distant light. Just select the advanced light and type 20 * 28.5 in the shadow softness setting and hit enter. It should do the math and set the dial to 570% and match the look of the DS light's shadows. Pretty cool huh?
Some AoA Advanced ????Light renders I have done recently (all work safe!)
http://fav.me/d7dckbx
http://fav.me/d7dbyx9 (with some UberArea light too)
http://fav.me/d7d17n5
http://fav.me/d7cx9qk
http://fav.me/d7csw2p
http://fav.me/d79kxu6
http://fav.me/d77b2kp
Cool Simon! I particularly like your first one, 'Wrong end of town'. It's fun with a lot of color and the lighting looks great.
Thanks - it was one of those 'why not add ...' type renders. I'd been meaning to give Nursoda's store (another) rummage for a while, mainly for the Zlata character so had to use her. And sh brought some friends with her ;)
And thanks for the lights, they are so useful and rapid in use!
Thanks for the explanation about the shadow softness. I wouldn't have guessed that on my own!
This one's from back in December but I just stumbled back over it. Cover for a friend's YA story (pre-typography, of course). 1 AAL, 2 ASL. If I was redoing it now I'd soften the shadows a bit and maybe add a little volume for atmosphere, but otherwise still fairly happy with it.
..very nice. Couldn't view the second to last one as I was not logged onto DA at the time (late here) so will check it out tomorrow. BTW in the first one, were the "NEXT" neon signs actually part of the set?
..very nice. Couldn't view the second to last one as I was not logged onto DA at the time (late here) so will check it out tomorrow. BTW in the first one, were the "NEXT" neon signs actually part of the set?
Yes, the signs are part of the set - I used UberArea Light on them but from memory the supplied materials had ambient set up to suggest the neon glow.
Can anyone shine some light on this for me. See the neck where a light patch is. I cannot seem to get rid of it. Uber Surface doesn't have this issue with using the same lights. But as soon as I turn the distant light off the issue goes away. I have tried increasing the SSS samples, Max Error to 0.10, shadow bias 0.10 etc etc. Played with many settings including the skin SSS settings. I just can't get a handle on the WHY. So I have had to resort to asking.
AoA Ambient and Distant and AOA SSS shader
I have, so I thought, setup all the skin settings correctly, Group ID's, Scale and Shading rates etc as they should be.
Sorry about the confusion. I was a bit torn on how to approach that. The DS Default Spotlight always seemed too limited in the range of softness, though you can turn the limits off. So when I made the advanced spotlight I upped the dial range. Later, when making the Distant light I figured I should use the same math as the spotlight for the softness.
The advanced light shadows are based on degrees and I think the DS defaults use radians. In addition mine uses a half angle so the conversion works out to about 1DS to 28.5ADL ratio.
Fortunately DS parameters can do math! Thanks DAZ Developers! So let's say your DS distant light has a setting of 20% and you want to match that setting in the advanced distant light. Just select the advanced light and type 20 * 28.5 in the shadow softness setting and hit enter. It should do the math and set the dial to 570% and match the look of the DS light's shadows. Pretty cool huh?
I've been thinking about this some more. Why is the softness limit set to 1000? By your conversion factor, that would only be about 35. Why is the limit not 100*28.5 = 2850?
what do I wrong? I used only Advanced Ambient Light
Could it be a reflection? Make sure reflections are turned off (edit: that is, 0%) on the skin...sometimes they get turned on when converted to the Subsurface Shader. Don't know why this would only happen when you're using the Advanced lights though...
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/27675/P1275
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/27675/P1275
Thank you, now I know what was wrong
Fixt :lol:
Could it be a reflection? Make sure reflections are turned off (edit: that is, 0%) on the skin...sometimes they get turned on when converted to the Subsurface Shader. Don't know why this would only happen when you're using the Advanced lights though...WELL I COULD KISS YOU IF YOU HAD THE LEGS FOR IT. Dude thanks for that. The slippery so and so. I should have kept up with reading the thread I cannot find on AOA SSS Shader as I couldn't use it for ages so the info meant nothing to me. Only when I start to use something the info stays put.
LOL! No problem, glad it helped!
Nice render temporal.ranger. So do you often do book cover art? I hear that is a pretty popular use for DS.
Thanks for answering questions Scott-Livingston and KlasK.
Arbitrary decision really. I played with it a little and thought it 1000% was a fairly round number.
Also, at very high shadow blur angles you start to get self shadowing where something that should be hit by the light is in partial shadow because a surface is seeing part of itself in the path of the shadow. It doesn't cause any glitches or anything so you can increase the limits if you want, the scene might just start getting darker and darker.
Arbitrary decision really. I played with it a little and thought it 1000% was a fairly round number.
Also, at very high shadow blur angles you start to get self shadowing where something that should be hit by the light is in partial shadow because a surface is seeing part of itself in the path of the shadow. It doesn't cause any glitches or anything so you can increase the limits if you want, the scene might just start getting darker and darker.
Thanks, that's good information to know.
I love Flagging...I love these lights (but I knew I would)
Great stuff. Nice closeup details on Paradise Lost.
Thank you nDelphi. I think I should have Sub-Ded the vine too.
No, I just did that one for a friend who wanted a cover - they gave copies of the book to their nieces and nephews for their Christmas presents and since they were getting them printed and bound they wanted them to look 'official' and asked if I could do a cover. Wasn't commercial at all. I haven't been doing this for a year yet, well aware that I have a long way to go before I get any sort of good at it, let alone good enough to do anything commercial with it. :)
Sorry cannot find your SSS Shader thread so I am posting this here.
AOA do you have any idea why this http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/17751/P900/#586283 is happening?
Those birds are stunning. It's got to be more than shading rate (mine is 0.05 in the main renderer and I never ever come close to anything such as these birds). I love the other pic too, it's just unfair it's sitting next to the birds.
Thanks Spit yes Pixel Samples X and Y at 24 and then in Photoshop duplicate the render and for the top layer I add a High Pass filter at about 2 pixels, set Blend mode to Overlay and set the Opacity to around 50% or what looks right.
I love those renders Szark! Especially the birds. Gorgeous!
That issue is really weird. I haven't come across anything like that before. I'll have to re-read the info in the other thread and see if I can reproduce what you are experiencing.
Thanks for the kind words AoA, I just had to show what your lights can do when the Flagging is used....love that feature so much.
As for that issue I just want to make myself clear as I am not saying it is the shader causing that problem but for me it seems that way. It could be something different as I will point out in the Garibaldi thread.
In what ways did flagging help with your renders? I ask just out of simple curiosity. Also, it may help others by providing examples of how the feature can be used.