Sun-Sky and Mesh lights

Steven-V

Hey, folks.

I've been all through the various help threads but if there is a definitive answer to this I have not seen it.

I am playing around with a scene in which the character has the sun coming from behind and above her. This looks great in sun-sky when I put the sun in the right place using a null object -- exactly what I wanted in terms of a sort of "rim light" effect.

However, the front of the character (facing camera) is too dark. I want to brighten it up a bit. So I tried adding a mesh fill light, but the problem is, although an HDRI dome will let me add a fill light, the Sun-Sky setting doesn't seem to allow me to add ANY lights at all to the scene. They just don't seem to get added to the render.

Is there any way to add lights to a scene rendered with the sun-sky option? It seems kind of crazy that there wouldn't be.

I know I can fake this by re-rendering the scene with just the emitter on (scene only) and then compositing in screen mode in Ps, but I was hoping I could find a way to do this in-scene rather than in postwork.

DAZ_cjones

steven.viscido said:

Hey, folks.

I've been all through the various help threads but if there is a definitive answer to this I have not seen it.

I am playing around with a scene in which the character has the sun coming from behind and above her. This looks great in sun-sky when I put the sun in the right place using a null object -- exactly what I wanted in terms of a sort of "rim light" effect.

However, the front of the character (facing camera) is too dark. I want to brighten it up a bit. So I tried adding a mesh fill light, but the problem is, although an HDRI dome will let me add a fill light, the Sun-Sky setting doesn't seem to allow me to add ANY lights at all to the scene. They just don't seem to get added to the render.

Is there any way to add lights to a scene rendered with the sun-sky option? It seems kind of crazy that there wouldn't be.

I know I can fake this by re-rendering the scene with just the emitter on (scene only) and then compositing in screen mode in Ps, but I was hoping I could find a way to do this in-scene rather than in postwork.

In the render settings set the "Environment Mode" to "Dome and Scene" and remove the map from "Environment Map". You'll get sun-sky and whatever lights you have in the scene.

Steven-V

Ah, great! I knew there had to be a way. :)

Richard Haseltine

One for the FAQ, since this has come up a few times.

Slosh

DAZ_cjones said:

steven.viscido said:

Hey, folks.

I've been all through the various help threads but if there is a definitive answer to this I have not seen it.

I am playing around with a scene in which the character has the sun coming from behind and above her. This looks great in sun-sky when I put the sun in the right place using a null object -- exactly what I wanted in terms of a sort of "rim light" effect.

However, the front of the character (facing camera) is too dark. I want to brighten it up a bit. So I tried adding a mesh fill light, but the problem is, although an HDRI dome will let me add a fill light, the Sun-Sky setting doesn't seem to allow me to add ANY lights at all to the scene. They just don't seem to get added to the render.

Is there any way to add lights to a scene rendered with the sun-sky option? It seems kind of crazy that there wouldn't be.

I know I can fake this by re-rendering the scene with just the emitter on (scene only) and then compositing in screen mode in Ps, but I was hoping I could find a way to do this in-scene rather than in postwork.

In the render settings set the "Environment Mode" to "Dome and Scene" and remove the map from "Environment Map". You'll get sun-sky and whatever lights you have in the scene.

If you select Dome and Scene, do the sun controls become available after removing the enviro map? Or should we set up our sun in sun/sky mode, then switch to Dome and Scene? This sun/sky with additional scene lights is something I really wanted but thought I couldn't have. So happy you have told us what to do

Steven-V

Slosh said:

If you select Dome and Scene, do the sun controls become available after removing the enviro map? Or should we set up our sun in sun/sky mode, then switch to Dome and Scene? This sun/sky with additional scene lights is something I really wanted but thought I couldn't have. So happy you have told us what to do

I think there is one set of Sun/Sky parameters and it is used in Sun Sky or in mapless Dome mode. Here's why I say this. I had an HDRI enviro map. The sun was not intense enough for what I wanted. I swapped over to Sun Sky and put a null object where the sun should be, and slaved the Sun to that position. I got perfect rim light, but the front of the figure was not bright enough. After reading the help on here, I switched back from Sun-Sky to Dome and Scene, and took off the enviro map. As soon as I did that, the sun dials came back and they were all set the way I had them in Sun-Sky. I did not have to re-tweak them at all.

So... I think whatever you set them on will stay. Just like if you switch from Dome to Sun-Sky, DAZ "remembers" the HDRI map you had in the environment and brings it back if you go back to Dome.

EDIT: So to answer you question more directly. Turn off the HDRI map in the environment and you will get the S-S dials back. No need to switch to S-S mode first.