Gonna Be a Big Week

Sorry, had to do it…Title from that (travelocity? i think) commercial. We’ve taken to say it a lot around our house…anyhoo…

…not only do we get Havoc 4 but WINDLIGHT!!

OK for all you having heart palpitations…here’s some quick tips.

1. User preferences, Graphics Tab (control/command P to get it fast) is yer friend. Check the “custom” check box to see all the varied options. If your computer struggles, or you just hate the lighting, if you UNCHECK Atmospheric Shaders, it gives you an old-viewer-esque look. (Not completely the same but similar). Here you can also let it set your settings according to your hardware. Usually I have water reflections off; trees, land and skies to their lowest (jack them temporarily for pics), avatar and objects maxed, low particles and low (64/96) draw distance. I’m on a G5 quad but it’s got a pretty old video card (Nvidia GeForce 6600). My framerate isn’t awesome but I live.

2. World, Envrionment Settings. Usually (I’m lazy) I use the “default” sky settings but change my Time of Day to sometime in the ranges of 8-10AM or 2-5PM depending on what I’m doing, looking at, etc. Of course you can go to advanced sky or advanced water and change the preset, even play with the settings! Don’t worry, it’s fun! Try it!

3. Taking pictures. My technique for quick pics is to set my time of day like above, but then keep the SUN AT MY BACK and use my facelight and/or other local lights to light with white light from the front. I do this because the default settings I think are too bright from the front for good picture taking for face/body/fashion shots….and like I said before I’m pretty damn lazy sometimes 🙂 But I have made a sun-facing,/blue sky/low sun preset I’ve been tweaking. I’ll post it up here (and directions on how to add it presets) later today or tomorrow.

Hmm that’s all for the moment I guess. Feel free to ask questions or just rant in the comments!