Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I think my head just exploded.
I think, when I used it, I managed to use at least 5% of the functionality of MS Word, I suspect I may be up to around 35% of what DS can do ...
+1
I feel it would easily raise the required funding.
The Iray Tone Mapper for rendering.
Yep. I never ramp lights up to ridiculous values. I always use Tone Mapping. And funnily enough, I just figured out a new wrinkle in Tone Mapper less than an hour ago.
I use the Pixar Campus HDRI for all my test renders, and it's always irritated me that they have a distinct blue cast. So I tried playing with the White Point value. Basically, it works in reverse. If your renders are too blue, you have to set White Point to a very light blue, and renders will return to a more normal, warmer color. I added the new setting to the toolbar shortcut I use and I'm good to go with non-blue renders.
Friendly reminder: The free Pixar Campus HDRI is not licensed for commercial use, so it may not be used in promo renders - not even to provide just the scene lighting.
I will GLADLY donate to the Kickstarter. Good idea! :)
I'm suprised no one has thought of starting a kickstarter or gofundme (including myself) to hire professional writers to create a full manual for DS...
Honestly, it's not professional writers that we need... there have been several books of varying quality released on DS in the last few years, but none of them really explain much more than the out of date User Guide does, and several present information in a way that makes one wonder if the writer has ever even used the program. Rather, someone needs to lock up at least three or four really experienced users to talk about all the hidden functions and create a comprehensive index of simple instructions. Yes, that's theoretically what the DAZ wiki is supposed to be, but clearly it's not and if DAZ couldn't be bothered to upgrade the manual with the release of Iray, I'd say it's a bit unrealistic to expect any substantial improvement in the future.
And yes, I'd also pay good money for a really good book, to the point where I've actually been considering underwriting one.
... SON OF A GUN.
This changes everything now.
Yup. I know that. I use it for test renders when I'm making materials.
What does it do and how do you use it? What's the advantage?
it's amazing, isn't it??? I had no idea that align tool even existed!!! it's blown my mind and I've pointed a couple of people to this post and we're all "squeeeeing" over the align tool LOL
I haven't seen it here, but was mentioned in another thread- when you do your popup rendering window, there is a small rectangle that will actually open up part of your render settings, so you can change them on the fly without pausing the render/ stopping it. It does reset the iterations, but what a time saver to make changes you can see DURING the render. You'll have to look close, the rectangle is on the left border of the render window, midway up.
These are GREAT! I love keyboard shortcuts (when I can remember them...)
Here are a few. Apologies if they have already been mentioned.
ctrl D - will "drop" the selected item to ground level
ctrl F - will "find" and center the view on the selected item (same as the little [ + ] symbol by the control cube)
If you want to quickly change views without messing with the control cube:
ctrl P = perspective view
ctrl <- (left arrow) = left view
ctrl -> (right arrow = right view
ctrl (up arrow) = back view
ctrl (down arrow) = front view
alt (up arrow) = top view
alt (down arrow) = bottom view
Anyone know if there is a keyboard shortcut for camera views?
Just to clarify what some people were saying- when you select a light out in the viewport View dropdown, (with it selected in Scene too) you are DIRECTING the light. You aren't just viewing it. If you move your view, you are moving the light. Not sure if folks knew that's what it was doing.
*Slaps self*
'sblood is this going to save me some time. I do so much zeroing out of stuff
Here's a screencap I stole from another thread on this subject at https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/5152/ ; that also includes a script by rbtwhiz to print out a list of all the shortcuts currently on your version of DS. And, of course, you can always create your own shortcuts using the instructions in this thread: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/61401/custum-shortcut-buttons
Load shoes and fit to figure (G3F, etc.)
Apply foot pose that comes with shoes (if necessary -- for G3F not usually necessary).
Lock the affected nodes. For V4, it was just foot and toe. For G3F, select the foot (L or R) and right-click and choose expand from selection. Then I select all the nodes from foot to heel. Then lock those nodes. Repeat for other foot and toe nodes.
No more readjusting when a pose resets the foot/toes positions!
I looked really close, and I don't see "Ctrl+0" (that's a zero, not the letter "O")... Just as 1-9 will change the preview from "Wire Bounding Box" to "Textured", Ctrl+0 will set the viewport preview to Iray.
Another fun feature is Vignetting in Tone Mapping. It not only does edges darker, but it fades toward the center as you increase it. Going negative lightens your image. See examples in my Art Studio thread here. And fun to play with! Using that small, left-side rectangle menu button in the new window render, you can open Render Settings while the render is going, and play with this to lighten your image corners, or darken them, while it is rendering.
That thread was created before Iray, so the ommission isn't surprising. ;P I copied that image as my own menus have been heavily modded over the years and I'm no longer sure which shortcuts were added by add-ons.
That's what I figured. So I thought it was a good idea to mention the new shortcut. I use it all the time, usually going back and forth between Iray and textured.
I posted this in another thread, but figured it would fit in here.
If parts of a render are stubbornly refusing to clean up (or you're getting old waiting for it to finish).
Save that image, then do a partial image: Click: Spot Render Tool > then Tool Settings > Check New Window.
Then select the area of the image that needs it. You should then be able to save it and add it to the main image in Gimp/Photoshop/Other.
... Just take care that you use the same camera angle (exactly the same) when doing the spot render.
Edit:
Alternatively, render at twice the resolution you require, and stop it when it begins to look decent; not finished is fine.
Then reduce the image size in Gimp/Photoshop etc.
How effective this is varies, but can very often save time in rendering. It does take up a little more Graphics Memory though.
Edit2:
Corrected the name of Spot Render Tool.
Tone Mapping is the equivalent of Exposure Value in photography. That's an old system which combines the 3 main variables on a camera - shutter speed, f-stop (aperture) and ISO (film speed). The Tone Mapping dialog has all 3 of these, plus Exposure Value. When you change EV from the default 13 to 12, it halves the shutter speed, effectively letting more light in - ie. making your scene brighter. The good thing about EV is that you don't need to know anything about photography - just that a lower value makes your scene brighter.
So when you're rendering an interior, rather than ramp every light up to unrealistic values - 10 million lumens, etc - you just lower EV to a suitable setting. In Iray preview mode, you can fiddle with the value to get a rough idea of what's good, then tweak it (or the lights) to get it just right.
Some of the other values in that dialog are also useful. As I mentioned above, I tweaked White Point to change the color of the HDRI. I also tend to set Saturation to 1.05 or 1.1 to get deeper colors.
If you are using one of your own pictures, taken with a camera, as a Backdrop under the Environment Tab, not the render Environment, then set the sun to the Lat/Long for where it was taken, Google it. Look at the EXIF, not IPC, for the picture and set the time of day; set the Tone Mapping to the same settings as the camera, if they don't look right then look for the EV setting and try that and also set the White Point if it gives a setting for it; set the camera to the same as the camera used, frame size, focal length and F/Stop if you want to use DOF. That way the lighting will match the photograph and then rotate the camera to point in the direction you were facing when the picture was taken. Front is facing South so if you were facing West turn it to the right and East to the left, or any points on the compass. You can then zoom the camera in or out to get the added elements into the positions you want them. That is the fiddley bit and every image will be different so then it becomes trial and error. You can move the camera up or down or zoom in or out but not left ot right or you will lose the sun direction and the shadows wont match the photograph.
There's way too much scary voodoo going on in this thread.......where is Partial Render?????
I don't know about Partial render but I use Spot render>Tool Settings>New Window