Help about my rendering?

[Deleted member 23356]

Hi. Since about two months or so I've been trying to learn the most and make progress with DAZ 3D. I'd really like to develop a game in the future, but I still have quite some difficulties with my renderings. If I may ask, would you give me some feedback, pointing out where I may be doing something wrong? I'm working with a GTX 1660 TI, and an average CPU.


I believe I've done great progress since I've started learning, but I still have some troubles with render quality. This picture is.. somewhat blurry, and I absolutely cannot make it more photorealistic. I've already fiddled with depth of field settings and others, and I'm using the best textures I could find online. I've also watched a lot of tutorials and followed most guides, but I still wonder how much I have really achieved so far.


Thank you.

 

[PlayfulUK]

The blur is probably the camera depth of field setting. You don't have to use it. It's nice for some portraits though. I would adjust your tone mapping right down if it's an indoor scene. I use 7 or 8 usually, and I dial the light luminance right down too. If it's a night scene, turn off Dome and Scene and just use Scene. You want to try and get some highlights/reflections in the eyes, as they look kind-of flat there.

Otherwise it's a very nice image.

 

[Deleted member 23356]

Really thank you for your nice words and your tips. So I shouldn't use depth of field?
Any advice on how be more photorealistic?

Something like this?


Thank you very much!

 

[MissFortune]

I think you might be misunderstanding DoF a bit, or rather, how to use it. It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it.



Using the leftmost image practically will net you something like the rightmost. His face is in between the two lines on the, meaning I want that and most of his head/chest in focus. Which gives you something like this in Iray (with an HDRI here, feel free to ignore the lack of postwork):



Since the girls are on the other side of the first line and the Fstop is quite low, you're getting a blurry forefront to the render, and the same logic goes for the other side of the male figure. Which can offer some creative framing like the second one above, taking the same approach from above. I just allowed a portion of a shelf to clip into the image while leaving the female figure in focus and then allowing the wall to be blurred once again, just like the previous image. Of course you could just do it head on, as well, just make sure nothing is in front of your camera outside of the figure(s).

As for photorealism, I'm no expert on it. There's the option of Subdivision levels (Select character in parameters > Scroll until you find "Subdivision Levels" and Render SubD levels. The former is for viewport, and I'd recommend leaving it at 1 or 2 if you're working live in Iray preview, though I doubt it seeing as you're using a 16 series card. The latter is your Subdivision level for renders. 4 is as high as you'd need, especially from the scope and timetable of a VN. For closeups and detail portraits, going into surfaces for the the face, torso, and legs and toying with the bump and normal maps will increase or decrease your detail respectively. For beginners, I'd recommend

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(I'd also pick up Scene Optimizer by the same creator). I'm not personally a fan of the image you linked (though I'm sure some are), it feels blown out and as a result creates a lack of shadow to create dynamic (for example, this or this use shadow to create a dynamic and/or visually interesting image while also preserving detail.).

One thing I read a while back and have found true is that not all skins are equal. Some are really good right away (Colm Jackson, CynderBlue, Mousso, ISourceTextures (for the most part), off the top of my head) and some need help before they can be used correctly. In the latter's sense, good lighting will always usually help. That comes with experience more than anything else, or sometimes taste, I suppose. This thread on the

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might be worth a look as well, some really crazy realism and some ideas on how to get it (your GPU might hate you for it, though.).

 

[PlayfulUK]

So in the second image there aren't really any shadows, which is to do with the light brightness and angle. Like the first image it's kind-of flat and looks a little over-exposed. Indoors, especially in the evening, people usually have dimmer, angled lights. I would try something like that.

 

[sliveart777]

I actually think the first image OP linked looks better than the second one. Aside from the lighting and DoF others have mentioned I would increase the resolution of the image. Rendering in 2160p as opposed to 1080p or 720p is going to have a big impact on the overall quality of the image. Then if you have to scale it down to put into a game, use something like Photoshop which has a good downscaling algorithm so you don't lose much of the sharpness.

 

[PlayfulUK]

So yesterday I saw an image I thought was almost unbelievable. I can't remember where I came from to find it...

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. If you look closely what makes it stand out are the eye reflections and the skin, with skin moisture being the most important here. I don't think I'm skilled enough to replicate what he's done. No doubt he's using top layer and glossiness and so on but you can get part of the way by fiddling with those shader settings in Daz, even if you aren't painting your own layer maps.

This is what I'm talking about really - it's the little details that add up.

 

[MissFortune]

I actually think the first image OP linked looks better than the second one. Aside from the lighting and DoF others have mentioned I would increase the resolution of the image. Rendering in 2160p as opposed to 1080p or 720p is going to have a big impact on the overall quality of the image. Then if you have to scale it down to put into a game, use something like Photoshop which has a good downscaling algorithm so you don't lose much of the sharpness.

I do agree. That said, rendering in 4K on a 1660ti is going to take a while (takes a good bit even on a 3080), much too long if OP is thinking of making a VN. 4K only matters if you're doing closeups and detailed portraits (and that's usually working under the assumption that a user has a 8K/4K texture), and perhaps reducing a slight bit of noise (most would still be better off with a good external denoiser in this case, imo). Rendering in 2K(/1440p) is a better happy medium as it lowers your render times while keeping the quality difference negligible, at which point someone would have to be looking for issues in a render to notice anything.

Then, as you said, Photoshop > Postwork > Downscale > Convert to .webp with XnConvert/of the like. (either in a group or one by one.).

 

[Deleted member 23356]

Hi, I apologize for disappearing but I've had several issues. Anyway, I really appreciate all your feedback and in this month thanks to you I have learned so many things. I would love to show you my updates and if you have any advice it would be great to hear them.

These are a few scenes that are ready. I hope you all enjoy them.

Thanks!

 

[Fatalmasterpiece]

You're off to a very good start! As you probably know, if you get the chance to upgrade your GPU to a better RTX card it will help with render time tremendously.
I wouldn't use DPK art as an example of photorealism, not to say his work isn't fantastic. As he suggests thoughm render at high (2-4k) res and about 800 iterations should be enough.
Mostly photorealism comes down to lighting (shadows) and textures. Use the highest res textures you can, after that you need to learn how to light the scene. Use spotlights with light geometry set to cylinder, use the 3 point light method. Also, HDRIs are your friend. DOF can be used effectively to give a scene a sense of focus and draw the eye where you want the viewer to look, especially if the background is distracting.

 

[Deleted member 23356]

Thank you so much for your feedback, really appreciated! Yes, I would like to upgrade my current 1660 RTX but I would need more than 1,000$ because I'd have to change my whole computer and unfortunately it is not possible rn. Yes, I already use HDRIs and DOFs and all these images were created following these two elements that I consider essential. The use of spotlights you suggested is great, personally I've always used panels and various primitives to give decent lighting effects but today I'm going to try your advice. Do you think I can already start thinking about creating a VN with this graphic? What would you recommend for improvement? Anything I've done wrong? Thank you!

By the way love your I was a teenage vampire. Love 80s style and love your cinematic idea on everything, you are really good. I'm waiting for you to finish it!