After a gallery posting comment from jstsittinghere on "Star Census" , and the string posted here by Kiera on Vicky Realism, I thought I'd experiment. Far top right is the gallery posting. "c & b" are one light and "a" is the same only tweaked in photoshop.(2 layers, one grayscale with color overlay sharpened) "d" is with 2 lights. Deosn't come close to the realism of poser 5, yet it's not to shabby, best I've ever done.

Oh yeah secularity was turned up to 22 in b & c

oops, Specularity

This one all white w/true amb

I think B & C look pretty good. Looks like you need some more bump though. Mike can look pretty good, but you can see his polys, particularly on the skull, which makes realism more difficult to achieve. The brows are a touch over-exagerrated. Maybe tone them down a tad.

Close to realism, very close. He still looks a bit 'modeling clay' IYKWIM..... Better than anything I could do........ The Bryster

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I think the last render is awesome! Only the eyes need work, a reflection map or some kind of specularity change. To get rid of the plastic-like look to it. I read an awesome article in 3DArtist a while back about lighting and people, perhaps you can find it online... Still, the article talked about making two tiny spotlights, and smack them RIGHT in front of the eyes, tracking to the eyes objects. Screw with them a bit, and you'll get a cool effect. Another thing, are you using and rear lights? They can add to realism as well... Just some ideas!

Great lighting setups you have there. Nice fading in the back edges. Using the black background makes the figure look softer, more natural overall. I always suggest reading up on real world lighting setups, like in portrait photography. There is a lot there that can be directly applied to 3D. AgentSmith

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I like global illumination/True Ambience, but even that needs to be used in small levels. (imho) AS

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AgentSmith, can you please explain the lighting system/arrangement you used in your pic above. If it's pure True Ambience, I'd love to know how you got round the issue of mesh non-smoothing. Being able to use imported meshes (especially Poser ones) with True Ambience would be a cheering proposition. Other than the texture map looking a bit too saturated (ouch, sunburn!) I think the figure looks realistically lit.

Yeah, the sunburn texture is intentional, lol. That's how the texture comes anyways. No true ambience used, just a dome array (around 40-50 radial lights), ambient color of the shadows at 33, soft shadows turned on at 25%. (the soft shadows aren't truly needed) I keep the radial lights turned way down, around 5 or less, and I color the lights very, very slightly yellow, and as I duplicate my radial lights into the dome, I will slightly alternate the level of that yellow. I start at R=255,G=255,B=235. I then make some of the blues = 230,235,240, or 245, etc. That's all. But I have a question...(below) AgentSmith

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What do you mean by; "how you got round the issue of mesh non-smoothing"? I've used poser figures with True Ambience before, and they look no different at all, as far as smoothing of the mesh goes. Which you shouldn't have to do, by the way at all, if you are exporting out of Poser as a .obj. (Which I suggest you do pretty much always) AS

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He means that if a poser model is lit with just true ambience (no other light source) then even with 180 smoothing you still have facets as above.

Hmm..what Poser figure version are you using? P4 male, or is it an earlier model? I may be wrong, but it looks as if it is just a lower res figure, meaning less polygons, so more facets. The figure I used above is just the P4 female, but is I were to take the camera closer you would start seeing the facets more clearly. You can see a few already at the top of the head, and the bottom of the breasts. But, I'll do a close-up render of her hand, with true ambience on, to see if there is any big change. AgentSmith

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Attached Link: http://www.computerarts.co.uk/magazine/latest.asp?id=32742

By the way, Computer Arts Magazine Issue #38has included on it's CD is the Victoria 1.0 model for free. She carries a fair amount of poly's. AS

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Yes it was the P4 male. The same render but with normal lightning produced a smooth render.

Strange. And, you're exporting out of Poser as an .obj? AS

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The P4 fem hand looks fairly good close-up with true ambience. I'll check out the P4 male... AS

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Well, that IS about right for the P4 male polygon-wise. I tried it with true ambience on and off and it looks about the same for me. Of course, what helps hide facets are dark backgrounds. Only way to change this is purchase a higher-res model. (Mike 1.0, 2.0) Or (what I do), post-work the facets away. Sorry. :o/ AS

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What's strange is, Bryce says the P4 Female has 30,074 polys, and the P4 Male has 33,234 polys. Obviously, his extra 3,160 polys aren't in his hands... AS

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Hires textures may help too. I only used the default P4 textures.

;)

AS: Maybe the MALE has more bits than the female?

Available on Amazon for the Kindle E-Reader

All the Woes of a World by Jonathan Icknield aka The Bryster

And in my final hours - I would cling rather to the tattooed hand of kindness - than the unblemished hand of hate...

That thought occured to me, but I had neutered him before I brought him into Bryce...;o) AS

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Ouch!

Available on Amazon for the Kindle E-Reader

All the Woes of a World by Jonathan Icknield aka The Bryster

And in my final hours - I would cling rather to the tattooed hand of kindness - than the unblemished hand of hate...