Show Us Your Iray Renders. Part III
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Huh. Maybe it actually optimizes time when there are a lot of caustics in the scene?
The effect is a volumetric one, not a surface one, so to do it realistically, it would need to be done in a volumetric way. One possible, easy 'fake' that doesn't rely on an opal diffuse texture or a volumetric shader...add some geometry to a model (several layers of simple planes would work). Assign a separate surface to each plane and apply a transparency/alpha map with a different 'fire' pattern to each layer and use that opalescent glass you were playing with for the parts that aren't mapped out. Then use a translucent or 'frosted' glass on the main body of the opal. Basically, that is faking the volume.
Sounds me :D
How many time I wanted to undo a drawing on paper or save a necklace at one point to make different patterns somewhere.....or swat a fly with mouse-click :D
Cath! or someone else who knows anything about HDRI
I am a little confused. I read that HDRI must be 8k or more to give good shadow. But now I tried a high-res HDRI (ok, not too high-res) around 25-30 Mb, an gave exactly same shadows as the 330 kb Env.HDRI version. Or this is depend on how the Env.hdri was blurred?
And really don't know how you can get those beautiful sharp shadows and sunlights on your fantastic characters only with HDRI maps.
And another PITA is the gamma. I read it should be 2.2 but in that case all images will be washed out. And when I try to correct it with the tone mapping, it will be only darker, but still dull or whatever is the correct word...
without any nice contrast.
for example I tried that pixar hdri what you made a sample image with and the second one too, and I didn't get similar lights, not even close. :(
It depends on the actual dynamic range in the image. There are large files that were only made with a few stops of exposure so they don't have much range. That's why the Pixar campus one is so popular, because it's one of the few that does cast good shadows. If your image comes with an .ibl file, then it's not going to work well with Iray because those kinds of HDRIs are intended to be used with a distant light added to the scene to represent the sun, and in the current beta you have to choose between lighting from Dome/Scene or Sun/Sky, you can't have both active at the same time.
Maybe you can post the image you're getting so we can try to see what's wrong?
I jumped through flaming hoops trying to make my own HDRI files before giving up.
The only times I've managed to make an HDRI (well, EXR) that produces noticeable lighting is when I just made a flippin' white disk on a black background.
No, I tried hdr files, not ibl.
I didn't save those test images, but will make some tomorrow.
..tested my scene with several HDRIs that had a high sun elevation. Either most of the scene had a bluish tint to it and the sun/shadows not as strong as with the basic Sun/Sky, or shadows were too diffuse.
I then tried the Pixar HDRI, and as expected the sun angle was too low for the set. So i rotated the dome on the X axis to and well as on the Y axis to place the sun where it is with the Iray Sun/Sky. While the colour balance was better than the other HDRIs, the scene still seemed to be a bit under lit, and the shadows, while more noticeable, still appeared more diffuse, especially the further the object was from the "floor".
Fig. 1: Iray Sun/Sky
Fig. 2: Pixar HDRI
I am using caustics On in all my renders , mostly for pretty eyes ;) not much difference in render time unless you use glass shader
Pretty! Does the caustic filter not double render time in this version? I haven't tested it yet.
I saw someone mention that sample HDRI that is included now. I was using another and setting my environment back to default doesn't make it show up. So where could I find it?
It depends of how much steps the sun panorama was made of , if just 3 you get less shadows, 12 steps will give you the max shadows
for that reason some HDRI maps create better light than other , Pixar campus was edited probably in HDRI Studio and the extra sun was added for the optimal power .
large files will not give you more or less effect, but scaling big maps down while on the finite dome will improve the light especially the indoor HDRI maps .. also some maps was set on Exposure 0.0 to render other on 2.2 , so you need to edit tone mapping for optimal effect
Sounds me :D
How many time I wanted to undo a drawing on paper or save a necklace at one point to make different patterns somewhere.....or swat a fly with mouse-click :D
Cath! or someone else who knows anything about HDRI
I am a little confused. I read that HDRI must be 8k or more to give good shadow. But now I tried a high-res HDRI (ok, not too high-res) around 25-30 Mb, an gave exactly same shadows as the 330 kb Env.HDRI version. Or this is depend on how the Env.hdri was blurred?
And really don't know how you can get those beautiful sharp shadows and sunlights on your fantastic characters only with HDRI maps.
And another PITA is the gamma. I read it should be 2.2 but in that case all images will be washed out. And when I try to correct it with the tone mapping, it will be only darker, but still dull or whatever is the correct word...
without any nice contrast.
for example I tried that pixar hdri what you made a sample image with and the second one too, and I didn't get similar lights, not even close. :(
Bambi. Small DS HDR for light, I noticed the HDR name begins with DT...Dimension Theory? :)
Did you download the latest 4.8 update? If so, it is automatically loaded into the Environment Map slot when you start up the Beta.
Did you download the latest 4.8 update? If so, it is automatically loaded into the Environment Map slot when you start up the Beta.
I believe I did. But I've got some other maps in there so it didn't overwrite them (which is good) but now I don't know how to find it. I'll doublecheck as the download acted a bit "wonky".
Edit: Yes, I'm on the latest version.
Thanks! The tops of the shoulders are one of the areas that benefit the most from higher resolution morphs, since the base mesh has (in my opinion) too few shoulder polygons, giving an overly rounded and simple shape to the area where the clavical and deltoid meet.
Good question about the bending. I've been sculpting my morphs with the arms down at about a 45 degree angle or more (rather than the traditional arms out t-pose), since most of my work doesn't call for people with their arms held high. This has the benefit of making the shoulder and pectoral anatomy look more natural when the arms are down. The downside is that the shoulders look even more wrong than usual when the arms are held up over the head. I might experiment in the future with making an "arms up" morph to correct for this. For now though, I just work around it, hide it, or fix the render in Photoshop on the occasion that I want an arms up pose.
edit - just another note about how the custom morphs affect bending. So far I've only noticed bending problems in the shoulder area. I try to take care when making the custom morphs to respect the topology of the original G2 figures, making sure I'm not changing where the elbow joints are for example. So things like making the legs shorter are done in DAZ with dial spins, so that the good G2 rigging and bending remain intact. I'm happy to discover that the G2 facial expression morphs work pretty well even on a custom sculpted face, though I haven't tried everything yet.
I believe I did. But I've got some other maps in there so it didn't overwrite them (which is good) but now I don't know how to find it. I'll doublecheck as the download acted a bit "wonky".
Edit: Yes, I'm on the latest version.
Start a new scene, don't load in a previously saved scene. Is the HDR there now? The name of the image begins with "DT".
Ah, yeah...with Dome and Scene, you can use either the HDRI or the sun settings, but not both at the same time (which is what you need for .ibl). I forgot that if you set the environment map to none then the sun settings show up.
You do know that there is an 'adjust rigging to shape' tool?
It will fix most minor and some fairly major alignment problems created by custom sculpts.
I believe I did. But I've got some other maps in there so it didn't overwrite them (which is good) but now I don't know how to find it. I'll doublecheck as the download acted a bit "wonky".
Edit: Yes, I'm on the latest version.
Start a new scene, don't load in a previously saved scene. Is the HDR there now? The name of the image begins with "DT".
No, starting a new scene keeps my old render properties, including an HDRI I was using I downloaded off of DeviantArt. Even selecting default doesn't help. I wonder if I somehow set my render settings as default without realizing it...
Start a new scene, don't load in a previously saved scene. Is the HDR there now? The name of the image begins with "DT".
No, starting a new scene keeps my old render properties, including an HDRI I was using I downloaded off of DeviantArt. Even selecting default doesn't help. I wonder if I somehow set my render settings as default without realizing it...
Check Edit/Preferences/Scene/File. Does it say "None" or have you set it to load a scene at startup? If so, set it back to None. AFAIK, that's the only way that it will automatically load any other Environment map than the small HDR that DAZ has provided, at startup.
You do know that there is an 'adjust rigging to shape' tool?
It will fix most minor and some fairly major alignment problems created by custom sculpts.
I didn't know about that, thanks. I'm gonna check it out!
Start a new scene, don't load in a previously saved scene. Is the HDR there now? The name of the image begins with "DT".
No, starting a new scene keeps my old render properties, including an HDRI I was using I downloaded off of DeviantArt. Even selecting default doesn't help. I wonder if I somehow set my render settings as default without realizing it...
Check Edit/Preferences/Scene/File. Does it say "None" or have you set it to load a scene at startup? If so, set it back to None. AFAIK, that's the only way that it will automatically load any other Environment map than the small HDR that DAZ has provided, at startup.
It is set to none. However, there are checkboxes to save render settings and backdrop settings when you save a scene. I bet that is what is causing me not to see the little freebie HDRI. Can someone who has it just go in like they're going to change it and browse to the folder it's in?
I have an hdri ( right now the default one that came with the newest update) how do I get it to be visible in the window so I can see it when I am rotating it?
A little "International Male" ;-) Today's stop, the Mediterranean.
Picked up Merrimay...
...bugger, bots for the thread failed again.
finally getting a bit of time to look into Iray :)...first renders..
*didn't notice the paint flakes on the car were too large 'till it was too late
Leave it to Stonemason to make his first renders beautiful! Here is one I did the other day for my tabletop RPG group. It is lit only with an HDRI and I think it came out pretty well! I did notice however that it has some blurriness that makes me think of depth of field, but I didn't have depth of field active. I've seen this in some other renders as well and I'm thinking Iray may actually have some kind of auto-DOF for wide angle shots like this.
Did you use Fusion for the particles and fog in the Mustang scene?
no just Photoshop, haven't opened up Fusion yet
the fog is the sss trick everyone else is using for fog in iray..Cheers!
Did you use Fusion for the particles and fog in the Mustang scene?