2D background in Daz?

dmetreeus

I was looking for tutorials of how to put in a background image, the one I found seemed kind of complicated, creating a plane in he exact same frame ratio as the image and then basically pasting the image onto it.  Then after that you still have to position it in 3D space which is can cause problems trying to align it perfectly so it's flat.  Is there an easier way to insert an image, and is there a way to have it be billboard or facing towards the camera at all times?

Leana

You can set a backdrop in the Environment pane

chris-2599934

Alternatively, render the image with a transparent background, then superimpose it on a background image in Photoshop or similar - that gives you a little more control.

JD_Mortal

Just be aware that your backdrop image will ALSO be subject to the settings in the "Advanced" rendering tab, related to texture compression.

The default settings are 512:Medium and 1024:High. Thus, your image, if it is larger than 1024x1024, will be subjected to texture compression. Even if it is a backdrop... It will still "render it", instead of just transfering it into the final rendering as a replacement for the ALPHA. Thus, it will be scaled-down to fit into a 1024x1024 image size, then blown back up, to be rendered as your backdrop, at whatever size you set your rendering to. (I assume, at-least 1080p, which is much larger than 1024x1024, at 1920x1080. You will be almost half the resolution for your backdrop, which will be upscaled from 1024x1024 to 1920x1920.)

Eg, It may honestly be better to NOT use a backdrop in the actual rendering. Render it with the ALPHA, and use an external program to add the background image. Because, if you bump-up the low and high threshold values to display the background without compression, it will ALSO do the same to every image on every texture of your models in the scene. It is not smart-managed, so it will not reduce something like eyes and skin any different than the massive background. It is an all-or-nothing texture-compression setting for everything in the scene. One which the defaults are not favorable for 1080p to 4K, as the defaults are still setup for old 1024x800 monitors, apparently.

JD_Mortal

Leana said:

You can set a backdrop in the Environment pane

To be more specific... If you can't see it, there is a seperate "window", for "Environment", not to be confused with the "Environment section", in the "Rendering" window. The window is blank, except for one single option at the top, where you can select NONE (default), or a COLOR or an IMAGE. (Honestly, that should be in the rendering options, not in a whole window, for just that one thing to be edited. Since, in fact, it is a "rendering option".)

You may have hidden that blank window, as it seems rather irrelevant, until you actually need to use it. (You can restore it by going to your "Windows" menu and selecting the "Environment" window, so it displays again. I keep mine right under my rendering window tab, since it can't be placed inside the actual rendering window tab, into the environments settings.)

dmetreeus

Thanks for all the responses.  I have been adding them post render, but it would help to have a better idea of how it will look before hand.

JD_Mortal

dmetreeus said:

Thanks for all the responses.  I have been adding them post render, but it would help to have a better idea of how it will look before hand.

That is a perfect use for having them display in the environment setting... but remove it before the final render.

Just be sure to setup the screen-render ratio, or size, to match the ratio of the image you want to use as the background. Rendering it out to the exact size of the background image too, if you are using it to align the scene.