Hello

This is my first scene/image with DS3A. I almost always use Carrara, but with DS3A being 64bit, I've started to seiously play with it. I used LightDome 2 Pro (32 lights, 200% ambient) and one spot for lighting. I thought I'd let the experts here look at it and give me some tips. I had to modify the default settings in LD2 Pro quite a bit to get softer lights/shadows. I also changed the default shadow setting on the sun light to soften the sun shadows. I think that using DOF might have helped to highlight G4 more.

It seems like materials settings need to be modified in most cases, just like in Carrara. I'm going for a realistic toon look, not true realism with this image. Any tips on materials settings would be very welcome.

A larger version of the image (Afternoon Walk) can be seen in my gallery:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?username=DustRider
Thanks in advance!

Looks awsome!

You dont really need advise only not to be so modest LOL. Great work and I read you know plenty and spend lots of time on renders. Be proud you did great

Ive actually learned something from this thread ....32 lights with 200% ambience looks great. I think ill try it ..thanks DS3 master on your first image.

Geeze , can you believe this guy....post an image like that and then asks for help!! Ive spent  hundreds of hours trying to find the right tools and settings to get images like that!

*Now thats what I call....."A Superb Result" .

If only I could get to that level !!

I would actually like to see a screen shot of your LDP2  shadow and intensity settings .

**Wow**, thanks for the compliments! I guess my wife is right - I'm a "bit" of a perfectionist ... but there are some true DS masters around here - and I'm definitely not one of them. I worked on this image off and on for about 2 weeks (more off than on), and had 3 or 4 others that I tried, before I finally came up with this one. I did get a couple of good hints on how I can improve the image on the DS forums at DAZ (materials and displacement). Now I just have to figure out how to implement displacement on the wall using the base texture (maybe there is already a displacement map for it).

wespose

Above is a screen grab of the LD2 Pro settings I used. They are a bit different from what I thought they were. I forgot that I had dropped the light count  and increased the ambient value to speed up render times. I also set the shadow softness for the Sunlight to 4.5% (under Light Dome 2 Pro in the scene properties tab). The spot light was set to 24% inensity pointed at G4s head. Without "trees" blocking some of the lights like in this image, you might need to turn the sky/sun lights down a bit more.

Hope this helps!
DR

Cool thanks, Ill give it a try, I really like using LDP2 and this is exactly what I needed to know about it!!

The result is superb! The difuse shadows are astonishing, along with the specular highlights and the textures. A copy of that render is going into my inspiration art file!

You should honestly think about putting together some tutorials on how to accomplish such results, I for one would be an avid reader of such information!

McKay001,

Thanks for the compliment! I don't know that I could do a true tutorial, since I'm just learning DS myself, and my workflow is basically set up the scene, set the lights, test render, tweak, test render, tweak, test render, tweak mats, test render, tweak mats, test render, tweak lights, test render, etc.

I'm more than willing to share any settings, and any explanations I might have for using the settings (if there is some reason other than I thought it might work). I would also be willing to  put together some basic elements that say everyone with DS3A might have, and do a bit of a tuorial on it. My only requirement would be that no one get upset over slow developement of the tuorial - I have to start teaching an evening class at the local community college next week, so my creative time will be limited.

If you're interested, I recently posted a new image in my gallery using the basic UberEnvironment light set in DS3A. It's by no means a great image, but it does show that good results are pretty easy to achieve even for a DS newb.

DR