Camera sets in Studio

[eclark1894]

Okay, so I know that I can save camera sets in Poser. It is currently my intention to have a camera set up in every room for the House for Dawn. That means, the kitchen, bedrooms, garage, living room... you get the picture. So, again I know that I can set this up in Poser, BUT :
1. Can I create and save camera setups in Studio?

2. How do I do that?

3. Can Studio read Poser Camera set ups?

 

[Lorraine]

Don't think DS can use Poser cams. I've always created my own sets in DS. There's different ways to save them. One is as a camera preset in save as. I usually save camera sets as scene subsets, you can save several cameras using that. I do the same for lights. I made a camera set for the Dream Home at Daz that had over 40 cameras in every conceivable spot.

 

[eclark1894]

Hmm, interesting. Well. I'll probably just leave the cameras and lights out for DS then and include them in the Poser version.

 

[RAMWolff]

Not true. Cameras can pretty much be used between both programs.

If you load up the cam file in DAZ Studio you then want to save it as it's native format,

Go to File > Save As > Camera (preset) and up will pop a save box.

Browse to the Camera Presets and save your camera presets there**

**Make sure you create a corresponding folder like "House of Dawn" by right clicking in the Camera Presets folder within DAZ Studio and "Create a Sub-Folder" name it and then save your camera presets there.

Or you can "Create a Sub-Folder" in the main House of Dawn folder called Cam Presets if you want. If your planning on doing a native save to DAZ Format I'd put the house in the "Environments" folder under "Architecture" and create your House of Dawn sub folder there. You can put your Cams in it's own sub folder within there to keep things tidy!

 

[Pendraia]

Here's some info on saving individual cameras. I know that a set can be created as I own some but I've never done much with cameras...sorry!

VI - Cameras and Views [Documentation Center]

 

[Ken1171]

Since we are talking about cameras here, I wanted to ask something about that in DS. What are the keyboard shortcuts for front, top, right side, left side, hands, head, etc cameras in DS? I waste quite some time clicking the interface to switch cameras. Also, is there a way to save and restore cameras in DS like we do in Poser with memory dots? I miss that so much when I am in DS...

 

[Pendraia]

You can set shortcuts must admit I've never gotten around to trying it though. Not sure with the memory dots if there is anything similar...

keyboard_shortcuts [Documentation Center]
some other useful links

Customizing Shortcuts and Icons [Documentation Center]

 

[Ken1171]

Thanks Pen! I didn't know we could right-click the menu commands to change their shortcuts! Unfortunately, camera controls are not included in the menus, so we cannot customize these as far as I could see. Camera controls are mapped to the NUM pad, but they don't work unless keyboard navigation is enabled, which they aren't since I use with a Space Navigator 3D mouse to control the camera. Looks like they are mutually exclusive and cannot be customized in DS. >__<

 

[eclark1894]

Good to know. Think I'm going to have to read up on DS cameras and lights more.

 

[Pendraia]

Sorry about that Ken...I haven't really played much with the cameras apart from using the viewport controls.

 

[Ken1171]

Nothing to be sorry about - I've actually learned something useful (menu command right-clicks) thanks to you! Keyboard navigation is new in DS 4.6, but I use a 3D mouse and had to disable it because it overwrites other useful shortcuts I already use. Now I know this also disables the shortcuts that control switching cameras, which is a big bummer.

 

[RAMWolff]

Good to know. Think I'm going to have to read up on DS cameras and lights more.

Lights are a whole 'nother ball of wax I'm afraid. Esp since iRay is considered the default rendering engine at this point and hell I can't even figure stuff out at times. Thank GOD for Colm's Render Studio, it takes allot of the guess work out of the whole thing. I can light a scene just fine using 3Delight light setup but iRay? Still a babe in the woods.

 

[Ken1171]

iRay should use the same kinds of lights supported in Octane: emissive mesh, HDRI, and physical sky. The way to set them up should be pretty much the same. Which ones you will use will depend a lot on the scene and the kind of mood you want. Mesh lights are more fit for interior scenes and studio portraits. HDRI and physical sky are more used on outdoor scenes.

Mesh lights can be used exactly like Poser's IDL with emissive materials, and HDRI are a global variation of that. Physical sky is also of the global kind, but in my Octane scenes I use it together with HDRI and emissive planes, which gives more control. Not sure if iRay supports that, but my guess is that it probably does.

Emissive planes are probably the most versatile of the bunch, and the one I use the most. You can use them as spotlights, where their physical size control how sharp or soft the light will be. In both iRay and Octane, we cannot cheat like we did in the past with Poser/DS lights. That is, we cannot disable shadows or exclude objects from being affected by the lights, which can be both good and bad for artistic renders.

 

[phdubrov]

One of most confusing thing in DS/Iray is Auto headlamp - emulation on camera flash. Switch it off if you do not want it on purpose, or it can mess all the lighting.
Iray has quite good photometric (Max-style) lights too with a lot of fine controls (cycle or rectangle as emitter, for example, IES for point lights) - and it gives your more control than mesh emitters - that you can have too.
Sun-sky env is very good too, only weak point is you can't combine HDRI with sky. (But if you need it as composition, not for shadows from clouds, you can simply switch "draw dome" off and add clouds in DS background. ) Add shadow-catching ground to the mix and horizon control.

 

[Ken1171]

Sun-sky env is very good too, only weak point is you can't combine HDRI with sky. (But if you need it as composition, not for shadows from clouds, you can simply switch "draw dome" off and add clouds in DS background. ) Add shadow-catching ground to the mix and horizon control.

Ok, so I guess that answers my doubt - iRay doesn't support using physical sky + HDRI at the same time. This is NOT just a matter of showing clouds, but instead combining physical sky with additional lighting from a HDRI map (and showing some clouds). In Octane I use this for a double purpose: to complement the lighting, and also to add something to reflect on reflective materials. In Octane we can use emissive planes as IES lights, by simply connecting an IES profile to it. Those are standard files and can be downloaded from the internet, but the tiny Poser scale can cause trouble because IES, just like HDRI, depend on real world scale to work properly. DS uses that, but Poser doesn't.

 

[eclark1894]

Lights are a whole 'nother ball of wax I'm afraid. Esp since iRay is considered the default rendering engine at this point and hell I can't even figure stuff out at times. Thank GOD for Colm's Render Studio, it takes allot of the guess work out of the whole thing. I can light a scene just fine using 3Delight light setup but iRay? Still a babe in the woods.

Kind of the opposite with me. I don't have PP11 yet, but I do have Blender Cycles, and they're essentially the same thing. But I'm finding it easier to light a scene with Cycles than FireFly. In fact, most of the time in Firefly I'm using mesh emitters to light a scene and indirect lighting.

 

[eclark1894]

Ok, so I guess that answers my doubt - iRay doesn't support using physical sky + HDRI at the same time. This is NOT just a matter of showing clouds, but instead combining physical sky with additional lighting from a HDRI map (and showing some clouds). In Octane I use this for a double purpose: to complement the lighting, and also to add something to reflect on reflective materials. In Octane we can use emissive planes as IES lights, by simply connecting an IES profile to it. Those are standard files and can be downloaded from the internet, but the tiny Poser scale can cause trouble because IES, just like HDRI, depend on real world scale to work properly. DS uses that, but Poser doesn't.

I wonder if you can do the opposite? Use a mesh emitter , and an HDRI backdrop together? I had an idea for doing something like that in Poser to create a night sky with moon and stars, but it means using two environment spheres, one inside the other.

 

[phdubrov]

I wonder if you can do the opposite? Use a mesh emitter , and an HDRI backdrop together?

Iray worlds product on Daz works more or less that way - it's base, hemisphere as meshlight and sun emitter.

 

[eclark1894]

I don't know if you've seen it, but there's a thread over in the RDNA forum where Bagginsbill has created God Rays. He's using something called a gobo which, is a theater term, used for masking off parts of a light to cast specifically shaped lights or shadows. That was more or less what I'm thinking about with the moon and stars.

 

[Ken1171]

I wonder if you can do the opposite? Use a mesh emitter , and an HDRI backdrop together? I had an idea for doing something like that in Poser to create a night sky with moon and stars, but it means using two environment spheres, one inside the other.

Yes you can. I have done that in Poser using just IDL, and raising the image's "ambient" value in the Material Room. It doesn't even need to be HDRI, it can be any image.

I don't know if you've seen it, but there's a thread over in the RDNA forum where Bagginsbill has created God Rays. He's using something called a gobo which, is a theater term, used for masking off parts of a light to cast specifically shaped lights or shadows. That was more or less what I'm thinking about with the moon and stars.

We can create God Rays natively in Poser with Firefly without any 3rd party stuff. Poser has an "Environment" rendering option that is disabled by default, and SMS has posted a video that shows how to create God Rays with the right lighting conditions using Environment turned on during the render. I think the video is in YouTube or at their video tutorials section.