Hey All,

Now, I know I've never been that good with lighting, but this problem has me two inches from tearing my hair out. So, to avoid the pain that would inflict, I'm hoping one of you smart people can help me with this.

I downloaded the Japanese Flair pack from Daz ( http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=5558 ) earlier tonight, and after making an entire scene and getting it the way I liked I tried to do the lighting. However, when I test rendered it I thought something was off. Then I realized that the shadows were wrong! Instead of the light going through the rice paper walls and making the square shadows on the ground (like in the promotional images for the product) the danged thing is just making an entire solid shadow. I tried to render it in Poser5 at first, as that's my program of choice, and I got a pop-up asking me to find something called "NO_MAP" but it gave no file extension on the name. So, after searching my computer and finding zip, I tried to render it in Poser7. I don't get the pop up there, however it wont render the shadows right, either. I even tried to use the horrid pre-made lighting that came with the packadge and still nothing! :crying:

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Some box I need to check off or some mat I need to take out? I'd really like to get this to work right. I'm already attached to the scene, but the image wont look right unless the shadows are there. And I can't draw them in...As I suck at that.

Any help would be dearly appreciated, and my scalp will owe you it's life.

Lisa

try making the paper in the walls transparent ,

there are some serious errors in the shadows of that promo image. really too many to list here. I suggest that if yer shadows don't look like that, then yer doing something right. it appears that the person who did that promo image didn't read the p4 manual about shadow maps and shadow cams, or else they didn't read the P7 manual about AO, ray-traced shadows and depth-mapped shadows.

all promo images have the rendered in DAZ Studio logo. that may make the diffrence.

It also appears the paper material is turned transparent for the promo renders.

it is particulary apparent in the last promo image where the wall on the left extends past the wall on the right and can be seen threw where the paper should be in the corner.

o.k., if it were rendered in DS, then I can't advise. perhaps the vendor will be able to explain it in detail.

Thanks for the help guys :)

I wound up replacing the paper in the front wall with a glass texture, which is fine considering that wall was only there for shadow purposes anyhow and wasn't going to be seen.

And personally I wish they'd put up promo images that were rendered in BOTH programs! Some people who download this stuff, like myself, only use Poser. Some people use only Daz Studio. Why can't they cater to all of us? All of our currency is surely accepted the same, is it not?

You can also make a prop out of the paper section of the wall, Make the original paper section completely transparent and set the new paper "prop" so that it doesn't cast shadows. I had to do this for Stonemasons "the Ministry" environment when the windows weren’t letting light through without taking all day to render the image.

The Ministry takes a long time to render? Wow. That thing costs a small fortune, too.
Ahhh, I'm gonna have to write that trick down and save it for the next time I use that room. Thanks!