To Mods: If this type of long "how I got here" message isn’t meant for this space, I apologize in advance.
To Daz Art Enthusiasts: I'm about to do a lot of Yapping, so if you're just here for the art, feel free to skip the Yapping and check out the images.
Today, I decided to build a scene from scratch, focusing on a more ethical workflow to see what I could learn. (Note: This is my first time actually playing with lighting.)
By ethical, I mean taking a mindful and patient approach to the workflow.
Character Creation
I started by creating my character, Clara:
I had a "white bunny" theme in mind, and luckily, I had the perfect outfit for it.
Initially, I experimented with hair colors and decided to stick with the first one as it seemed the best.
Camera Setup
Next, I set up the cameras. I used three cameras, with the first one giving the POV that you can see in the pic above and for the other two you can see the POV below.
Setting Up the Environment
This was my first render within the environment (I didn't add any lights; those came with the asset).
Then, I decided to add some lighting to act like a ring light (in this case, it was a point light, but you get the idea) to highlight the main character of the scene.
This was my first attempt with the light.
It didn’t quite hit the mark—the light felt too intense. Although the "assets" deserved the highlight, they weren’t my main objective.
After some trial and error, I managed to achieve better lighting, although it still wasn’t exactly what I wanted. For instance, the shadow still looked massive, which I assume is because the light was horizontal, and the room was small, so the light traveled further after crossing the main character.
I did notice some clipping with the bed, hand, and foot, but here are the other "POVs".
Here i notice a lack of lighting and so i tried to put a new light behind the target this time.
The light wasn’t great, but I didn’t attempt further adjustments and moved on to the next test: environments.
Environment Testing
So i set the Environment Map value to 20 from 2 , disabled my lights, and got this result (I also tried to fix the clipping I mentioned earlier).
Then, I played with the Environment Map a bit more and noticed the "Environment Intensity" parameter just above it. That's when I had a realization. I reset the Environment Map value to what it was earlier and fiddled with this new parameter. I liked what I saw, so I turned my lights back on, and here’s the result:
This isn’t a great render(please no one take offense at this); I’ve played enough AVNs to know that. But it’s something I think looks pretty nice, considering I spent about four hours on it—two of which were just rendering time (the first pics without the environment were 2-5 minutes; after adding the environment, the time went up to 10-12 minutes. The one where I adjusted the environment took around 15 minutes, and with 2,500 samples, it was only at 4% progress. So, I’ll need to figure out if I can optimize them or if the environment intensity is just too demanding).
Conclusion
I’m pretty happy with the progress i made today. Am looking forward to any comment/ pointers or just insights. Next step for me is i would like to explore environments more, maybe download a few new maps cause if i understand correctly the on i have is a basic middle of the day one, so probably gonna look to get some better quality ones and try doing some "Afternoon" renders next. I also want to work on my posing next so i will be changing poses as i go and moving the cams maybe doing some portrait-sized shots too.
PS: I used an RTX 4070TI for all the renders, which are in 1440p and range between 800-2500 samples.
PS2: i was told i needed to work on my camera placement(not that its the only thing i need to work on), so if you see any possible improvements let me know.
To Daz Art Enthusiasts: I'm about to do a lot of Yapping, so if you're just here for the art, feel free to skip the Yapping and check out the images.
Today, I decided to build a scene from scratch, focusing on a more ethical workflow to see what I could learn. (Note: This is my first time actually playing with lighting.)
By ethical, I mean taking a mindful and patient approach to the workflow.
Character Creation
I started by creating my character, Clara:
I had a "white bunny" theme in mind, and luckily, I had the perfect outfit for it.
Initially, I experimented with hair colors and decided to stick with the first one as it seemed the best.
Camera Setup
Next, I set up the cameras. I used three cameras, with the first one giving the POV that you can see in the pic above and for the other two you can see the POV below.
Setting Up the Environment
This was my first render within the environment (I didn't add any lights; those came with the asset).
Then, I decided to add some lighting to act like a ring light (in this case, it was a point light, but you get the idea) to highlight the main character of the scene.This was my first attempt with the light.
It didn’t quite hit the mark—the light felt too intense. Although the "assets" deserved the highlight, they weren’t my main objective.
After some trial and error, I managed to achieve better lighting, although it still wasn’t exactly what I wanted. For instance, the shadow still looked massive, which I assume is because the light was horizontal, and the room was small, so the light traveled further after crossing the main character.
I did notice some clipping with the bed, hand, and foot, but here are the other "POVs".
Here i notice a lack of lighting and so i tried to put a new light behind the target this time.
The light wasn’t great, but I didn’t attempt further adjustments and moved on to the next test: environments.
Environment Testing
So i set the Environment Map value to 20 from 2 , disabled my lights, and got this result (I also tried to fix the clipping I mentioned earlier).
Then, I played with the Environment Map a bit more and noticed the "Environment Intensity" parameter just above it. That's when I had a realization. I reset the Environment Map value to what it was earlier and fiddled with this new parameter. I liked what I saw, so I turned my lights back on, and here’s the result:
This isn’t a great render(please no one take offense at this); I’ve played enough AVNs to know that. But it’s something I think looks pretty nice, considering I spent about four hours on it—two of which were just rendering time (the first pics without the environment were 2-5 minutes; after adding the environment, the time went up to 10-12 minutes. The one where I adjusted the environment took around 15 minutes, and with 2,500 samples, it was only at 4% progress. So, I’ll need to figure out if I can optimize them or if the environment intensity is just too demanding).
Conclusion
I’m pretty happy with the progress i made today. Am looking forward to any comment/ pointers or just insights. Next step for me is i would like to explore environments more, maybe download a few new maps cause if i understand correctly the on i have is a basic middle of the day one, so probably gonna look to get some better quality ones and try doing some "Afternoon" renders next. I also want to work on my posing next so i will be changing poses as i go and moving the cams maybe doing some portrait-sized shots too.
PS: I used an RTX 4070TI for all the renders, which are in 1440p and range between 800-2500 samples.
PS2: i was told i needed to work on my camera placement(not that its the only thing i need to work on), so if you see any possible improvements let me know.
