Hey, everyone!
Not necessarily a post about the game itself today. However, I got quite a few of you asking me how I light my scenes in the game and my random renders, so I decided to make this not-so-brief, but in-depth sort of tutorial.
Keep in mind that I am by no means a master of the craft, in fact Iām still learning a lot of things every day.
Use this guide as a one way of doing this, but not as a definitive guide.
I really hope it helps you somehow. š
There are many different ways to light a scene, especially since there isnāt one specific time of day or environment. I follow some fairly simple concepts known as āTwo Point Lightingā and āThree Point Lightingā and apply my own twists to them.
Keep in mind that you donāt necessarily need to do exactly what I do. You can take this concept and apply your own way of doing it.
Personally, I like using emissive surfaces for my light sources since it gives me better control over the objects and colors I can apply to the lights. You can increase or decrease the size of the emissive objects, and it emits a nice, smooth light overall. Not only that, often the characters will have a shine reflecting on their eyeballs which adds to the aesthetic.
You can use any type of light you want though: point light, spotlight, sun-dial. Just keep in mind that the results will differ according to the type of light you choose.
HOW DO I MAKE MY EMISSIVE SURFACES?
This is the simplest part, in DAZ you can navigate to Create > New Primitive.
A small window will pop up with a few options, I usually choose the Plane at itās default options.
Once we have our plane selected in the scene, we need to make it emissive. In order to do so we need to navigate to the Surfaces tab. In case you donāt have the Surfaces tab open, go to Window > Panes (Tabs) > Surfaces.
Now in the Surfaces tab, expand the categories until you find the Emission. Here you will notice that the color is set to Black, this means that there is no emission set to this object.
When you click on the black color, a color picker window will open, in here is where you can change the color of your emissive surface. You can pick any color you want, but for this example I will just set it to white, and click Ok.
Notice that now your Emission options changed, there are more options in there, this means that your Primitive is now emitting light, but itās not bright enough, so letās set the Luminance to a higher value. Maybe 250000?
Great! Now we have an emissive surface lighting up our scene!
You can change itās color, increase or decrease itās luminance in this exact same options within the Surfaces tab under Emission.
Each render will have it's particular settings, so you will need to experiment and tweak to find what's suits best for you.
IDENTIFYING YOUR ENVIRONMENT AND YOUR POINTS OF LIGHTS
The first thing you need to understand is where you are; maybe itās an open space, a small enclosed room, a big hall, a photo studio, etc.
Once you know where you are, you need to find your Key light, which is your main source of light. This can be coming from a light bulb in the ceiling, a small table lamp, a phone, a window...
For example:
In this image, the main light source is the window.
In here, it is coming from the lantern she is holding.
But what exactly is the Key light?
It is the strongest point of light in your frame, itās the light that wherever it is coming from itās illuminating most of your focal point. It doesnāt necessarily need to be pointed straight to the subject, but it is usually doing so.
The second point of light is the Filler light, or Bounce light. This light will counter the strong shadows that the key light is casting, giving your image a better balance making it less dramatic. I will explain this better in a little bit, for now just remember what it is used for.
The third is the Back light, this has many different applications, it can be used to light an environment as a whole as well as to āseparateā the subject from the background by illuminating their silhouette.
USING THE LIGHTS
Example 1 ā Outdoors:
This first example is in an open space, where the key light is the sun/sky and we donāt really need to create anything fancy for it, all we need to do is use the natural light in our favor.
In this example I am using DAZā own default HDRI map to illuminate the environment. The best part about working on a 3D environment is that we can totally control where we want that point of light to be, so in here I rotate the dome in order to get that sun spot exactly where I want.
Dome rotation 95Āŗ
Dome rotation 270Āŗ
Notice that where the key light isnāt reaching, it is casting a very rough dark shadow on her face?
This is where the filler light comes in, so that it can counter those shadows giving it a softer brightness.
Note that the filler light must not be brighter than the key light, or else it will become the key light itself and totally wash away those shadows, and we need some of those shadows so that our image doesnāt look flat and boring.
You can position the light source at an angle not too far, but not too close to the subject. Make is smaller or bigger. Experimenting, trial and error is the best way to find the sweet spot for your scene.
In this case, we are done. We donāt need a back light since the key light is also doing that job for us by lighting the environment itself through the HDRI.
Here is this raw render, no post-work done.
Example 2 ā Indoors:
When it comes to lighting indoors it gets a little more complicated depending on the size of the place. However, we can still apply the same concept and make it work.
Usually the assets already come pre-lit out of the box, which helps a lot, but sometimes thatās not the case. In this example, I am using the European Style Apartment DAZ asset, which does not include a good lighting set of itās own, so we are gonna have to get creative.
LIGHTING THE ENVIRONMENT
The first thing you should do is light up the room you are in, and for that you need to identify where your light source(s) should be coming from, maybe it is from a window, or maybe itās as simple as a ceiling light. Itās up to you.
You can do a practice right now, look around you and see where the light in your room is coming from, that will help you identify it within your 3D scene.
Sometimes one light source will suffice, but at times you may need one or two extras.
Never use one giant light source, or make the entire ceiling an emissive surface, else your environment will look terribly flat with no shadows and very bright.
In my case, I needed two ceiling lights for this one, there is also a window where there is some light coming through, but I purposely blocked the window light by putting a fence outside.
Great! Now that we have our room lit up, itās time to put our characters in and add a key and filler lights to the scene.
Here is how this shot looks through the camera.
See how I put the Key light at an angle?
This is to avoid the subject looking flat, giving it a nice soft depth.
Which side to put the light is up to you to decide. Keep in mind that if you put it against the camera the shadow part of the face will be the one facing the camera giving your scene a more dramatic aspect, while if you do the contrary the effect will be the opposite.
Speaking of dramatic, here is an example of lowering the environment light and adding a Back light in order to shift the mood of the scene only by using lights.
PS. I also lowered the cameraās f/stop in order to blur the background even more and increased the bloom for that mood shift.
For this shot I lowered the ceiling lights Luminance, and totally removed the Fill light so that the rough shadows on her face would come up. In addition, I lit up the lamp in the back in order to add a mood light in the distance.
Once you have your lights in place, you can control them however you want to achieve the mood you are aiming for. :)
Example 3 ā Using a Spotlight
I recently made a render that prompted a few questions as to how I made it, so Iāll include it here as well, and you can use this concept on your own renders.
In this example the key light is coming from a Spotlight, which works great to emulate sunlight. In fact I only use spotlights for this purpose myself.
It also has a filter in front of it so I could achieve some shadows to emulate it coming through a window of sorts.
In this environment I used STZ Bedroom 4 with no light sources inside, but on the outside I just used DAZā default HDRI map so the light would come through the window and light up the room.
Letās first create a Spotlight (Create > New Spotlight) and point it where we want to illuminate.
The spotlight settings I'm using is in the image below too.
Looks pretty boring, doesnāt it? So letās add some shadows in front of it now.
In order to do it we will have to first create a blank white image with black shapes in it. You can do it in Paint, GIMP, Photoshop or whichever your image editing tool of choice.
Here is the one I made:
Now to add it to DAZ is pretty simple, first create a Primitive (Create > New Primitive) and select Plane.
With your Plane selected, go to the Surfaces tab and search for āCutout Opacityā. In the option that appears click on the arrow pointing down and select āBrowseā on the list that opens. Now you will look for the file you just created and open it.
Your plane now looks something like this.
Now all you need to do is put it in front of the Spotlight to achieve the shadow effect.
Keep in mind that this is just one way of doing it, you can put anything in front of the light and it will cast a shadow so you can get creative from there.
Every scene that I do, be it in my game or a random loose render, I use these concepts.
I hope that this was a comprehensive way of looking at how I do it. You can literally achieve the look you want by following very simple concepts and adapting them to your own work.
Understanding that these are mere concepts and not rules will give you the freedom to adapt and change everything to suit your needs, you can add more points of lights to serve the same purpose or remove them completely to achieve something totally different.
You can make the lights stronger or softer, change their positions, and even totally get rid of one of those points of lights to shift the mood.
Play around with your camera in order to have a close up or a wider shot to show exactly what you want your audience to see.
Keep in mind that lighting is just one component of a good shot, understanding you framing and composition is whatās going to allow your images to pop.
Ultimately however you do your thing, play around and keep practicing is one step forward to learning something new.
Here are some videos I highly recommend checking out:
Frameforest Filmschool: 3 point lighting
Shoot Like a Cinematographer, Not a Videographer
Roger Deakins on "Learning to Light" ā Cinematography Techniques Ep. 1
In Praise of Subtle Cinematography
2024-03-05 19:01:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
This weekās work was pretty much the same as last week; more posing scenes in DAZ and finalizing a few smaller things. So there's not much to discuss about it.
I've been meaning to address the reworked content for a while, and I think now is a good time for it.
Additional Content
Chapter 1 will feature two additional scenes for Julia which are fairly lengthy with significant dialogues and interactions. This is meant to bridge the gap between the Prologue and Chapter 1. Only saying that the MC and Julia have been talking and flirting during this time won't suffice. In the next update, you will be able to experience some of those interactions within Chapter 1.
These scenes happen before you can ask her out on a date at the office break room and won't include any choices. If you donāt want to replay, you wonāt miss any substantial choices, except for some additional Julia lore.
I am giving the same treatment to Kimmy. Some players may have missed starting her route if they chose to stay home instead of going to the gym, which was intentional. However, just like with Julia, there will be a second chance for you to start her route if you missed it the first time around.
Kimberly also has an extended scene in Chapter 1 now, which happens right before the sex scene, and that choice has been moved to within this scene, but again, if you have already chosen to start her route, you won't miss any choice, except to some Kimberly lore in case you don't want to replay.
Rework
I started making this game nearly a year before I even thought about releasing the Prologue, and back then, I had very little knowledge of how DAZ worked, and my PC wasnāt that great. So some renders from back then ended up looking terrible. I am slowly remaking some of them, which may or may not be included in the next update.
My main focus is to get all the sex scenes rework done first, then I will keep on improving the static renders and some dialogues.
I reworked pretty much the entire Zeke/Keyla house scene with better dialogue and renders, I also removed the cringe-inducing filler robot scene in Zekeās office.
OLD
NEW
This week's dev log is significantly behind schedule due to how my daytime job is consuming all my time and sanity. But hopefully, next week, things will go back to normal.
Have a great weekend, everyone! :D
2024-02-03 23:33:58 +0000 UTC
View Post
