Quote - > Quote - Justine in white, pantyhose, panties, dress and pumps, all white since some of you like that :)

Tut tut! Did nobody teach Justine that it is bad manners to climb on furniture, and with shoes as well?!

yeah right, like you don't have a handful of dollars ready for that table dance, LOL.

great image!

Quote - Justine in white, pantyhose, panties, dress and pumps, all white since some of you like that :)

Well, that put a big smile on my face, Charley. Especially with ankle straps.  She really looks like she's standing there, you know, balanced.  Nice execution. Thanks very much.

Jay

Attached Link: My private wix gallery

Uhm.. I have updated my wix gallery with some images of Justine I really can't post here I think..

There also maybe one small (partial) photo of a certain lady on that same site that I will take down when I'm no longer in a 'silly mood' like I am now..

So if you are interested..

Dont mean to be a ball buster but my question was ignored once again... I must have the plague LOL

Quote - So if you are interested..

Callad you have a really outstanding Gallery there, I like your images!

Interesting is, if you compare the color and B/W pictures, that most of the B/W pictures look much closer to reality! ;-)

Thanks for sharing!

Quote - Dont mean to be a ball buster but my question was ignored once again... I must have the plague LOL

It's compiled into the scene and calculated like anything else. It's just when light rays strike the surface, nothing happens to them. The path is continued from that point exactly as it arrived. It also consumes a bounce of your total maximum (Reality uses 25 by default, or at least it has in all the scene files i've seen). The reason it's done like this is because null is generally not used by itself, it's combined with some other shader somehow to cause only part of the object to become invisible. Things like alpha mapping, sheer materials, volume-only objects, etc. See: http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxRender_Materials_Null

Quote - > Quote - Dont mean to be a ball buster but my question was ignored once again... I must have the plague LOL

 

It's compiled into the scene and calculated like anything else. It's just when light rays strike the surface, nothing happens to them. The path is continued from that point exactly as it arrived. It also consumes a bounce of your total maximum (Reality uses 25 by default, or at least it has in all the scene files i've seen). The reason it's done like this is because null is generally not used by itself, it's combined with some other shader somehow to cause only part of the object to become invisible. Things like alpha mapping, sheer materials, volume-only objects, etc. See: http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxRender_Materials_Null

Thanks man

Used Garibaldi Hair plug in for this render, but had to cheat again....my poor old laptop keeps crashing when trying to export the hair to OBJ form, especially when I try and import the hair OBJ back into Daz, so I combined the 3Delight rendert of the hair with the Reality render of the girl to get the desired results. Hope to upgrade laptop in a couple of weeks or so, so it won't joke all the time during exports....

Quote - Thanks guys :)

Uhm.. I have updated my wix gallery with some images of Justine I really can't post here I think..

There also maybe one small (partial) photo of a certain lady on that same site that I will take down when I'm no longer in a 'silly mood' like I am now..

So if you are interested..

Thanks for the reminder about your wix gallery. It's nicely constructed.

I think I figured out the photo, but who's the lady? I guess a gentleman shouldn't ask.

Uhm.. I guess that would be me Ray.. blush

Quote - Justine in white, pantyhose, panties, dress and pumps, all white since some of you like that :)

Looks outstanding as always.  Can I ask what pantyhose those are?  They look great.  I'm always figthing the gap between the mesh and skin.  Are these conforming?

These are the BO Duperhose and yes, they are conforming. The trick is to shrink them that 85% is 'inside' her body, then apply Mesh Smoothing with collision item V4. Adjust the setting untill everthing fits. :)

Quote - These are the BO Duperhose and yes, they are conforming. The trick is to shrink them that 85% is 'inside' her body, then apply Mesh Smoothing with collision item V4. Adjust the setting untill everthing fits. :)

Ahh, that sounds like a very clever idea!  Thanks!

Uhm.. "Duperhose"?? ..awck.. I ment SUPERhose.. sorry, all thumbs so it seems.. :P

Quote - Uhm.. I guess that would be me Ray.. blush

Bold!  Provocative!  Beautiful.

Shot by you?  Or did you have assistance? 

Quote - > Quote - Uhm.. I guess that would be me Ray.. blush

Bold!  Provocative!  Beautiful.

Shot by you?  Or did you have assistance? 

Does that matter? smirk :b_blush:

Thank you for the lighting tips all. 

I have been having problems posting here for some reason.

Attached Link: http://bobvan.deviantart.com/#/d5sq9h6

Attached Link: http://bobvan.deviantart.com/#/d5sq9gx

Attached Link: http://bobvan.deviantart.com/#/d5sq9gf

Attached Link: http://bobvan.deviantart.com/#/d5sq9fw

4....

Firstly I have a hopefully simple question. Is there a way to get Reality to read my Daz light settings and convert them appropriately? I say this because no matter which light settings I add to the scene, they always default to 1.00 gain and 100 watts and need reworking in Reality. I've also noticed that the "House Lights" tag doesn't seem to work and Reality still tries to render them, so I have to manually disable any such lights in the Reality dialogs.

Secondly, and related to the picture, I could really use some help with skin settings. Sadly ACSEL shaders aren't available for a lot of the figures I currently use, and I can't figure out what Surface Fuzz is actually doing, since I can't see a difference between using it and not. The example image is a postworked piece I did recently. The post work process was identical for both.

The left represents 3Delights render. The right is Reality 2.0. Both use virtually the same lighting rig. Three spotlights, and one IBL (Daz's UE2 replaced by Reality's IBL). I used the same TIFF image for the IBL in both (though I note this also has to be done through Reality since changing the IBL sphere surface has no effect).

Any tips for getting a cleaner, brighter image?

The lighting result of Lux depends on many, many things. Almost impossible to right down in a short comment.

My first tip however, would be to replace the spotlights with small meshlights positioned at the place the spots are now. Spotlights give razor sharp shadows and with small meshlights you can 'steer' the softness of the shadows.

Luxrender lights are very different from the Daz lights and you cannot automatically convert a Daz light into a Lux light. I know that Lux picks up pointlights, distantlights and spotlights but my advice is to avoid those. Use the lights that are designed for Luxrender otherwise you are selling yourself short.

There is also no need to use 'houselights'. Simply disable 'Preview lights' in the 'Window' tab. That way you keep a clear overall lighting in your scene if you stil decide to keep using Daz lights.

Not much, but I hope this will set you in the right derection. :)

Slightly off topic, but I know some of you want to know how I make clothing fit.

I've uploaded a close-up of the legs/pose I used in my previous upload with directions on how to fit clothing items using the example of the BO Superhose.

http://callad31735.deviantart.com/gallery/37351850#/d5srhda

Waning: See through nudity..

Quote - Waning: See through nudity..

One of these days you have to put:

Warning: No nudity :lol:

Quote - > Quote - Waning: See through nudity..

One of these days you have to put:

Warning: No nudity :lol:

Pfffft... As if you mind Anton ;) :laugh:

Using Charlie's background, lights and an additional mesh light as a key light for depth.

Very nice work Reggie!

I think my current problems are that by using the mesh lights Reality provides tends to push things to the opposite end of the spectrum. They appear extremely dim at render, and it's a lot harder to direct them so it doesn't interfere with the scene as you can with spotlights. Also, since the scale of the light directly affects the strength, it can be hard to balance it out. Striking the balance is probably Reality's steepest learning curve, especially since a lot of the focus is on the lighting. I've also found it extremely difficult working with the materials, as the options are far fewer than in Daz Studio. I'm used to being able to tweak all kinds of settings like subsurface scatter (sorely missed in Reality 2.0), reflection strength and more, as well as creating less natural elements using the pwShaders like plasma or fire. Moving from having so many options to having so few puts me a little out of my element.

The above render, for those curious, was going for well over 20 hours. It's still far from perfect, as one can tell from the amount of noise, and the skin and hair aren't particularly lifelike yet. I'm moving onto the later builds of Luxrender since they seem to be improving their 'firefly' removal by leaps and bounds, but it could be a while yet before I'm comfortable using it regularly.

I see you found the page these folks are great with tips

Reality 3 weekly update ready: http://ow.ly/h9z3y

Hello.

As Callad mentioned, starting from the Studio lights and trying to make them do the same in Reality/Lux is not going to work. There is a simple reason for that: Studio lights are not realistic. If you use the mindset appropriate for those lights then you will not get the right results when using physics-based lights. In fact photographers who use Reality are the ones who generally get the results that they want more easily. That's because they start with the mindset based on real lights.

As Callad mentioned, meshlights are the best wayt to work, in fact I rarely, if ever, use spots. Spots are probably the most unflattering lights that you can use. 

Quote - I think my current problems are that by using the mesh lights Reality provides tends to push things to the opposite end of the spectrum.

I think there is a bit of misunderstandin here. Meshlights are actually the most faithful representation of an artificial light source.

Quote - They appear extremely dim at render, and it's a lot harder to direct them so it doesn't interfere with the scene as you can with spotlights.

Are you sure that you are exposing the scene correctly? If you set a light at 500Watts it will be bright. Are you using the Linear tonemapper? 

Quote - Also, since the scale of the light directly affects the strength, it can be hard to balance it out.

This is actually not true at all. The scale of the light affects the softness of the light. Softness and brightness are not related at all. 

The brightness is affected by the distance of the light in relation to the subject. A light that is closer to the subject is brighter. The scale determines how soft the light is. A larger light is softer than a small one. You can have a 2000W softbox, in real life, a few inches from the face of a person which will result in very bright and very soft lighting. 

Quote - Striking the balance is probably Reality's steepest learning curve, especially since a lot of the focus is on the lighting. I've also found it extremely difficult working with the materials, as the options are far fewer than in Daz Studio. I'm used to being able to tweak all kinds of settings like subsurface scatter (sorely missed in Reality 2.0), reflection strength and more,

You can do the same in Reality. The reflection strength is controlled by the brightness of the specular color. The amount of "polish" of a specular surface is controlled by the glossiness strength. You don't have to micromanage the materials because they have physical attributes, something that you don't have in Studio.

The best way to approach Lux and Reality is to avoid thinking of them as "3Delight on steroids." Using the 3Delight midset with Reality/Lux is a surefire path to frustration and bad results. You need to think like a photographer and work in the context of realistic materials. Once you do that the results will happen right away.

Please don't hesitate asking more questions if you need.

Quote - As Callad mentioned, meshlights are the best wayt to work, in fact I rarely, if ever, use spots. Spots are probably the most unflattering lights that you can use.

How can I imitate a spotlight, especially for a stage, so that the character stands in a circle of light?

Quote - How can I imitate a spotlight, especially for a stage, so that the character stands in a circle of light?

You could size a meshligh very small, make it a thin sliver and enclose it inside an open cone.

Hope this helps.

Or use an IES profile from a real world spotlight

Quote - Or use an IES profile from a real world spotlight

That's true! Why didn't I think of that? :)

Quote - > Quote - Or use an IES profile from a real world spotlight

That's true! Why didn't I think of that? :)

I have to find one then. Thank you for the suggestions :)

Here you go: http://sitelighting.com/ProductIES.cfm?Style=DSP7&Brand=gar&ProLine=dsp

There are few spots to try there.

Quote - Reality 3 weekly update ready: http://ow.ly/h9z3y

Speaking of updates was there not suppose to be one for 2 or did I miss something?

http://www.seleconlight.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=475

I use those, mainly

SPX - all optical systems - GKV 600W 240V

Quote - > Quote - Reality 3 weekly update ready: http://ow.ly/h9z3y

 

Speaking of updates was there not suppose to be one for 2 or did I miss something?

It's not ready yet.

Quote - > Quote - > Quote - Reality 3 weekly update ready: http://ow.ly/h9z3y

 

Speaking of updates was there not suppose to be one for 2 or did I miss something?

It's not ready yet.

ok

Thanks for the IES links!

Quote - You can do the same in Reality. The reflection strength is controlled by the brightness of the specular color. The amount of "polish" of a specular surface is controlled by the glossiness strength. You don't have to micromanage the materials because they have physical attributes, something that you don't have in Studio. The best way to approach Lux and Reality is to avoid thinking of them as "3Delight on steroids." Using the 3Delight midset with Reality/Lux is a surefire path to frustration and bad results. You need to think like a photographer and work in the context of realistic materials. Once you do that the results will happen right away.

Please don't hesitate asking more questions if you need.

It's definitely going to take some time for me. I literally zero experience as a photographer (I rarely even use my phone camera), so trying to think like one is probably not doing my renders much good at the moment. I think the difficulty for me is largely that the render times are quite longer than 3Delight, so I don't tend to notice that I'm not getting the intended results until it's done a fair number of samples.  As for materials, that one will continue to be a bit of a stumbling block. As I mentioned earlier, subsurface scatter is something I can't seem to find an option for. Glossy materials don't appear to support it. In fact, it's one of the reasons I'm looking at grabbing Reality 3 when it's released for its dedicated Skin shaders. Another thing I'm used to doing (albeit largely to work with biased renderers) is being able to set a texture to full ambient so it's bright whatever the lighting (useful for things like Jepes' ThrowZ).

That said, there is one thing I'm very curious about and that's the "Load Shaders" option in the drop down. Does this only load ACSEL shaders made through Reality? I downloaded some Lux materials from the site, but there doesn't seem to be a way to integrade those shaders into Reality. It probably seems like an obvious answer, but considering the drop down has options which actually **specify **they're ACSEL, and that one doesn't I just had to query it.

Im no photographer but I think I got the knack for lighting

Quote - It's definitely going to take some time for me. I literally zero experience as a photographer (I rarely even use my phone camera), so trying to think like one is probably not doing my renders much good at the moment.

When I say "think as a photographer" I mean to be an observer of reality, the real life. Photographers use real lights, not that approximation that most 3D programs offer. I'll give you an example. A few days ago I needed to recreate the effect of a candle in a render. So, I literally grabbed a candle and observed how the shadow of an object was going to be affected by the proximity of the candle of the wall, in respect to the object.

If you use a flashlight or a light fixture you can discover how light works. Once you have a setup that you like you can reproduce that in Reality faithfully. Observe the real light and you will have the key to lighting efficiently in Reality/Lux. There are also plenty of books from public libraries about lighting. An hour spent reading a lighting text will do more than 10 hours of guesswork.

Quote - I think the difficulty for me is largely that the render times are quite longer than 3Delight, so I don't tend to notice that I'm not getting the intended results until it's done a fair number of samples.

Render times are indeed longer but not that much. If you set up a scene with some of the more sophisticated lighting system of 3Delight the times can be as long if not even longer than Lux, with the penalty that nothing shows on the screen for a long time. The secret, again, is to work efficiently with lights. Lux requires a fraction of the lights used with 3Delight. If you light your scene like you were using 3Delight, and then render with Lux, you will be penalized. I suggest to start simple: use one single meshlight. Play with that forcing yourself to only use one single meshlight. You will discover a world of possibilities and renders that come up pretty quickly.

Another "mistake" that I see often from newcomers is to set up the resolution too high. Set your initial scene at something like 960x540. Do some tests. The image will come up quickly. When you are sure about what you want then turn the resolution up and render the final image.

Quote - Another thing I'm used to doing (albeit largely to work with biased renderers) is being able to set a texture to full ambient so it's bright whatever the lighting.

I don't know what that means, if you mean to turn a material to light it's a a click away in Reality. Right-click on the material and select "Turn to light". Please forgive me for asking, but, did you check the Reality User's Guide? It seams that a few issues that you have are explained in the guide. I know that it's a not fun to read manuals but the RUG really has a lot of useful information :) > Quote - That said, there is one thing I'm very curious about and that's the "Load Shaders" option in the drop down. Does this only load ACSEL shaders made through Reality? I downloaded some Lux materials from the site, but there doesn't seem to be a way to integrade those shaders into Reality. It probably seems like an obvious answer, but considering the drop down has options which actually **specify **they're ACSEL, and that one doesn't I just had to query it.

Those Lux materials are only interfaced by LuxBlend and cannot be loaded by Reality. To tell you the truth, there are no many of them and it will be just faster to create them in Reality 3 than to build an import system for those. If they become more of a trend I will reconsider but right now there is not enough content in there to justify an importer.

Hope this helps.

Most of my general stuff is done in 800x800 to start with. That goes for both 3Delight and Lux. Of course, the problem comes that if I want a transparent background it's more difficult to get light to bounce around the character. Putting in a plane works for getting light to bounce, but the problem is keeping it out of the frame and still getting the same effects. In the real world, people can't stand against a void, so there's no real-world equivalent situation that can help with that.

In those situations I tend to add more lights, which probably isn't helping my render times any. I'm still very much used to a 3-point lighting system which I tend to adopt for most of my work in Daz. Sometimes it's hard to break old habits.

Quote - Here you go: http://sitelighting.com/ProductIES.cfm?Style=DSP7&Brand=gar&ProLine=dsp

There are few spots to try there.

So ... how do you use these, where are they installed? 

So, for the Ambient Strength trick you can turn a material to light and then set it on its on light group so that you can dial the gain as you need in Lux. One thing needs to be asked though: why? Why do you need to turn that material to light? Because if it because it does emit light, like in the case of a TV screen, then it's all OK. On the other hand if you need to "brightned it up" then that is not the way it should be done. It should be done with lighting. Often via a large mesh light that creates a bit of ambient light. 

Regarding the BG replacement look at how it's done in the movies. BG replacement is done all the time via Greenscreen (chromakey). That provides bounced light, althougn it can cause green spill. With 3D you have more options. One is to use the trick that I showed in the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9ClHG0HXgg

Instead of using the sky you can simply render your scene with a backplane first to get the indirect light. The hide the backplane and re-render a second image just to get the alpha channel calculated. Then use the alpha channel to remove the BG in the first image. The technique is the same as showed in the video.

Hope this helps.

Quote - So ... how do you use these, where are they installed? 

They are not "installed". You save them to disk anywhere you want. In the Reality light editor you add one of those files to any light that you want to turn into the light descibed by the IES file.

Cheers.