Viewport Lights
marble
Posts: 7,500
I've been using DS for many years so I'm always embarrassed to ask a question I really should know the answer to. This is something I have just been putting up with but it is starting to annoy me.
I try to remember to turn off the headlamp on the camera and turn on the (CTRL-L) viewport light - especially if I'm not using DS recognised lighting (mesh or just the dome). The problem is that if I zoom in close to a figure it goes dark so I have to turn on the camrea headlamp again which I always forget to turn off before I render.
Any tips please?
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The preview/headlamp is offset from the camera so when you zoom in it is missing the object you are looking at - you can adjust the settings in the Camera parameters for a real camera.
I'm a bit confused abot the naming. I turn off the camera headlamp because I don't want it on in the render. So I turn on the "non-invasive" Viewport Light (CTRL-L). As far as I am aware that is not associated with a camera - or is it? I'm not sure which you mean when you say "preview/headlamp"?
It is the CTRL-L light (whatever that is called) which gets dark when I zoom in).
Just to recap, the Preview Lights (Ctrl-L) feature doesn't change anything for *rendering*, regardless of headlamp setting. It's just a way to preview the lights in the viewport.
* If there are no scene lights and camera headlamp is off, you need to also turn Preview Lights off, or else you'll get a black scene. When you do this, D|S still complies with a kind of "posing light" for you to work from.
* If you have a scene light (or headlamp), and you want to actually preview it, turn Preview Lights on. Now you'll see (more or less) how the light will interact with the scene.
As Richard notes, you can temporarily turn the headlamp back on, adjust the offset of the headlamp so that the "dark side" is now fully lit, and turn it back off again. Even though Preview Lights is still off, as is your headlamp, you'll get the benefit of the illuminated posing light. You should be able to alter the camera settings without going dark.
Yes - I get that the Preview Light doesn't affect the render - that is precisely why I want to use it - because I don't want the camera headlamp on which *does* affect the render. What is confusing me is your last paragraph. What is the "posing light" if the headlamp and the Preview Light are both off? Does the headlamp also control/influence the Preview Light?
"Posing light" is my term. It's simply the default action when you turn Preview Lights off, yet have no scene lights or headlamp. D|S tries to save you from yourself, and lights the preview so you can see things. It's probably some feature for newbies, aimed at cutting down suppport calls. In any case, it can cause some head scratching, because you still see the effect of lighting, even with no lights!
The headlamp does seem to be the source of the posing light, which is why Richard's suggestion will work for you. Adjust the offset of the headlamp so that it doesn't go dark when you zoom in. Turn the headlamp off (now it won't be in the render), and even with no other scene lights, with Preview Lights OFF you'll still get a posing light from which to work.
I've long wanted to run a script before and after rendering that fiddled with various helper lights I like to use, but for some reason, D|S doesn't offer a Pre Process Script feature, just Post Process. Maybe Richard would know why this is so.
I wanted to address this separately for full effect: It's Preview LIGHTS. It's for previewing the lighting in your scene. Yes, in this thread, we've talked about how Preview Lights alternates the display of a "posing light" (using the camera headlamp as the source) in the viewport. But that's just one use. If you add other scene lights, you will indeed see the contribution of those lights when Preview Lights is turned on.
The way I understand it, and I might have been doing this wrong for years, is:
I hope that makes sense and would like to know if that is what others do. I'm still in the dark (pun, sorry) about what is a posing light and what are Preview Lights. Part of the semantic confusion is what we mean by saying "on" for CTRL-L. Does "On" mean that the Scene Lights (as defined above) are ON. Or does it mean that a non-rendered viewport light is ON?
D|S uses both terms Preview Lights (as a verb) and Scene Lights (as a collective noun). Preview Lights is a feature you use, not a thing. Scene Lights are the lights in the scene.
(That said, they further confuse matters by calling the Preview Lights toolbar icon "Use Scene Lights." But it's all the same feature.)
As I said, the "posing light" is my term. It's simply a way to describe something that shouldn't even be there -- if there are NO lights in the scene, and you've turned Preview Lights off, logic says you shouldn't see anything, but you do. You can either go crazy over this, or work with it. To my knowledge, Daz doesn't call this "feature" anything. It simply exists, and you can call it what you want. However, it's still useful in cases like this..
Instead of using Ctrl-L, which can have confusing visual feedback, use Window->Preview Lights. Then you can see whether the thing is on or off.
I think you need to just do the above suggestion of using the headlamp offset to see how that works when you zoom.
can you see the lights affect on your scene ?
check setting "F2"
on "INTERFACE" section, play with the "PIXEL SHADER" (ON or OFF) to see lights on preview before you render
in my case, light preview is different in main scene and render scene!
Verb not a noun! Suddenly it makes sense! Funny how we see something the first time and it stays that way until someone else points out what should be obvious. As can be seen above, I thought that a Preview Light (thing) was a viewport light that could be switched on or off.
OK so now I'm with you - yes - turning off the preview (verb) lights setting when there are no scene lights does indeed illuminate the scene in the Viewport and it is in this state that I'm describing how the scene suddenly goes into deep shadow when zoomed in close.
So now all you need to do is change the headlamp offset values to put light where the shadow is. This casts light into the area you're zooming into.
If you turn off the headlamp in the camera properties, you will need to temporarily turn it back on (so the offset controls are accessible again), and then you can turn the headlamp back off. This way, you don't have to remember to switch off the headlamp when you make the render. It'll already be off.
Remember also that when you "zoom" with the camera, you're not really zooming with a lens, you're moving the camera physically closer or further away. If you want to get in real close, without moving the camera any closer, use the Focal Length parameter for the camera. The image won't go dark as readily, because the headlamp is staying put, relative camera-to-subject distance.
Thanks Tobor. I had never noticed the Offset parameters before - maybe because I'm used to switching off the headlamp which removes them from the parameter list. A new gadget for me tto play with :)
Okay, this thread is as close as I got to the topic I was actually searching for: "daz studio lights adjust light viewport clipping"
Here's the problem I've been having; when I switch the viewport to look through a light, the clipping plane is absurdly close to the POV, so I'm not able to see anything. This makes setting up photometric lights a real hassle. Is there a way to adjust the clipping plane for the light viewport? I have not come across it in my own poking and prodding.
Any help is appreciated!