Can't turn off headlamp! *SOLVED*

denonsjunk

Greetings,

I'm a new user attempting to learn how to use Emissive Primitives which I believe I have figured out, but I can't seem to turn the main headlamp off for some reason. The images below pretty well illustrates my problem. I have the headlamp turned off as indicated in the 2nd image. What am I doing wrong here?

I appreciate your insights and direction.

Sincerely,

David

denonsjunk

Well I think I done gone figured it out! I had a Background set in the Environment tab. What I don't know is why that is keeping the headlamp on, I just know that my primitive lights (and others) work when there is no background. Is this normal behavior?

barbult

Are you rendering from a "real" camera or the Perspective view camera? You can't turn off the Perspective view headlamp. Look in the upper corner of your viewport to verify that you are really rendering with Camera 2.

Tobor

I don't see the vestiges of a headlamp in your example.

There's a shadow coming from about 4 o'clock. either from another lamp there, or from your environment. A headlamp shadow would cast directly behind the character, as it's mounted right on the camera. 

There's a bloom of light in the character's face coming from what looks like a large planar emissive (we're seeing the black, back side of it).

If there's a headlamp (example: you're not rendering from Camera2, as Barbult sez), it is easier to find this out by hiding any other light sources (emissives, spots, distant, whatever), and choosing Scene Only. The only way your character can be lit in this situation is from a headlamp. If you get a silhouette instead of a lit character, there is no headlamp active.

SpottedKitty

There isn't a "main headlamp", there's one Headlamp attached to each camera in your scene. Make sure the camera you've just switched off the Headlamp for is the same camera selected in the Viewport — changing the setting on one camera doesn't affect any other camera. Note that you can select all the cameras in your scene and switch all the Headlamps off with one click.

kitakoredaz

denonsjunk said:

, I just know that my primitive lights (and others) work when there is no background. Is this normal behavior?

About the mesh light (which you added emissive shader then you use it as light like your pic, right?) There is no reference with background and Enviroment mode of rendersetting. the plane which applied shader emissive value, should emissive with all Enviroment mode. it light up your scene too. You need not to remove backgorund(Dome enviroment map) but basically, if the intensity of enviroment is strong enough, you can not see clear efect of scene light. On the other hand, the DAZ offered scene light , which in Create>new (distant, point etc) only work when you set Enviroment mode as "Scene only" or " "Dome and Scene" I felt strange why there seems no "Sunsky and Scene only" but it is same, when I choose "Dome and scene", then remove the enviroment map.

denonsjunk

I'm new and I may not be using some terminology quite right. I was inadvertantly referring to the Perspective view light as the "main headlamp." I do realize that you have to render with a camera other than Perspective and I do have Camera 2 selected and the headlamp is turned off.

In this scene, there is only one light and it is the primitive on the left of the scene. I deliberately placed it right next to the figure and left one side black to demonstrate what I'm trying to do. There are no other lights in the scene.

I feel silly as I'm sure I'm just missing something obvious, but just before this reply I tested again and I still can't figure it out. If I create a new scene with one figure, one camera with it's headlamp off, switch to Camera 1 and then render ... shouldn't the scene be completely black? When I do this simple test, my figure is completely lit like in my sample above ... a light that appears to be coming from around 4 o'clock. There are no other lights in the scene. The only way I can make the scene completely dark is if I place a large primitive cube around the figure, which then completely blocks out the "environment" light that I can't seem to turn off. Why am I trying to make a completely black scene? I just want to place different single lights near and around the figure to better understand how lighting and light settings work.

In one of my earlier comments I thought that perhaps the background was causing the problem, but I now realize that isn't the case because the behavior is the same with or without a background.

Does this better explain what I'm trying to do and therefore indicate what I'm doing wrong? Maybe I'm not completely understanding the way the Environment light and cameras work.

Happy Thanksgiving to those that celebrate and thanks to everyone for attempting to help me. Hopefully I'll get it figured out soon.

 

David

 

CZ

denonsjunk said:

I'm new and I may not be using some terminology quite right. I was inadvertantly referring to the Perspective view light as the "main headlamp." I do realize that you have to render with a camera other than Perspective and I do have Camera 2 selected and the headlamp is turned off.

In this scene, there is only one light and it is the primitive on the left of the scene. I deliberately placed it right next to the figure and left one side black to demonstrate what I'm trying to do. There are no other lights in the scene.

I feel silly as I'm sure I'm just missing something obvious, but just before this reply I tested again and I still can't figure it out. If I create a new scene with one figure, one camera with it's headlamp off, switch to Camera 1 and then render ... shouldn't the scene be completely black? When I do this simple test, my figure is completely lit like in my sample above ... a light that appears to be coming from around 4 o'clock. There are no other lights in the scene. The only way I can make the scene completely dark is if I place a large primitive cube around the figure, which then completely blocks out the "environment" light that I can't seem to turn off. Why am I trying to make a completely black scene? I just want to place different single lights near and around the figure to better understand how lighting and light settings work.

In one of my earlier comments I thought that perhaps the background was causing the problem, but I now realize that isn't the case because the behavior is the same with or without a background.

Does this better explain what I'm trying to do and therefore indicate what I'm doing wrong? Maybe I'm not completely understanding the way the Environment light and cameras work.

Happy Thanksgiving to those that celebrate and thanks to everyone for attempting to help me. Hopefully I'll get it figured out soon.

 

David

 

I hope I understood everything right, but it seems that I had the same problem some time ago. For me the solution was in the render settings. There you can choose the Environment Mode to Scene only. If you choose Dome you get the environmeltal lights. For me everything works fine, if I render the Scene only.
Hope this helps!
Antje

kitakoredaz

Yes. CZ is right.

if you use render setting "scene only"  then turn camera 1 head lamp >off, and use the Camera 1 view,

and  remove the mesh light, your actor should be perfect black without back ground color.

have you checked the document of iray ?

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/interface/panes/render_settings/engine/nvidia_iray/environment/start

I can not say, it is well documented there should be many empty link too,

but maybe useful to understand iray enviroment setting (and light), (actually I depended  it much, when I first use iray rendering,,)

barbult

Another vote for CZ's answer. The default setting for the Iray render settings is Dome and Scene. There is a default HDRI loaded that provides the "dome" lighting. If you don't want any environmental lights and only want the lights you added to your scene, simply change the mode to Scene Only. Don't leave it on Dome and Scene and delete the HDRI image map. That will cause the Dome and Scene to use a bright sunlight instead of the HDRI. Scene Only is what you want in the example you described.

HDRI dome lighting is very useful, though, so I encourage you to try it sometime. You can rotate the dome to make the light come from different angles.

 

denonsjunk

Man I have a big grin on my face! CZ was right on the money and I feel a little less stupid now too! :) Thanks again everyone for all your assistance and sticking with me until I figured this out. Now I can move on with a few more hours of practice until I get completely stumped again! See you all then! :P

nicstt

and  remove the mesh light, your actor should be perfect black without back ground color.

btw, ctrl L will turn on a light in the viewport when the model is black, but wont show up in rendering.

I have a default scene that automatically loads; I have a light in it, and I point it down; it is also below the ground plane if using IRAY, and the lumens are set to 1, so it has no discernable effect on light. That way when I add a camera, the headlamp is off as the default setting for camera headlight is auto.

I can't tell if it makes any difference to render times; early indications are it doesn't.

Oh and I grouped it with the default plane I have that doesn't appear in renders, so when needed I can use it to check the hight of items.

In the folder where I keep it, I protect it so I can't accidentally over-write it. (Right click the file and select Properties > Attributes > Read Only.)