Hi all,

I recently purchased the Portrait Studio product from this store, and have started to play.

I firstly set up and saved a very rudimentary scene containing Michael 4 in Poser. I say "rudimentary" to mean default lights, default Michelangelo stance, default skin texture etc etc

I saved this scene, and then went into Vue. I opened up Portrait Studio, and then imported the M4 scene. I used all of the defaults (i.e. did not change any light color, position) except for zooming the Main Camera into his face.

Then I rendered. The problem that I ended up with is one that I haven't seen since the Poser 5 days. The old "flashlight in the nostrils" effect. Also, the subject also seemed to have "radioactive teeth" (i.e. glowing whiter-than-white). In Poser, we have come a long way to fix this using ambient occlusion and other effects. Here, I looked at my render options, but couldn't work out what was going on.

I was told that I should install the Light Tune module, which I did, but the problem remained.

I have played around with the light settings, but have not found a solution.

Another problem --> the documentation states that there are three cameras in Portrait Studio - the main, the face and the high-angle cameras. However, in my world browser, only the main camera shows up.

I have shot off a message to the author of Portrait Studio regarding these issues, and am awaiting a reply. This was almost 2 days ago.

regards,
Andrew
 

PS. The problem might be because I am using the Main Camera instead of the Face Camera. I have no choice, however, because the Main Camera is the only one I can see in the world browser (as previously mentioned).

Are you talking about "Render Studio"??
That's the only one I can think of, I have this one but haven't heard of "portrait studio"..
Anyway, it could be this, Render Studio was set up to use in Vue 6.
When Vue 7 and upwards came out, e-on changed something in the lighting set up which had a detrimental effect on the lights in Render Studio plus some other similar products, "Interior Pack" for example.
Someone did post a workaround for the lighting change, you'd have to do a search for it because I can't remember what it said, I just went back to using Vue 6 if using Render Studio instead of 8.5.
That said I haven't seen this issue when using it, but then it could be a different product..

If you don't mean Render Studio then just ignore all the above..LOL, not that it helps you much anyway..

Injustice will be avenged.
Cofiwch Dryweryn.

No I am talking about Portrait Studio. It is available from Cornucopia3D. It is created by the same guy who created SkinVue (AFAIK).

ok, I've seen it now, it's similar to Render Studio in how it works.
I noticed you have contacted Dave, he will reply, he's a very approachable and really nice and generous guy. I'm sure he will be able to offer you a solution..

Injustice will be avenged.
Cofiwch Dryweryn.

You only see the main camera, because to see the other cameras, you need to unfold the camera group, by clicking on the + sign in fromnt of the camera object in the world browser. Next to switch cameras, double click the camera you want to use.
I'll let Dave explain to you how his product works.

Bruno, there is no + sign in front of the main camera, so in other words there is nothing to expand. I should have provided an image of the world browser (can't right now, as I am at work) .

Strange, there is at least always the top camera...

Here's my proof .....

Just out of interest, have you gone to Display/Activate Camera in your top menu bar??
Do the other cameras appear there??

Injustice will be avenged.
Cofiwch Dryweryn.

No, I didn't. I did what you suggested and activated the Face Camera. It replaced the Main Camera in the World Browser (i.e. it did NOT add an extra camera). So, still no + sign and still no multiple cameras.

I then followed the instructions and poor Michael still has glowing nostrils and earlobes, and radioactive teeth.

Maybe that's how Dave's version works with the cameras, I guess only he can say or someone else who has this one.
In Render Studio [sorry to keep mentioning it], which is a similar sytem, there are multiple cameras in the World browser.
I know that doesn't help, I'm just thinking that maybe Dave's works in that way, from the top menu bar...
I can't offer a solution for the teeth though, sorry..

Injustice will be avenged.
Cofiwch Dryweryn.

OK, I went through all of the lights one-by-one, and essentially turned them off (i.e. set Power=0). As I turned each one off, I did a render with the default render settings that came with Portrait studio.

I even went so far as deleting the main diffuse light, but no matter what i did, the glowing nostrils and radioactive teeth point-blank refused to go away.

Grrr.. this is becoming f*cking annoying...

To me it seems like a subsurface scattering issue, check the "Lighting and effects" tab of the advanced material deitor, and check the "Luminous" parameter. See if you can decrease anything in this setting.

Try reducing the diffusion and abience levels for that part of the model. I usuallu use 30%diffusion and 10% abient for GR rendering.

bruno's probably right
SSS causes crap like that, but also sometimes it just occurs regardless, damned annoying, and may indeed be due to radiosity not working right, try welding up the model?

and do NOT use Poser shaders (materials). always import with that turned off if you want best effect, IMHO , and carefully go through every material to see how screwed up they are and fix 'em.
MDT maybe right, usually it's highlights but I've seen some weird settings on importing Poser items! :p

"I'd rather be a Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
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bruno, the Luminous parameter was already set to zero. mdt, i fiddled with the diffusion and ambience for the face, nostrils, teeth and tongue. I am getting improved results, but still there is a hint of the "flashlight in the nostrils" which just won't go away. silverblade33, what do you mean "welding up the model" ?

when you imported the model, if you didn't chose GROUP FIGURE AS SINGLE MESH, it will be in many pieces. Personally I suggest NOT ticking this box, it brings in many pieces which can then be altered later to suit special needs, but sometimes as said, you have issues with SSS and radiosity.

sometimes it's important to have the human figure, and ONLY the human figure (no props, or clothes) as one solid object when using SSS
so what I do is:
import as many pieces,
work on materials.
save figure out as .vob

then I will weld up the Poser person only, no props or clothes, this is easier for Vue to work with and often fixes SSS problems but NOTE!!! hair and eyelashes can cause problems, I don't know why, but believe it's the transparency, sometimes you have to split the model, seperate the hair/eyelashes into another group, then weld up the rest of the model
then once all is welded and nice, save as a different named copy of the figure as a .vob like "Mike 4 welded.vob"

SSS issue maybe because each seperate part is acting as an object thus screwing up the limits of the SSS, for example, you may see dark edges around finger joints, and other areas where individual pieces meet.

also, try rendering with radiosity ON and OFF, see if that brings this issue up, I have found that it does.
:)

"I'd rather be a Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models, D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!

In another (older) product, Dave used a lot of ambient lighting, check the "artificial ambience" parameter in the atmosphere editor, and if it iset high (more than 1.00), try reducing it.

silverblade33, your suggestion to use radiosity is an excellent one and has made the most dramatic improvement so far. Some of what you have said is still going straight over my head, for example what do you mean "import as many pieces" ? ... and I still don't understand what you mean when you say "weld up the Poser person only".

Quote -
then I will weld up the Poser person only, no props or clothes, this is easier for Vue to work with and often fixes SSS problems but NOTE!!! hair and eyelashes can cause problems, I don't know why, but believe it's the transparency, sometimes you have to split the model, seperate the hair/eyelashes into another group, then weld up the rest of the model
then once all is welded and nice, save as a different named copy of the figure as a .vob like "Mike 4 welded.vob"

SSS issue maybe because each seperate part is acting as an object thus screwing up the limits of the SSS, for example, you may see dark edges around finger joints, and other areas where individual pieces m
eet.
:)

is this the transparency issue you are talking about?

im using collada import as the poser import does not work (dont ask mi why, it worked on my 2003 windows but does not work since the 2008 windows upgrade).

is the regrouping gone a fix this?
I loose all the groups when exporting to collada.... have to check if i can somehow export it with the groups.... or ist there an other way to fix this issue?

Very good tip.
It solved my problem (no more issues with the regrouping):

ah glad that helped ya! :)

think the lips could do with a little more bump?

"I'd rather be a Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models, D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!