• Required Products: None
  

Nimbostratus clouds form in a thick uniform layer at low altitude. This set includes three 360° scenes representing three different times of day. Each pre-assembled scene has unique materials and lighting to match the time of day; each includes a cloud prop that’s 333 meters wide, a sky sphere, lights with bounce/occlusion, and a ring of clouds that softly fades into the far off distance. You can load any of the props individually if you don’t need a full scene.

Beyond the included scenes you can customize the cloud prop with many material presets that control color, density, and volumetric effects such as shadow rays. You can expand the usage to create undulating smoke, dust storms, or rolling fog.

Instructions included. See the ReadMe for technical info and check out the forum commercial thread for product discussions.

Below is a list of the installation package types provided by this product. The name of each package contains a Package Qualifier (WIP), which is used as a key to indicate something about the contents of that package.

• 1 Core ¹⁾

[ ] = Optional, depending on target application(s)

Not all installation packages provide files that are displayed to the user within the interface of an application. The packages listed below, do. The application(s), and the location(s) within each application, are shown below.

• You can find new icons for loading this product in the following DAZ Studio Folders:
  • “Environments:Landscapes:Above The Clouds 3Delight:Nimbostratus:01 Scene Subsets”
  • “Environments:Landscapes:Above The Clouds 3Delight:Nimbostratus:02 Materials:Cloud Color”
  • “Environments:Landscapes:Above The Clouds 3Delight:Nimbostratus:02 Materials:Cloud Density”
  • “Environments:Landscapes:Above The Clouds 3Delight:Nimbostratus:02 Materials:Ring and Sky Materials”
  • “Environments:Landscapes:Above The Clouds 3Delight:Nimbostratus:02 Materials:Utility & Cloud Reset”
  • “Environments:Landscapes:Above The Clouds 3Delight:Nimbostratus:Lights”
  • “Environments:Landscapes:Above The Clouds 3Delight:Nimbostratus:Lights:Speed_No UE2”
  • “Environments:Landscapes:Above The Clouds 3Delight:Nimbostratus:Props”

• You can find new icons for this product in the following DAZ Studio Categories:
  • “Environments:Backdrops”
  • “Environments:Skydome”
  • “Lights:Exterior”
  • “Lights:Iray:Exterior”
  • “Materials:Props”

• These instructions with pictures also available as a PDF

• Most Important:
  • Just like real clouds these will be very soft close-up; the further back you go the more they take shape.
  • Depending on your scene elements and computer setup, you may experience extended render times while using UberEnvironment2 lighting (included) and “Accept Shadows” at the same time. Optimized lights (without UE2) are also included in order to speed up your renders.
  • Having several lights with shadows turned on and “Accept Shadows” at the same time will also slow your renders down.
  • Your camera needs to be outside the prop for clouds to render correctly.
  • If drastic scaling is wanted, for instance, scaling the cloud prop down so it fits inside a room, it might be best to scale all of your other props up instead. The soft cloud effects are tied to the volume inside the cloud and the distance between the two layers. A little experimenting will give you a clearer picture on how scaling down the cloud prop affects the surface quality. It begins to looks like bubbles if scaled down too small. Surface adjustments will minimize this to some degree.

• About the presets (and getting started):
  • You can load the prop by itself or start with a scene subset. The scene subsets load a sky dome, sky ring, nimbostratus cloud prop, and lights with UE2. From here load your figures and props. Adjust the placement of the clouds by using For Placement Only preset, if you wish. Reset the surface for the time of day. Then you can customize the surface of the clouds by using the included presets to adjust color, density, and tiling. Do some test renders using AuxViewport as displacement will raise and lower the clouds beyond where they are in working view.
  • Utility presets for the main cloud prop can be used to turn shadows off or on. If you start experimenting with surfaces and need to start over there are full reset materials for day, night, and sunset.

• The cloud ring is a separate prop from the clouds and sky dome. Depending on your altitude and camera angle you may want to raise or lower the ring to line up with the main cloud prop. This cloud ring can easily be scaled down in front of your figures and props. See the promo of the night castle scene and Genesis with blue dress.

• Tips for faster renders, adjusting cloud materials, and lighting
  • For occlusion in 3Delight you will experience faster renders using Age Of Armours advanced ambient light (https://www.daz3d.com/advanced-ambient-light). It can be utilized to exclude surfaces that you don’t want lit for occlusion, instead of using UberEnvironment2.
  • If you want to customize surfaces beyond the presets you can find instructions for working with Ubervolume here: http://www.omnifreaker.com/index.php?title=UberVolume. The quality or graininess of the volume is controlled by “Step Size”. The lower the number, the softer the clouds will be. The prop can be adjusted to create shadow rays or volumetric effects by turning on the “Accept Shadows” preset. This is off by default as it increases render times, which is not always optimal.

• The cloud prop is very sensitive to light, especially specular light. If using lights other than the ones included, you may need to turn them down a bit.

• A detailed User Guide and Tutorial can be found here:
  • 35565_above-the-clouds-for-3delight-nimbostratus.pdf

• File List

• 2016-11-21 - Updated Texture name to prevent conflicts.

• None