Luxus & Realiy Renders - what am I doing wrong???

SubGeniusZero

Hi there all. I’ve just started playing around with the amazing Reality and Luxus plugins for Daz Studio (each one exposes different options of the underlying rendering engine, and I am trying to decide which I like better). However, one thing is clear . . . I do not know what I am doing in terms of lighting and materials in order to get good results out of LuxRender. The results I get right now are so-so, not great, but okay . . . but nowhere near as nice as 3Delight. I understand that Lux is fundamentally different in that it is an unbiased physical renderer — i.e., it mimics the way that light really behaves. Thus, since I’m not getting good results, it would seem my knowledge in this area is somewhat lacking. I was wondering — based on the included screenshots, can anyone tell me what exactly I’m doing wrong? My results are looking WAY too cartoony for my liking, and I’d like to get as close to “photoreal” as I can. Thanks for any help ahead of time!

Herald of Fire

It doesn't look too bad to me to be honest. If you want photorealism, you'll have to work hard on getting the materials just right. I've been working with Luxrender for over a year and realism still manages to elude me. Check the Luxus and Reality threads for tips on working the materials the way you want them.

SpottedKitty

Ah, you've lit it for 3Delight, haven't you? I'm afraid you'll have to pretty much re-learn how to light a scene, converted LuxRender lighting gives results ranging from so-so to amazingly bad and amazingly slow. For indoor scenes like you have there, mesh lights are the key. You can select the actual light materials (this is helped a lot if the light surfaces are separate materials) and define them as LuxRender lights. It does need a lot of fiddling with the settings, and the renders will take a lot longer.

As mentioned, materials are also important. The auto-conversion in Reality and Luxus usually work pretty well, but some things will need manual conversion and tweaking.

SubGeniusZero

Okay, I'll bite . .. . what are mesh lights? ('m very much a newbie, if you couldn't tell...) Where can I find them in Studio? And, how best to configure them — i.e., what are some setting ranges I could start experimenting with?

mjc1016

johnconstantine said:

Okay, I'll bite . .. . what are mesh lights? ('m very much a newbie, if you couldn't tell...) Where can I find them in Studio? And, how best to configure them — i.e., what are some setting ranges I could start experimenting with?

Mesh lights are actual 3d items that have light emitting properties, in their surface properties. They don't actually exist, until you make them, unlike the included DS lights. In 3Delight/DAZ Studio...that typically means using the UberArealight. In Luxus, it's under the manual surface conversion properties...Light Parameters. Not sure where it is in Reality.

In Luxus, there is a set of two already set up, in the Light Presets folder. For Reality, there is a fantastic set at ShareCG by Callad http://www.sharecg.com/pf/full_uploads.php?pf_user_name=callad (and no, they aren't directly usable in Luxus).

Anything with geometry can become a mesh light...but simple is better. The typical item used is a plane primitive. Very complex shapes get into odd angles, shadow issues and other weirdness that can cause render times to skyrocket or give unexpected results.

SubGeniusZero

Got it, thanks! I just downloaded the Reality Light System by Callads, and now I’m wondering . . . how the heck do I use these things? I’ve tried loading in “Spot 1” into the scene, and it gives me a vertical plane . . . how do I position this, just like a regular spotlight, or do I need to do something special? And, if I use these lights, do I still need to use regular lighting schemes — like 3 point lighting, for instance? Also, are the shapes themselves visible upon render, or are they transparent to the renderer and act only as light sources? Finally, are these lights one-sided or two-sided? I.e., does the light come from both sides of each plane I put in the scene? Thanks!

mjc1016

johnconstantine said:

Got it, thanks! I just downloaded the Reality Light System by Callads, and now I’m wondering . . . how the heck do I use these things? I’ve tried loading in “Spot 1” into the scene, and it gives me a vertical plane . . . how do I position this, just like a regular spotlight, or do I need to do something special? And, if I use these lights, do I still need to use regular lighting schemes — like 3 point lighting, for instance? Also, are the shapes themselves visible upon render, or are they transparent to the renderer and act only as light sources? Finally, are these lights one-sided or two-sided? I.e., does the light come from both sides of each plane I put in the scene? Thanks!

Grab the pdf that goes with the set...it can explain all of that better than I can, since I use Luxus, exclusively. I haven't done much of anything with that set, other than look at it for inspiration...

But in general...yes, positioning is like any other light. No, except they won't cast light in the viewport, like the regular DS lights to. Yes, no, maybe...yeah the 'schemes' like 3 point, etc are still used/useful...but not needed if you are using a meshlight and a 'light dome'/sun-sky/etc...but, since those schemes are adaptations of real life lighting set ups (photo studios/film making) the are still useful, since these lights will behave much more like their real life counterparts. And usually the meshes are visible...and single sided.

SimonJM

johnconstantine said:

Got it, thanks! I just downloaded the Reality Light System by Callads, and now I’m wondering . . . how the heck do I use these things? I’ve tried loading in “Spot 1” into the scene, and it gives me a vertical plane . . . how do I position this, just like a regular spotlight, or do I need to do something special? And, if I use these lights, do I still need to use regular lighting schemes — like 3 point lighting, for instance? Also, are the shapes themselves visible upon render, or are they transparent to the renderer and act only as light sources? Finally, are these lights one-sided or two-sided? I.e., does the light come from both sides of each plane I put in the scene? Thanks!

Callad's RLS is rather good - each 'light' is made up of a primitive (which is the light emitter) and a camera parented to it (or vice versa, can't recall!). Move the item around whikst lookign through the camera of the light in question to see where it's pointing - that's the quick and easy version! As mjc says the pdf explains more and better!

DestinysGarden

InaneGlory has been a big supporter of Luxus since the the plug-in was released. Not free, but inexpensive (and on sale today), and a good place to start for porting mesh lights into LuxRender through Luxus.
http://www.daz3d.com/inaneglory-s-photo-studio-lux

MBusch

Callad's Reality Light System for DS is a fantastic tool for Reality. Don't forget to get the add-on Round Lights - Reality Light System addition and the documentation Reality Light System for DS, Reality, Lux GUIDE. While this can help you to setup the scene lights, you will need to re-learn about how to set Lux materials. Reality UI is fairly simple and powerful for starters and the materials auto conversion give you a good starting point. There are a lot of tutorials in the forums and on YouTube at PretA3D and some videos on Callad's page at DeviantArt.

For Luxus I would recommend strongly InaneGlory's Photo Studio - Point and Shoot and Photo Studio - Point and Shoot 2. Both product's have a nice documentation and are very easy and powerful with the added bonus that these lights works with 3DLight also, the DAZ Studio default render engine. Luxus UI while is very integrated to DS is also very intimidating. Documentation about materials is very basic and mostly from Lux wiki site. There are 2 threads with a lot of good information on the forums: Luxus discussion II and Luxus Skin Settings. Take a look!

I hope this can help!