3D Software Help and Assistance. Ask Away.

[Xavster]

What's the best way to do the "background flavor" parts of your renders? For example if I'm doing a diner scene, I want to have an urban backdrop outside the windows and a few random people inside going about their day, apart from the main characters and the props which are the focus of the scene. How do I add the backdrop to the scene and some extra people, without nuking the render times? Should i just slap a primitive on the other side of the windows and google some city stock photos?

The method I would use is to create a primitive plane and apply the desired image to it. To make it clearly visible in the render you need to make the plane emissive (white) and use the image as the emission colour map.

 

[DoomedForever]

The method I would use is to create a primitive plane and apply the desired image to it. To make it clearly visible in the render you need to make the plane emissive (white) and use the image as the emission colour map.

Makes sense, I guess I can google some backdrops and blur them with GIMP to apply so as to not detract from the scene. What about background NPCs and crowds? Should I make some basic extras and pose them? Wouldn't that tank my render times too much?

 

[HFSTime]

The ear patches are only a piece of geometry to which you should be able to apply any surface that you desire. To track down which surface you need to modify, I change the cutout opacity to 0 temporarily and if the surface disappears, I know it is the right one. When applying the surface to the ear patch, as I mentioned before copy the surface used on the face. Depending upon how the UV map is done on the ear patch surface you may need to create a custom surface map to match. What you are trying to do should be possible, so I wouldn't give up on it yet.

Ahhhhh, there we go. For some reason the idea of multiple surfaces didn't click earlier. I did use the forehead map idea like you mentioned. Had to do a little tweaking to get the colors to match a bit closer to the skin tone. Not super perfect but given the volume of her hair and my usual lighting setups I'd be surprised if anyone noticed without pixel peeping at least. Thanks for the help.

 

[Xavster]

Makes sense, I guess I can google some backdrops and blur them with GIMP to apply so as to not detract from the scene. What about background NPCs and crowds? Should I make some basic extras and pose them? Wouldn't that tank my render times too much?

With the background you can use depth of field on your camera to avoid the requirement to blur in Gimp.

As far as creating a crowd there are a few different methods of doing this (ranked in order of preference). The main goal of each method is to keep the scene complexity down to a point where it can be fully loaded into you video card VRAM.

1) Scene Optimisation:
Reduce the complexity of the background characters by using scene optimizer. I would suggest reducing the texture map sizes by a factor of 4 and also removing all bump / normal maps. You will also likely need to reduce the texture map sizes on your foreground characters as well. However on these scale down by a factor of 2 and potentially keep the bump / normal maps.

2) Rendering in Layers:
Create the full scene with all of the characters and then render in several layers. Firstly remove most / all of the characters and render the background. Then switch off everything except for the background characters and render that separately (as png). The do the same for the foreground characters. It is the just a matter of recombining the layers in GIMP.

Spoiler: Layers Example

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3) Cardboard Cutouts:
Create renders of each of the background characters and then create a billboard of them by using a primitive plane with the rendered image and also using the outline with cutout opacity. There are also asset packs for crowds (just search as billboards).

Spoiler: Cutouts Example

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[DoomedForever]

With the background you can use depth of field on your camera to avoid the requirement to blur in Gimp.

As far as creating a crowd there are a few different methods of doing this (ranked in order of preference). The main goal of each method is to keep the scene complexity down to a point where it can be fully loaded into you video card VRAM.

1) Scene Optimisation:
Reduce the complexity of the background characters by using scene optimizer. I would suggest reducing the texture map sizes by a factor of 4 and also removing all bump / normal maps. You will also likely need to reduce the texture map sizes on your foreground characters as well. However on these scale down by a factor of 2 and potentially keep the bump / normal maps.

2) Rendering in Layers:
Create the full scene with all of the characters and then render in several layers. Firstly remove most / all of the characters and render the background. Then switch off everything except for the background characters and render that separately (as png). The do the same for the foreground characters. It is the just a matter of recombining the layers in GIMP.

Spoiler: Layers Example

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3) Cardboard Cutouts:
Create renders of each of the background characters and then create a billboard of them by using a primitive plane with the rendered image and also using the outline with cutout opacity. There are also asset packs for crowds (just search as billboards).

Spoiler: Cutouts Example

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Thanks for the detailed explanation! I guess I'll try making some basic characters and use Scene Optimizer and hope I don't run out of VRAM (I'm using an 8GB RTX 2070). I've thought about rendering in layers but wouldn't it mess up lighting and shadows?

Edit: I'm checking out your tutorial on it on the forum and you go over it there, thank you so much!

 

[SexiestManAlive]

For some reason the dforce part of my guy hair has randomly stopped appearing, how can I fix it? Never once touched dforce or the hair on this guy, all I been doing was just posing and moving him around the scene.

So from searching around daz forums, I figured out the culprit was geometry tool(Accidently selected). For some odd reason some dforce hairs vanish during renders if tool is selected.

 

[Xavster]

Thanks for the detailed explanation! I guess I'll try making some basic characters and use Scene Optimizer and hope I don't run out of VRAM (I'm using an 8GB RTX 2070). I've thought about rendering in layers but wouldn't it mess up lighting and shadows?

Edit: I'm checking out your tutorial on it on the forum and you go over it there, thank you so much!

When rendering in layers you really need to plan out the scene such that the issues with lighting / shadows / reflections aren't apparent. That's why scene optimisation is the preferred option.

 

[Lewd4D]

What's the best way to do the "background flavor" parts of your renders? For example if I'm doing a diner scene, I want to have an urban backdrop outside the windows and a few random people inside going about their day, apart from the main characters and the props which are the focus of the scene. How do I add the backdrop to the scene and some extra people, without nuking the render times? Should i just slap a primitive on the other side of the windows and google some city stock photos?

If the backdrop does not add anything to the scene (like lighting) you could just not render the dome at all and then easily change the backdrop in photoshoop as much as you want.

 

[recreation]

What's the best way to do the "background flavor" parts of your renders? For example if I'm doing a diner scene, I want to have an urban backdrop outside the windows and a few random people inside going about their day, apart from the main characters and the props which are the focus of the scene. How do I add the backdrop to the scene and some extra people, without nuking the render times? Should i just slap a primitive on the other side of the windows and google some city stock photos?

I'll be lazy and just quote myself here^^

A little trick I use if I want the people to have correct shadows and lighting:
Add 1 base character and change resolution level to base.
Add some simple hair, again change resolution level to base.
Remove all textures (scene optimzer).
Add some simple clothes (usually shirt, pants and shoes).
(Optional: remove textures from the clothes if too heavy).
Go to surfaces and change the base colors of the char so it looks like normal skin color.
Add colors to the hair and clothes as well (base colors like black and white, or grey usually work well).
Give the char a simple pose that works for many static characters.
In the main menu select "Create" -> New node instances, type in how many instances of that character you want to have in the scene -> hit enter.

Instances of a model only need a fraction of the computing power the real model needs, so by adding two or three different models and instancing them, you can get a nice variation of a crowd without overloading your hardware (too much).

Here's a little example (not the best pose though):
View attachment 514896

This is just one figure and a hdri btw.

 

[Xavster]

I'll be lazy and just quote myself here^^

This is just one figure and a hdri btw.

Instancing of a character really isn't going to get you anywhere in terms of creating a realistic background, given you can't even change the clothes or pose when you instance. If you are doing a legion of storm troopers, then fine, but for anything else kinda useless. The times where instancing can be employed effectively is in nature backgrounds. Tools such as ultrascatter can quickly create a large number of instances of an object with variable rotation / position / scaling. Great for rocks / trees / clumps of grass etc. It can also be used effectively for buildings as can be seen in

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where the external landscape uses simple surfaces and instancing to minimise VRAM requirements.

Also please note that instancing doesn't actually reduce the ray tracing time at all, all it does is reduce the VRAM requirements. Sure if this means you can GPU render rather than CPU render there is an improvement, however otherwise it isn't any faster then having other characters. What can however see an improvement to rendering time is to simplify the surface by removing bump / normal / subsurface / emmision as it makes calculating the light rays simpler.

 

[recreation]

Instancing of a character really isn't going to get you anywhere in terms of creating a realistic background, given you can't even change the clothes or pose when you instance.

Sure you can't do much regarding poses and clothes, but that's why I mentioned to use simple clothes, (or should I say: everyday clothes?) and pose.
If you have a big crowd it's way faster to use instances instead of doing lots of layers, also if you have several characters in a dark environment, or in the background while using DOF.
and:

by adding two or three different models and instancing them, you can get a nice variation of a crowd without overloading your hardware (too much).

You also don't have lighting issues like with layering, you don't have to plan everything out, you don't need to layer, you just hit render.

 

[DoomedForever]

Thanks for the insight, guys! I'll start with playing around with scene optimizer and low detail extras, but I'll probably end up trying out all the methods suggested to compare render and work times.

 

[SexiestManAlive]

Anyone knows of some quick way to beautifully light up indoor night scenes without having to manually set up lights around? I'm already using the hdri camera from deviantart. Perfect for day scenes but not for nights. I'm trying to avoid doing the whole 3 point light thing.

 

[recreation]

Anyone knows of some quick way to beautifully light up indoor night scenes without having to manually set up lights around? I'm already using the hdri camera from deviantart. Perfect for day scenes but not for nights. I'm trying to avoid doing the whole 3 point light thing.

Ghost lights

 

[SexiestManAlive]

Ghost lights

I get as good quality just using interior hdri cam. I guess what I need is some quick way that nicely lights up the char only without also lighting rest of scene.

 

[Xavster]

Anyone knows of some quick way to beautifully light up indoor night scenes without having to manually set up lights around? I'm already using the hdri camera from deviantart. Perfect for day scenes but not for nights. I'm trying to avoid doing the whole 3 point light thing.

I use a combination of Iradiance Light Probes (HDRI) and the Iray Interior Camera. The trick is getting the correct HDRI and rotation to simulate the interior conditions. Also supplement with emissive surfaces should I have lights that are directly visible in the render. I have found this combination gives better results and also renders way faster than pure emissives / spotlights. Note that ghost lights are mere emissive spheres with the cutout opacity set to nearly 0. You don't need the ghost light asset as you can do exactly the same thing yourself and achieve better control over lighting that with ghost lights.

 

[SvenVlad]

Not sure if this is the right topic to ask, but idk if there is a better one. If anyone could point me, I would appreciate it.

But anyway.. just wanna know what hair is this.




The picture is from Wife's Dilemma, from 3Diddly.

 

[SexiestManAlive]

Not sure if this is the right topic to ask, but idk if there is a better one. If anyone could point me, I would appreciate it.

But anyway.. just wanna know what hair is this.


View attachment 523527

The picture is from Wife's Dilemma, from 3Diddly.

Might be this hair.

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[SvenVlad]

Might be this hair.

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It does look similar.
Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 1121028]

So about Powerpose, is there a function to move mouse through only one direction?
I find it quite irritating when I am moving down my mouse but Daz 3d also reads input
from accidently moving mouse left and right a bit.

lol I was just using powerpose
I don't think so but morphs used by powerpose can also be found in parameter pane, select your head and go under head>pose control>head>part of the head you want to morph/correct mistake/lock.