I'm not always sure if the rendering techniques or texturing that i'm using in poser are up to date or the best way to go about things. I've been using envirosphere and no lights (lights turned off) for recent stuff. On my IDL renders the lights just destroy any kind of realism the figure has.

 I use reflect in place of specular. Render times go way up. In these examples the reflected hair took over three hours while the non reflective hair takes three or four minutes.

 I also avoid using 360 degree images that have direct sunlight in them because of the lighting problem I have.

 How are most people rendering stuff in poser these days?

 

 

Brian

Reflect will do just that, reflect images and colors in the surrounding areas.  Using IDL with no lighting will produce only diffuse illumination without any specular reflection.

But you haven't provided much detail about how your lighting was set up.  What were your intensities?  Are you rendering with gamma correction?  What exactly are your IDL settings?  Which Poser version are you using?

Reality 3 for Poser has a release date of 8 April.  At that point, based on the demo I sat in today, I'll junk every light setup I have.

Lighting is going to be really simple on 8 April.

im not using any lights at all. im using bagginsbill's free evirosphere to light it up.I don't do anything to the sphere except load a pic into the diffuse. Gamma at 2.2 and .45 for grey maps. PP2010. Most of the time I remove all the crazy shaders that come with the skin maps cause they dont seem to add anything with this kind of lighting or they turn the figure blue from interacting with gamma.

Brian

I downloaded pose2lux and luxrender a few days ago. both programs were a little frustrating to use....Iv been using poser for a very long time (since version 1) so its hard to switch...tried DS ...looks cool but id have to re-learn everything.

Brian

Quote - I downloaded pose2lux and luxrender a few days ago. both programs were a little frustrating to use....Iv been using poser for a very long time (since version 1) so its hard to switch...tried DS ...looks cool but id have to re-learn everything.

Brian

 

Reality 3 takes all of the hard work out.  That sound you heard this afternoon was everybody's head exploding while Paolo was demoing Reality 3 at the Poser Expo.  A couple of clicks and you are done.

 

It is truly amazing.

If Reality 3 does what it says on the tin, then Firefly will be dead. I'll hold an appropriate ceremony to mark the occasion.

From my understanding with BB's Envsphere, unless the image placed on the skydome is an HDRI, the gamma settings should be turned down to 1 in the shaders, leaving the render gamma at 2.2. 

But with IDL and a skydome you will see the skin reflect some ambient light.  You should use BB's VSS skin Shaders.  The blue is most probably from the blue tint on the Diffuse_Color chip.  Change that to white.

thanks for the input guys. Ill have to take a look into Reality when it comes out.

 

Brian

I tried pose2lux and luxrender and thought they were fab, it's just that the render time gets totally out of control.

I'm sure that Reality3 will make using Luxrender far more comfortable, but be prepared to wait a lot longer for your render to finish.

I honestly think one would be better off using Lightwave or Octane.

(Or indeed C4D/Interposer.)

I don't think Firefly is that bad, it's just mind-numbingly slow. You can get excellent results, but the iterations that are required while you tinker with your shaders can take so long that they rob you of the will to live.

If SM would give PoserFusion the same effort as the one indie developer gives Interposer, the Poser/Lightwave combination would be one wicked little package. I'm sure both companies could do with the business, and isn't that what Poser "Pro" was supposed to be about?

But I digress...

(Apologies!)

Quote - How are most people rendering stuff in poser these days?

(D) None of the above.  The last time I rendered a "finished" scene was when Poser 5 was still fairly new and never bothered with it since except to look at some hair I bought that only shows up when rendered.  I quit using that kind of hair because of that.

Since everything I do is in the work room with w/e cameras, lights, etc. I want for the scene, I just make it all look the best I can with camera angles, colored precision spot lights, and messing with the skin/surface colors (not materials, just colors) and call it done when I either cannot make it look any better or run out of things to try.  To me, rendering is pointless since I have no idea how to fix things in preview to make them look right when rendered, so I just skip the bother and move on. :)

Quote - ...On my IDL renders the lights just destroy any kind of realism the figure has.

As stated earlier, turn the in/out nodes in BB's Sphere to 1 if you're using Firefly's gamma correction.

Quote - I use reflect in place of specular. Render times go way up. In these examples the reflected hair took over three hours while the non reflective hair takes three or four minutes.

I once dripped a glob of hot plastic on my hand. It hurt. Now, I don't do that anymore... Neither should you order Firefly to render full reflections on hair. Specular is just fine. If ya just gotta do it, use a reflection map instead of trying to make Firefly calc every face/angle for the hair in relation to the scene. Reflection maps = quick reflections where exactness doesn't matter.

Quote - I also avoid using 360 degree images that have direct sunlight in them because of the lighting problem I have.

Gamma correction on the nodes in sphere materials should be 1 (off) if you're using Firefly's GC setting. Adjust Indirect Lighting intensity if necessary as well. An IDL sphere like BB's is perfect for exterior sunlight shots, but it will blow out your scene at default settings unless you handle the GC right.

Quote - How are most people rendering stuff in poser these days?

I push the Do Art button. If nothing explodes, I call it a success. (I'm still learning P-2012Pro even though I was pretty good with P7 when I tried. Proper IDL and SSS and certain render settings... Still wrapping my head around those. I model more than I render.)

I render everything with Firefly, with IDL, SSS and Global Gamma Correction on.

With Firefly its the materials that make all the difference.

I replace every single shader with one derived from Bagginsbill's BBGlossy, BBGlossy2, BBCandyPaint variants...

...or run it through EZSkin2.

The thing is, its not strict realism I'm after... but something more surreal, perhaps pseudo real or hyper real... in terms of the rendered surfaces, and lighting.

I'm certainly looking forward to giving LuxRender a go. But I wonder whether it will cater for the things that Firefly gives me...

I'm also wondering whether it will support LuxRender's GPU acceleration mode. Did Paulo mention this feature at all in the recent demo?