Daz Making lights not light up inner teeth

[GamesMtP]

Hey,

So what's you guys best method for having lights hitting a characters face not unnaturally lit up the back teeth?
- Daz3d / Iray
- Don't shine a light in their face or close their mouths are not valid answers, sometimes you want/need to.

Can't do negative intensity to absorb light in Iray. Messing with surface values or post work is very time consuming. There must be better methods?

 

[coffeeaddicted]

Hey,

So what's you guys best method for having lights hitting a characters face not unnaturally lit up the back teeth?
- Daz3d / Iray
- Don't shine a light in their face or close their mouths are not valid answers, sometimes you want/need to.

Can't do negative intensity to absorb light in Iray. Messing with surface values or post work is very time consuming. There must be better methods?

I switched to this method which seems to work nicely.

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The idea is that you create a torus and parent it with your camera. So no matter what scene your character will always lit.

There is one downside as i see it. It will lit also the clothing. Especially reflective ones. So you have a ring appear on it. Haven't solved that part yet but as far as face goes, it works really well.

 

[MissFortune]

I think I have a decent idea of what you're talking about, but could you show a quick example of it? But, yeah. By the way you're explaining it, postwork would likely be the easiest fix assuming it isn't part of an animation or something.

I mean, it's no secret Daz teeth kind of suck, but I imagine that the mouth would have to be open pretty wide to even see the back teeth, and kind of requires a direct light source quite literally pointed at the mouth. The easy answer here, without any context to go with, is angled lighting. Something that still hits their faces somewhat directly but off to one side or the other. Sort of like a key light. I don't usually open mouths too wide, as people don't usually open their mouth too wide with just normal talking, but for yelling and stuff of that sort, I usually always angle my lights. Hell, I do that for most of my renders.




There's a reason you'll basically never see anyone lit with a light directly pointed at their face. It's outright unappealing, flattens the features, and takes away any dynamic a render/photo/etc. will have.

 

[GamesMtP]

Sure, I stole an image from another game so I don't have to render or dig through old images right now.

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In real life, you'd almost have to be in a dentist chair with your mouth way open to get the bottom row of teeth to light up like that. I've always disliked it but haven't really found a nice fix for it.

 

[mickydoo]

Don't shine a light in their face or close their mouths are not valid answers

That is the answer, I have made thousands of images and never once even knew this was a problem. Never put light straight at the face.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

a combination of dim key lights set to be a hard light, and bright fill lights set to be a soft light (fake soft lights ie making the light physically large, have a hard time illuminating closed off areas, ie the mouth).

 

[GamesMtP]

I hear you guys. Just do lighting better

 

[MissFortune]

It's not even really about lighting better, it's about technique. With just your standard three-point lighting (with spotlights) with the 'Jaw Open' at 100%:



Now at a more 'normal' open size that resembles talking:



The lighting is certainly on the softer side, but the idea remains the same. There's no light spilling into the mouth, really, because it's not being allowed to. Now, if I turn off my original key light and add another spotlight and point it right at (or near it) her, you'll see more teeth.

 

[GamesMtP]

The lighting is certainly on the softer side, but the idea remains the same. There's no light spilling into the mouth, really, because it's not being allowed to. Now, if I turn off my original key light and add another spotlight and point it right at (or near it) her, you'll see more teeth.

Yes, that perfectly illustrates my question, is there a decent way to not make the teeth that visible even if there's a light. I guess there isn't.

I've fond that sometimes, you kinda want to shine a light in someone's face. It can be a scene with multiple chars turned in different directions. It can be narrow spaces/door openings, and so on. But I've concluded that there isn't really with Iray - just arrange your lights, poses, and camera accordingly.

 

[MissFortune]

is there a decent way to not make the teeth that visible even if there's a light. I guess there isn't.

Postwork is probably the easiest option.

It might be a little more tedious, and would likely take some experimenting, but you might be able to take the mouth map(s) into photoshop and black out the back teeth. You'd have to figure which teeth are where and experiement with the look, along with being decent with Photoshop, but it would likely achieve what you're trying to accomplish.



I've never attempted it, so it's mostly in theory, but you'd want to black out the pale/off-white teeth. I'd imagine the teeth furthest from the tongue/pink spot are the ones you're looking for, but that's little more than a total guess. You'd likely have to fidget with a few of the other maps used in the mouth, as well.