Hope everyone is great.  

Thank you to Paul and others who have gone on about our Proluma II and ProStudio lights...It really makes me happy to see our stuff being used and enjoyed by so many artists.  Thanks!

• Both products should work fabulously well in ALL the newer versions of Poser.  You shouldn't have any problems there...and if you do, I am always glad to give a full refund.  (never had the need to date)
• ProStudio is has a bit more of an emphasis on point-lights with a resulting "portrait" kindof feel.
• ProLuma II has a more diffuse, even feel to it.  
• ProLuma II is a bit more "instant" because it uses more infinites and spots--just load and render.  Whereas ProStudio or Up Close require just a wee bit more customizing of the point sources for each character pose you might use.  On the other hand, the latter 2 can deliver a much more dramatic look and so are sometimes worth the effort.
• All of the above products render fairly rapidly and do not use IDL.  They are IBL-based.
• I have several new products in the works, which I expect to release before year's end.  These combine IDL w/ SSS effects to deliver a 3rd new type of lighting which is spectacular and gorgeous.  It is a bit slower to render, but worth the wait.  I've worked for a long time on these lights and they are some of my best work to date.
• For best results, you will probably still want to own some of the IBL-based sets as well.
• If people want, I will be glad to create more variants in the ProLuma series.  Let me hear what you want!  I could also be persuaded to put a detailed tutorial up in my store.

Thanks to everyone for your support and making our lights some of the most popular out there.  That is a really great feeling!

you just pretend you are loading a new HDR image map.  click on that an then you can tweak the settings :)

hi all-

here's some stuff i responded to believable about in another thread!:
might be useful

hey b--

agree.  personally, i LOVE gamma correction in poser pro.....use it sometimes to get that very flat washed out look that i like.

however, there is the side of me releasing these lights to the wild hordes out there.  the ONLY reason it says 'no gamma' is to make things predicatable for the new user.  what i really mean is "if you want things to look just like the preset icons"--then please turn gamma off.

since you have a good grasp of what GC does--and understand how to control its effects--please do feel free to experiment with it ON.

caution: all of the proluma2 presets are set so that gamma on the HDR is affected by the output gamma in render settings.  to get correct results (hard for me to predict)--you may have to adjust the input gamma on the HDRs separately.  I'm guessing that you would set it up so that input gamma is still flat (1 i think)--this way you will get the same lighting quality from the preset, but the OUTPUT gamma is shifted.

lemme know what ya come up with--would be neat to see it.  and BB, as the expert there, your feedback totally welcome on this one!

just wanted to be sure the product didn't appear broken on 1st use.  i guess "start with GC off until you know what you are doing" might have been a better phrase.  thanks for this good catch--will update docs for next round of the product.

-s/.

hey b--

agree.  personally, i LOVE gamma correction in poser pro.....use it sometimes to get that very flat washed out look that i like.

however, there is the side of me releasing these lights to the wild hordes out there.  the ONLY reason it says 'no gamma' is to make things predicatable for the new user.  what i really mean is "if you want things to look just like the preset icons"--then please turn gamma off.

since you have a good grasp of what GC does--and understand how to control its effects--please do feel free to experiment with it ON.

caution: all of the proluma2 presets are set so that gamma on the HDR is affected by the output gamma in render settings.  to get correct results (hard for me to predict)--you may have to adjust the input gamma on the HDRs separately.  I'm guessing that you would set it up so that input gamma is still flat (1 i think)--this way you will get the same lighting quality from the preset, but the OUTPUT gamma is shifted.

lemme know what ya come up with--would be neat to see it.

-s/.

.

first, glad everyone's getting the lights to work nicely!  some nice gallery renders are starting to show up that feature proluma2. 

this is pretty exciting to see...and since we were shooting for a 'pose and shoot' product (ok ok--it's still POSER, we only were MOSTLY able to make it that way :)) we're also super happy to see that most of you are having an easy time with the lights.  however:

please feel free to drop me a site mail if you have any questions about the product or are trying to get it to do something unusual.  i'd ask that you please be sure to review the readme PDF that comes with the product--but am more than glad to offer support where it is needed.

finally, we still want to streamline the way the product works--making it even easier to use and more powerful at the same time.  since we are working on an add-on pack at the moment, feel free to drop a note if you think there is something that could be explained more clearly or if there is a particular type of lighting you are just dying to see.  Might just make it in there...Suggestions in general are totally welcome.

thanks everyone for your fantastic support--

-Synthetic.

i love 'distortion'.....!!!!

-s/.

HEY AARDVARK--

i actually released an ice shader (glacier) and one called snowball in my pro shaders I product a while back.

you ought to be able to tune that up to make many types of ice, assuming you are into fooling w/ shaders.  lemme know if it works for ya!

s/.

i shouldn't say this: but in the spirit of goodness (don't tell anyone :)) write me and we can see what we can work out :)  i'd be glad to help out and it promotes me as a new vendor a bit anyhow.

talk soon,

s/.

ps: yer shader looks good as a start.  plug those same nodes into a negative disp map and will look cool.

take a look at the 3rd promo image...bottom left hand corner.  that is the 'motherlode' MAT....basically a concrete kinda thing w/ reflection to look like rough metallics.  it is a pretty complex shader.

change the way the reflection works--and i think you might be pretty close.

good luck and feel free to ping me w/ questions on shaders when i get back!

hey latex-

take a look at my 'pro shaders" #1 product; you may find a couple of the materials in there do just this.  the motherlode and adobe shaders are both designed to tune up into a variety of super distressed materials.  blood orange, with some colour tweaks (or just add a concrete image into hte diffuse channel) will also serve you well.

i do also have a very nice cement specific shader coming out in my next pack....when i am home from travels mid-december, i will be glad to share that one w/ you as a freebie!

isn't fallout great!?

s/.

gosh--thanks, bill.

i seriously DOUBT it is accurate, BUT it looks OK! :)

i am sure it would work well.

stonemason includes a spherical reflection map based off a render....so this is like making a radiosity IBL to go with!

good luck!  keep base light clean and strong

take a look btw at my prev post (page #2) to see it.

base scene lights were strong, contrasty, simple:

1. a point light behind where the character was gunna be placed.  bluish and set so that it falls off quick--this hits the floor and back walls in a cool tone.

2. front of scene was a spot light--yellowish aiming where char was to be placed.  this made my foreground very hot/warm.

3. i added some objects to 'fake' those skylights--they are just self-illuminated boxes (turn ambient up)--they don't cast light but fake it for the IBL map.

place bill's tool (check prev posts---pretty sure you put it where the 'eye' of camera is), render out your HDR map.

1. now make an IBL light--and attach the map, drop in yer char and go!
   hope this helps

no time at the moment--but i've actually made an interior scene and used bill's stuff to CREATE a radiosity IBL map from it.

i then create a new light using that IBL, drop a character in, and my god-it looks fantastic.

more later if you like!

r/.