Poser Viewport/s

[Seebee]

OOOH. Here we go
Poser lights can be seen as simple objects you know.
Simple objects are more easily placed in a quad view for me.
That's all.
Why you have problems is so confusing for me.
What problems do you actually have with them, Miss B?
Is it only placement?
Or other matters?

 

[Miss B]

My problem is I can't "see" them in the viewport like I can in other apps. If I select a light, all it see are the directional arrows, not the lights themselves. What camera would I need to use to physically see them.

I'm used to seeing them in DS's viewport, and just selecting and dragging them where I want them.

 

[Seebee]

Maybe check your manual?
Spotlight indicators and point light indicators etc are very visible in the Poser viewports unless you have them hidden or what have you.
Good luck !
I'm off to the beach to join the old whalers!
We have a one kilometre swim comp.
65yrs and above.
Not fair on us nearly 70's though

 

[Miss B]

Wait 'til you get INTO your 70s. OK, have fun, and I'll check to see what settings if any I can change, because any version of Poser I've had has always been this way, so if they're hidden it's by default.

 

[Seebee]

Yep. Probably..
Good luck !!

 

[Miss B]

Yes, if I "add" a light to a scene. I'm referring to lights that load automatically with a new scene. There are 4 of them, and none of them are viewable in the viewport. All I see are the directional arrows, and they are set to "visable" in the Properties tab, so where exactly are they? The included default scene lights seem to be parented to the camera, no matter which camera you choose, and I don't see a way to undo that.

So I guess the only way to have access to them is to add your own, because the default lights aren't viewable, so not really adjustable except through the Parameters tab.

 

[seachnasaigh]

@Miss B, try switching the auxiliary camera and pulling it back (or create a new camera -revolving- and pull it back) and maybe you'll see the lights.
Looking through the main camera in it's default position, I wouldn't expect to see the spotlights or area light; they're simply out of the camera view.

 

[phdubrov]

It's IBL here. No good representation in viewport.

 

[seachnasaigh]

But only one of the default lights will be an IBL.
OK, let me rephrase...

Point light, spot light, and area light all have an X, Y, Z position in space. You can locate those, and they have avatar prop meshes you can see.

Infinite lights and Diffuse Image Based Lights are reckoned as being infinitely far away; you can change their direction, and the trident indicator will swivel to show their direction, but they have no location in X, Y, Z and you cannot translate them nor see any avatar mesh showing their location, because they don't have a location, only a direction.
You can look through their shadow cam to how light and shadow will fall in your scene.

 

[Seebee]

Miss B . Try this using the Prim.Obj. Stairs and one light.
See how you go
Lower pix shows same setup but not wire frame

 

[Seebee]

Now you can see the Light, (ANY type) and it can be moved/rotated to your wishes.
Maybe you don't have the light "Visible" ?
That lower pix . I have the Light set to "lit wireframe" in it's Object settings so's it's more easily visible.

 

[Miss B]

But only one of the default lights will be an IBL.
OK, let me rephrase...

Point light, spot light, and area light all have an X, Y, Z position in space. You can locate those, and they have avatar prop meshes you can see.

Infinite lights and Diffuse Image Based Lights are reckoned as being infinitely far away; you can change their direction, and the trident indicator will swivel to show their direction, but they have no location in X, Y, Z and you cannot translate them nor see any avatar mesh showing their location, because they don't have a location, only a direction.
You can look through their shadow cam to how light and shadow will fall in your scene.

Thank you Seach, that gives me some ideas. In my DS startup scene, I have 5 standard lights, one of which is a DistantLight which, I believe, is like a Poser infinite light, as it lights everything in all directions, but it can still be seen at 0/0/0 location, and I never move it. That said, in DS, I can change to Prospective View and hit Ctrl+F to drag my viewport back so that I can see everything, including all lights and cameras (I usually have at least 3 or 4 cameras in every scene). I can see that DistantLIght and can drag it, though never bothered because it doesn't change the lighting in any way, since it lights in all directions.

That's why I found it odd that I couldn't see any of the default lights that are in my Poser startup scenes, but now that you've explained how I can at least see the spot, point and area lights with the Aux camera, I'll be playing with it for sure.

 

[Miss B]

Now you can see the Light, (ANY type) and it can be moved/rotated to your wishes.
Maybe you don't have the light "Visible" ?
That lower pix . I have the Light set to "lit wireframe" in it's Object settings so's it's more easily visible.

I tried the staircase yesterday Seebee, but no-go, and as my screenshot above shows, they are all checked "visible" in the Parameters tab. As Seach explained above, I have to use the Aux camera pulled far back to see the point, spot and area lights. As I stated in my response to him above, In DS I go to Prospective View and hit Ctrl+F to pull it way back, so the Aux camera pulled back will give me the same access, and that's what I was looking for. Thanks anyway for trying to help.

 

[Seebee]

Been an interesting discussion all in all. Sort of ended up about lights though.

Using a quad view approach is only a technique that can be utilized if one wants.
Others will always use the single Doc.Persp.View and be much happier that way.
As long as the time/effort/outcome is to your liking then that's good for you.
I never want to be a zealot about it. It's just for me the best and fastest.
But don't be afraid of experimentation in 3D.

Below is a clip from the Poser Manual.
It is not only relevant for Light objects but for any Prop/Object etc.

Pages 277 and 278 show/tell about Light Indicators and how they appear and what they look like.

And Miss B. If the lights icon is not showing in your preview window/s then I
strongly suggest you recheck...under:Render Settings, your Preview window settings.
Maybe your GPU is not able to render the light icon because of a setup glitch.
It definitely should be visible as I've shown before.

 

[Miss B]

Oh they're visible Seebee. I followed Seachnasaigh's suggestion and can view any Spot, Point and Area lights in the Aux Camera. I just need to move it way back from it's default position.

Since I don't, as a rule, use the Aux Camera for anything else, that'll work for me.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Since I don't, as a rule, use the Aux Camera for anything else, that'll work for me.

The Aux camera is my go-to for positioning if I can't see what I'm after in the main window.

I use the Posing camera for multiple things - all related to scene setup. Zooming in close to fine-tune posing, placement of objects, re-parenting of things like hair on figure's heads, etc.

I have basically no use at all for the right, left, etc cameras.

The only ones I find useful are the Main Camera, Aux Camera, Posing Camera, Face Camera, and the two Hand cameras.

The rest are pointless for me.

Multi-viewports... eh, I tried it out again tonight just to see... and no, I definitely have a strong hatred of that. My eyes can't focus on what I'm doing, and I'm all over the place. It's quite literally too blasted much in the window at one time for me, and I can't get anything done at all. I think I will stick to my single viewport and moving between cameras as needed.

I use single viewports in DazStudio and Blender as well. The only exception to that for me is when uvmapping in Blender - then I have two side-by-side, but that's it.

 

[seachnasaigh]

I make big scenes (Lothlorien, Tink's Cafe', etc) and in those cases I create extra auxiliary cameras so I can leave one in each strategic position I want covered. I usually make a few extra dolly cameras also.

When you create an new camera, Poser will ask you to choose revolving or dolly.

Revolving will behave much like the main cam and aux cam; when you adjust viewing angles (yaw, pitch, roll) it orbits around scene center, or, if the orbit selected box is ticked, it orbits around the most recently selected prop/figure. When placing furnishings in a room, I might have an aux cam orbit the oven until it's in place, then select the coffee/tea brewer and ice cream mixer cabinet, and have the same aux cam orbit that while I'm getting it placed and working up materials.

Face cam, pose cam, and hand cams are just permanently parented revolving cams.

Dolly cams spin about their own axis. They're good for when you want to be able to change viewing angle but keep the camera where it is (not swing around the scene orbiting the center). For example, you want shots from the perspective of a character on a balcony far off to the side in your scene; adjusting dolly cam yaw will simulate you swiveling your head to scan the view from the balcony. I will rename that camera from dolly camera 1 to dolly cam balcony, so that I can quickly find the right cam when the gets complex.

 

[English Bob]

... I create extra auxiliary cameras ...

Even though I knew all that, in theory at least, I've been slow to explore camera creation. I sometimes wish for foot cameras analogous to the hand cameras, and of course I can create them if I want. I just need to remember that I have that super-power now.

 

[Miss B]

Even though I knew all that, in theory at least, I've been slow to explore camera creation. I sometimes wish for foot cameras analogous to the hand cameras, and of course I can create them if I want. I just need to remember that I have that super-power now.

When I was working exclusively in DS, and to some extent now that I'm back in Poser, I create the cameras I want in a new empty scene, and then save it as a new Startup Scene so I always have them ready the next time a start a new project.

Now that I think of it, the left and right foot cameras wouldn't be a bad idea, though I think I'd use the left and right hand cameras more, because I need the closeup view more often for posing hands and/or fingers, than I would feet.

 

[Miss B]

The Aux camera is my go-to for positioning if I can't see what I'm after in the main window.

I use the Posing camera for multiple things - all related to scene setup. Zooming in close to fine-tune posing, placement of objects, re-parenting of things like hair on figure's heads, etc.

I have basically no use at all for the right, left, etc cameras.

The only ones I find useful are the Main Camera, Aux Camera, Posing Camera, Face Camera, and the two Hand cameras.

The rest are pointless for me.

Multi-viewports... eh, I tried it out again tonight just to see... and no, I definitely have a strong hatred of that. My eyes can't focus on what I'm doing, and I'm all over the place. It's quite literally too blasted much in the window at one time for me, and I can't get anything done at all. I think I will stick to my single viewport and moving between cameras as needed.

I use single viewports in DazStudio and Blender as well. The only exception to that for me is when uvmapping in Blender - then I have two side-by-side, but that's it.

I'm totally with your thinking on this Seliah. I haven't used the Aux camera much, but now that I want to play more with the camera positions, I'll be using it a lot more often, because I was always able to view all the cameras and lights in DS, so have been missing that option since getting back to Poser.

I also don't like the left, right cameras because they're too far away to really see anything. I suppose I could do what I've often done in DS in the past, and that's create a camera from those views and then move in closer. I've done that a number of times with the top camera too, so I can view lighting of hair, or when I tried to place a point light in the proper place in a light fixture. The top camera I created would come in hand then.