Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
There are two ways to use a normal photo as a background. The first, and easiest, is to click on the little mountain with sun icon in the toolbar above the viewport to reveal a dialogue giving you the option at the top of browsing to an image. Selecting that image and click "Accept" will place it in the background. An alternative is to create a plane primitive, adjust its aspect ratio to that of your photo and insert the photo into the diffuse channel of the plane's surface. The advantage to the latter is that you can translate and scale the plane as you wish within your scene. There are other ways such as using an HDR image or panorama in the skydome as a background, as well.
@jukingeo, The first option SixDs mentioned is adding a backdrop image via the Environment. I keep that Pane docked, but it sounds like the layout SixDs is using has the icon instead. If you don't have that icon visible in your layout, go to Window->Panes (Tabs)->Environment to open the dialog. From the dialog, you'll need to set the drop-down to Backdrop, then you can add an image.
One of the drawbacks to using an image this way is it will fill the render dimensions, with no regard for the dimensions of the image.
The second option SixDs outlined is one I use from time to time, and it can work well.
A third option is to render with a transparent background. (If you're using an HDRI, set Draw Mode to Off.) Save the resulting render as a PNG image, to preserve the transparency. Then add your background in a photoediting program. You'll find you have more control over the look of the background. This is the option I use most often if I want to include a photo in the finished image.
A trick I used in the image below to get around this restriction is I edited the background image, pre-scaling and croping it to fit the final image dimensions I knew I was going to render. That way there wasn't any distortion on the backdrop.
I have a pretty cool back ground pane prop thats free that you can aply any image you want to that might help http://www.sharecg.com/v/92902/gallery/21/DAZ-Studio/Ivys-Magic-Pane-prop
"adding a backdrop image via the Environment"
Oops. I keep forgetting that they changed that in more recent versions of DAZ Studio - I often use an older version on this PC that has the icon. Thanks for the the "update", L'Adair.
He he. No problem. By the time I realized there were multiple layouts available, I'd gotten used to the default. I've made changes to which panes are docked, and where, and then saved my own layout. It's great that the layout in DS is so customizable, but it can lead to the occasional, unintentional, misleading directions. ("Been there, done that." As have we all, I think.)
@JonnyRay, That's a very nice example of getting the backdrop to work well!
I was using Photoshop for nearly two decades before I started using DS, so my preference is the transparent background, and layering the render over the photo. Lots of options that way, with a program I know fairly well. That works for me, but I know it won't work for everybody. I think @Ivy's Magic Pane prop is great solution for anyone without skills in a good photo editor.
Yeah, I noticed that I couldn't find the icon where it was supposed to be and then saw your instructions here. I tried this, but I don't like it to much for my purpose. As SixDs pointed out there is no translation or scaling control.
I think for a sky backdrop or something with an infinite perspective, it would be fine. In my case it wouldn't work out.
This is the one I end up using and it works well, but even with a high resolution photograph, it is grainy at best, but I ended up going with this method anyway.
I have not tried this as of yet. It is adding more time to the procedure as I have to put the render into an editing program and that is a bit more difficult than it sounds. In my case, Daz Studio is in Windows, but just about all the rest of my art programs are in Linux. So right now I am doing a render with the background within Daz. Then I can do another render with just the chararacter, switch over to Linux and use Gimp to add the photo.
Looks good, perhaps I will give it a shot.
That looks great and that is something like I want to do. So my guess is that in addition to the figure above, the walkway and handrail are also from Daz, right?
I have something called 'Gimp' in Ubuntu Linux and I use that for editing photo related work. Photoshop was / is just too pricey for me. Then again, I never imagined what I would spend here on Daz within the short time I had it. I think one program I would like to try out is ZBrush. I noticed it is mentioned quite a bit here when creating figures. For an art program, it is pricy, but not the insane prices I have seen on something like Maya or Photoshop. Then I also have Blender. I have not done much with it since the learning curve on that one is pretty steep. But I have seen some work done with it to create items to use in Daz Studio. So at this point I would invest in a good tutorial program to learn how to use Blender.
So it looks like for a Daz only solution, I like the Primative Plane option the most.
Thanks all for the info!