Released : Iray Light Manager PRO (Commercial)
V3Digitimes
Posts: 3,150
Iray Light Manager PRO is now available : http://www.daz3d.com/iray-light-manager-pro
Modify, adjust or optimise all your Iray lights sets, whatever they are (lights, surfaces, environments, mixing of all that..) in the blink of an eye thanks to this all in one light control interface.
Thanks to this tool, setting up or modifying a light set will be a pleasant, efficient and easy task!
This Light Manager offers a synthesis of all the lights present in your scene in tables, and control over the key properties of each light via these tables. Not only it will save a lot of time and efforts, but also you'll have better lights at the end.
Better lights? Yes, surpriiise ! That's a nice side effect! Because, WITHOUT this tool you spent too much time swapping from one light to another, from one light property to another light property, and then eventually you came back to environment light, or to emitting surfaces and emitting surfaces properties, emitting surface after emitting surface, and maybe tweak a bit exposure value, and so on, and so on, and then you may have do all the stuff again and again because you don't have the right balance, or the right ambiance (mood). Well it was BEFORE. NOW TODAY instead of all that, you have your lights and all their properties you generally use in a synthetic table, allowing you to modify lights more efficiently and while keeping a synthetic view of all the lights. You benefit a global view and control of the lights in your scene.
Many more functions and sub-tools are included in the interface to make your life easier and your set up more pleasant, amongst them exposure value, draw mode, camera choice, and if you want to preview your lights in a different way, a tool to change the perspective view in a smart way around any object you pick up. You can also change lights properties collectively if you want to.
Both complex and simple lights sets will benefit of the powerful features of Iray Light Manager Pro.
Here are a few images of what can be easily done. All lights set ups were changed in a few clicks (click on images to enlarge).
Please use this thread for questions, remarks, feedback.
edit : It is compatible with all Daz Studio version above DS 4.8.0.59 (including DS 4.8.0.59)
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Comments
Exactly how do you use this product?
Nothing happens when I double click on the script, and looking through the pdf I downloaded doesn't actually tell you how to use it (or I've missed it!)
Doesn't make any sense to me I'm afraid.
Hello Wilmap,
well when you have a scene with lights in, and you double click on the script, you should have a window poping up. Don't you have that?
The tool is then a light manager, meaning that when you have lights in your scene, (environment and/or DS lights (spots, points, distant), and/or emissive surfaces), you will be able to control them from a single interface. It will not create the lights for you. It will allow you to manage them.
I'm pretty confident I'll help you about that, the product has been tested by 4 people, 5 including me.
No Nothing happens at all.
Can you tell me what Daz Studio version you are currently using?
I have the latest 4.9 version.
Just shut down 4.9 and reopened it and it is working now! Tried that before but it didn't work then.
I'm so happy! I don't know why it did not work the first time you tried and open it.
I hope you'll enjoy it as much as me and my testers did (and still do). To be honnest, now I have it in the "scripts" menu, and I use it even when I have only one single light XD!
Looks simply amazing!
So happy for you and your new release.
:)
Thank you so much for your nice comment Ippotamus.
It was a wonderful project for me. One of my tester was full of ideas to improve this product during all the development stages, and it's the first time that I made a product I still use on every single scene I make, and which improves so much my life on Daz Studio. I think I even prefer this one to the skin managers. I especially hope people who have it will use and love it as much as we do.
I saw this new release this morning and thought, "Damn, what a great idea!" Sure, you can find all of these parameters etc. by flipping between panes, but when there's quite a few lights in your scene, especially a mix of light types, having the ability to modify them all from a consolidated interface is brilliant! Immediate buy and can't wait to test it out. I'm especially looking forward to using it for large quantities of emissive lights/surfaces. Congrats, V3Digitimes, on a product no one else thought to create and (hopefully) so many will wonder how they did without!
ROFL! Thanks a lot pds, for buying it of course, but especially for the comment.
I had this idea because I spent too much time adjusting lights when I made a scene, and I was often getting upset because I did not have a clear overview of the powers, the colors, etc, etc. Each time I had to remember or eventually write down what was the power of the lights so that I could try and balance with the rest of the powers, or of the colors. For surfaces it was also too long to select the right object, surface, go in surfaces/emission, etc, object after object, surface after surface. Plus as soon as I changed the environment light, I had to go back and redo all the process (nooooo!).
At the end, it was not a pleasant and fast process to set up lights. Sometimes it was driving me crazy because I was so close to what I wanted, but I could not reach the final result. And it's a pity because it is fundamental to have good renders so it was not supposed to be that fastidious. That's why I decided to make this. And now... I'm really happy as a user to have it :). I'm so addicted that I use it even if I have one single light lol!
The good tip is to right click and "create custom action" on the file when you browse to it via content manager. This way you can permanently access it directly using the top menu "scripts". And you can load it in one click at any time you need it. You can also place a copy on your desktop and drag and drop it to your viewport, it will work too. ;)
And bought. Thanks for this, I use a lot of lights in my scenes to get the desired look I'm after and it can be a time consuming process to balance them all so they work together. This will certainly speed up my work flow, and allow me to try combinations of light I hadn't thought of before. Can't wait to give it a go :)
This product is ridiculous in a very positive way. It makes multi-light setups so easy. I don't need any more lighting emulators. What I did need (up until today) was a better way to manage them all more efficiently.
The Iray Light Manager the closest thing to magic. Well done doesn't begin to be sufficient.
(I like this a lot, if it wasn't apparent).
After seeing your thread here and reading what this actually did... no brainer. In my cart. OMG. I HATE going all over the frigging interface adjusting this bit and then over there to adjust that bit. YAY.. finally!
Thanks! Yes that's it, it allows to try and change combinations an balance plenty of lights in a few seconds so I guess you will be really happy! You can work on individual lights in the synthetic tables or collectively if you want for instance increase all spots and decrease all surfaces ... for instance.
Huuuge thank you! I am glad you like it !
ROFL! I'm pleased to see I am not the only one who was annoyed by "the previous way" to handle lighting. I'm sure you'll see a great difference. Better lighting, faster, and personally I'm more relaxed at the end...
When I developed it I had this curious song in my head for those who know Michael Jackson : "Heal Daz Stuuuudioooo/make it a better place/for you and for me/and the entire human race/ there are people suffering/ if you care enough for the lighting/ make an interface for you and for me".... Well of course I could not use it for the store page but I was very tempted to do so lol.
Can this be used on any DS light set up? Iray or 3Delight?
No this is for Iray only. In Iray it will work with any type of light set up.
For 3delight the lights controls would not be the same, especially for environment and emissive surface which are based on omuber shaders. I'm not sure how many people would need it for 3delight. (Meaning I have no idea how many people still use 3delight). This is why I really hesitate making a 3delight version.
I only have used 3Delight to make promo renders recently and to test out textures.. that's it. iRay all the way for me other than that. I have Poser 11 Pro, same thing. Their Superfly render engine makes Firefly seems dull and stale...
Ohh this sounds and looks like something I absolutely must get ..when my wallet is less empty than it is right now :)
Hello V3Digitimes!
I always watching your products and i have some :) Also your tutorial videos are very good. I need to ask you about this product...
Can add lights also?
It controls any type of lights at viewport?
Its only for iray as it says or can control 3delight too?
How i will know what parameters to change for a specific light at at the scene? if i choose a light at the scene the window with parameters opens its self ? or only by the script tab?
Thank you for this very useful tool! I like that it's (in its basic function, haven't had the time to test more) very much usable "by instinct" and self-explanatory. It will certainly help to improve my workflow - instead of having to search out all the lights and surfaces, they are now neatly presented and the important values editable conveniently.
Well... Now you know why I have doubts. I wish I could know how users still use 3Delight because I have a lot of product I could do if it was worth the effort.
lol. Empty wallets are a plague! We should vote a law against empty wallets! I hope you'll enjoy it. When the wallet will be less empty of course!
Thank you Angelheart for this kind feedback. Now to answer your questions :
No, you cannot add lights directly from the interface. The way I scripted it, including this added lot of issues. If you want to add a light to your system, close the interface, add the light, and re-open the interface (which is not long if, I hope, you'll "create custom action" to load it from the top menu).
Well it controls any kind of Iray lights. To be more precise it controls : DS lights = Spotlights, "Point Lights + Linear Point Lights" and Distant Lights (sorted this way in the tab), environment light, and all emissive surfaces as long as their emissive shader is Iray uber (if one day someone create another hand made compatible light shader not named Iray Uber, I can add it in 2 seconds).
It is only for Iray. For 3Delight, for DS lights, it will control the parameters which are common to Iray and 3Delight (for instance the color, the placement, the visibility, ...) but it won't control the power (which is annoying). For 3Delight it will not be able to handle the omUber shader, so not able to control the environment and surfaces. Well no, it is not adapated for 3Delight.
Knowing what parameters you can change will be very intuitive. All the lights are shown in the interface, and are vertically listed by type (spot, distant..) and the second column has the name. For surfaces you have the object name and surface name the same way. The most important parameters are listed at the left of the synthesis table (after the names), and are power and color. Since you can try and modify them so fast now, you'll fast reach the light amount and balance and the color balance that you want.
If you choose a light, the interface will not automatically popup. But you will find your light in the list of the scene lights. The interface will popup only when you launch it. If you are worried by the time it would cost to launch the interface, I would say : less than one second! The idea is that you don't browse each time to the script. For this I give you 2 solutions :
1. copy and paste the script on your desktop. When you need it, drag and drop the desktop file to the viewport, and hurray, the interface is here.
or
2. Browse to the file, once only, using the content library (or, if you are a Smart Content user, right click the file and make "show in content library/product", or "show asset in/content library", or something similar). Then right click on the script file and make "create custom action". Then you will access it via the top menu directly, so when you need it, you access it directly in the scripts top menu. It must take one second.
I show you as an image an example of what I had on one of the woman portrait I used for my promo image. You see it is easy to find the light you want, which settings it has, and compare to the other settings (and eventually adjust them).
Let me know if it clearly answered all your questions :)
Thanks a lot! I'm especially happy with your feedback about the "by instict" usage. Yes, it really improves the workflow. And when I read you, "they are now neatly presented and the important values editable conveniently", I tell to myself that it's an excellent summary of the base of this product!!! I'm better at making a synthesis interface than at making the synthesis sentence to explain it. For this, you beated me! :)
I rarely buy anything in the store, because the only things I ever render are the promos for my own products. BUT..... this looks like such a massive time-saver, that I grabbed it right away. I may only use it 5 -6 times a year, but it's still worth it if it saves my sanity.
Well done for coming up with such an ingenious concept!
mac
Thank you very much dear V3Digitimes for complete answer! it looks excellent and i think one of it's kind. I will buy it for sure.
lol Mac! One more PA in the "setting up lights can drive me crazy" category! Well. It was before. Now you'll see it's much more comfortable.
You're welcome. That's what this thread is here for :) When you have played with it, feel free to share renders and/or feedbacks here!
Yes of course thank you! when i will be able to solve some daz studio and hardware problems...Saturation control ? :)
ohh i just bought...
No it's not included. I had the idea once, but then I told to myself it might confuse beginners on one side, and that was too much out of the light control to enter the "render" control. Now if the product is successful enough, and if several people ask for the same feature, I may eventually add a new tab containing the features users have asked for in this thread.
Is there a manual or tutorial for this I could look at?
seeing all those emissive surfaces collected in one rollout sold me..should make content production a little smoother..thanks!
Yes you can find the manual here : http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/read_me/index/32531/32531_iray-light-manager-pro-readme.pdf
I have not made a tutorial since the product is really intuitive. If I see some people have some specific questions I could make a video tuto I put on youtube of course.
You're welcome, and thank you for the nice feedback! As you saw, in my promo I used your NWX section 18, it was a great example of "many lights surfaces to set up". When I used my interface on your section 18, in twenty minutes I had made something like 15 different lights sets, so yes, I'm sure you'll be able to gain a lot of time on emissive surface set up optimisation when you will create environments with emissive surfaces!