Loading...
> >

What is Your Favourite Iray Light Package!?

Richard John SRichard John S Posts: 391
in Daz Studio Discussion

Hey guys, I was just wondering what is your favourite iray light package? Right now, my favourite has to be the probe lights by Dimension Theory.

Comments

  • nicsttnicstt Posts: 11,715

    Yup there are three; I use:

    http://www.daz3d.com/iradiance-light-probe-hdr-lighting-for-iray-expansion-1

    http://www.daz3d.com/dramatic-iray-lights

    I also use various free HDRI and may then have a spot light to assist.

    On occasions these are great

    http://www.daz3d.com/idg-portrait-studio

    http://www.daz3d.com/iray-d-i-y-portrait-lights

  • AndySAndyS Posts: 1,438

    None of the shop.

    Did my own. Normal sun-sky for outdoors, a setup of two or three photometric spotlights for a photo-studio setup, or I use the lamp props of the set by applying the emissive parameters using the lamps as the real light sources.

    I dislike these renders with strange lights having no real physical source. Lights out of the nowhere are terrible and unnatural.

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300

    Light sets are a product catagory you don't really need to spend much money on. I've seen very few  -- especially in the first round of Iray products -- that were worth even the sale price. This is especially true of those sets that attempted to create lights using meshes, without fully understanding how this process works in Iray. 

    HDRi images are another matter. A good collection of HDR's (I don't like to call them light probes, because those are traditionally in a different format than what Iray uses) can be well worth the money. I'd even say an intelligent combination of HDRi's and primitive lights could be useful, but like Andy, I've instead taken to either creating my own, adapting a freebie (like these: http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html), or purchasing from a site that specializes in spherical HDRis. As a good image in Iray is 95% lighting, the time investment in learning how to work with the various Iray light types and modes is well worth it. 

    Just as an example, armed with only Photoshop, you can do a better and more realistic job at creating photostudio lighting than most of the light sets for sale. You can even make the light sources look like photo studio lighting if you want, though that's not necessary. Several HDRi sites provide the elements to get you started.

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300

    I'll also add that some of the sets designed for special effects, such as Iray DIYPortrait Lights, are fine, but you don't need more than one to learn how they work. You can take the ideas and make your own that have just the look you want. Buying five or 10 of these won't make you a better 3D artist, just how a point-and-shoot camera makes it easier to take pictures, but won't make you a better photographer.

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,041

    I REALLY like Painter's Lights. Just picked it up recently, and it makes for some really beautiful images.

    Otherwise, what Tobor said; the problem with not knowing stuff is not even knowing what questions to ask or where to start.

     

  • ZilvergrafixZilvergrafix Posts: 1,385

    Favorite iRay lights... all in EXR file extension will do fine for me.

     

Sign In or Register to comment.