Swan Lake (Ver A) by Roboman28

DAZ|Studio • Fantasy • posted on Oct 17, 2010

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Description

Already had a similar picture to this so suggest you share some lighting tips instead but your choice of course. BASIC LIGHTING I have now settled in to fairly standard lighting techniques which seems to serve most purposes. Thought I would share this, mainly for the benefit of beginners, although comments from others about how they do things better welcome. Step 1. Place two distant lights with shadows on, facing from the front angle 45 degrees approx off each side off the centre axis. This ensures all front lit. Step 2. Place a distant light with shadows on at the side or slightly to the rear. The purpose of this is to illuminate the contours. Looks good with muscles for example. Step 3 . Turn all distant lights down to about 60%. Step 4. Place a spot light on the face, usually no shadows at about 50%. Step 5. Do a render on the screen to see how it looks. The shadows add a good 3D effect but some parts may be too dark so add in a spot or point light at around 50% to fill in some of the shadows. You want a graduation of light and dark but full white or black is usually best avoided so balance your lights to avoid this. A bright edge effect can look good and sometimes full black shadows heightens lurking evil but most of the time avoid this. Further steps. Repeat image with advanced lighting such as Lightdome 2 or IBL. These tend to give quite flat lighting effects but they show up the surface detail well. If you now blend this with your original picture you have the best of both worlds - exciting shadows and good skin texture. ADDING SKIN GLOSS First do a well lit but normal picture along the lines of 'basic lighting'. Then select your model e.g Victoria 4. Click on the surfaces tab. Scroll down to Victoria 4 and select 1_Skinface all the way to 3_SkinLeg. On the Advanced tab below go to the Specular settings. Select colour as white and Glossiness to 70%. Strength can be 100%. Now this will not make a nice picture by itself because there will be burn-out but you can blend it with your normal picture using Paintshop Pro or similar. I find a blend of 25% gloss and 75% normal usually makes for a healthy glow rather than a plastic effect but try for yourself.

Comments (22)

Haydaad

7:40AM | Sun, 17 October 2010

Beautiful character and scene. Excellent job!

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wliebtposer

7:51AM | Sun, 17 October 2010

beautiful image,very nice

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Avros

8:01AM | Sun, 17 October 2010

Great idea to offer tips to newcomers, and one method I like to use (also helps speed up render time) is to use three (3) to four (4) distant lights. The first lamp is used to illuminate from behind the model and set to 180% intensity with NO shadows and white colour. The second light is placed in front and down, thus facing upwards to the model, with the intensity set to 40% and the colour on a medium grey. This will act as my ambient source. The third light is placed to the side of the model and this one I set to 60-90% of intensity and the colour can be any (very) faded colour. Depending on the mood you want to work with. I mostly use the a off white (#:243,243,243) with a hint of coloured blue (#: , , ). Now the last light is going to produce the shadow (either Sun or Room light) so it will also need to be bright. I usually set this one to 150% with Deep Shadow Maps ON and set the shadow softness to (5.0%) and shadow bias to (15.0%). Position this light above the model and facing the downwards and be sure to have it in front of the model. This will illuminate the body as if it were almost having the sun/light above and in front of them. Of course the more lights you have the better the image, but you don't need to have more than one with shadows. Just have the lights at different shades and intensity, and place them around the model in an even manner (eg: 30 degrees separation) Best results are always obtained when you render with RayTraced Shadows over the Deep Shadows. Experiment to find the one you like, but try and keep the numbers down to less than 2% on softness and bias.

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jclP Online Now!

8:30AM | Sun, 17 October 2010

beautiful image,very nice

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Thetis

9:25AM | Sun, 17 October 2010

beautiful render! I also find that the basic lighting with spots and distant lights gives good results, while using IBLs and IDL can enhance but must not do so.

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adrie

9:54AM | Sun, 17 October 2010

This one is also very beautiful the lighting in this one is great....excellent done.

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Faemike55

10:28AM | Sun, 17 October 2010

Very good work and nice that you offer tips on the lighting

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2121

10:48AM | Sun, 17 October 2010

Superb render and thanks for the tips...always appreciated.

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brycek

11:38AM | Sun, 17 October 2010

Beautiful image!

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alessimarco

11:48AM | Sun, 17 October 2010

I really appreciate your explanation of lighting! I have experimented with tons of lighting schemes and it is so very helpful to learn from the experimentation and experience of others! A wonderfully beautiful image...and thank you!

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