[Daz3D] Spot rendering explanation

[Oppai Auteur]

I've seen spot rendering brought up by several developers as a great way to save time on rendering, but I've not been able to find a good example of how it is used. Not only that, there seem to be disagreements on what it is.

I've seen some people say its just a useful tool to test an area of the render to make sure everything is rendering properly without having to render a whole scene. Then there are others who say its a superb way to save time by rendering out an area that has minor changes and then combine it with an existing render to make a complete render in less time

So can anyone spell it out for a Daz3D user who is still barely a beginner despite using it for months lol

Is it just a handy test tool?.....or is it a hugely useful technique that is going to cause me to become absolutely furious over the fact I'm only finding out about it and how much time I'd save right now!?

Thanks

 

[Porcus Dev]

I prefer Iray preview to check how scene looks, normally thats enough, if you need to view exactly the final quality of some area, you can use spot render, but in my opinion isn't necessary.

Spot Render is great to correct some parts of the scene if you view some errors in the final render, so you don't have to re-render the whole scene. Or to make a little changes, for examples, same scene and the only thing that changes is the face expression, then with Spot Render you only need to render the face area, not the whole scene.

Keep in mind that when you select Spot Render icon, then you need to click too on Advanced Tools icon, then you'll see two options... on the left (I don't remember the name now, perhaps Viewport) is for preview an area (like Iray preview), on the right there is "New Windows", that, I think, is the important options, with that DAZ will generate a new image (full size) with only the area you select rendered, the rest will be transparent....
...so, in a nutshell:
- You render normally your character with a neutral expression in her face (full render)
- Change face expression, for example, he/she smiles
- Select "Sport Render" icon, then click on "Advanced Tools" icon, select "New Windows", and select what area you need to render (only the face of the character)
- Finally, save this last image, and combine it with some photo editor to have the full new image.


If you have any doubt let me know.

 

[Oppai Auteur]

I prefer Iray preview to check how scene looks, normally thats enough, if you need to view exactly the final quality of some area, you can use spot render, but in my opinion isn't necessary.

Spot Render is great to correct some parts of the scene if you view some errors in the final render, so you don't have to re-render the whole scene. Or to make a little changes, for examples, same scene and the only thing that changes is the face expression, then with Spot Render you only need to render the face area, not the whole scene.

Keep in mind that when you select Spot Render icon, then you need to click too on Advanced Tools icon, then you'll see two options... on the left (I don't remember the name now, perhaps Viewport) is for preview an area (like Iray preview), on the right there is "New Windows", that, I think, is the important options, with that DAZ will generate a new image (full size) with only the area you select rendered, the rest will be transparent....
...so, in a nutshell:
- You render normally your character with a neutral expression in her face (full render)
- Change face expression, for example, he/she smiles
- Select "Sport Render" icon, then click on "Advanced Tools" icon, select "New Windows", and select what area you need to render (only the face of the character)
- Finally, save this last image, and combine it with some photo editor to have the full new image.


If you have any doubt let me know.

When it comes to checking render progress I prefer the Iray preview as well, this question was more about the possible time saving when it came to spot rendering

Went through the steps you gave and it worked great, final result turned out just how I hoped

Thanks very much for taking the time to give me a hand!

.....now if you'll excuse me I am going to go smash everything I can get me hands on due to HOW MUCH FUCKING TIME THIS WOULD HAVE SAVED WORKING ON MY GAME!!!!

 

[Loys]

Hi @Oppai Auteur !

My 2 cents. In my workflow the spot render tool helps me to save a huge amount of time. Why? I use Daz 4.11 beta with new Iray denoiser. It works just great, but often it washes out the details of skin/hair. So that is what i do:

1. I set up the scene. Then i render it with Denoiser on, BUT with no hair on the figure. That way the render is finished faster. As a result i have a complete scene with figure, but there is no hair on it and the details of the skin are washed out. Okay...
2. I change the denoiser start iteration from 1000 (for example) to 4000 and then make another render with spot render tool: i render the body and cancel rendering on later iteration. Now the body has more details. Great.
3. I turn the hair on and make another render with spot rendering. I render just the head of the figure.
4. Then i combine all three images.

It saves a lot of time actually. But you must be careful about the shadows. When you turn the hair on, the shadows change. I hope this will be helpful information for you. Good luck!

Sorry for any mistakes in language(

 

[dave619]

how you find the spt render tool and were is it to actavate

 

[Loys]

how you find the spt render tool and were is it to actavate

Here.

 

[dave619]

tyvm

 

[Loys]

tyvm

You are welcome!

 

[Porcus Dev]

When it comes to checking render progress I prefer the Iray preview as well, this question was more about the possible time saving when it came to spot rendering

Went through the steps you gave and it worked great, final result turned out just how I hoped

Thanks very much for taking the time to give me a hand!

.....now if you'll excuse me I am going to go smash everything I can get me hands on due to HOW MUCH FUCKING TIME THIS WOULD HAVE SAVED WORKING ON MY GAME!!!!

You're welcome

Don't get too angry with yourself, the same thing happened to me when I discovered ... the option "new window" opens up a whole world of possibilities, no more full re-renders, hahaha

 

[Porcus Dev]

BTW, if when you select an area to render you realize that it's not the one you wanted, and you don't want daz to start with the rendering and you have to cancel and do it again... you can, while you keep the left mouse button selecting the area, press the right button, this way the current selection is canceled

 

[Droid Productions]

Spot renderer has two modes (switch between them by selecting Spot Rendering, then clicking the Tool Setting tab).



If you're rendering into the videoport, it's useful for checking small details; did my spotlight catch their eye, did that cloth clip, etc. If you're doing progressive overlays, switch it to window, so you get a different render for each one.

For this GIF, for example, I rendered out 1 base image, then 3 Spot Renders of different chunks, then combined them to give an animating face:






I haven't found a simple way to make the Spot Rendering follow the current camera resolution, so make sure you update the Dimension preset if that's your plan.



Spot renders used like that can also be really useful for post work. Say you've done this gorgeous 4K render, lighting's perfect, all the characters look great... while congratulating yourself on your awesomeness, you just realize that one of the hands on the main character is clipping with her coat. Which is going to take hours and hours to re-render.

Or you could just fix the hand, do just a spot render of that area, and composite it in Photoshop. 5 minute fix

 

[osanaiko]

I haven't found a simple way to make the Spot Rendering follow the current camera resolution, so make sure you update the Dimension preset if that's your plan.

I don't understand this part, please explain.

i thought spot render would use the size you marked with the click-drag rectangle... mapped onto the equivalent full image resolution of the Render Settings dimensions.

 

[Droid Productions]

it uses the render settings, yeah. But since I've got a few different cameras with their own resolutions (so I have one that's 512x512 that I use for mugshot portraits, another one that's 600x1200 that I use for full-body shots, and one that's 1920x1080 which I use for 'scenes'). When spot-rendering, the tool will ignore the resolution set in the current camera, and just use the global rendering settings, so it comes out at the wrong resolution

 

[osanaiko]

it uses the render settings, yeah. But since I've got a few different cameras with their own resolutions (so I have one that's 512x512 that I use for mugshot portraits, another one that's 600x1200 that I use for full-body shots, and one that's 1920x1080 which I use for 'scenes'). When spot-rendering, the tool will ignore the resolution set in the current camera, and just use the global rendering settings, so it comes out at the wrong resolution

@"Droid Productions" oh, i didn't know you could have a camera with a specific resolution. that comment makes sense now!

thanks for the clarification