Requirements ...
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- Poser 5 SR2 or newer.
- About 15 minutes
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Posing the scene ...
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- Start a blank scene in Poser Load you figure(s) and pose them
- Load a prop square and scale it to fill the background of your scene. (Or you could use the Nerd3D Backdrop Tool with no texture ;-) )
- Click light 1 and then click the Light bulb icon to open the light properties box. ([ctrl] + I)
- Take the check off the "On" box
- Select light 2 and check it Off as well
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Lights Out!
Tip: If you prefer you can just delete the lights that are turned off.
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Light Properties |
- Select Light 3 and open the properties page. ([ctrl] + I)
- Put the Dot on "Spot Light"
- Set the Atmosphere Strength dial to 1.00
Tip: the atmosphere strength dial allows you to control how strong the atmosphere effect is for each light. This works in conjunction with the Volume density in the Material Setup. Remember there are two place the strength needs to be set. On the light's properties and in the Material Room on the atmosphere node.
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- Switch to the parameter tab for Light 3. Set the start and end angles. I used 20 and 22.
- From the Object Menu select Point At... And choose your figure's head.
- Set the light's color
- Position the light using the Translate Dials.
Tip: You can pose the light manually. It's just faster to set it up this way for the purpose of this tutorial.
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Set Spot Light Angles |
Material Setup ...
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- Open the material room.
- From the Object menu on the Shader Screen pick Atmosphere
- Place a check in the "Volume_On" box
- Set the Volume density to 0.01
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Material Setup |
Tip: Think of the density like real world density. A setting of 1.0 would be like a block of concrete, 0.1 is like pea soup, 0.05 would be foggy, 0.01 is haze.
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There are a few more settings on the Atmosphere Shader Node you will want to experiment with. Come back to these once you have mastered creating basic volumetric effects.
- Volume Step Size
- This control sets the precision level of the atmosphere calculation. Poser uses layers of transparent planes to calculate the atmosphere simulation. This control adjusts the distance between the invisible planes. Higher settings render faster but may produce artifacts. Lower settings render slower and give more uniform atmosphere effects. The step size is a real world unit and the actual number will change based on your units setting in preferences. A good starting point is .01 Poser Units, that's about 1 inch or 26 mm.
Volume Noise
This adds turbulence to the volume calculation. It can be used to simulate uneven atmospheric effects. Higher numbers produce more distinct noise.
Volume Color
This node is the base color of the atmosphere. You can also plug nodes in here to create more dramatic effects. Try a Turbulence or Cloud node here and see what effect you can produce. Nodes like the turbulence node can be animated. You can create swirling steam or fog effects in you animations.
Add More Lights
Once you master controlling atmosphere effect with a single spot light you can move on the multiple spots and infinite lights.
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Tip: If you use infinite lights the strength settings need to be VERY low or the scene will be washed out.
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Turbulence Node Added to Atmosphere Color |
Render Settings ...
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- Default FireFly Production settings will work.
- Draft Mode you will need to check "Cast Shadows"
- Poser 4 Render will not work.
- In Poser 6 any FireFly setting that casts shadows will work.
- If you use a point light Raytracing must be turned on.
Tip: For Quick previews of your volume effect turn the shading rate way up. Shading rates as high as 10 will still give a good impression of the atmosphere effect and render very fast.
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Draft mode settings |
FAQ ...
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| My Render is all washed out or solid white. |
- There are a couple of possibilities. The most common is using infinite lights. You should use a spot light. If you need to use infinite lights you will need to set the Volume Density very low.
- Another possibility is a spot light that is set very wide The more light passing between the camera and your subject the more faded it will look.
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| My light doesn't show at all. |
- Four possibilities here. Starting with SP3 a new dial was introduced on the light properties. This dial gives individual control over the light atmospheric effect. The default setting for this dial is zero or no effect. Set it to 1.000
- The Volume density may be set to low in the material setup. 0.01 is a good starting point.
- You have to use the Fire Fly render. The P4 render engine doesn't do volume, sorry.
- There must be something behind the figures for the volume to show up. A prop Square scaled to fill the window will work.
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| My Shadows seem lumpy or have bands in them. How do I fix that |
- This is usually caused by the step size being set too high
- Try lowering the step size on the Atmosphere node in the Material Room
- You may have turned up the noise value on the Atmosphere node. Set it back to zero.
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Poser Tutorial Poser 5 Atmosphere Effects Fri Sep 24, 2010 10:30 am
