Hi ZBrushers
I’m still a demo user and I’m practicing lights right now. I’m trying to put a light that will cast a shadow forward, like in the following example:
thanks,
uriash
Attachments
Change the Z coordinate under Lights Placement to a positive number (that is away from you in Zbrush)
Thanks Jason for your quick response
I tried using that but first of all it isnt available for the sun light types.
second, for the spot light type it is available but it acts weirdly and still doesnt really cast shadows forward.
I managed now to bring the light to shine from behind the scene. It worked for me by just clicking for a moment on the orange square and not by draging it with alt pressed.:idea: heres what I succeded to acheive:
well, now it does casts shadows forward but still there are problems:
- when I tried to cast two shadows to the two opposite directions (hey, am I asking for two much?
) the second shadow was shown only in the limits of the first shadow.
2.what is this issue with the zmode? as you can see my sphere got a shadow of half a sphere (look at the straight upper edge of the shadow). is there a solution to that?
Oh, tell me that in Z2 all these problems are passe…:eek:
) the second shadow was shown only in the limits of the first shadow.oh, and by the way, in general, do you think that for these kind of complicated (?) lighting and renders I better use an external renderer? and if so, what whould be your favorite one?
Sorry I forgot about the little orange button!
I’m helping on another thread… perhaps you would like to follow along…
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=21972&page=1&pp=15
The latest and most specific will be near the end…
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?p=179816&posted=1#post179816
I can’t remember for sure what button…but I think its alt that if you press that while moving your cursor in the blue space in the light window it will move it behind the object instead of it always being in front or the sides. It might be the ctrl button tho…experiment with both.
I know Aurick posted something about this not too long ago but now I can’t remember what his tip was…grrrrrrrrr. I need to start writing stuff down I guess 
.
In answer to the question about ‘other renderers’ - yes they are better as they are truly 3D! Zbrush only claims 2.5D as it is how the speed is achieved. In some cases you will just have to fudge it.
o.k., so…
what renderers would you people here use? any advise?
uriash
It really depends on you, your confidence level and where you want to develop towards. I’m originally a REYES rendering guy (Pixar - Renderman), so I just love Renderman, Pixie, 3Delight, Aqsis, RenderDotC, and any such system. I can do far more and I have no restrictions. That said, one does have to grasp the basics. I use Liquid to get RIBs out of Maya. All modeling and texturing in Zbrush and I animate with Motion Builder.
Now. with that said, your sytem may come into play, not so much these days, but it may. I’m UNIX (OSX)/Linux, many use Windows and then you have Messiah, 3DS Max, Maya, Houdini, XSI, Blender, and many others.
I’ve heard Lightwave is pretty capable, and some free apps as well, if you can get past various issues. No clear answer unless you can provide specific details of what you want.
Hi Jason,
WOW! you know so much… I think your answer is the best answer I got so far in any forum I visited. thanks ALOT!
well, my confidence level is quite poor, but I want to know everything like you do…
as to where I want to develop towards, I’m looking for a free and good renderer where I’d be able to render 3d illustrations that I made with ZBrush and also for an animation program/renderers. It doesnt has to be free but I guess that at least for these period when I’m only practicing the 3d world I’d prefer freeware…
I’m an illustrator and animator but I know only the 2d world. you can watch few of my works here: www.ashisandy.com . (it’s in hebrew but just push the buttons…) for the last three years I’m trying to catch up with the 3D revolution. mainly, I want to achieve skills with 3D illustration.
I heard about POVray. is it a renderer like all those that you mentioned? if I got it right, a good renderer should have the ability to import the objects I made in ZBrush (or any other pro’) and there I should be able to place my objects, cast lights and render. (please correct me if I’m wrong). well, then it raises few questions - for example - will the renderer import my objects with their materials on them? and if not - does it has it’s own material system where I can make materials?
I’m working on windows 2000, by the way.
thanks again and in advance
uriash
“I heard about POVray. is it a renderer like all those that you mentioned?”
Not that I am aware, but I heard about it being used a few years back. You’ll have to test it.
“…if I got it right, a good renderer should have the ability to import the objects I made in ZBrush (or any other pro’) and there I should be able to place my objects, cast lights and render. (please correct me if I’m wrong).”
Objects in Zbrush will export as OBJ that is a standard developed by Alias (Maya) many year ago. I wish they would support FBX, then you could go to more apps, but OBJ has been an industry standarad that almost everyone supports.
“…well, then it raises few questions - for example - will the renderer import my objects with their materials on them?”
You can import your object, you can import textures and in some cases displacements. However materals/shaders are always unique to the application they are designed for. All work on some basic principles and you can replicate them in each package as you develop and if the package allows that level of control. (For REYES systems you can pretty much write what you want, copy/paste what you want and compile for any of the know renderers - this is an example.)
“…and if not - does it has it’s own material system where I can make materials?”
Yes - most have a system, see above example - some have more flexibility than others, some require buying plugins, etc., etc…
“I’m working on windows 2000, by the way.”
I won’t hold it against you.
Your site would not come up -errors. I guess I have to brush up on my Hebrew. Darn, I just got back into Korean, oh my aching head.
Hi and thanks again and again,
still more questions…
*So REYES is like a group of renderers? does each of those you mentioned has a unique ability?
*I also didn’t understand the issue of writing and copy-pasting that you talked about ("you can pretty much write what you want, copy/paste what you want and compile for any of the know renderers "). what do you mean by ‘write’ or ‘copy/paste’ in regard to materials?
*and, for a temporary conclusion , If I want to achieve a 3D illustration with all the shadows and lights etc realistically casted, so I shouldn’t deal at all with materials in ZB since I wont be able to transfer them to the render program. I should just model my objects, and textures if I want and the rest to do somewhere else. am I right?
*does Blender a good one?
*I’m sorry for that you werent been able to watch my site and thus I aploaded here one of my work. it’s an illustration from a new hebrew translation for pinnochio:
Render Everything You Ever See - each has some specifics, but all render RIBs - based on the Renderman API from Pixar.
Materials/shaders are for the most part just text files, under REYES systems that gives you an immense amount of flexibility. If you want something and it doesn’t exist you can make it. However almost all off the techniques for shaders used in movies over the last 18 years are available on the web.
If you want to go this approach and Zbrush really won’t do what you want you can set up to render in many apps. I would suggest doing as much in Zbrush as possible - faster. Then export your scene to another renderer and render a lighting and shadow pass, maybe even a depth pass and composite in Photoshop or Cinepaint. That is in essence how we do many things - we just use Shake on footage, but you are talking stills.
Your call. I find it lacking, but I’m pretty fussy. I run into a lot of wanna be apps,and I know what I need to make efficient production pipelines - BUT that is not necessarily what the person at home is concerned with. You really must experiment for yourself a bit.
Cool!