Asking how to do something in Daz Studio

[OldGeezerArtist]

I'm trying to accomplish a specific effect in Daz Studio that I'm having some difficulty figuring out or finding help on the Daz forum pages that addresses it. My goal is to place a rectangular plane (or cube) in front of a standing G8 female character, have a light behind the character projecting toward the plane, and have the character's shadow/silhouette from the front view of the box like someone standing in front of a window shade. I've tried using light emissions on a duplicated plane and increased luminosity and temperature, I've tried putting point lights as well as a spotlite behind the figure. I've ajusted the front plane's opacity down but nothing seems to work the way I need it to.

 

[Nyghtfall3D]

So, you want the light behind the charact to cast an elongated shadow of the character onto the cube they're standing in front of?

 

[OldGeezerArtist]

So, you want the light behind the charact to cast an elongated shadow of the character onto the cube they're standing in front of?

actually they're standing behind the cube/plane. I want the cube to be somewhat transparent enough to have the silhouette of the figure visibile from the front. Imaging you're standing outside of a house at night and it's dark outside. you can look at one of the windows of the house that has it's shade pulled down. A light inside the house casts a figure's shadow onto the window shade and you can see this silhouette from outside. That's the effect I'm after.

 

[Otto Von Herunterhängen]

I think Dreamlight just did that: Silhouette Presets

 

[OldGeezerArtist]

I think Dreamlight just did that: Silhouette Presets

Almost. What that set does is it changes the textures of the figure (or clothes, hair, objects, etc.) to black (if that is the color selected). I could use that technique to create a shadow in front of the cube, render, then cup/copy/paste to make it a texture and apply it to the cube to sort of trick the viewer into thinking it's a semi-transparent window shade with the figure on the other side casting the shadow. The problem I foresee with this "illusion" is with how flattened out the window shade will look from different angles. I'll try to explain it better. Lets say I place a figure inside a hollow box where all six sides have a material group that can have an independent texture/shader applied. Now let's say 5 of the sides I've applied a solid texture to. The front side lets say I've applied a different texture to and have set the opacity to something like 25%. I want to put a light inside the box but behind the figure that's inside the box so the shadow generated by the light and figure is cast againt the front side of the box (from the inside) where looking at it from a front view (with a 20% angle rotated around the Y axis) and be able to see that shadow with the front side of the box somewhat aglow from the light inside the box.

 

[OldGeezerArtist]

I'm trying to accomplish a specific effect in Daz Studio that I'm having some difficulty figuring out or finding help on the Daz forum pages that addresses it. My goal is to place a rectangular plane (or cube) in front of a standing G8 female character, have a light behind the character projecting toward the plane, and have the character's shadow/silhouette from the front view of the box like someone standing in front of a window shade. I've tried using light emissions on a duplicated plane and increased luminosity and temperature, I've tried putting point lights as well as a spotlite behind the figure. I've ajusted the front plane's opacity down but nothing seems to work the way I need it to.

Here's about as close to the effect I'm after as I think I'm going to get outside of postwork or trickery:

 

[Otto Von Herunterhängen]

Now I understand what you are trying to do. I have no idea how to cast a shadow on a semi-transparent surface though without postwork or trickery.

 

[OldGeezerArtist]

Now I understand what you are trying to do. I have no idea how to cast a shadow on a semi-transparent surface though without postwork or trickery.

Apparently no one else does, neither. This is supposed to be for the Western themed set I'm working on. A time traveling magician captures females who undergo hypnosis in his modern day office and takes them through a time portal and forces them to perform magic illusions on a stage in a saloon. If they don't comply they'll be stuck in the other time era indefinitely.

 

[OldGeezerArtist]

Now I understand what you are trying to do. I have no idea how to cast a shadow on a semi-transparent surface though without postwork or trickery.

I'm making some progress in my endeavor. Here are some test renders:

 

[OldGeezerArtist]

I think this will work for my series of images:

 

[DoctorPervic]

in my opinion, the main problem you are having is a texture issue. You need to select all your character textures in the surfaces pane and darken them. just slowly apply a shade of black to the skin and clothing textures, while that should give you the effect you want, I think. Maybe I have it all backward. But that is what I would do.

In my understanding, any bit of light in the scene will give color to your character, which is what you don't want; you want a silhouette to be seen from behind some curtains, effect right?

 

[OldGeezerArtist]

in my opinion, the main problem you are having is a texture issue. You need to select all your character textures in the surfaces pane and darken them. just slowly apply a shade of black to the skin and clothing textures, while that should give you the effect you want, I think. Maybe I have it all backward. But that is what I would do.

In my understanding, any bit of light in the scene will give color to your character, which is what you don't want; you want a silhouette to be seen from behind some curtains, effect right?

Without light, the inside of the box is dark and anything that's inside the darkness of the box is also dark which in turn produces no figure silhouette. The light is necessary to make the black matte material applied to the figure (and clothing and other items inside the box) have something to contrast against. I might have to do some postwork to give the bright yellow screen area something more of a darker lampshade like tint. I'm also considering adding a "top edge" to the screen to give it some depth.