V3 is Charmed, except for the sky background....

[RAMWolff44]

One thing I just can't figure out yet with these darned programs is really good lighting and how to work with 3D backgrounds to light them well enough. Too much and they glare out and too little and they don't show up right while everything else around them renders really well. So there is a sky there but it's rendered in a slate gray for some reason and I give up. I wanted to show you what the new texture pack looks like for the V3 Charmed set.

If you want it you will need the Fantasy Morphing Dress along with the FMD Expansion Pack 2 and the Fairy Wings Deluxe set to get the full effect. The terrain is from that other link I posted the other day from the Mapp web site. Can't remember the page but this is really a nice model and well textured too!! No morphs but I can deal with that just fine. Some little plants and a fern and a Cherry Blossum Tree and some water round it all out. Let me know what you think.

Very colorful for sure!!

[RAMWolff44]

Oh yea, no post work to this image at all!!

The little lights all over the place are models too called quite simply "Dust". More like stars and such to me so I use them quite a bit in my magical scenes like this one! I got them from RUNTIME DNA for free. I'm not sure if they are still free but you can go there and check if you so desire!

[Turan]

Have to agree with you on the lighting. Model is perfect, but the background makes it flat. That and I feel thereshould be more shadows around the place from the plants.

This is what I've been trying to figure out, once you get your perfect person how do you integrate it into a 3D scene?

Turan

[RAMWolff44]

Lot's of patience. It's one of the things about the technical and the artistic side of Poser/DAZ Studio. You have to really study some areas. Freehand art is just the same as you have to learn to work with color, learn how to draw/sketch and if you paint - how to prepare a canvas and even how to mat and frame. You can create your own shadows and light sources but if your not painting from a real scene then your never 100% sure if your light source and the shadows you created are correct. 3D, if nothing else, will eventually teach you things you can apply to other areas of art, whether 2D or freehand (real life) art work.

I'm just as much a newbie in how to light a scene. Here is a tutorial to help you out in DAZ Studio but it's long and very involved. Kind of like classroom stuff but there are image captures to help you see what Lakys is talking about. I'm afraid it won't really apply to Poser though as the Surface tab and the Material Room are both pretty different in how they handle things.

The tutorial is not complete yet as I think we are all hoping that DAZ will release the final version 1 sometime in the near future. Lakys is the guy, along with Questor, to ask questions about DAZ Studio lighting, displacement, bump maps and other assorted areas of the Surface tab. They are the masters of DAZ Studio and yet they are still learning too!! Their threads are usually very interesting to follow!! Hopefully DAZ will release a nice stable version soon and you will have some fun with it.

All the best............

[Crow Haven]

Hey there, Richard -- really is a very beautiful dress! I like the little stardust lights too.

Just my perception of it: The lighting issue goes from "absolutely has to be a perfect copy of the real world," or to match in other scenes like used in already filmed images, to anything else containing "artistic license" for impact. Obviously some scenes, if having to rely on 100% natural lighting, would suffer. Additional lighting needs to be added, no way around it in evening scenes. You have the moon with its reflected light off the sun/earthshine and then whatever other light sources you include in the scene. The other sources, unless of a lazer beam type, radiate the light in all directions (consider a ball of light glowing and the light streaming out in every direction/global illumination) but your shadows depend on where the viewer is and what is being looked at from that viewing position. Poser does this as does other 3D aps. Raytracing. You add fill-in lighting to adjust things from the viewing angle. That's pretty much as I proceed with it and unless there's some severe need for 100% accuracy that's about where I leave it. "Artistic license" is sometimes required even so. But suit yourself, everyone is working for their own needed results in the images. Daytime isn't that kind of a problem at least. Don't forget about reflected light off surrounding objects too....

You'll find what works for you, Richard, you're doing great.
---Maya