HDR ProSets Yosemite Pack One and Two....Customer review with renders

Musicplayer

Hi Folks,

I have posted some of my renders on other threads before, when a new product has been released, and I have uploaded trial renders to show others how that product has worked for me and my artworks.
As we have so many great vendors and PA's here at Daz I never single anyone out for praise, above another. Each PA has great skills in their various specialist categories.

However, today I was looking in another thread at renders someone had submitted of cars using the PA DimensionTheory's HDR ProSets Yosemite Sets. The renders were amazing, and I wondered if such lighting effects and backgrounds would work just as good for my character renders. I was not to be disappointed, and not only am I so pleased with the results to be writing this review, but these are ON SALE....NOW
Although I must state that these would certainly have been worth every cent/penny at their full price.

I was a little surprised at the file size of the HDR Sets. You get the necessary files for Carrara, Poser and Daz Studio in each set. For the Daz Studio installation there are two sets of files totalling nearly 2 Gb, but once loaded they are SO easy to use.
Set up your scene and then click on the HDR set you require, and then render. Rotating the background scene will also give a different viewpoint and the lighting and shade will change accordingly.

I am sure people who are already familiar with using HDR lighting will know of far more tips and tricks than I do, but for "straight out of the box" use these certainly have the usual "DimensionTheory" quality.

I will post one or two renders as examples for you to view, and urge you to take a look at these amazing HDR Sets.
http://www.daz3d.com/hdr-prosets-yosemite-pack-one
http://www.daz3d.com/hdr-prosets-yosemite-pack-two

Many thanks, and regards to DimensionTheory for these awesome sets.

My first render here uses Teen Jayden 6 with character texture Ash, using Yosemite HDR Number 4 from pack one. I am VERY pleased with the natural lighting effects in this render.

Musicplayer

Here is the same character used but with HDR Yosemite scene set 11 from Pack 2.

Please click on these renders to view and appreciate the full size scene, as uploaded.

Hope you enjoy,

Cheers :-)

Musicplayer

Here is my character again but using HDR Yosemite scene set 6 from Pack One.

Please click on the render to view the full size image. What has impressed me most about this product is how the character and background are equally lit, and the shadows placed just right, so it looks as though the character was really present in this wooded scene when the background photo was taken.

Thanks for looking and hope you have enjoyed these renders.

Musicplayer

Another render using the same setup as my first post in this thread....Yosemite HDR Number 4 from pack one....but showing how the supplied ground plane blends seamlessly with the scene to produce a very realistic setting with ground shadows.

This is my last render, and I would be interested to see any renders from others who may have purchased this product.

Thanks for looking, and best wishes to you all, and of course my appreciation to DimensionTheory whose awesome product made these renders possible.

Cheers. :-)

Kharma

Very nice renders Musicplayer, but how do you get the characters not to look like they are floating? I have tried everything and can't figure this out.

Musicplayer

Kharma said:

Very nice renders Musicplayer, but how do you get the characters not to look like they are floating? I have tried everything and can't figure this out.

Hi Kharma,

Sorry for the delayed reply. If you are showing the full character with feet touching the ground, then I would suggest you try going into the SCENE tab and select the Yosemite item, and then go to the PARAMETERS tab and use the Y TRANSLATE slider to raise the floor level.
When doing this, I look at my characters toes and when you see them just about to start disappearing then you know you have the floor level just under their feet.

I hope this helps and is the answer to your question. If not, perhaps you could upload an example picture of the problem you are experiencing so I may try and help you further.

Kind regards. :-)

gregoryhilldesign

Hey all....
I have a question. I'm obviously missing something simple. I have a problem with these Yosemite environments. No light... totally dark.
I see lighting in the instances list, and it's on. I would have assumed that it was preset to be in the right place and all that....

I've enabled sky light and indirect light in the rendering room thinking that might be the problem. But no....

I can't find any documentation either. Since you all use this with wonderful results, I've missed something.

I don't generally use these environments since I mostly model sets for films. But I would love to understand and use them occasionally.

Thanks for any tips or advice.

evilproducer

ghdesign25 said:

Hey all....
I have a question. I'm obviously missing something simple. I have a problem with these Yosemite environments. No light... totally dark.
I see lighting in the instances list, and it's on. I would have assumed that it was preset to be in the right place and all that....

I've enabled sky light and indirect light in the rendering room thinking that might be the problem. But no....

I can't find any documentation either. Since you all use this with wonderful results, I've missed something.

I don't generally use these environments since I mostly model sets for films. But I would love to understand and use them occasionally.

Thanks for any tips or advice.

Greetings. Sounds like you're a fellow Carrara user!

I don't have the Yosemite products, but I do have DT's Skies of Terra set. How are you loading the scene? Can you post some screen shots of the Scene's Effects tab and Render room settings?

Also, there is the Carrara Discussion forum where we're pretty helpful and can usually get you pointed in the right direction. Some of us don't get out to The Commons that often- It's scary how fast a post can get buried.... :ahhh:

Diomede

Hi ghdesign25,

I was a fellow Yosemite frustratee in Carrara. I had a devil of a time trying to load it correctly. Finally, I have managed to get it working as long as it is the first thing I try do with the file.

- Start Carrara
- File : New : Preset : Lights : Dimension Theory : HDR Pro-Sets : Yosemite : (choose which image you want as background.)
- if you check your properties tray for the scene, the file will be loaded in Background, ambient set to 0, etc. See attached.

Of course you may have installed to a different location so make sure you have that straightened out.

- next, make sure that your camera in the assembly room matches your camera in the rendering room. The preset has two different for some reason.

- Then do a test render, and the result will be very, very nice, like attached.

Great product once you get it working in Carrara.

gregoryhilldesign

Thanks diomede64-
That did it. I did do some hunting in the discussion groups, but didn't find anything that explained exactly how to do this. I was going through the Carrara 7 manual as well (seems the newest update of the manual doesn't cover very much).

I was dragging the Yosemite scene from my smart content palette into a new empty scene... so of course I could see all of the elements in the instances list but it just rendered black.

The only difference between my window and the one you posted is that in my instances list it doesn't say DT-YosemiteSun05... it only says Sunlight. Is that a problem?

I'll go back to the discussion groups too and see what else I can find out.
Thanks again.