Hi Jools! Thanks so much for the advice. I'm almost embarrassed to even ask this question...but where exactly do I make these changes? In DAZ Studio, in the Octane DAZ plugin somewhere, or..? Thanks again!Jools wrote:Hey Mellisa. Here some easy basic material settings for skin to start with:
Skin:
Set material to glossy.
Keep Specular at 1
Set Roughness power to about 0.30
Set Bumb power to about 0.125
Lips, inner mouth, gums, teeth, tongue, nails, sclera:
Same as above but keep the Roughness low. Like under .1
Eyes:
As above, but with minimal roughness and minimal or no bump. Index: 1.5. You can try setting the cornea to specular (turn opactity on in both DS and Octane!) with again a low Roughness and index 1.5.
This will give you a good starting point for most skins. Next tweak as you will.
Skin Weirdness
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MelissaConway
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2014 10:19 pm
Yep. Octane - Materials - Node Graph Editor. In fact, you won't need to be in the DS surface settings that much anymore. All material setting and shading is done in Octane, as soon as it has picked up the textures. I even change the textures there. You don't see the changes in the DS window, but they will show in the Octane render screen.
When you're a bit accustomed to the basic material settings, you can start with stuff like SSS and play around with different parameters (ie an rgb spectrum or float texture instead of an image).
For the render settings, you may want to experiment with the kernel type to see what that does to your image (and render time). Exposure and F-stop are nice for your brightness/contrast and Response is a nice way too to get a different type of feel and white balance. Lastly toggle post-processing on and off to see what that does and play around with the settings. The nice thing about these last 4 is that they don't cause the render to start over again, as it does with all material settings.
Have fun.
When you're a bit accustomed to the basic material settings, you can start with stuff like SSS and play around with different parameters (ie an rgb spectrum or float texture instead of an image).
For the render settings, you may want to experiment with the kernel type to see what that does to your image (and render time). Exposure and F-stop are nice for your brightness/contrast and Response is a nice way too to get a different type of feel and white balance. Lastly toggle post-processing on and off to see what that does and play around with the settings. The nice thing about these last 4 is that they don't cause the render to start over again, as it does with all material settings.
Have fun.
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MelissaConway
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2014 10:19 pm
Thanks Jools! It's all very exciting...or will be when I get to the point where I feel I have a semblance of a handle on it..! Tonight's noob question is: where did my plane go? I thought I saw a vid somewhere that showed someone converting a simple plane into a light source, like we do in Reality for Luxrender. So I dropped a plane into my scene, but I can't SEE it in the OctaneRender viewport. I know if I use the "select DAZ surfaces and Octane materials" picker in the viewport, I can select and convert anything to a light source...but the plane isn't there...
Hey Melissa.
Your plane should be in the materials tab in Octane. Select 'default' and then right click > create as new light source. 'Simple' will do just fine for an ordinary light (spotlight) like you are used to in Daz. You can adjust its strength through the power slider.
Note however that a plane and a light is all you have in octane. There's no uberenvironment or shadow adjustment etc. So you will need to work with distance (of the plane to the object) and size (of the plane itself) to create the effect you want. This can be a little confusing in the beginning. Just keep in mind:
The further away the light source, the sharper the shadows will become
and:
The smaller the light source, the sharper the shadows will become
So if you want a nice mellow light with soft shadows, create a larger plane and put it closer to your object.
With respect to this you don't have to worry that the light source plane will become visible in your render. Simply slide Opacity down to 0 in the Octane Materal tab for the plane and you'll have light, but no 'lamp'.
Good luck.
Your plane should be in the materials tab in Octane. Select 'default' and then right click > create as new light source. 'Simple' will do just fine for an ordinary light (spotlight) like you are used to in Daz. You can adjust its strength through the power slider.
Note however that a plane and a light is all you have in octane. There's no uberenvironment or shadow adjustment etc. So you will need to work with distance (of the plane to the object) and size (of the plane itself) to create the effect you want. This can be a little confusing in the beginning. Just keep in mind:
The further away the light source, the sharper the shadows will become
and:
The smaller the light source, the sharper the shadows will become
So if you want a nice mellow light with soft shadows, create a larger plane and put it closer to your object.
With respect to this you don't have to worry that the light source plane will become visible in your render. Simply slide Opacity down to 0 in the Octane Materal tab for the plane and you'll have light, but no 'lamp'.
Good luck.