Iray Ghost Light render and su…
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Personal preference, I usually have it 3/4 or half the size of the wall if I am trying to light an entire room. And you can see by just changing the intensity of a light, you get a different look very easily. I had one at the headboard, vertical and slightly tilted, for lighting the bed behind her (aka the pillow section).
Then one on OUR left, middle of scene- the light is about half the size of the bed and very dim (that's the one I played with and will give you that change of lighting between the two renders.)
Third, the window one- it is 3/4 the size of the wall but not near the floor so there's no "wash out." That would be our right side. It is inside the room, not outside the window. Also watch out for your corners of the room, I try to stay several "feet" away from those if I only want to cast light in one direction.
If it's supposed to be a diffuse light coming through something specific like a window, the aperature created by the ghost light will generally look best if it's approximately the same size and shape as the window. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, one being to use multiple ghost lights outside a single window to simulate light coming in from multiple different directions outside. I just did a big scene set in a big room where one entire wall of a penthouse was a single massive array of windows while the external light coming in was a mix of the HDR and light in the windows in outside buildings streaming in, all of which were at different relative positions to each other. Since I acheived the lighting in the other buildings almost entirely by using emitters with images of the inside of the buildings on the emmit plane, I knew they weren't really going to be bright enough to cast enough light to look correct without completely blasting out the interior images, so I bulked out the effect by putting ghost lights at angles appropriate to the direction that those windows would have been streaming outside and at angles streaming in. The nice thing about doing it that way was that I could adjust the light inside the buildings and the light the buildings were casting completely separately.
Yeah, Ghost lights are really neat. :)
Thank you. It really helps that these small older sets have a lot of detail modeled in, instead of relying on the texture to produce the shadows. I did a "clay" render from another angle that really shows off the work. (Below)
As the others say, it's really up to you and what you are trying to accomplish. In the render I did of Serenity, I was trying to get as good a look as possible for the set with as little work as possible. The only way for light to come into that room is from the big opening on one end of the set or the three windows on the other. I probably could have used one larger Ghost Light in the ceiling, but bringing the light into the room from the direction of the windows is more realistic. A bunch of us are showcasing pre-Iray sets in Iray, so the idea is to do something simple that anyone can achieve. If I were doing a scene with the set, I'd put a lot more work into those windows, so they would be more transparent and the gold caming would look metallic. And I'd still use ghost lights, because they are by far the best way to simulate ambient light in Iray.
I did a "clay" render of the set, too. For that render, I used a ghost light approximately the size of the long way, inside and next to the wall facing away from the camera. All I needed was to illuminate the interior to show off the modeled in features:
With the "hallway" lit, you can see how dark the back end of the set is. It's essentially a short tunnel with a dead-end.
I was just playing with another old set, and it has a bunch of windows with transparency. I put one huge Ghost Light inside, with a warm temperature and immediately, all the windows glowed. Or I could have used one small ghost light at some of the windows, just inside, and left some of the windows dark. They are very versatile.
Just have fun, be creative, and keep what you like.
Does anybody know if Ghost lights are somehow incompatible with version 4.9.4.122? My ghost lights just stopped working one day and I've tried everything I can think of to try and fix them. I've restored defaults, reinstalled them, even tried Ghost Light 2. Nothing has worked and the only thing I can think of that might have suddenly caused this is unknowingly upgrading Daz Studio and it not being compatible somehow with Ghost Lights.
Thanks for any help!
Hey! Sorry, it looks like a didn't get an alert for the thread. Are you still having this issue? I'll PM you, just incase you're not watching here.
can i use these ghost lights, to put BEHIND a character, to make it look like she was standing in front of a fire or explosion? Like, have an orange-y light behind her and it kinda lights the back of her. I'm pretty sure it CAN be done...but I'm trying to figure out the correct brightness/colour to do it. any thoughts/advice?
Hey Blue! I think what you're trying to achieve is more akin to rim lighting? Well, kind of a hybrid between rim/back lighting. Either way, i would use two lights instead of one light. I'll post a render below with just two ghost lights and a very low emission HDRI. The two ghost lights are at the back with an emission value of 2000k. Is this what you were going for?
Yes! I had a brain fart - rim lighting was what i was thinking
So if I wanted the 'orange' to be brighter, I'd go for a higher emission? And with your ghost lights, would I add the colour myself, or would you suggest one of the presets in there?
Emission temperature controls color (unless you actually use the color picker, but that's for noobs and people who like neon). A lower emission temperature will produce a more red/orange tint (around 1000k-2500k). Luminance is intensity, higher numbers produce stronger light. Remember to keep any fill lights or HDRI's quite low, to keep the front of the character quite dark. The effect you're going for won't work very well if the character is fully lit from all angles. So, low key HDRI, 2x ghost lights, 2000k temperature and 900kcdm2+ for the luminance. Here's another image to help....
Hi,
I'm not able to get the ghost lights to work in Iray Ghost Light Kit. I followed the steps closely as shown in the jpg attachments here.
All that appears in the render is a black silhoutte of the figure, using 3Delight. With Iray render, the entire render screen goes black.
The figure used is Genesis 3 Female, and there is nothing else in the scene except for the ghost light.
I figured it out, the render mode was set to interactive. Once I set it back to photoreal, the lights worked as expected.
I'm a big fan of all KA's ghost lighting products, but I find myself using props from the first kit most often. I did a scene yesterday for Llola Lane's monthly challenge, (in the Art Studio forums,) and I needed a bit more illumination on the ground. So I added a horizontal ghost light just below the UFO, enlarged it to 400% X and Z scale, used the preset to set the temperature to a light blue, and adjusted the Luminance until the ground looked light enough to show some detail and still dark enough to pass as night.
Nocturnal
These are the best lighting utilities ever, imho.
Hi! Sorry i missed your comment, i don't always get updates when someone posts. Glad you got it sorted.
I spotted your render on the gallery L'adair, very well done indeed! Great composition, fun idea, i like it.
Thank you. It was fun to put together. Took me one day from opening DS to saving the final image in Photoshop. And I couldn't have done it that fast without the Ghost Light. The postwork consists of adding in a plethora of stars and my signature. I didn't need to adjust anything, the lighting came out perfectly with the render. What a timesaver!
Mr. Tumnus
Another instance of using a Ghost Light, this time as a fill light. The HDRI I used to light the scene was actually from Orestes Sunny Day set. The snow behind Mr. Tumnus is from KA's Iray Snow, Ice and Ash product I got in 2016 as a Christmas freebie. (It's available in the store, now, and well worth the investment,) and shows up beautifully when the "sun" is in the right spot. I rotated the dome and found some "dead' spots, where I had to move the snow object or the dome. I moved the dome. That left the subject in shadow, except for his right shoulder. Iray Ghost Lights to the rescue.
I'd also like to mention, I used the snow shaders from KA's Iray Snow, Ice and Ash on the rest of the environment, replacing the snow shaders on the tree and bush. I used Secluded shoreline as the base environment, removing anything I didn't need, applying snow shaders to things I did need: the water became a field of snow, "smaller" rocks were completely covered, the cliffs got spotty coverage by creating a geoshell, applying the snow shader, and manually adding a transmap, (found in the snow product's texture folder,) to hide the snow in spots, and increasing the tiling. (Thank you so much, Andy.)
Top work L'Adair, i'm pretty amazed that you got this kind of render out of secluded shoreline and other knick knacks, that's a lot of kit bashing. I'm glad people are using the snow set, daz hid it in the back for nearly a year and i was so pleased to see it back. It's a Daz original so i'm sure everyone will get the chance to pick it up super cheap over the next few chilly months
Thanks for popping by L'Adair!
Thank you, Andy.
And just for you, here's an overhead view of the Secluded Shoreline masquerading as Narnia:
This is the thumbnail at 500 pixels, so you can see the lines of the camera better. And what looks like noise in the image is actually the Snow System. The snow plane even looks great in this view of the viewport!
This image links to the full-size view, which includes the cliffs all the way across.
Happy New Year!
Hello Kindred,
I buyed Your tools both in hope of getting better light, but it didn't work for me. I read the documentation and set Render to scene, but the sphere primitive is black, there is no emmision. i use the newest Version of Daz Studio, but no effect. Do You have any idea? Is it possible, my GPU is the problem?. I use a GTX 970 Card.
Maybe You have a tipp.
Thack You
The sphere? So you're using Iray ghost light kit 2 right? Either way, the ghost lights will remain dark until you actually apply the "ghost setup" material. Once you apply the ghost setup, the sphere will go invisible and emit light in the iray viewport.
One more thing, you are using the Light ball in the IGLK2 right? You're not using a daz primitive are you? Because they have different material zones than my props.
I thick I have expressed myself incorrectly. I create a sphere, give them an Iray material, light the scene with Your plane prop from Kit 1 and set to scene.
Sorry for the Misunderstanding
OK, you have the first kit, i understand. So with the ghost light (plane prop) selected, double click the "ghost setup" icon in the Iray ghost light Kit folder. This should turn ghost light invisible, and emit light when you render the scene. If the ghost light is already invisible and you cant see any light when you render, you might need to use a higher brightness which can be selected in the intensity presets.
Oh man, I missed this somehow but anything that helps speed up render times is an auto-buy for me!
Hello again,
I followed Your tipps, nothing happend. So I used the Debug Mode and Light appeared. Only in Ghost Mode there is no effect.
Thanks Paradigm, hope you like it
This is very strange indeed. Are you using interactive rendering mode, or photoreal? Only photometric lights work in interactive mode. Also, have you tried using the iray viewport whilst testing to see what happens? Are your tonemapping settings set to default, or do you have really high exposure?
It really shouldn't be this complicated at all, it's a very simple system, so i'm concerned that there might be something else going on with your setup. Have you watched the video i made on how i set up ghost lights? it moves quite quickly but you might be able to spot something you've missed. Someone else also made a video that may be able to help you. Either you're missing a step in the process or perhaps you have a bugged installation. Either way, have a look at those video's and get back to me, we'll figure it out.
I've done it in the same way as in the second video. So, tommorow I will setup the complete system (Daz3d Studio and Database) new and see what happend.
Good Morning Kindred, yes in Germany it's Morning.
I have good news! I installed the complete Daz-System new. And, what a surprise Your Kits ( I buyed both) works absolutly fine.Thank you for Your pleasant support.
Hey McSilver, thats great news. I'm still a bit unsure of what went wrong, perhaps a bad installation or something? I don't know, but i'm glad you got it working, enjoy!
What are other essentials like IRAY Ghost light to reduce render times?
What other tools like IRAY Ghost Lights should I acquire to lower my render times? I want the fastest possible render times. IRAY Ghost Light decreased my render time signinfiacntly, but what else is as important as IRAY Ghost lights that I need to get?
I always make sure my scene fits into my video cards memory, so I don't need the scene optimizer.