Daz Looking for general tips to control indoor lighting.

[Deleted member 1121028]

I use an iray plane all the time, I use other ghost lights when needed, I never use a HDRI unless it outside.[...]

When I set up an emissive plane, I have done it prolly 7,000 times now, I usually get it in the right spot first time around, but starting out it is harder than you would think. If you look at the shadow you can see where I have angled it from.


If you are making a VN you need to be semi industrial and be satisfied with what looks 90% good, you try and get every pic 100% but you never will, if you got every render perfect you would never get a VN made, my art aint bad, some games are fantastic, but compare them to some pics in the art section and we look like amateurs, but they spend hours on one pic and are usually a lot better at photoshop than most of us.

I do believe that Iray planes are quite mandatory for indoor lightnening, I mean if you go on the Renpy/Daz route and semi industrial level of renders. Nothing comes close in term of cranking rendering time while keeping (mostly) consistency. Eck even with a 3090 I'm not sure I would renonce.

For indoor shooting with HDRI, I think the problem mostly is lot of them are not balanced for that - even for HDRI been shot indoor (too strong/low main(s) light, too dense/invisible neutral and so on, too much problems/tweaking). That said I think most ones intended for portraiture (generally 'fake' IBL), works kinda well for more general indoor use. Those ones can be great time saver imo, not only in term of iterations/sec but also (very) fast composing a scene imo.

 

[Andreas Hardcastle]

In my opinion the perfect mix for indoor lighting is using Luminosity Ultimate: Comprehensive Iray Lighting System for the overall scene illumination, in combination with Iray Ghost Light Kit 3.

For less complex interiors, like one room sets or some other sort of "container", Interior Light PRO is super useful and comfy.

 

[MissFortune]

In my opinion the perfect mix for indoor lighting is using https://f95zone.to/threads/luminosity-ultimate-comprehensive-iray-lighting-system.78158/ for the overall scene illumination, in combination with Iray Ghost Light Kit 3.

For less complex interiors, like one room sets or some other sort of "container", Interior Light PRO is super useful and comfy.

I wouldn't recommend this for beginners. Before using tools to accomplish good/decent lighting, you should be learning how to manually light scenes indoor and out (either via spot/point lights or ghost lights, planes, or emissive objects), along with why a scene should be lit the way it is. It's like learning math, you could use a calculator to get your answers, but what happens when you don't have that calculator anymore? You have no idea what to do. There's nothing wrong with using the tools out there, but learn the medium before taking advantage of them.

 

[Andreas Hardcastle]

Especially as a beginner the tools I mentioned will speed up the Daz learning curve immensely. Being able to fully concentrate on figuring out how lighting works, without the constant distraction of having to learn how to navigate the program, what all the words and options in the menus mean, makes for much quicker learning. Luminosity Ultimate is easy to overview and offers comfortable access to everything you'd use in the end anyway, just on an optimized route.
Doing it the hard way, figuring out how to do it all "on foot" in Daz isn't such a tedious chore if you already know what it says on all the tabs and menus - knowledge before labor ;-D

 

[MissFortune]

Especially as a beginner the tools I mentioned will speed up the Daz learning curve immensely. Being able to fully concentrate on figuring out how lighting works, without the constant distraction of having to learn how to navigate the program, what all the words and options in the menus mean, makes for much quicker learning. Luminosity Ultimate is easy to overview and offers comfortable access to everything you'd use in the end anyway, just on an optimized route.
Doing it the hard way, figuring out how to do it all "on foot" in Daz isn't such a tedious chore if you already know what it says on all the tabs and menus - knowledge before labor ;-D

A new user should be learning the interface (much like Blender, in that sense) before doing anything else. Inserting figures, posing, scenes, etc. should all come after. Lighting especially.

You only get knowledge through labor, was my point. Sure, they get good/decent lighting right away, but they still know absolutely nothing about lighting itself. Stuff like which light geometry is best, which HxW is best for the scene, lumens and kelvins, the actual placement of lights, and everything else will just go over their heads. Granted, I took apart some of the lighting sets made by Sveva/OOT used them for reference early on, and what you're saying is a valid form of self-teaching, but they end up missing a whole lot of fundamentals that come with lighting. Just my opinion, of course. People are allowed to do as they please, obviously.

 

[Andreas Hardcastle]

Oh, I am absolutely with you about learning the fundamentals and not just throwing stuff in until something looks cool. And that is exactly why I suggested starting with "Luminosity Ultimate: Comprehensive Iray Lighting System". Have a look at its features and menu structure. It leads a beginner through all important stages and checks all important boxes, instead of just offering 10 or 20 one-click solutions. It's just simple enough to not completely overwhelm a beginner, but also offers enouhg depth to showcase all areas you need to know and understand. It doesn't do everything for them, it just puts them on a good path to follow for setting up ilumination.

Interior Light PRO on the other hand... yeah, that would be counterproductive as first, one and only tool for a beginner. It's why I mentioned it last and for use in less complex environments.

 

[rev2020]

Ghost lights cant render highlights and reflections that good.
Example here.

Also make sure you have spectral rendering normal (CIE 1964) enabled in the rendering settings.

Only use photometric lights such as Point lights or spot lights on the characters.
also read about the 3 point light rig system.
this is not only a problem in daz its also a problem in reality.
all studios uses 3 point light rigs.

center soft light
key light and rim light.

when you load a spotlight
change the light paramteres to disc och sphere instead of point
change dimension to around 50-100
the higher the softer the shadows

check this video at 50min when he adds spotlights to the characters
such a huge difference and the characters really comes to live

or if you dont want to mess around with placing spotlights there are ready to use light rigs here with photometric lights.

You must be registered to see the links

just place the 0 spot to the character then you have an finished light right.
you probably also want to rotate the rig for proper lighting.

another issue is the skin on the chracters which is often way too dark.
reduce translucent weight to around 0.2 to 0.5 if you are using an dim room or increase Exposure in photoshop on all skin textures until you start to blow out highlights.

 

[Deleted member 1121028]

Something is wrong on the internet again.

Please don't use spectral rendering for your go-to setting, especially if you make a game. As much as I like this feature and I think rev2020 mean 'natural' instead of 'normal', it's doubly-bugged. Both on exposure level and transmitted color. If you're making a game (as opposed to 'showcase' a render), forget about it in the long run.

I'm not sure why people get stuck with ghost-light in 2021 but that's me.

3-point light system is not an end in itself, outside you want everything to look like a sad fake sitcom. Bring some contrast, trust your eyes. Imo lightening is truly where artistic take can shine.

Never ever reduce translucent weight of any skin to around 0.2 to 0.5 (or maybe for a really far shot). It's completely missing the point. And awfully wrong.

 

[rev2020]

Something is wrong on the internet again.

Please don't use spectral rendering for your go-to setting, especially if you make a game. As much as I like this feature and I think rev2020 mean 'natural' instead of 'normal', it's doubly-bugged. Both on exposure level and transmitted color. If you're making a game (as opposed to 'showcase' a render), forget about it in the long run.

I'm not sure why people get stuck with ghost-light in 2021 but that's me.

3-point light system is not an end in itself, outside you want everything to look like a sad fake sitcom. Bring some contrast, trust your eyes. Imo lightening is truly where artistic take can shine.

Never ever reduce translucent weight of any skin to around 0.2 to 0.5 (or maybe for a really far shot). It's completely missing the point. And awfully wrong.

i make cash from those tips do you?

 

[Deleted member 1121028]

i make cash from those tips do you?

Lmao. Then stop scamming people that don't know better.

Spectral rendering, outside the obvious higher exposure; which you have to reflect on your lightening everytime you swap from it; also bring UV seams due to transmitted color. You will now have to correct each skin part (or everything that use transmitted color) for all skins you gonna use. Wonderful.

At 0.2 translucency weight, you successfully only scatter/transmit 20% of light into your skin (congrats!), breaking any credible SSS on the way. You're now creating an inner glowing monstruosity in order to bring it back. Amazeballs.

my 2 cents I do it for free.