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The face looks better without that emissive light. Anyway, I feel the camera is too close to the model. Can't see the flare in skirt, can't see the legs position and thus can't feel the pose in its full. The HDRI in the back is also feeling out of place and too blurred. I feel like the model is not even on the ground but otherwise looks great.
I'm the opposite of Tristan, lol.
I liked it better with her face lit; The HDRI doesn't feel odd to me—I loved "The Sound of Music" with all it's outdoorsy musical numbers, and your scene is reminiscent of that; The blur of the HDRI is what I'd expect from my SLR with a low f-Stop; The pose is very fluid and natural, the expression looks how I feel when basking in the warmth of an early summer's day—The further away the camera, the less focus on that expression and the less the image will evoke that memory for me.
Without the light on her face, though, her dress is less "blownout" and shows a bit more of the detail. You could use a very small ghost light to the left side of her face. That would lighten it up without adding light to the rest of the image. I've even used a round mask in the Emissive Color channel, (a white circle on a black background,) and placed the plane within a few inches of the face. It wouldn't take a very bright GL to soften the shadows on that side of the face.
Regardless, this is your vision. Are you happy with it?
@L'Adair Is there a way for me to move hairs which have morphs to move but they don't have what I want. I mean I am doing a render where the guy is upside down but now I want his hairs falling down but there aren't morph to do that. I don't have mesh grabber. What do i do? Should I try applying dforce on it to see how it goes? I will try that for now.
This is not for this challenge but it might help me in future render or when i make another entry. Picture for reference.
You should go for it.
ifn it doesn't fall off well enough, maybe you also need to weightmap paint it, to decide which pieces of hair to fall more than others.
In this picture, this hair didn't have the morphs I wanted, nor was it dForce, but I converted it to have the ponytail naturally fall off: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/40/5971f0020d0a4bda0e9f0666870e18.png .
Luckily, Its falling nicely.
Zooming out the camera won't really help with that, all the morphs I used to get the dress into this shape also ended up covering a lot of the legs, in some previous versions I played around with the back of the skirt being pushed up, but besides that i'm not sure how much I could do. Besides that I feel like being really zoomed out doesn't look quite as good as when it's close up. Since i'm trying to go for a "musical scene in an animated movie" vibe I felt like a forest background works fairly well, although i'm not sure how much I could improve it more then just turning on background blur.
Sorry if that sounded like a rant, I do appretiate the feedback.
True it is my vision, but the reason why I posted it here is that (as one of my gallery posts recently reminded me) I really like getting feedback on my work it's a far better way of improving and learning then throwing a picture and hoping it gets comments. Heck I already learned a few new things from my entry to this challange.
As for the lighting on the face, I tried adding a small light, not sure if it's bright enough though.
Image Title: Bedtime Stories
Programs used: Daz 4.12 and Photoshop CC2017
My entry is based upon a recent RP session, where Tamiko, while looking after her significant other's "crappy attic apartment" promised her s.o. some online bedtime story sessions and here she is, sitting in front of her laptop, about to read fairy tales.
On this pic I tried to play with the composition, lightning and atmosphere. To furnish and illuminate a "crappy old attic" make it look like it's an old place where someone actually lives. Tried to fill the scene with stuff but keep the focus on the heroine of the scene also. Also dipping my toes into indoors atmospheric lightning effects.
One thing I'm not sure about is whether this lightning works. I didn't use the "classic" 3 pt lightning setup, but the laptop screen and a light bulb above the character to illuminate the scene (along with the bedside lamp and the candles on the sides as well as some moonlight on the window to make some interesting patterns on the glass).
Something I can't work out is how to make proper tv/laptop screens in my renders that are bright enough to somewhat illuminate the environment but with the image on the screen isn't washed out either. Here I just used an image as a map for the emission color and hoped it would be reflected from her glasses... there is something but it doesn't look like the original image (which was actually the 1st version of this render).
If anyone could help with this issue I'd be super grateful :3
Attached the raw and the postwork image too. I used PS to make the vignetting effect (I find to do it there easier to do that after rendering is done), some cooling photo filter and played with levels, brightness, contrast a bit.
Any feedback or suggestions on either versions would be very much appreciated (basically I have no idea what should and shouldn't I do during postwork ;_; !) :3
Completely offtopic question: but I read the overnight rendering coming up: Should it cause problems for my computer if I render an image overnight, it gets completed sometime but the image may stay 1-2-3-4 hours in my videocard's memory until I wake up? (and yes, @TristanQEverett rendering while sleeping is awesome! I usually make a quick 5-10-15 minute render when I think everything is complete, to see if I can find any glaring mistakes (like forgot to put pants on a figure >_> ), then save stuff, restart daz (someone suggested it someplace that it doesn't hurt to do it) and start rendering overnight.
it looks pretty nice, the best thing I could think about for the glasses would be to try and mess with the position of the laptop, assuming you plan to keep it off-screen it shouldn't cause to much of an issue.
@daer-thing You have done a great job at the render. There are so many props that add so many details to the scene(Plushy). The lighting is perfect and very detailed. From the window to her glasses. Everything looks great. I am not sure how to make that tv screen but maybe adding the picture in diffuse and turning on emission might help in the surface. The rest is how that emission works out and if it is still lacking in lighting you can try a gobo to project a bit of light outside of the camera field. This is just speculation and IDK how it will play out.
I haven't done enough postwork since the render straight out of Daz looks pretty decent. I do reduce saturation in tone mapping a bit though to get a bit of realism to the render and in your postwork, I do feel saturation is a little high which is not a bad thing if you want more color.
I don't think rendering overnight is harmful unless you have a laptop and you accidentally block the heat outlet. I am just skeptical since my graphic card is making some weird noises whenever it's doing heavy work. I feel like my PC will probably die soon and I don't want that. XD
Thanks no nose! Yeah was thinking about keeping it off screen... hmmm maybe should make some "youtube-like" frame or something to emphasis that this is what the camera sees!
I see your point TristanQEverett! Trying out new stuff and undo old stuff and just realized that PS doesn't remember history. ;_;
Wait you can tonemap after your render is done? Or you do it before/during the rendering process?
And yes, sometimes it worries me that one day i'll wake up to the sounds of my exploding and dying computer. Thankfully iray uses gpu so my ~5-6 years old cpu doesn't need to suffer *much* ^^;
@daer-thing I tone map in real-time Iray viewport when my scene is ready, just before I start the rendering process. Tone-mapping in viewport doesn't make viewport render again and again. it just applies the effect to the image so it is fast and easy. I have a Daz product that has lots of Ready to render Tone Map settings so it is much easier for me.
https://www.daz3d.com/easy-portraits--light-presets this product.A few observations on your image:
It looks like Tamiko is on the bed, but the camera is angled down. In real life, where would the laptop be? While not a good idea to sit it directly on something soft, like a pillow, it still seems like the laptop would be lower than Tamiko's head. Perhaps on a a book, or tray of some sort. So the camera angle, even assuming from the top of the laptop screen, would still, probably, be much lower and pointing upward to toward Tamiko.
If you parent the camera to the laptop screen, then move the laptop into position on the bed, that might help you find the best height and angle for the camera. Also, if the laptop is lower in relation to Tamiko's glasses, you may get more of the reflection you're looking for.
You could also try reducing the brightness of the overhead light. That might make the light from the laptop have more effect on Tamiko, and it would give a bit more prominance to the candles and table lamp.
Consider turning the light off on the table lamp.
As for the monitor of the laptop, you're on the right track; Use your image in the Base Color and the Emissive Color channels for the screen. (It might be necessary to create a map specific to the UV of the screen, and use a black background around your image for the emissive channel. It all depends on the material zones of the prop you're using.) You want the Luminance to be relatively low, maybe 10-50 kcd/m^2, and set the Emissive Temperature to 0, let the image provide all of the color.
The reflection is a function of how the light is hitting the glass of her glasses. The distortion you're seeing is caused by the curvature of the glass. Moving the laptop and camera down, perhaps even angled a bit to one side or another, may be the answer to getting a better reflection.
The image looks good, though, whether you decide to make changes or not.
I don't want to use gimp and mask this. Why is this happening? it happens a lot with certain hairs but this is the first time this became so severe.
Instancing and optimization was speed.
Thank you for the feedback!
I'll definitely will experiment with these suggestions!
Yeah the screen was angled down. The furniture I placed the laptop on was higher than the mattress itself (which was on one hand kinda silly because it's completely offscreen so I could have just placed it anywhere, on the other hand I just realized it was to prevent an unwanted pantyshot because not long enough dforce nightie. But took care of it >_>). The distortion itself is a bit weird, yes but my bigger problem was that it was too bright for the image if I wanted to illuminate the scene with it. But with your settings it works wonderfully! You said I should create an image for the screen UV, would playing with tiling work too? If I can manage to fit the image to the screen with it (might distort the image tho depending on its original dimensions and the screen dimensions)?
Resize the skull cap just a little
You're welcome.
It all depends on the object. If the laptop has only one material zone, for example, then the materials for everything from keyboard to back and bottom of the device will all be on one map. On the other hand, if the screen has a separate material zone, you may well be able to use tiling to stretch, squish, and/or move the image into place. Though if you have an image editing program, it might still be faster to create an image map. You can use the original image map and size your image to fit over the screen image the vendor used.
What you're seeing is most definitely skull caps. What you can do is use the geometry editor with your hair selected, and you should be able to select the cap itself, and either resize your selection (after creating a group for it) or hide the selected parts of the mesh outright.
Oh, I got it now, yes, laptop screen is a separate surface (for some reason didn't think of objects with only one surface)
Here is the updated version:
Repositioned the laptop and adjusted her head+glasses to move the screen reflections. I may try to redo it with a different image on the screen and see what kind of reflection it'll have, but your tips helped a lot.
Also used a ghost light before the screen to illuminate her in a cooler light.
Reduced the brightness of the overhead lamp and the table lamp. Been playing with turning off either of them or both but couldn't decide which one I liked. Also educed the bloom filter a lot, only left a little for the candles. The good thing is that the lowered brightness did the vignetting for me :D
Changed the hand positions because I didn't like how the waving looked from this angle (or other angles) and to hide some of the artefacts the nightie had at the bottom. Oh and changed the texture map of the open book now that it's shown, because the original with wiring diagram is not a good bedtime story material.
No pw this time only raw render converted to jpg.
Another question: if I want the background to be a bit grainier, should I use a thicker volume cube or just stop rendering earlier? (Or use some noise filter in photoshop)
render the background and render the foreground each seperatly
put grain on the back and overlay the front in Photoshop
alternatively use a tiltshift effect to get her into focus and the back slightly blurred instead
experiment with it
looking great so far, I like the natural feel to the scenery
keep rocking !
It's looking really good!
The thicker the volume cube, the longer the scene will take to render. You could do as _ AL1vE _ suggested. Another way to do something similar would be to stop the render early, when you like the effect of the grain in the background, but DO NOT save from the render window. Instead, go back to the main Daz Studio window and use the file menu to save: Click on File and select Save Last Render…. Now save the file with a name you won't overwrite later. For example, if the title of the image were Storytime, you might name this copy of the render Storytime_Grainy.
Go back to the render window, and click on the Resume button. Let the image finish rendering until the foreground is free of grain. Now save the finished render from the render window, (for example, Storytime_Clean.)
And to make things a little easier, you can also render a mask. First, save the file. Now hide everything in the background and hide all of the lights. In the Environment tab, (not a render setting,) select Backdrop and leave the color at white. Render until the outlines are smooth, which won't take long with this image, maybe 10 or 20 samples. Save.
Open the mask in PS and invert the image. Open your background image in PS, and layer the foreground image above it, edges aligned. Select All and add a mask to the foreground layer. Alt+Click on the mask. Go back to the black and white mask image and copy, then back to your render image and paste the mask. You should now see your inverted rendered image in the mask channel for the foreground image. Alt+Click on the mask to exit the mask channel.
Another way is to use DOF on the camera and have it start in front of the book on the bed and stop just on the cushions at the back. This will leave the bit between in focus. You will probably have to Change the Focal Length and move the camera back to get the DOF in the correct place and get the amount of grain you want.
I needed that. Thanks. I always see render halfway done and I want to save but also render more.
Thank you all for the tips!
Lots of new things to try out, learn and experiment with :3
"Open Render Challenge"
Here is a render I got done tonight. I learned how to do 3 point lighting. :)
Not an Entry (As this is an Entry for the current Hivewire challenge and I don't think I'm allowed to enter it in 2 competitions?)
Thanks to @TristanQEverett for mentioning the shadows - turned out I'd forgotten to switch on the shadow on my spotlight - doh!
I like the scene setup but why is the lighting so green? It gives an unnatural, sickly look to the scene.
Is there a way to make a realistic fire with smoke in daz3d? I was thinking of a scene with a plane crash.
I tried to make the mirror larger, but discovered that it was in 2 layers with a window behind. I don't have any other mirrors that would fit with the era - mine are too modern. I therefore decided to delete the chair and add some more blue light. The reflections on the floor look better.