Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Sunset in a monastery garden: lighting sets in DAZ 3D






Lighting effects in DAZ Studio 3 ... and a bit of Photoshop, nudge, wink ... what more can you say?! Here, I took the Cloisters set and the Garden of Galahad set -- loaded 'em both up ... took the wall out of the garden and set the cloister there, opening into it, so you have, um, a monastery garden. Then, add a Bryce sunset skyscape -- and the fun begins. Now the trick is to light the foreground to match the sky.

The lights are pink and gold, and set quite low, to mimic the sun angle. It's all a question of patience ... moving the camera around and resetting the lights to get exactly what you want. There's no especial trick to it; but you do have to know how to navigate in the x,y,z coordinate universe. You don't move the models around ... they stay right where they are. You drive the camera ... look up, look down, go in any direction, spin around on the spot. It's actually a lot of fun.

No news on the computer front today: Avast have not responded with so much as a squeaking noise, so I've alerted PayPal and started a dispute. (If you're tuning in late: the computer I use to do the artwork has a virus ... it needs a powerful anti-virus program ... we bought and downloaded Avast ... it won't install ... and they're not replying to emails. That's The Story So Far in a thimble.)

So there's no guy-candy, eye-candy today ... just images from my archives. I've been intending to use this set as the background for some renders that should be amazing, but since things are not working out so well computer-wise ... here are the backgrounds!

Jade, March 31