Howdy;

I have been wondering about something...

How are these backgrounds used?...how does the process go of inserting your character into these backgrounds?...is there a tutorial anywhere?...

and yes, i know my questions might seem stupid...but i honestly just dont know how this is done.

Are these images not the same as any image that i can get of the internet?...or out of stock images?...and then in photoshop put my character in front of them?...

is there a way to make your characters appear like they are part of these backgrounds?...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/vt05-swamp-tales/92754

thanks.

this is probably my last post lol, so lets see if it makes anymore sense than others i have posted lol, try using a good hdr image on bb's envirosphere, then in the material room, click the default ground prop and in the advanced material settings, uncheck reflection lite multi and select shadow catch only, use idl and watch your figure become part of the scene, the backgrounds you mention are produced by vendors to save the majority of users having to do exactly what you mentioned above, very often the Bg's are part of a prop set with a foreground that matches the background...if that makes any sense, load a ground prop and remember to apply the same settings to the poser ground prop, use an image on any of the paper cove type props for similar effects.............

Quote - Are these images not the same as any image that i can get of the internet?...or out of stock images?...and then in photoshop put my character in front of them?... is there a way to make your characters appear like they are part of these backgrounds?...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/vt05-swamp-tales/92754

The backgrounds you linked to are just flat images, so although the HDR / Environment Sphere approach is the best for getting integrated lighting, it won't work for these.

Render your character to a PNG, and in render settings choose a black background. Then, as you say, composite in Photoshop. The trick, of course, is to set your scene lighting to match the apparent lighting of the background, and that can be difficult. You will probably want to do a "shadow catch" render to give you a ground shadow also.  

Attached Link: "How to Make Backgrounds for Poser" by Dr Geep

Click the Attached Link (above the image) to view the tutorial.

Then scroll down to view all the pages in the tutorial.

Enjoy. :biggrin:

cheers,
dr geep
;=]

Just get your characters set up as required, outfits etc..

Switch off the Ground (CTRL and G).

Put on your lights.

DON'T put on any backgrounds or change the colour of the background, leave it as the load up grey colour.

Render your characters.

Export as a PNG, the background (Grey colour) will be saved as transparent.

Load your PNG into your graphics program and crop to take out a lot of the redundent background.

Save again, make sure it is in PNG format.

Load up any background you have.

Load up the png.

Drag the characters in the png over to the background.

Resize as required.

The backgrounds you linked to, also have foregrounds. So, for those you need to do as above with the background first, next layer the characters, the next layer the foreground. This way your characters look as if they are walking through the grass, and not as if they are just stuck on a background. You can do a lpit of postworks with some grass brushes to get the same effect.

All the best.

LROG

I prefer to import my background images into Poser (File -> Import -> Background Picture) and render the figures against the background. That always gives a better looking result to me than pasting the figure onto the background afterwards. Then fiddle about with lighting effects, blending etc. in PS afterwards.

If you prefer to be able to move the background about in Poser (eg. of you're using it to fill a hole in the scenery or behind a window) then you can put the image on a flat plane and move that around to where you need it.

(A lot of my backgrounds I create in Terragen 2 and it's far too much hassle to import objects into Terragen to render, so it's easier for me to use them as backgrounds and scene fillers in Poser).

So no way to import purchased backgrounds and just make it fit the scene????

Quote - So no way to import purchased backgrounds and just make it fit the scene????

Sure there is. (I'm assuming you're talking about images used for backgrounds.)

In your Poser File menu, choose Import: Background Image. You will get a dialogue box asking you if you wish to rescale your preview to the images size/ratio. Do that for best results. In order to turn the display of that background image on or off or to get rid of it completely, under the Display menu, choose to Show (check/uncheck) or to Clear the image.

Also, you may wish to make the Ground Plane transparent. To do that, simply select it under the props list and make it invisible to the camera.

Note: You may only want to use part of a background image. In order to easily do that, just load in a Primitive Plane and then put a 2d Image map node on it and load the image onto that in the using the material room. Rescale the primitive appropriately and place it behind the figures in your scene.

Also, you may want to either craft or find an IBL to use. I recommend BagginsBill's IBL generator - https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/genibl---ibl-generator

Quote - Howdy;

I have been wondering about something...

How are these backgrounds used?...how does the process go of inserting your character into these backgrounds?...is there a tutorial anywhere?...

and yes, i know my questions might seem stupid...but i honestly just dont know how this is done.

Are these images not the same as any image that i can get of the internet?...or out of stock images?...and then in photoshop put my character in front of them?...

is there a way to make your characters appear like they are part of these backgrounds?...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/vt05-swamp-tales/92754

thanks.

no they are not the same as any image you get off the web. Most of the packages are made by artists using elements.

with that said...

as to getting your character to fit into them.

I prefer to place a bg I wish to use into the background of the scene in poser,

work the lights to get the feel of the colors, tones, light direction the BG shows.

do a test render, tweek the lights, now depending on if the figure is to sit/stand on anything I can make the floor a shadow catch(it will only render the shadow of the figure) or I dont have to worry about it(say a head shot of mid torso up shot)

remove background from the scene in poser, render. Take to photoshop, reopen the background, place figure, tweek, play etc...

(please save along the way to ensure you do not loose everything. I am abit paranoid and oftern rename a file that has progressed abit that way if I need to back track I can)

If you work your lights to reflect the appearance of the BG you should be good to go.