A little more cooking needs to be done, but I've got a decent Jacob going. Caught too much light in his iris in the render so they look washed but hey it happens.
Model & Textures:
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- Needs manual adjustments. The preset iris colors are too saturated and his skin transparency needs to cranked up to 0.80%+ to get the right dark skin tone.
Hair and Beard: This one was a pain to find, because it's from a product no longer available on the Daz Store. It's called
You must be registered to see the links
.
All in all he turned out okay for only about 30 minutes of work.
A little more cooking needs to be done, but I've got a decent Jacob going. Caught too much light in his iris in the render so they look washed but hey it happens.
Model & Textures:
You must be registered to see the links
- Needs manual adjustments. The preset iris colors are too saturated and his skin transparency needs to cranked up to 0.80%+ to get the right dark skin tone.
Hair and Beard: This one was a pain to find, because it's from a product no longer available on the Daz Store. It's called
You must be registered to see the links
.
All in all he turned out okay for only about 30 minutes of work.
A little more cooking needs to be done, but I've got a decent Jacob going. Caught too much light in his iris in the render so they look washed but hey it happens.
Model & Textures:
You must be registered to see the links
- Needs manual adjustments. The preset iris colors are too saturated and his skin transparency needs to cranked up to 0.80%+ to get the right dark skin tone.
Hair and Beard: This one was a pain to find, because it's from a product no longer available on the Daz Store. It's called
You must be registered to see the links
.
All in all he turned out okay for only about 30 minutes of work.
It's actually from a meme, kids were asked what they want to be when they grow up.
While clearly thinking of being a "Racer", the kid said "Racist" in the style of Pianist, botanist, etc.
It's actually from a meme, kids were asked what they want to be when they grow up.
While clearly thinking of being a "Racer", the kid said "Racist" in the style of Pianist, botanist, etc.
Looks nice What's the backstory? Why is MC sad? It's Derek right? What did he do?!
Oops, sorry, my bad. Guess I am really out-of-touch with all these memes. Lol
This piece is inspired by an old manga called "Crying Freeman". It's about an artist that was kidnapped, brainwashed and trained to became one of the most lethal assassin in the world. After each kill, tears will flow down from his eyes as his sub-consciousness was against the killing, earning him the nickname "Crying Freeman". Lotsa of tattoos in the manga.
I would not be surprised if for Lily's eyes DPC also used Hyuna's (Riona model) eye materials, which have very large irises and which he also uses on Quinn, for example. They certainly look familiar.
About that trio of eye reflections you put together, the brighter whatever it is in front of those eyes, the sharper and brighter the reflection on the eye will look. There is a morph called 'Eyes cornea bulge' (or something very similar) which you can set to 100 % or higher (after disabling the limits for said morph dial) to get better eye reflections among other things. And finally, the iRay Uber (MDL) shader, commonly used on most Genesis 8 figures, has settings to control the reflectivity level of the different surfaces that use this shader. Have a look at this screenshot. You might try setting a scene with a bright light source in front of the eyes of your figure and playing with those values for the eye surfaces (sclera, cornea, irises...) to see what you may get.
Also, I don't think DPC does much postwork (if any) on his renderings for the game. But for the whole debate around the use of postwork to get more aesthetic pieces, IMHO while it is possible to get very good looking renders directly out of your 3D rendering application, in most cases, with postwork, especially if you are experienced and skillful doing that, you can further improve your initial work.
I would not be surprised if for Lily's eyes DPC also used Hyuna's (Riona model) eye materials, which have very large irises and which he also uses on Quinn, for example. They certainly look familiar.
About that trio of eye reflections you put together, the brighter whatever it is in front of those eyes, the sharper and brighter the reflection on the eye will look. There is a morph called 'Eyes cornea bulge' (or something very similar) which you can set to 100 % or higher (after disabling the limits for said morph dial) to get better eye reflections among other things. And finally, the iRay Uber (MDL) shader, commonly used on most Genesis 8 figures, has settings to control the reflectivity level of the different surfaces that use this shader. Have a look at this screenshot. You might try setting a scene with a bright light source in front of the eyes of your figure and playing with those values for the eye surfaces (sclera, cornea, irises...) to see what you may get.
Also, I don't think DPC does much postwork (if any) on his renderings for the game. But for the whole debate around the use of postwork to get more aesthetic pieces, IMHO while it is possible to get very good looking renders directly out of your 3D rendering application, in most cases, with postwork, especially if you are experienced and skillful doing that, you can further improve your initial work.
Interesting and valuable information Jumbi .
I will definitely try out those settings you mention. You're probably right and DPC doesn't have the time or physical ability to process each redner further (otherwise 1 episode would come out every 2 years), but it's still a masterful use of light considering how many redners it creates. Here are 2 examples:
1. In Lily's eyes I can count at least 4 lighting sources
2. Extremely even and soft lighting on Quinn's face. 3 light sources are visible in her eyes.Unique even light
I'm just guessing, but I think he's using some asset of lighting fixtures (that are ready made or he created himself) to light several types of scenes. Makes a huge impression on the expressiveness of the characters eyes in the game.
Of course these are just my thoughts (someone who doesn't have a deep knowledge in 3d visualization)
Interesting and valuable information Jumbi .
I will definitely try out those settings you mention. You're probably right and DPC doesn't have the time or physical ability to process each redner further (otherwise 1 episode would come out every 2 years), but it's still a masterful use of light considering how many redners it creates. Here are 2 examples:
1. In Lily's eyes I can count at least 4 lighting sources
2. Extremely even and soft lighting on Quinn's face. 3 light sources are visible in her eyes.Unique even light
I'm just guessing, but I think he's using some asset of lighting fixtures (that are ready made or he created himself) to light several types of scenes. Makes a huge impression on the expressiveness of the characters eyes in the game.
Of course these are just my thoughts (someone who doesn't have a deep knowledge in 3d visualization)
At this point, my general impression when I look at many renders from the game is that he likes bright lighting and low contrast. Two settings under Render settings>Tone mapping that have a big impact on the contrast output of the renders in Daz Studio are: 'burn highlights' and 'crush blacks'. You can zero both of these settings to get low contrast renders out of the application. Alternatively, you can do general light and color adjustments in postwork.
And yeah, he surely has his favorite lighting suites that he uses on his renders. On the Daz Store alone, you can count these by the hundreds. I've read experienced users of Daz Studio and other 3D rendering applications say that you can learn a thing or two just by using lighting products and check what they do under the hood. For example, the general principle for getting soft lighting is using big geometry on the light sources, so that the light gets diffused.
With all that said, it's very difficult to get identical results to other person without knowing exactly how they do what they do.
By the way, while I love these stimulating and enriching debates, we should probably stop it here, so that we not make the thread deviate from its original purpose. Just DM me if you want to keep the conversation or ask me anything.
While we're discussing DPC's lighting techniques... I think it's important to point out realism is certainly not his goal. Far from it actually. If you look at my recent Jacob render for example... that's a realistic 11 point lighting setup you'd find at a photographer's studio. Nothing in game looks anywhere close to that level of lighting. What DPC does is entirely different. He lights the background and subject separately, with a clear intent on minimizing harsh shadows using simple primitive shapes as emissive surfaces.
Take this quick render of Maya getting clapped by Magnar I put together as an example:
The room is lit evenly by an entire ceiling-spanning ghost light with a warm tint. You don't really even need to use a ghostlight here and could have just turned the actual ceiling geometry into an emissive since it's out of shot and achieved the same effect. Notice how there are almost no strong shadows? This is how almost all of DPC's backgrounds are lit from what I can tell. The characters themselves needed a little more, so behind the camera is nothing but a primitive square projecting soft light onto their bodies to create a little more depth. Now I could have fiddled with it more and accentuated certain parts of the image I want to draw attention to, but hopefully the example at least might help someone out.
As far as the lights in the eyes, those are just the reflections of the primitive emissive squares he's using to light the characters, as well as some could be put there for no other purpose than the eye reflections. This lighting style is much more obvious early on in BAD history, and he's certainly experimented over time, but its pretty clear he still heavily uses emissive lighting.
While we're discussing DPC's lighting techniques... I think it's important to point out realism is certainly not his goal. Far from it actually. If you look at my recent Jacob render for example... that's a realistic 11 point lighting setup you'd find at a photographer's studio. Nothing in game looks anywhere close to that level of lighting. What DPC does is entirely different. He lights the background and subject separately, with a clear intent on minimizing harsh shadows using simple primitive shapes as emissive surfaces.
Take this quick render of Maya getting clapped by Magnar I put together as an example:
The room is lit evenly by an entire ceiling-spanning ghost light with a warm tint. You don't really even need to use a ghostlight here and could have just turned the actual ceiling geometry into an emissive since it's out of shot and achieved the same effect. Notice how there are almost no strong shadows? This is how almost all of DPC's backgrounds are lit from what I can tell. The characters themselves needed a little more, so behind the camera is nothing but a primitive square projecting soft light onto their bodies to create a little more depth. Now I could have fiddled with it more and accentuated certain parts of the image I want to draw attention to, but hopefully the example at least might help someone out.
As far as the lights in the eyes, those are just the reflections of the primitive emissive squares he's using to light the characters, as well as some could be put there for no other purpose than the eye reflections. This lighting style is much more obvious early on in BAD history, and he's certainly experimented over time, but its pretty clear he still heavily uses emissive lighting.
