Quote - Good news Gang! Reality 2.0 is #6 in the vendor charts this week and steadily (or explosively!) rising! Congrats Paolo!

That's awesome!!

Does reality support the Shader Mixer/Builder shaders?  I had a character in poser, brought to Daz, but it was using a black leather procedural material.  I found a decent leather material for the Shader Mixer, applied it, but in Reality it seems to come out just flat black?

If not, is there a way to do a similar leather type of material on a materiall zone?

Attached Link: intro

Quote - Does reality support the Shader Mixer/Builder shaders?  I had a character in poser, brought to Daz, but it was using a black leather procedural material.  I found a decent leather material for the Shader Mixer, applied it, but in Reality it seems to come out just flat black?

If not, is there a way to do a similar leather type of material on a materiall zone?

No, procedural textures intended for 3Delight rendering will not work in Luxrender, which has its own materials and procedural textures (and the latter are not available from Reality). Reality translates shader information as far as it is able to channels available to Luxrender, but you are limited to the material types, and their parameters, that you can see as options in Reality.

In order to get a leather texture you will require the appropriate image map, specular, bump map, etc. Luxrender via Reality is capable of recreating a highly realistic leather texture with some or all of these, but not procedurally. Have a look at the material parameters that Reality has imported, and I think you will find that it is just a diffuse colour with its attendant parameters.

If you are rendering in Reality/Luxrender, you can forget all about those fancy shader settings in DAZ and work on your shaders in Reality using its conversions as a starting point. Or if it is something like metal or glass, just change the material type to that. (By the way, if your metal surface has a map, make sure the metal material is set to custom so that the map is used. Custom metals with maps look incredibly good.) However, I can't imagine how you can make a convincing leather without maps as leather has a definite texture—without that it is just going to look something like plastic or rubber.

thanks for the reply.  Since I don't know how to do materials in Luxrender, I Googled  :)

I found this Black Leather material, woohoo!  Just what I needed.   Problem for me is figuring out now how to apply it to the material zones I want it on.  Back to Google!

http://www.luxrender.net/lrmdb2/en/material/view/24

Quote - thanks for the reply.  Since I don't know how to do materials in Luxrender, I Googled  :)

I found this Black Leather material, woohoo!  Just what I needed.   Problem for me is figuring out now how to apply it to the material zones I want it on.  Back to Google!

http://www.luxrender.net/lrmdb2/en/material/view/24

I think this can perhaps be done by editing the .lxo file as Reality doesn't support the procedurals in Lux. I know next to nothing about it, but Cwichura is probably your person for that. I'm not sure if he is monitoring this thread at the moment, but I think he is active on the DAZ forum.

Quote - Good news Gang! Reality 2.0 is #6 in the vendor charts this week and steadily (or explosively!) rising! Congrats Paolo!

Wow! Thank you for letting us know and thank you everybody for making it such a success.

Quote - Does reality support the Shader Mixer/Builder shaders?  I had a character in poser, brought to Daz, but it was using a black leather procedural material.  I found a decent leather material for the Shader Mixer, applied it, but in Reality it seems to come out just flat black?

If not, is there a way to do a similar leather type of material on a materiall zone?

At this time Reality does not support that feature. There are just a handful of models that use the Shader Mixer/Builder and it takes just too much work to handle it for the modest amount of materials out there. If the system becomes more widely used then I will defintely add support but for now it's just simpler to redefine the material in the Reality editor.

Cheers.

Quote - I found this Black Leather material, woohoo!  Just what I needed.   Problem for me is figuring out now how to apply it to the material zones I want it on.  Back to Google!

http://www.luxrender.net/lrmdb2/en/material/view/24

The lbm2 are a shader descriptor that writes out the shader from the material editor to the Luxrender file(s) (usually the .lxm contains materials).

Reality does not support this, but LuxBlend (for Blender) and LuxMax (for 3DSmax) do.

It is possible to hand edit the files generated by Reality to add appropriate shader language but it requires a good knowledge of how shaders are structured.

Quote - thanks for the reply.  Since I don't know how to do materials in Luxrender, I Googled  :)

I found this Black Leather material, woohoo!  Just what I needed.   Problem for me is figuring out now how to apply it to the material zones I want it on.  Back to Google!

http://www.luxrender.net/lrmdb2/en/material/view/24

The easiest thing to to is to simply use Glossy with a solid color, like dark grey for black leather. Use a rather high (30,30,30) specular color, pretty low glossiness (~ 4000-5000) and a pretty high bump map. You will get a pretty good result. Then tweak specular/glossiness/bump until happy.

Hope this helps.

Quote - > Quote - Good news Gang! Reality 2.0 is #6 in the vendor charts this week and steadily (or explosively!) rising! Congrats Paolo!

I guess he's too busy reading this to be posting or working on a Reality update :laugh:

http://www.renderosity.com/meet-paolo-ciccone-pret-a-3d--cms-16184

That's exactly what I do all day long: read my own interview. You got it Doc! ;)

Quote - Good news Gang! Reality 2.0 is #6 in the vendor charts this week and steadily (or explosively!) rising! Congrats Paolo!

Where can I find the charts?

Quote - The easiest thing to to is to simply use Glossy with a solid color, like dark grey for black leather. Use a rather high (30,30,30) specular color, pretty low glossiness (~ 4000-5000) and a pretty high bump map. You will get a pretty good result. Then tweak specular/glossiness/bump until happy.

Hope this helps.

I am trying the DS4 Shader Baker right now...see how that works.  Never tried it, but unfortunately, I am getting no output  :(

Regarding the above, I would actually need a bump map, to set a high bump map...no?

Maybe these charts?  http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/artchart.php

Oh yes, the art charts, of course. Thank you.

This is not made by me but it is a Reality render and I thought that you would enjoy it:

Click image for full size.

Attached Link: room 1

I think somebody beat me to it, but in the interest of being thorough

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/artchart.php

Outlaw, if you're still in the market for leather shaders, I snagged one from Daz a month or so ago called Leatherize. I haven't used it as much as I would have thought, as a freebie called Cloth FX has an excellent leather shader thats easy to adjust to your liking. The Leatherize does have a good displacement effect and selection of patterns you can put on just about anything. 

Add: If you want bump maps, that's easy  If you've got GIMP I can walk you through it. There's also a plug-in available for making normal maps, which is super handy if you've already created a bump.

Not sure why the highlighter won't disengage. Somebody kick it for me

Been working on improving wet textures.....still not totally pleased, but getting there.....I call it "Drenched...."

Quote - Outlaw, if you're still in the market for leather shaders, I snagged one from Daz a month or so ago called Leatherize. I haven't used it as much as I would have thought, as a freebie called Cloth FX has an excellent leather shader thats easy to adjust to your liking. The Leatherize does have a good displacement effect and selection of patterns you can put on just about anything. 

Add: If you want bump maps, that's easy  If you've got GIMP I can walk you through it. There's also a plug-in available for making normal maps, which is super handy if you've already created a bump.

ClothFX is cool!  Thanks for pointing me that way!

I'll take you up on that GIMP/Bump map if you can spare the time.  :)  Thanks!

Quote - This is not made by me but it is a Reality render and I thought that you would enjoy it:

Click image for full size.

NICE!!

Here are a couple done this week to keep the thread going. (click for full size)

Quote - Here are a couple done this week to keep the thread going. (click for full size)

 

 

I'm not sure what this fellow's intentions are, but he doesn't look entirely honorable. I could be wrong; maybe he's trying to yell directions in Monster-ese

Both look great, but I like the top one best!

Sorry if asked before, but what is a good hair setting?  I am using Reby Hair, and it keeps reflecting too much.  Trying Matte Translucent now...

Quote - Sorry if asked before, but what is a good hair setting?  I am using Reby Hair, and it keeps reflecting too much.  Trying Matte Translucent now...

I usually set it at glossy, turn down the spec to about 10-15, then set the gain about 3/4th to the right and add a bump map depending on the light. Real hair usually has some sheen to it due to the oils or wet if sweating or out of water. The bump will help define the strands.

Quote - I'm not sure what this fellow's intentions are, but he doesn't look entirely honorable. I could be wrong; maybe he's trying to yell directions in Monster-ese

Both look great, but I like the top one best!

LOL, either way, she ain't to happy with him.

Thanks for the comment!

Quote - > Quote -

ClothFX is cool!  Thanks for pointing me that way!

I'll take you up on that GIMP/Bump map if you can spare the time.  :)  Thanks!

I'm here to serve!

Okie dokie; For a bump map with gimp (2.6 is the latest I have for stability) with your base image, load as usual and go to colors, invert. Then go to colors again, move down to Components, and mouse click on the extension Channel Mixer. A pop up box will show the red, green, blue channels and some sliders beneath it. You'll want to check the monochromatic to put it into black and white. You can further adjust the RGB values if you want more black or white, but for a bump, the standard readout should be fine.

When you're satisfied, click OK, then go up to Filters at the top and drop down to Maps. Mouse over the extention to Bump.

Another box pops up with some adjustments.

In the pop-up box, there's a few things to play with. I usually focus on Elevation and Depth. Both are fairly self explanatory. You'll have to raise both typically, sometimes around 50 for elevation and 20-30 for depth. Experiment a bit. When you're satisfied, hit OK and a green bar goes across the bottom for processing. Two or three seconds, voila! Bump map.

If or when you should go the Normal map route (search for the plug-in, it's free also), you can use this same method to make it a bump map, then go to Filters-->Maps-->Normalmap (this is how it looks in the window). In the normal map pop-up, the default Filter should say 4 color in a selection box at the top. 

Then the elevation is replaced by Minimum Z (in hundreth's or thousandth's of a value, like .001, or .01 etc).  Then there is Scale, which quantifies the effect. 2-5 should be plenty. If your texture is going seamless, click wrap. Check your preview box, and if you like it, hit OK. Another processing green bar, then you should get that lovely, purple normal map.

I usually save them in the same folder as the source texture and name it xxxx_bump or xxx_normal, just so they're all handy to select when you get to Studio. They also transfer right along into Reality!

Now go play!

Where is this clothes fx??

Sharecg - http://www.sharecg.com/v/27568

@superboomturbo thanks!  You da man!

Attached Link: Room 2

Ive had those for a while thanks for the tip all the same. Nice one Mike

Nother one from my commish project...

Attached Link: http://ssbump-generator.yolasite.com/

Quote - @superboomturbo thanks!  You da man!

Leave a tip in the jar and make somethin' cool

Quote - I've been using SSbump Generator for making normalmaps.  Its free, easy to use and flexable.

That looks super spiffy! Thanks!

I finally got it! The ol' plasma-chuk lives! Turns out, in this case, that using Preserve Hue and not having the black body or color picks from the light tab when calculating layers were the tricks for me. It's been a doozy! Nearly broke my record for test renders...

My cool little story I made up to give him a little history: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2339052

Did a test on 'big'.. 2700 X 4500 px. Took 20 hours to render to 150 S/p. Full view is available in my DeviantArt account :)

The re-sized image is looking a lil' 'edgy'...

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/165/5/b/luxrender_test_2700x4500_px_by_callad31735-d53g49s.jpg

Attached Link: Clothing effect

Quote - Did a test on 'big'.. 2700 X 4500 px. Took 20 hours to render to 150 S/p. Full view is available in my DeviantArt account :)

The re-sized image is looking a lil' 'edgy'...

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/165/5/b/luxrender_test_2700x4500_px_by_callad31735-d53g49s.jpg

 

Are you sure thats not a photo!?!?  That is fantastic!

Abi.

I'm trying to learn about maps.  Does every texture need or benefit from a map? 

Which type of map is better, a normal or a bump?  Are there any other types of maps that improve the way an object looks when you render it?

So much to learn.

Callad, thats a great render!  Love the lighting.  How did you get her shoes to fit so well?  They fit better than my own shoes do.   Beautiful lighting on the stockings too.

BobVan, your clothing disaster made me laugh.  Well done!

A rendering question.  What if someone  happened to stop their render too soon because they were too impatient...and then realized after calming down that the image really did need more time, maybe quite a bit more.  It could happen right?  Well.. umm... If that were to happen to someone, is there any way to render the scene continuing  at the point that it was so wrongly stopped? This would be very good to know considering that someone might do that, someday..maybe.

Quote - Callad, thats a great render!  Love the lighting.  How did you get her shoes to fit so well?  They fit better than my own shoes do.   Beautiful lighting on the stockings too.

The high heels Genesis are wearing are not in the store yet. The creator (skg72) has provided special morphs for Genesis to make them fit almost perfectly in every position.

I got lucky beta-testing them :)  

Oh man, I can't wait for those heels!! genesis is in very bad need of good heels that fit!!

Awesome image callad, where is the nude version, LOL

Quote - I'm trying to learn about maps.  Does every texture need or benefit from a map? 

Which type of map is better, a normal or a bump?  Are there any other types of maps that improve the way an object looks when you render it?

So much to learn.

For me, I base it off of distance, the closer the view, the more detailed I want the texture, so I use maps more for closer views. I tend to stay clear of specular maps as the whole point of using an unbiased renderer is for realism and to reflect the environment, not trick the surface.

As for bump or normal, they basically do the same thing, but a normal is usually more advanced. here is a good quote i got from CGSociety on the subject

Normal maps are just bump maps that allow for the appearance of a bump in any normal direction, not just at the normal. That's the problem with bump maps - everything appears to come "out" of the bump at exactly 90 degrees to the surface of the poly. That's why normal maps are full colour - the three colour channels correspond to the local XYZ space, as opposed to the single channel for bumps. I think they're only known as "game" things because whilst CG can jump from bumps to displacement maps when it needs to, games can't, so they're need for normals are greater than ours.

Quote -   What if someone  happened to stop their render too soon because they were too impatient...and then realized after calming down that the image really did need more time, maybe quite a bit more.  It could happen right? 

This is a built-in feature of Lux. Simply start Lux and File/Open the scene exported by Reality. Lux will restart from where you left off. Do not re-launch the rendering from Reality, that will restart from the beginning. Just launch Lux by itself. You don't even need to start Studio. This and other features are described in the Reality User's Guide.

Hope this helps 

Paolo, with reference to Callad's huge 2700 by 4700 px render, if one were to take a render that size to a print shop, would it still not have enough resolution to reproduce into a decent print? What I'm asking is, are all render engines made only for computer viewing?

Thats 12 megapixel, which is the resolution of the SLR I use.   On a 300dpi printer it gives 13"x10" optimal prints.   On the same 300dpi printer, larger sizes begin to pixelate, smaller sizes loose resolution.

Still likin' that lightsaber!  :)   ...and this is that leather I was workin' on.

(click for bigger)

Quote - Still likin' that lightsaber!  :)   ...and this is that leather I was workin' on.

(click for bigger)

Sweet! Interesting toes, too.

What did you end up using for your light settings on the blade? I had a hell of a time getting the glare to stay on the blade and not transfer to the little lights (set as glossy and not an actual light oddly enough).

Quote - Today I tried rendering a scene with 11 characters and LUX would just crash.. too bad it seems to struggle with a large amount of geometry

If they wear cloth, have you tried to "hide" the caracters body parts under the cloth, you may have much less polys to deal with, since reality will not export them. (Otherwise you still have the decimator... A pluggin I don't really like).

You can click for enlarge.

OK, this image just to say thank pret a  3D for the reality tutorials : I was not able at all to use luxrender before watching and making them. Today it's better. Here is my own version, my first "reality image" produced a few weeks ago.