Lamp Positions for best shadow effect on mesh skirt?

[Darla Fanbridge]

I am creating this new thread, since my previous one had no replies for several days.

I'd like to ask:

1.  What kind of lamp in Blender is best suited for using on mesh dresses?

2.  What pattern should the lamps be positioned in order to give a good shadow and light effect on my dress?

3.  How many lamps surrounding the dress are sufficient?

Or, are there any alternatives?

[Chic Aeon]

Generally you want lamps on all for sides (this is assuming you are using cycles). The power on the lamp will depend on how far they are away from your garment.  Here is a snapshot of a general layout. You will need to experiment on strength and placement as it will depend a lot on the look you want. You can also of course just save a copy of the UV map and not bake at all, doing all the graphics in your graphics program. Lots of folks do clothes that way.

 

 

Edited July 30, 2017 by Chic Aeon

[Darla Fanbridge]

I am actually using Blender Render.  What kind of lamps and/or what position of the lamps do you recommend for Blender Render?

[Darla Fanbridge]

Could somebody please answer my question in my last post in this thread?

[ChinRey]

44 minutes ago, Darla Fanbridge said:

Could somebody please answer my question in my last post in this thread?

I suppose there aren't anybody on the forum who use Blender Render for that but since you ask so nicely, I can hazard an educated guess.

there shouldn't be any significant difference between Blender Render and Cycles for this so Chic's suggestion is a good starting point. Beyond that, try, test experiment.

And please let us know how it went. All the info you find on this forum comes from content creators who have spent hours experimenting and are happy to elt others benefit from their hard work. We always love it when people share.

[Chic Aeon]

2 hours ago, ChinRey said:

I suppose there aren't anybody on the forum who use Blender Render for that but since you ask so nicely, I can hazard an educated guess.

there shouldn't be any significant difference between Blender Render and Cycles for this so Chic's suggestion is a good starting point. Beyond that, try, test experiment.

And please let us know how it went. All the info you find on this forum comes from content creators who have spent hours experimenting and are happy to elt others benefit from their hard work. We always love it when people share.

I reassessed my original comment below as being a bit harsh :D; and yes it WAS to the OP, not ChinRey really. BUT I am leaving that first comment there since it is actually what I believe.

There WAS a reason why Cycles was embraced readily but the pros (not me, the pros) as the lighting engine (or whatever) was leaps and bound better. It still isn't as good as Maya IMHO as I can spot a yummy Maya bake and my heart often does a flutter. That doesn't mean I will be LEARNING or USING Maya as I am fundamentally a "community software gal". 

But there is likely someone somewhere that knows how to make Blender Render be the best it can be. But as ChinRey says while there are folks around still using Blender Render (that learning curve thing and it is as someone on another forum said, like "leveling up" in a compute game :D) most have very flat textures. This isn't a BAD thing, that might be their style of choice. But just like my Cycles textures will likely never be as good as Maya bakes (I made one of those leveling up steps yesterday so who really knows) it is unlikely that you will get what you want with Blender Render.  

I do however wish you luck.

And as a general comment ---- 

Much of learning 3D programs (not just Blender) is experimentation, finding your own way -- your own methods. While I try to do my Pay It Forward thing and have for a few years and there are other folks on these forums that go way beyond "helpful" (some of them for me when I was learning -- and still am), none of us can spoon feed answers. Finding those are part of the learning process. We can point in the right direction maybe, but just like teaching any other subject -- a good deal is and should be part of the student's discovery. 

And yes I did teach college for almost 20 years LOL. 

And with THAT I am going to finish watching Part 2 of the Matrix which has WAY too many actions scenes and not enough plot for my taste. It's predecessor was leaps and bounds better -- hence, why I likely forgot most of it when I originally watched :D. 

************************************

Actually to my mind Blender Render will NOT give any kind of good shadows on clothes (hence the huge amount of badly baked and VERY DARK shadows on templates that happily aren't sold as much these days (or at least I don't have any folks sending me stuff using them LOL - a blessing). You can certainly TRY Blender Render shadows but I wouldn't expect anything great. Most folks that did good jobs before Cycles (a very different lighting system) just made UV maps and put in the "shadows" by drawing in their graphics programs. 

So IMHO if you are serious about clothes I would learn Cycles. 

I have tutorials that start at the beginning at both YouTube and SLArtist. NOT on clothes -- just on Cycles *wink*.

Good luck to you!

 

Edited August 4, 2017 by Chic Aeon

[Anna Nova]

I'm looking forward to Eevee, cycles is so passé.