.......................................................................... Nudus Bax - Poses and Lighting for GF8 / GF8.1 .......................................................................... Lighting Scene Manual ************************************************************************************ This project contains 3 Iray lighting scenes (Xtras -> Lighting Scenes). The scenes are optimized for upright, sitting and lying postures. The scenes give you the option of creating images on a black background ("Rembrandt style"). The basic usage is very simple: load your favorite model, load the desired pose, rotate the model about 180° on the Y axis and switch to the "Iray Shaded Viewport" to see a preview of the lighting. Please note: the depth of field is switched on for the camera in each scene. This may cause the image to appear slightly blurred. I will explain below how you can change this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEEP IN MIND: due to the tone mapping and lighting settings, it takes a certain amount of time for the rendering of an image to start. So please be patient. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Start experimenting ... You may have noticed from my other projects that I'm a big fan of experimenting and playing around. I would like to encourage you to do the same. A) A simple but sometimes very effective experiment is to switch the spotlights of a scene on or off. This sometimes results in dramatic changes to the lighting situation. Switch to the "Scene" pane and click on the eye symbol in front of a spotlight to switch the light on or off. Compare the results. B) Even without changing the lighting parameters, you can achieve effective results by changing the position and rotation of the individual spotlights. You can do this in two ways: 1) Set the Viewport display from "Camera" to one of the spotlights and change the position and rotation with the "Rotation" or "Moving" tools right beside the Cube. 2) With a spotlight selected in the "Scene" pane, switch to the "Parameters" pane and use General -> Transforms to move and rotate the spotlight. This allows you to align the light more precisely than in the viewport. Sometimes only minimal repositioning is required. With "Rembrandt-style" renderings, it is also a matter of emphasizing the model's muscle tone through a good incidence of light. C) Another very simple way to create interesting images and exciting lighting is to rotate the model on Y axis in front of the camera. Just try it out and let yourself be surprised. D) The Spotlight Parameters With a spotlight selected in the "Scene" pane switch to the "Parameters" pane and expand the "Light" options. In short: "Intensity": like the name says. "Spread Angle": The higher the value, the greater the scattering of the light. The light becomes darker as it is no longer focused. "Beam Exponent": Brightens the light in the area of the source, i.e. creates a brighter area of a normal spotlight based on the spotlight size (radius). "Light Geometry" and "Height/Width": Instead of a regular spotlight (point), you can also use other shapes to emit the light, e.g. "Rectangle", "Disc", etc. The larger the light-emitting area, the more the light is diffused and shadows become softer. "Luminous Flux (Lumen)": The strength of the light. For Iray, you must use very high values at this point. In my scenes, for example, 300,000 lm. "Temperatur (K)": Higher values lead to cold light with a high blue component, lower values to warm light (more red component). You can now experiment with these options for all eternity ... but who wants to? So here's my own approach: I usually start by switching off lights (A) and/or positioning (B). I only switch to the parameters (D) when I have found good basic lighting that might need some fine-tuning. E) Tone Mapping If you are happy with the lighting situation, but want to give your image that certain something, you should take a look at the tone mapping options. Switch to the "Render Settings" pane and open the "Tone Mapping" options. The most interesting options in brief (bottom to top): "Gamma": Gamma is a value for the relative brightness or darkness of the image. Creates some cool effects "Saturation": The amount and brightness of the colors in the image. Lower values mean less color. "Crush Blacks": Deepens and diffuses shadows "Burn Highlights": Accentuates and emphasizes lights / bright areas "Vignetting": Darkens the sides of the image radially (starting from the center) at higher values or lightens them (lower values). The other settings also offer interesting effects. Just try them out. F) Depth of Field (Camera) It's not about lighting, but about giving your picture an extra touch of reality. In short: in real life and in photography, we see things in the foreground more clearly than things in the background. This applies not only to long distances, but also to the close-up range. It is only through this "trick" (which we are no longer consciously aware of) that we perceive the world in three dimensions. This can be simulated in DAZ using the camera's "Depth of Field" option. Select the camera in the "Scene" pane, switch to the "Cameras" pane and expand the "Camera" options. Here you can switch the "Depth of Field" on or off. The "Focal Distance" allows you to sharpen an area of the picture / model of your choice. "F/Stop" acts like focal lengths ("Brennweite") in real life: the smaller the value, the less depth of field (with the exception of the area focused via "Focal Distance"). The easiest way to use Depth of Field is as follows: first set "F/Stop" to 22.0 (default value). Then select the area in the viewport that you want to focus on (e.g. a face). Now use the "Frame" tool (frame with a "+" sign in the middle next to the cube in the viewport). The selected area (the face) will be centered and zoomed in the viewport. Now switch to the camera and the "Camera" options, turn on "Depth of Field" and use the "Focal Distance" slider, until you are fine with the sharpess of the area shown in the viewport. Zoom out of the image and align it until you have your original image composition in front of you again. To refine the depth of field, you can now use the "F/Stop" option. A lower value blurs the background (or objects that are out of focus), a higher value makes the background sharper. ************************************************************************************ Enjoy - and happy experimenting!