Daz 3D Lighting Tutorial : How To Use The Sun Sky Dome 

And thanks for watching, Gray .. appreciate it! Oh! And for getting membered up! 😀

Ha! I can't and won't comment on the accuracy of the sliders in setting location, date and time! That's for Daz to worry about! Glad you got there in the end!

I've replied to your email!

You're welcome!

No problems Biscuits! Glad you liked and thanks for watching!

Glad to help out, Jon .. thanks for watching

No worries, Debbie - glad you like and thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching and I'm happy to help out!

Yeah, the sun shining in London is a bit rare .. :) .. I mean - I don't know how useful dialing in specific locations is overall but the time sure is for sunrise / sunset pics .. Anyways! Thanks for watching!

Hey Petra - glad you like what I'm doing over here. And lights is just practice!! Keep at it - you'll get there!! As for your offer .. gah! .. To be honest I get offers from PAs all the time like that but never seem able to do something with everything and then I always feel bad as they might think I don't like their stuff! 😊I can certainly take a look but can't ever promise I'll use anything .. I always have good intentions when doing a scene to use Model A, Hair B and Clothing C .. but halfway through I'll find the light I'm using doesn't quite work with the skin shader, the hair won't fit well with the model and the clothing doesn't go with the hair .. and so I'm always chopping and changing to fit what I'm doing rather than stick with what I start with hence why I can't promise to use anything. I'm very much a make it up as I go along guy! But I'll certainly give something a go for a video or a bit of art I post over at Deviant Art

Thanks Slewd - appreciate that. You can find me at Deviant Art : www.deviantart.com/rauko001

Yep, that works and I know Val from Dreamlight uses that method as well. I can't speak for anyone else but this didn't offend me because we all learn from others thanks for sharing.

Yeah, I'm aware of that work around and it's great that it exists - but it is actually a bug that could get fixed in any new version of Daz hence why I didn't include it. Now. Why "Sun SKy" prevents the using of spot and point lights in the first place is another issue. I don't know why Daz itself blocks it.

I don't do much, in truth. I'm toying with the idea of doing a video on Post .. but with it being more a photoshop video rather than a Daz video .. I've kind of put it off. I'm probably way off being comfortable enough with Photoshop to do a video on it showing what I do and people would probably much better served looking at Photoshop tutorials out there where people do things that blow me away. But even then, as I say, I don't do much .. play with curves and highlights .. or sometimes apply actions that I've sourced elsewhere.

Hey Sam - I guess you're either talking about the dust or the mud on the models skin .. both are products over on the Daz store .. the dust is "Iray Dust" and the other is "DirtFX for Gen 9" (I think!!!)

@@RaukoDaz3D Iray Dust it is. Thank you very much. I have to say it adds a tad bit more realism to the scene.👍

Hey Anna - it's not weird - it's a perfectly reasonable request because Daz models are so difficult for expressions. I still don't think I have a handle on it. The main problem is the mouth / lips area for me - there's just not enough detail and bones in it for my liking. It doesn't help that a lot of PAs seemingly create their models with "resting bitch face" already dialed in and that it can make doing anything with mouths very difficult as the lips seem to twist and turn in strange directions even when using the base smile sliders in Daz. And - to make matters even worse - I think Genesis 9 is worse than Genesis 8 for it so it's not as though the momentum is going in the right direction. The only real advice I can give is subtle is best. You might have a morph that goes from 0 to 100 .. but anything past 20 makes the model look like a deranged lunatic. But it's dependent on the model - as I say, some PAs like to dial in "resting bitch face" as their base or bake in a pout on the lips which makes doing anything with a simple smile difficult .. where the PAs don't do this you have a bit more scope. That's all I've got really - I struggle myself a lot of times with expressions on some models .. so it is model dependent. But, as mentioned, I've found subtle works best ..

It's "Fern Lake" by Stonemason - I've added a link up in the description

@@RaukoDaz3D Thank you.

It should do, yes - just like real life. You might have to play with the glossy sliders on the surface of the plane to get best results - but a base plane should work to a degree

Thanks!@@RaukoDaz3D

Yeah, it's a bit of shame .. there's little workarounds and loopholes. For instance, use "Dome and Scene" to use HDRI and then go to the "Environment Map" and remove it. It will default to "Sun Sky" but Daz will still think it's "Dome and Scene" and will allow you to use Point and Spot lights. Now this is probably a bug but it works for now.

Hhhmm. Really? I use the spot render all the time and I can't recall any issue with it and Sun Sky. I've just booted up Daz in case my old man memory is letting me down and set it to Sun Sky and .. am able to use the Spot Render fine. Are we talking any specific circumstance or .. flat out .. just doesn't work sun Sun Sky mode? What does it do instead?

Hhmm. I'll have a think about it .. never done a out of space image before so I might have to have a play around first!

Sure ok, take your time, thank you.

Sadly not - the Sun / Sky dome will only show and render in Iray ..

@@RaukoDaz3D Thanks... Was afraid of that. Is there any other lighting setup that will give a similar look in Smooth-Shaded?

There are chapters on the bottom of the video for those who don't have an attention span beyond 30 seconds. Use them.

Thanks for that - I've never really used the blur or height so it's good to know that!

Hey there - thanks for watching and glad to help out! 1 - The Sun / Sky and HDRI mode are effectively the same thing. Think of Sun / Sky as HDRI mode (Dome Only) with the Sun being the HDRI map itself but with a little more precise positioning of light source than what a HDRI gives due to the light from a HDRI being baked into an big image. What's is preferable comes down to personal preference and the type of scene you're using. Some outdoor HDRI give better day light than the basic Sun / Sky model but obviously you can end up limited on getting the light direction to be what you want it to be. So it isn't a case of them not being able to be combined or not as they are effectively the same thing. What can't be combined with Sun / Sky is Spot / Point lights .. unless we use a little trick to exploit what is probably a bug. With HDRI we have the option within Environment Mode to choose either "Dome Only" or "Dome and Scene" .. the former meaning we can't use Scene lights and the latter meaning we can use Scene light (point / spot) with our HDRI image ... We can't do this with Sun / Sky .. we're stuck with the equivalent "Dome Only", The way around this is to set Environment Mode to "Dome and Scene" and then delete the Environment Map .. so click on the little icon that is representative of the Map we're using and in the menu that is show select "None" .. and "Dome and Scene" will change to Sun / Sky mode despite it telling us we're still in "Dome and Scene" mode and we can then use Point / Spot lights with Sun / Sky. 2 - Beyond being just the scene in which we're working .. Environment can also refer the type of lighting we're using. Environment lighting means we're effectively using global lighting to light our scene (such as HDRI or Sun / Sky or Emissives) rather than Scene lighting such as Point and Spot lights ..

@@RaukoDaz3D Thank you Sir for the detailed answer, I see I have a lot of work before me... 🙂