This is part 2 of the Making Skin Pop with the Daz Studio Iray Uber Shader tutorial. Here, we address tweaking a chromatic skin. Part 1 provides an introduction to Daz Studio Iray skin shaders as well as how to convert monochromatic to chromatic skin. Visit Part 1 here.

Tweaking a Chromatic Skin

1. Open up a figure of your choice (I’m using Babina 8 for my example) in Daz Studio.
2. Open up the Surfaces tab.
3. You’ll notice that the SSS map slotted into the Translucency Color looks different this time – it would normally either be an exact copy of the Base Color map, or a lightened version of the Base Color map. (It is important to note that some skins might have a more in-depth SSS map that incorporates things like veins and vessels, but the vast majority are simple lightened versions of the Base Color map.) In the case of Babina 8, you will see the latter, a lightened version of the Base Color map.
4. (Optional) If the skin you are working with uses a copy of the Base Color map slotted into the Translucency Color, I would recommend lightening it slightly in Photoshop. For a generalized process, start with the color map and add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer with the following settings – Hue -5, Saturation -15, Lightness +20. This might need to be tweaked depending on the skin. Once you have a lightened version of the color map, load this new SSS map into the Translucency Color slot and move to the next step.
5. Change the Translucency Weight to .90 (you might need to play with this depending on the character).
6. Change the Base Color Effect to Scatter & Transmit Intensity.
7. Change the SSS Reflectance Tint to 0.79, 1.00, 1.00. (you might need to play with this depending on the character, but I like this color almost all the time).
8. Scroll down on the Surfaces pane.
9. Change the Transmitted Measurement Distance to .15 (you might need to play with this depending on the character).
10. Change the Transmitted Color to 0.95, 0.20, 0.10 (you can definitely play with this depending on the character and skin tone you’re going for).
11. Change the Scattering Measurement Distance to .015 (you can play with this setting too).
12. Change the SSS Color to 0.95, 0.45, 0.55 (you can play with this setting too. In fact, you will have to depending on the character and look you’re going for).
13. Change the SSS Direction to -.25 (I typically don’t mess with this and leave it set to 0, but using small negative values, such as -.1 to -.25, can be helpful if there is too much scattering effect. This can vary greatly on lighting).
14. Repeat these steps for the Lips and Ears (I often do them at the same time as the Face since they use the same maps).
15. Repeat these steps for the rest of the skin surfaces – Arms, Body, Legs, Fingernails, Toenails, EyeSocket, etc.

Again, play around with the settings! That’s how you’ll learn what you like and dislike and what different colors and numbers do. This is where you might think about tweaking the settings for Bump, Top Coat, and/or Gloss/Specularity. They all add up to the skin’s final results! And if you’re comfortable with Photoshop, you can even build upon the SSS map for more detail (blending tattoos into this layer can help immensely in making them look more realistic and less stickerific). Also note that I do not adjust eyes…you can easily slot in eyes from another character.

It looks like a lot of steps, but it’s really not when you get in the groove. It also really helps to save your go-to colors to the quick select in Daz. Please see the below comparison for Babina 8.

Middle face skin was made following the steps above. Far right face skin has changes to Transmitted Color and SSS Color to create a lighter skin tone.

And just like with above, these steps work with darker skin tones, as shown below with Millawa 8, who has gorgeous skin out the box to begin with. My first tweaks are very subtle, but upon close inspection you can see that changing the Base Color Effect to Scatter & Transmit Intensity enhances the toning of the skin (in this case I used a color of 0.37, 0.99, 1.00 which seems really bright but it’s subtle with Millawa’s skin maps).

Comparison of out-of-the-box Millawa 8 skin with multiple tweaked Millawa 8 skins.

And lastly, we have Celani 8, another character with gorgeous skin out of the box. I changed the Base Color Effect and altered the Transmitted Color and SSS Color slightly, and the effect is very subtle. I also included a shot with her under different lighting so you can see how lighting itself has a huge effect on the same skin and settings.

Comparison of out-of-the-box Celani 8 skin with tweaked Celani 8 skin in normal and altered lighting.

In conclusion, the best advice I can give is to not rely on using things out of the box. Don’t be afraid to roll up your sleeves and dig around in the surfaces panel. Play around with stuff to see what it does. What’s the worst that could happen if you end up with something you don’t like…just undo or reload! I hope this guide and these steps help get you started on achieving the results you want when it comes to the way skin looks, whether you’re a beginner or a grizzled veteran trying to get used to Iray for the first time. In time my goal is to write more tutorials in the future that take these steps even further and build upon them. Happy Rendering!

Have you ever been frustrated with skin that looks flat in Daz Studio? Dull and lifeless? Rubbery with a distinct likeness to that of Gumby? (Google it if you’re too young to remember Gumby.) Or maybe it just needs a little bit of pop? Most of the time, any of these issues can be attributed to SSS, or subsurface scattering, and there are a couple easy tweaks that can be made to drastically improve the look of skin in Daz.

[Visit Part 2 of the tutorial which deals with Tweaking a Chromatic Skin.]

PBR Skin Shader vs Iray User Shader

Before we get started, I wanted to make a quick note regarding the new skin shader that was introduced with Genesis 8.1, the PBR Skin Shader (it can also be used on Genesis 8). ‘PBR’ is actually a technical term.

Physically Based Rendering, according to Wikipedia, is ‘a computer graphics approach that seeks to render images in a way that models the flow of light in the real world.’

Okay, well that was kinda vague. Both the PBR Skin Shader and the Uber Shader do this, so they are both technically PBR shaders. They use almost all of the same maps. So please don’t let Daz’s play at words lead you to believe that the Uber Shader is somehow lesser. It’s just different. While the PBR Shader has added a couple neat new tricks, it is also missing some neat tricks that will be made use of in this guide. Essentially, the PBR Skin Shader is a trade-off, and it’s up to the user to decide which they prefer. Please see the below comparison with Victoria 8.1.

Victoria 8.1 comparison of Daz Studio’s PBR Iray Skin Shader and the Iray Uber Shader.

It is so very much personal preference. Personally, I stick with the Uber Shader because it allows me to better control SSS. Now, if Daz were to update the PBR Shader to bring back the SSS capabilities that the Uber Shader gave us, then it would be the best of both worlds. But for the sake of this article, I will be sticking with the Uber Shader. (Another article may come at a later date that works specifically with the new Iray PBR Skin Shader.)

Spectral Rendering

One other item of note is Spectral Rendering. A lot of folks don’t know what it is and a lot of folks don’t use it. Personally, I do, and I don’t. It depends on the scene and the skin I’m working with. It is supposed to be more actuate in terms of how it bounces light around the objects in the scene, some scenes more than others. The downside is that it has a particular tendency to make skin out of the box look like muddy, green, flat…blech. The tweaks I will be going over won’t work with Spectral Rendering. Well, they will…but they require different SSS settings to not look like muddy, green, flat…blech. It also can add exponentially to your render times, even with the same exact lighting.

Is it really worth it? That’s up to you to decide. Like I said, I’ve noticed that Spectral rendering works better with some skins than others. For the purposes of this article, due to length, I will be sticking with basic rendering. If folks enjoy this article, I will do a write-up of my tweaks translated to Spectral Rendering at a later date. For comparison, here is an example with Vicky 8.1 with my Iray Uber settings.

Comparison of Iray Uber Shader with and without spectral rendering.

Okay! Ready to get started? Oh! I forgot to mention that if you want to follow along in Daz, I’m using this HDRI and no other lighting and default tone mapping.

My lighting setup – Just HDRI and no other lighting or default tone mapping.

Monochromatic vs Chromatic Iray Uber Skin

The first step is understanding what type of skin you are starting with, and that really boils down to SSS (subsurface scattering). To put it simply, think of subsurface scattering as the way light shines through the skin. Skin is translucent, so it’s only natural that we’d see things like veins and, well, meat beneath it. Older Iray Uber skins, such as those found on G3 and a very small amount of G2 characters, use a type of SSS called Monochromatic. Newer Iray Uber skins, such as those found on G8 (and G8.1) characters, use a type of SSS called Chromatic.

Now, what is the difference between the two? Well, I honestly couldn’t tell you, other than the fact that they behave completely differently, and that Chromatic SSS, when set up correctly, appears to behave more naturally in terms of light reflection than Monochromatic SSS. So how do you tell which is which? It’s really easy, but you’ll need to roll up your sleeves a bit and open up the surfaces tab (If you’re never looked at the surfaces tab, or are unfamiliar with it, you’ll be digging into it here!):

Monochromatic

You will see a greyscale map slotted into the translucency color. You’ll also see a rather tomato-inspired red set for the color itself (in most cases). And if you scroll down on the surfaces panel, you’ll see the word ‘Mono’ listed under SSS Mode.

Monochromatic skin typically uses a lower translucency weight (.3 to .5) and the general rule of thumb is that it can be lightened or darkened by adjusting that slider (lower for lighter, higher for darker, etc). Monochromatic skin can be converted to Chromatic skin with some work, and that work does involve Photoshop (or another photo editing program that can use layers, such as Gimp). I will be showing you how to convert a Monochromatic skin, such as Vicky 7, over to Chromatic SSS and apply my tweaks. (I’ll try to stick with the super popular base figures that pretty much everybody has so you can follow along exactly.)

Chromatic

You will likely see either an exact duplicate of the base color map slotted into the translucency color, or a slightly lightened version of the base color map. The translucency color itself should (in most cases) be white (this isn’t always the case for spectral rendering, but again, this article will only cover basic rendering). And if you scroll down on the surfaces panel, you’ll see the word ‘Chromatic’ listed under SSS Mode.

Chromatic skin typically uses a much higher translucency weight (.75 or higher) and it is harder to lighten or darken simply by adjusting. This can be tweaked slightly, but if you need to lighten or darken a skin drastically, I would recommend finding a different skin that starts out where you want it in terms of tone, or go the direct route of editing the maps manually in Photoshop (advanced users). The reason for this is that Chromatic skin relies on the translucency color map, or the ‘meat map’ as I call it, to shine through from beneath the outer base color layer. If you try to lighten the skin by dropping the translucency weight, you’ll lose that ‘meat’ and the skin will end up looking flat. Chromatic skins out of the box are the easiest to tweak because they already have the necessary SSS map (though advanced users can go even further and build a new SSS map or tweak the existing one for even more detail, something I will cover in another tutorial).

Converting Monochromatic SSS to Chromatic SSS

(Beginner Level in Photoshop Required)

1. Open up a figure of your choice (I’m using Victoria 7 for my example) in Daz Studio.
2. Open up the Surfaces tab.
3. Starting with the Face, open up the translucency map in Photoshop (or photo editing program of your choice that supports layers). In the case of Vicky 7, this map is here on my system – DAZ 3D\My 3D Library\Runtime\Textures\DAZ\Characters\Genesis3\Victoria7\V7FaceMapSSS_1001.jpg. There are other SSS maps for Vicky 7 that are dependent upon any makeup you choose, but for our purposes, we’re only concerned with the base skin that loads with the character. You can always convert the makeup skins if you’d like later (I usually just use third-party makeup anyways).
4. Once you have the Face SSS map open in Photoshop (it should be greyscale with blue squigglies), take a look at the vein detail. It’s great! I really wish Daz kept these details on their newer figures but c’est la vie. Now open up the base color map, in this case V7FaceMapD_1001.jpg. We’re going to need both to create a proper Chromatic SSS map.
5. Next take the SSS map and copy/paste it onto a new layer over the base color map. You should now have two layers…one with the SSS map, and one with the base color map. The SSS map should be on top, currently blocking the color map from showing.
6. Change the opacity of the SSS map to 25%.
7. Now create a new solid color adjustment layer and pick a nice fleshy pink tone (205,165,165).
8. Change the opacity of the solid color adjustment layer to 20%. The pink layer will bring back some nice color to the map we’re building.
9. Go ahead and save this working file as a .psd if you want to come back to it later and play around (I would highly advise playing around…that’s how I learned!). Flatten the image or stamp visible if that’s you’re thing and save this new SSS map as a .jpg (the highest quality setting). You can save it in Vicky 7’s folder, or anywhere you’d like to save it if you want to set aside a special folder for your custom maps. I’ve saved mine as V7FaceMpaD_1001 – CUSTOM SSS.jpg.
10. Back in Daz, change the Translucency Color map to the one you just created. You do this by clicking on the map in the Surfaces tap and then going to Browse when the menu pops up.
11. Change the Translucency Color to white (you can absolutely play with this if you’re going for fantasy skin colors)
12. Change the Translucency Weight to .85 (you might need to play with this depending on the character).
13. Change the Base Color Effect to Scatter & Transmit Intensity (Vicky 7 is already set up that way, but if the character you’re working on doesn’t have it, go ahead and change it).
14. Change the SSS Reflectance Tint to 0.56, 0.98, 1.00. (you might need to play with this depending on the character, I usually start with 0.79, 1.00, 1.00 and adjust from there).
15. Scroll down on the Surfaces pane.
16. Change the SSS Mode to Chromatic.
17. Change the Transmitted Measurement Distance to .15 (you might need to play with this depending on the character).
18. Change the Transmitted Color to 0.95, 0.20, 0.10 (you can definitely play with this depending on the character and skin tone you’re going for…unlike with Monochromatic SSS, this is where you can go to fine tune the ultimate lightness/darkness and tone…to an extent).
19. Change the Scattering Measurement Distance to .015 (you can play with this setting too).
20. Change the SSS Color to 0.95, 0.45, 0.55 (you can play with this setting too…in fact, you will have to depending on the character and look you’re going for).
21. Change the SSS Direction to -.15 (I typically don’t mess with this and leave it set to 0, but using small negative values, such as -.1 to -.25, can be helpful if there is too much scattering effect…this can vary greatly on lighting).
22. Repeat these steps for the Lips and Ears (I often do them at the same time as the Face since they use the same maps).
23. Repeat these steps for the rest of the skin surfaces…Arms, Body, Legs, Fingernails, Toenails, EyeSocket, etc. All of these maps are located in the same folder where we found the Face map (in example, the body would be V7TorsoMapD_1002.jpg for Victoria 7).

Again, play around with the settings! That’s how you’ll learn what you like and dislike and what different colors and numbers do. This is where you might think about tweaking the settings for Bump, Top Coat, and/or Gloss/Specularity. They all add up to the skin’s final results! And if you’re comfortable with Photoshop, you can even build upon the SSS map we created above for more detail (blending tattoos into this layer can help immensely in making them look more realistic and less stickerific). Also note that I do not adjust eyes…you can easily slot in eyes from another character.

I know it looks like a lot of steps but it’s really not so bad, and it goes quickly once you get the hang of it!

Please see the below comparison.

Comparison of out-of-the-box Victoria 7 skin with tweaked Victoria 7 skin.

The above steps can also be followed with darker monochromatic skin tones, as seen below with Monique 7 …the only thing I did different was bump the Translucency Strength up to .90 and change the SSS Reflectance Tint a smidge to give a more golden undertone rather than blue.

Comparison of out-of-the-box Monique 7 skin with tweaked Monique 7 skin.

Visit Part 2 of the tutorial which deals with Tweaking a Chromatic Skin.

This is great for me because I do not have much drawing or painting skills. I love art, but I certainly would not be able to create my DA images without Daz Studio. Best of all, you can get it for free HERE.

Arabian Dreams Fantasy Woman Art created using Daz Studio, Iray, and Photoshop.

What Is Daz Studio?

Ok, so now we know that Daz Studio is cool, but what exactly is Daz Studio?

Daz Studio is a 3D rendering program. You create a 3D scene, light it, adjust camera settings, and then just click render. In this way, it is like photography, except you are taking a picture of a virtual scene. Because it is a virtual scene, we get a lot more control over the scene itself, as well as how it is lighted.

You may think that creating a 3D scene is very complicated and time consuming, but actually it is not. This is because we can get many 3D-objects, poses, and lights to populate our scene from the Daz3d marketplace. In fact, that is how they make money, which is why they give away the Daz Studio software for free.

The software itself also comes with some free initial content, and you can get more free daily items from their freebie page. In this way, you can try things out first, without having to buy content right off. Daz also organizes many sales throughout the year, so I buy most items in my library at a 50% or more discount.

WARNING – Daz Studio can be very very addictive.

WARNING – Daz Studio can be very very addictive.

How to Create a Scene?

One of the first things that I did when I first started using Daz Studio is to set up the layout. This allows me to pick an interface that I am comfortable with. I go to Window -> Workspace -> Select Layout (see below).

One of the first things that I did when I first started using Daz Studio is to set up the layout.

When the pop-up window comes up, we can pick the layout we like most from a drop-down menu (see below). I use the Hollywood Blvd layout, so that is the one you will see in all of my tutorials. I like this layout because it is most similar to the Poser interface that I used before moving to Daz Studio. More on why I moved to Daz Studio.

When the pop-up window comes up, we can pick the layout we like most from a drop-down menu.

Now we are ready to create our scene. The first thing that I do is go to the Smart Content tab (interface left). If the tab is not there, we can easily right-click on empty space in the tabs area and pick Add Pane (Tab). This allows us to add additional tabs to the interface.

In the Smart Content panel, I drill down to Default > Figures > People > Female > Real World. This presents me with a thumbnail grid of realistic female figures. From this list, I double click on Charlotte 8 HD. This adds a human figure into my scene.

In the Smart Content panel, I drill down to Default > Figures > People > Female > Real World. From this list I pick Charlotte 8 HD.

Next, I enrich my figure by adding hair and clothing. An easy way to do this is to click on the Scene tab (interface right), and select my Charlotte 8 object. Then, I go back to the Smart Content panel, go to Hair > Long, and double click on the wonderful Alice Hair by OOT. Similarly, I go to Wardrobe > Outfits, and double click on Lilikh !Outfit.

I go back to the Smart Content panel, go to Hair > Long, and double click on the wonderful Alice Hair.

After crafting my character, I want to give her an artistic pose. To do this, I go to the Pose & Animate tab (interface top). Then, I go to the Smart Content panel and pick a pose that shows off the character and outfit.

I go to the Pose & Animate tab (interface top). Then, I go to the Smart Content panel and pick a pose that shows off the character and outfit.

Camera controls icons in top-right of viewport.

Once that is done, I may adjust the camera a bit (top right of viewport). Finally, I go to the Render tab (top), and click on the camera icon (top left of viewport). And just like that, I start rendering my scene.

What Is Iray, 3Delight, and Reality?

In addition to Daz Studio, you may also hear people talk about Iray, 3Delight, and Reality/Lux. These are all different renderers that we may use to render our 3D-scene. I highly recommend Iray because it is a physically based renderer that is built into Daz Studio. As such, it is easier to access, and there are a lot of shaders and materials for it in the Daz3d marketplace. The only downside to using Iray is that we will need a good nVidia graphics card for it to render in a timely manner.

Reality/Lux is also a physically based renderer, but we get to it through a plugin. As such it is not as integrated, and there are very few supporting shaders and materials that we can purchase. It is therefore, more of a do-it-yourself option.

3Delight is the original Daz Studio renderer and it is not physically based. Scenes generally render faster and are less noisy, but they are also less realistic.

Set renderer to Iray by going to Render Settings > Editor > Engine

We can pick to use the Iray renderer by going to the Render Settings tab (interface right). Select Editor up top, and then pick the renderer you want from the drop-down menu next to Engine.

What Is Iray, 3Delight, and Reality?

How to Improve Your Daz Studio Images

Once we get comfortable with the Daz Studio interface, we can start to drill down into certain key areas to improve our images. I got the most bang for the buck by improving my scene lighting, so that is the area that I would recommend tackling first.

This tutorial describes in greater detail how I light my Iray scenes. You can also see how improvements in lighting leads to changes in my images here.

How to Improve Your Daz Studio Images

• Aiko 8
• Kinley Hair with dForce for Genesis 3 and 8 Female(s)
• Anime Kitten Hair for Genesis 2 Female(s)
• DAZ Studio Iray HDR Outdoor Environments
• Anime Lingerie Set 2 For Genesis 8 Females
• Anime Lingerie Set 3 For Genesis 8 Females
• Enchanted Forest: Kitsune for V4

Pre and Post-Work Images – Cute Cat Girls, Fantasy Women Pin-Up Art

Showing pre and post-work images are always a bit complicated for me because I render each of my light layers separately, and then compose them in Photoshop. Therefore, my pre-Photoshop images are only single light images. As a result, I will show a sequence of images below that mark the different key stages of my post-work process.

1. Pre-Photoshop Image with a Single Light

First, we show a pre-Photoshop image with just an environment light to the left, compared with the completed image with all lights and post-work to the right.

Left – Pre image with only an Environment light. Right – Completed image with all lights and post-work process.

2. Combine Light Layers in Photoshop

This next image, shows what we get after we combine all light layers in Photoshop.

Cute cat girls pin-up image after we combine all light layers in Photoshop.

3. Main Photoshop Post-Work

Subsequently, we add color filters, adjustment layers, sharpness layers, volumetric lights, and more in Photoshop. This is the meat of our post-work process which we describe in greater detail here.

One common question that I get is how much paint-overs do I do. I only do minor paint-overs for fixing collisions, poke-throughs, or other little render mistakes.

Subsequently, we add color filters, adjustment layers, sharpness layers, volumetric lights, and more in Photoshop.

4. Final Step – Add Detail

In the final step, we add detail using Color Efex Pro 4 from the Nik Collection. You can get the Nik Collection for free from Google, so definitely worth checking it out.

At this stage, I may also add a bit more contrast and color filters.

In the final step, we add detail using Color Efex Pro 4 from the Nik Collection.

If there are more images that you would like to see pre-post images of, feel free to let us know in the comments section below. 🙂

I decided to go for a simple Daz Studio scene that just focused on the character and hair. After rendering all my light layers in Iray and putting everything together in Photoshop, I got the more colorful image on the left (below).

Left – More colorful cyborg girl fantasy art from my usual Photoshop post-work process. Right – Unsaturated version of the cyborg girl image achieved with an adjustment layer and blending effects in Photoshop.

Creating an Un-Saturated Image

I add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and set the Saturation value to -100.

The initial image seemed a bit too colorful, so I wanted to see how the image would look in gray-scale (unsaturated). To do this, I add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer in Photoshop (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation), after my completed image. I set the Saturation value to -100.

After adding my adjustment layer, I get the cyborg girl gray-scale image below. Unfortunately, it looks a bit drab without any color at all.

Gray-scale cyborg girl fantasy art image.

Using Photoshop Blending Mode to Get More Color

We can change our layer blending mode by going to the drop-down menu at the top of our layer’s tab.

To get some interesting effects, I started playing around with different blending modes for my Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. We can change our layer blending mode by going to the drop-down menu at the top of our layer’s tab (see right). When I set the blending mode to Darken, I get the cool effect below.

Cyborg girl sci-fi fantasy image with blending mode set to “Darken” for our Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

If I set blending mode to Lighten, I get a different color effect.

Cyborg girl sci-fi fantasy image with blending mode set to “Lighten” for our Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

Final Cyborg Girl Image

I finally settled on the Lighter Color blending mode, which is mainly unsaturated with strong blue highlights. After some further sharpening and contrast adjustment, I get my final image.

This was a fun exercise to see the different Photoshop blending mode effects. However, note that the results will be highly dependent on the colors of the original image.

Cyborg girl sci-fi fantasy image with blending mode set to “Lighter Color” for our Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

Can I save a dForce pose? How do I do this?

The short answer is yes, we can save a Daz Studio dForce frame as a morph. In this tutorial, I will describe the steps I use to save a frame from the dForce Sweet Anime Outfit.

How to Save a Daz Studio dForce Frame as a Morph

1. Save the dForce Frame as an OBJ File

1. Go to the dForce frame we want to save.
2. Right-click on the dForce Sweet Anime Outfit and unparent it from our Genesis 8 figure.

1. Right-click on the dForce Sweet Anime Outfit and unparent it from my Genesis 8 figure.
3. Delete everything else from the scene except for the dForce Sweet Anime Outfit.

Delete everything else from the scene except for the dForce Sweet Anime Outfit.

Zero out all other pose and shape settings on the dForce object.
4. Zero out all other pose and shape settings on the dForce object. This will ensure that the object mesh that we are saving only has the dForce simulation changes applied to it. I zero out my dForce dress by right-clicking on it and then choose Select > Select Children. Then, I do Edit > Object > Zero > Zero Selected Item(s).

Set the Mesh Resolution of our dForce object to Base.
5. Go to the Parameters tab and set General > Mesh Resolution > Resolution Level to Base. This ensures that our saved mesh will properly match with the original object mesh. This is important in the next section when we use our OBJ file as a morph.

Set Save as type to Wavefront Object (*.obj).
6. Do File > Export and set Save as type to Wavefront Object (*.obj). I name my OBJ file based on what I want to call my morph parameter. For example, in the case of the pink dress morph, I name my file WindLtoR. For the OBJ Export Options, I use the Daz Studio defaults (see below).

For the OBJ Export Options, I use the Daz Studio defaults.

At this point, we have an OBJ file of our simulated dForce dress.

2. Save the OBJ File as a Morph

1. Start a new scene.
2. Load the base Genesis 8 figure (make sure pose and shape are zeroed out).
3. Fit the dForce Sweet Anime Outfit to our Genesis 8 figure.

Select our dForce dress and go to Assets > Morph Loader Pro.
4. Go to the Scene tab and select the dForce Sweet Anime Outfit. Click on the triangle and lines menu button and select Assets > Morph Loader Pro (see right).
5. Click on Choose Morph Files and select the OBJ file we saved in the previous section (see below). Hit the Accept button and hopefully the morph will load successfully. A common reason for failure is when the OBJ file mesh does not match with the original object mesh. This is why we want to make sure that the OBJ file only contains the pink dress object and nothing else. In addition, we need to set the Mesh Resolution Level to Base (as outlined in the previous section).

Click on Choose Morph Files and select the OBJ file we saved in the previous section.
6. If our morph loaded successfully then it should appear in the Parameters tab under Morphs > Morph Loader. Dial in the morph to see how it looks on our figure.

If our morph loaded successfully then it should appear in the Parameters tab under Morphs > Morph Loader.

Right-click on our new morph parameter and select Edit Mode.
7. Right-click on our new morph parameter and select Edit Mode.

With Edit Mode on, right-click again and choose ERC Freeze…
8. With Edit Mode on, right-click again and choose ERC Freeze…
9. I just use the default ERC Freeze Options and click Accept.

I just use the default ERC Freeze Options and click Accept.
10. Save our morph by going to File > SaveAs > Support Asset > Morph Asset(s)…

Save our morph by going to File > SaveAs > Support Asset > Morph Asset(s)…

In the Morph Asset(s) Save Options interface, deselect everything and only click on our new dForce wind parameter (e.g. WindLtoR).
11. In the Morph Asset(s) Save Options interface, deselect everything and only click on our new dForce wind parameter (e.g. WindLtoR). I also set Vendor Name to Shiba. Click on Accept.

We are all done! Now when I restart Daz Studio and load in the dForce Sweet Anime Outfit, I have my WindLtoR parameter under Morphs > Morph Loader (see below).

Now when I restart Daz Studio and load in the dForce Sweet Anime Outfit, I have my WindLtoR parameter under Morphs > Morph Loader.

How to Delete a Saved Morph

1. Go to Daz Studio Content Directory > data.
2. Do a search for my OBJ file name, for example WindLtoR.
3. In this case, the file was in Daz Studio Content Directory > data > nikisatez > G8FSweetAnime > Sweet Anime Dress > Morphs > Shiba > Product > WindLtoR.dsf.
4. Delete WindLtoR.dsf to delete our newly saved morph.

Daz Studio dForce simulation applied to the dress of the fantasy girl.

Pose vs. Morph

Why can’t I just save my dForce simulation result as a pose?

As I understand it, a pose captures changes made to the bones or rigging of a figure. For example, a pose would be bending the forearm of a figure and turning her head. In contrast, a morph captures changes made to the mesh of the figure. For example, different face shapes or body musculature.

A dForce simulation operates on the mesh of the figure, which is why we are able to get much nicer cloth drapes than what is possible with just rigging. As a result, to save a dForce frame, we will need to save it as a morph.

Daenerys Targaryen, Game of Thrones Fan-Art. Daz Studio dForce simulation applied to her white dress.

Physically based renderers, such as Iray, tries to approximate the physics of reality. For each point on the screen, it shoots out a ray from the camera to that point, then tries to determine its color/value. However, it is simply not possible to calculate the value of a point with real-world accuracy, because we would need to sample light coming in from an infinite number of directions.

Therefore, our Iray renderer must guess what the value of a point is by sampling light from a set of different but finite angles. The more samples we collect or iterations we run, the more time it takes, but the better our guess will be. As we collect more and more samples, we will ultimately converge on a likely answer.

Noise arises when we guess incorrectly, so the value of a particular point widely differs from what it should be. As you may have noticed though, some scenes take longer to converge than others, and some scenes are more noisy than others. What then determines the amount of noise in an Iray scene?

Why Is There Noise in My Daz Studio Iray Render and How to Remove It

What Determines the Amount of Noise in an Iray Scene?

Based on my own Daz Studio experiences, Iray scene noise seems most pronounced when there are small, extremely bright areas in the scene. For example, when most of the scene light is coming from small and bright light sources, specular indirect lighting, or doorways and windows.

In the Fantasy Girl with Horns scene above, there are many bright but small areas of light in the environment map because the sun is peeking through the trees. These small areas of light create noise on the water, which gets compounded as it bounces off that surface and hits others objects in the scene (indirect lighting).

For a more simple case of noise and small, very bright areas, I placed a point light between a fantasy woman’s hands. A point light has a small surface area. When it is the main source of light in a scene, there will likely be a lot of noise.

In some cases, our collected samples may miss the small light altogether, creating a dark spot. In other cases, we may randomly sample in the direction of the light, creating a higher value than reality. Depending on the strength of the light, this value may be very high, thereby significantly skewing our average guess.

Below, we have a zoomed in image with just the point light turned on (all other lights are off). Notice that there is quite a lot of noise when a small bright light is producing most of the illumination in the scene.

Zoomed in image with just the point light turned on. Rendered in Daz Studio Iray for about 10 minutes.

If we increase the strength of the point light, then the picture noise increases (see below).

Point light strength increased by a factor of 10. Rendered in Daz Studio Iray for about 10 minutes.

If we render the point light in a volumetric space, there is even more noise. This is because we are sampling for the entire volume (including the points in-between the hands), which increases the frequency of errors.

If we render the point light in a volumetric space, there is also more noise. This is because we are sampling for the entire volume as opposed to just the object surfaces.

Another noise problem area is when there are caustics. Water, for example, bends light (refraction) and focuses it, essentially making the lighted areas smaller and brighter. This creates interesting light patterns on the water floor. However, because of this light bending property, the direction of our pixel samples become even more important and more susceptible to light misses or accidental hits.

The general take-away here is that –

Small bright areas with high values create more noise than wide bright areas.

Specular, reflective, or refractive surfaces can further increase scene noise. Specular and reflective surfaces increase the number of small and bright areas, each of which serves as an indirect light source. By understanding the source of noise in our Daz Studio Iray renders, we can better control it in our images.

How Do We Reduce Noise in Our Iray Render?

I use four key methods to reduce noise in my Daz Studio Iray images.

1. Adjust Iray Render Settings.
2. Increase the amount of light in the scene.
3. Render at a higher resolution (larger image), then resize down to average out the noise.
4. Remove some of the noise in post-work by using despeckle or blur operations in Photoshop.

1. Adjust Iray Render Settings to Reduce Noise

One of the easiest ways to reduce noise in our Iray renders is to increase the number of samples we collect. The more samples we collect, the better our guess will be (i.e. the closer our guess converges to the actual value). We can do this by going to the Render Settings tab, and then selecting Progressive Rendering.

My Render Settings > Progressive Rendering settings.

Many of these parameters control when rendering stops, and may override each other.

• Max Samples – Controls the number of samples collected per-pixel. The more samples we collect, the better our guess will be.
• Max Time – Controls the maximum amount of time before rendering stops. Note that the render will stop when either Max Samples or Max Time is reached. If we have a slower graphics card, we may want to increase Max Time.
• Rendering Quality – Based on Tobor’s experience, this controls when the Iray renderer considers a pixel to be converged. I.e. a higher quality value will take longer to reach a given level of convergence. Of course speed of convergence also depends on our hardware and scene.

  In more practical terms, Sickleyield defines this parameter as a multiplier for Max Samples and Max Time. I.e., it is a quick way to increase or reduce the time at which rendering stops. For example, when doing test renders we may reduce Rendering Quality and then push it up again for our final image.

• Rendering Converged Ratio – As I understand it convergence is a measure of how close our pixel value guess is to its real value. As such, we will never reach 100% convergence, because that is when our guess is 100% accurate, which can only happen when we have the ability to collect an infinite number of samples. As we have seen above, this measure is also partly determined by the Rendering Quality parameter.

I usually render each of my lights separately, so I end my renders manually based on the light layer. There are three more Render Settings parameters that pertain to noise.

• Firefly Filter Enable – Go to Render Settings > Filtering and make sure that Firefly Filter Enable is on. This will get the Iray renderer to filter out some of the noise in our image.
• Caustic Sampler – Go to Render Settings > Optimization. Turn on Caustic Sample *if* we have caustics in our scene. Note that this enables some additional tests in the renderer thereby increasing sampling time, so only turn it on as necessary.
• Architectural Sampler – Go to Render Settings > Optimization. Turn on Architectural Sampler if we have an internal scene with a lot of indirect lighting and light only coming from portals such windows or doors.

This post by Dave Smith has more detail on these Render Setting parameters. Increasing the number of samples collected is probably the most accurate way to reduce noise. However, it can also take a long time to converge.

2. Increase the Amount of Light

Earlier, we saw that scenes with more noise have light primarily coming directly or indirectly from small bright areas. For example, internal scenes where light is only coming from windows or doors.

One way to reduce noise is to increase the amount of light in our scene, for example by adding large mesh lights in an indoor scene or removing unnecessary walls and ceilings. Larger light sources will reduce the amount of noise in our picture. In addition, if we are getting light from many different directions, then the probability of totally missing a light source or getting overly skewed light values will be significantly reduced.

However, a problem with this approach is that we may flood our scene with too much light, thereby losing shadows, shape definition, and scene depth. The image below is an older image of mine where I used a lot of ambient light in 3Delight.

This is an older image of mine where I used a lot of ambient light in 3Delight. Because there is too much light I lose shadows and shape definition.

3. Render at a Higher Resolution

Another simple way to reduce Iray noise is to render our images at a higher resolution (larger size). When we shrink our image down in size, some of the noise will get averaged away. This is a better method than just using blurring techniques to average away the noise because it will retain picture sharpness and detail.

For example, the top image below is rendered at 1024 by 1331 pixels, at 300 iterations, and then cropped in height. The bottom image is rendered at 3000 by 3900 pixels, at 300 iterations, and then reduced in size to 1024 by 1331 pixels (similarly cropped in height). There is a lot less noise in the bottom image without a loss of sharpness or detail.

There is a lot less noise in the higher resolution image (bottom) without a loss of sharpness or detail.

4. Remove Scene Noise in Post-work

We can also remove some of the render noise in post-work using blurring or de-speckling operations. In Photoshop, I use Filter > Noise > Despeckle for less noisy renders and Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur for noisy renders. The left image below is the original noisy render and the right image has been blurred with Gaussian Blur radius 3 pixels.

Remove Scene Noise with Blur or Despeckle operations.

The problem with Despeckle or Gaussian Blur is that we lose a lot of detail and sharpness, especially in our primary fantasy girl figure. One way to fix this is to create another render with just the girl. By removing the water, we remove a key source of noise in our scene. With a simpler scene, we can also render more iterations for a given time. Then, we use this low-noise image to sharpen the figure in our blurred image. To do this, I select the figure-sharpen layer and set the blending mode to Overlay. Then, I do Filter > Other > High Pass with a radius of 5 pixels.

Left – Gaussian Blurred image with much less noise but loss of detail. Right – Same image but with the girl figure sharpened using the technique described above.

Conclusion

I reduce noise in my Daz Studio Iray renders by using all four of the techniques above. However, I make sure to properly balance them out so that I do not weaken scene lighting, lose scene detail, or spend too much time rendering.

There are other methods for controlling noise in a path tracer like Iray. For example, seeding the renderer differently, clamping maximum light values, and more. However, as far as I know, such render settings are not currently available in Daz Studio. In any case, they each come with their own weakness.

With just the techniques described here though, I am able to get results that I am happy with. The completed Fantasy Girl with Horns image is shown below. We have added all our lights, removed noise, and applied our post-work process.

Final Fantasy Girl with Horns image. We combined all lights, removed noise, and warmed up the image in post.

With dForce, I can not only use Poser dynamic dresses on Genesis figures, but also older V4 dresses that did not autofit well on Genesis.

In this tutorial, I will outline how I simulate two V4/Poser dynamic cloth items (the over-sleeves and over-skirt from Angeloi – the Outfit) on a Genesis 8 Female figure. The final result is shown in the image below. You may also view a larger version in my Daz Gallery.

Daz Studio Dynamic Cloth (dForce) Tutorial for Beginners with two V4/Poser dynamic cloth items on a Genesis 8 female figure.

1. Add Cloth Items and Pose Figure

1. We start by adding a Genesis 8 Female figure.
2. Add in a floor or background environment so that there is a ground collision item for our cloth simulation. In my example scene, I add in the Oremus set.
3. Go to our Poser directory and add in the over-sleeves and over-skirt props from Angeloi – the Outfit.

Parent both cloth items to Chest Upper in our Genesis 8 figure.
4. Next, parent both cloth items to Chest Upper in our Genesis 8 figure (see right). At this point, I only add in items that are necessary for the cloth simulation. More objects (or geometry) in the scene, especially on the figure, will slow down the simulation.
5. Go to the Pose tab and frame 0 in our timeline.
6. In the first frame, set our G8F figure to the old T-pose (see below). We can do that by using a pose converter product such as the one by Zev0 or RiverSoft Art. Some pose packs may also contain the T-pose.

In the first frame, set our G8F figure to the old T-pose.
7. To give our cloth items time to properly drape, we also want to increase the number of frames in our timeline. I set my total number of frames to 51, but you can adjust this to suit your scene and taste.

I set my total number of frames to 51, but you can adjust this to suit your scene and taste.
8. Go to frame 15 and set the end pose of our figure. In this way, we have 15 frames to simulate the cloth into our figure end-position, and 35 frames for the cloth to drape.

Go to frame 15 and set the end pose of our figure. Note that I only included the underwear set here so that you can clearly see the figure end-pose.

This finishes our figure set-up. Next, we work on the cloth simulation parameters.

2. Daz Studio Dynamic Cloth Setup

1. First, we want to set up our global simulation parameters. To do that, open up the Simulation Settings pane.

Go to Simulation > Initialization and set Start Bones From Memorized Pose to Off.
2. Go to Simulation > Initialization and set Start Bones From Memorized Pose to Off (see right).

   [List and descriptions of all global cloth simulation settings.]


Go to Simulation > Duration and set Frames to Simulate to Animated (Use Timeline Play Range).
3. Go to Simulation > Duration and set Frames to Simulate to Animated (Use Timeline Play Range) (see right).
4. Now we are ready to add dynamic cloth settings to our cloth objects. Go to the Scene tab and select both the Angeloi oversleeves and overskirt objects.
5. On the Simulation Settings pane, click on the Options Menu button (the little button with a triangle and lines) next to the blue Simulate button. Select dForce > Add dForce Modifier: Dynamic Surface (see below). This will make both selected objects dynamic and add new cloth simulation parameters in the Surfaces tab.

Click on the Options Menu button (the little button with a triangle and lines) next to the blue Simulate button, then select dForce > Add dForce Modifier: Dynamic Surface.
6. Go to the Sufaces tab and click on Editor. Select all surfaces and change the Bend Stiffness parameter from 0.5 to 0.25 (see below). This will help prevent exploding meshes. Mephoria has more useful tips on exploding meshes in the Daz Forum.

Select all surfaces and change the Bend Stiffness parameter from 0.5 to 0.25.
7. Select ANG Overskirt > constrained and set the Dynamics Strength parameter to 0 (see below). This will hold the top of the over-skirt together.

   [List and descriptions of each dynamic surface parameter.]


Select ANG Overskirt > constrained and set the Dynamics Strength parameter to 0.

This finishes our cloth simulation settings. Now go to the Pose tab, click on the blue Simulate button, and enjoy the cloth simulation! At frame 15, we get the simulation image below.

At frame 15, we get this Daz Studio Viewport simulation image.

At frame 51 we get the final simulation image.

At frame 51 we get the final simulation image. Here, the over-sleeves have had the chance to settle down and drape over our fantasy girl.

3. Adjust and Finish

We may adjust draping by changing the initial rotation of our figure. Alternatively, we can tweak any of the interim poses or add in new key-frames. Once we are happy with the simulation, we finish up our scene by –

• Smoothing out the geometry of our cloth items,
• Applying appropriate Iray shaders, and
• Adding in new objects and details to our fantasy scene.

1. Go to the Scene pane and select both the Angeloi over-sleeves and over-skirt objects. Do Option Menu (triangle + lines button) > Edit > Geometry > Convert SubD and Option Menu > Edit > Geometry > Add Smoothing Modifier. Both of these operations will help to smooth out our cloth items.
2. Go to Parameters > General > Mesh Smoothing and set Collision Item to our Genesis 8 figure. This helps to remove pesky poke through between our cloth objects and fantasy female figure.
3. There may also be some collisions with the floor. Therefore, I slightly move the floor down until the collisions are no longer visible. For this reason, I like to start with the floor a bit raised during the cloth simulation.
4. Next, we add in details, accessories, and more, to enrich and finish up our scene. In my Sultry Night scene, I added in the Bean Sidhe outfit on my figure, as well as some fireflies as a light accent.
5. Finally, apply appropriate Iray shaders on surfaces that need them, and we are done!

Daz Studio viewport of my scene after adding in the Bean Sidhe outfit and applying Iray shaders to the cloth items.

After render and postwork, I get the finished fantasy woman image below.

After render and postwork, I get this finished fantasy woman image.

Daz Studio dForce Q&A

1. When should I fit the dynamic clothing and when not?

   I fit clothing when there are pieces/surfaces within it that are not dynamic but should fit to the body. In this case, I fit the clothing, select the surfaces that should not be dynamic, go to the Surfaces pane, and set Visible in Simulation to Off.

2. Will all clothing work with dForce?

   The dForce simulator should work on any object, however, it may not work well on clothing objects that were not designed for it. For example there may be unattached pieces that fly off, exploding meshes, etc. Here is a good list of reasons from Richard Haseltine.

As a result, it is not always clear which part of the finished image comes from the Daz Studio/Poser render and which part comes from the post image manipulation. I have gotten some questions about this as well, so I thought it would be fun to show how my images develop from pre to post to done.

Pre and Post-Work Images – Redhead Warrior Woman Fantasy Art

My Post-Work Process

My post-work process consists of three key steps-

1. Combining all light layers (except for volumatric light).
2. Add filters, actions, effects, and volumetric light.
3. Add detail using Color Efex Pro 4 from the Nik Collection.

I do very limited paint-overs, mainly to fix collisions and poke-through. Most of my post-work involves using layer blends, filters, adjustments, and actions. For a detailed description of my post-work process, please refer to my Step-by-Step Daz Studio Post-Work Tutorial.

I will be using the Fantasy Red Head Warrior Woman image above, to show my pre and post-work progression. I used Legacie Hair, Kadis armor combined with Daemon outfit, and Terradome 3 to create the scene. Larger version in my Daz Gallery.

Left – Pre image with only an Environment light. Right – Completed image with all lights and post-work process.

Based on what we see above, it seems that there is a very great difference between the pre and post-work pictures. However, the left image is only lighted by an Environment Map, whereas the right image has Environment Map, key, fill, two rim lights, a top light, a volumetric light, and outfit lights. Therefore, it is not a very fair comparison.

Step 1 – Combining Light Layers

I combine light layers in Photoshop because it is much faster to experiment with different light intensities and colors. In general, if I can do something better in the scene render, then I do it in the scene render. If I can do it better in post, then I do it in post. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter which is done where, as long as I can get an end result that I am happy with. This article has more on how I combine lights in Photoshop.

Below is the image with all light layers combined except for volumetric and outfit lights, which we add in Step 2. This is perhaps a better comparison because it contains close to comparable lights as the finished image.

All light layers combined except for volumetric light and outfit lights.

Step 2 – Filters, Action, Effects

This is the largest step as we add all our filters, adjustments, and actions, as well as the volumetric and outfit lights. Some operations include adding glow, sharpening, softening, tone readjustments, adding effects, and more.

After doing all this, the image is very close to the completed picture.

Red head warrior woman image after adding Photoshop adjustments, filters, actions, and effects.

Step 3 – Bringing Out Detail

In the final phase, I bring out more details using Color Efex Pro 4 from the Nik Collection. You can get the Nik Collection for free from Google. It has many useful actions for manipulating photos and images, so definitely worth a look.

I also do more light and contrast adjustments as necessary.

Completed Image – Redhead Warrior Woman Fantasy Art

To Post-Work or Not to Post-Work?

There have been some interesting discussions about this in the Daz forums and elsewhere. I am a fan of using whatever tool that will help me create the best end-result.

Before I started with Poser and Daz Studio, I did digital painting. It was a lot of fun, even though I was not very good at it. Later, I started playing with Photoshop in a limited way, to add fantasy backgrounds to photographs. Next, I tried out Poser, Carrara, then Daz Studio, which allowed me to create much better images. Now I mostly use Daz Studio, various DS plugins, Photoshop, and various PS plugins.

I am not a trained artist, so I am very excited when there are tools like Daz Studio and Photoshop that help me create images that I previously could not make.

Below are two more pre and post-work images. The left images only use an Environment Map, because I combine light layers in post.

Pre and Post-Work Images for Red Head Woman in High Boots Pin-Up Art.

Pre and Post-Work images of a White Haired Girl and Her Wolf (Fantasy Art).

Let me know if there are particular images you would like to see pre-post images for, and I will try to post more of these progression image articles.

In this tutorial, we focus on softening effects that we get from camera, lighting, and atmosphere. We achieve these effects partly in Daz Studio and partly in Photoshop. We will use the composition below to illustrate the different effects. The background is Sacelleum of Corlyk, the hair is Sapphire Hair, and the outfit is Novariens Holy for V4.

5 Ways to Create ‘Soft Lighting Effects’ in Daz Studio & Photoshop

1. Depth of Field

One of the easiest ways to soften our Daz Studio image is by adding depth of field effects. This is a camera effect that keeps objects that are in-focus sharp, and blurs everything else based on distance. For example, in the image below we have camera DOF turned on, with the F/Stop parameter set to 32. We set our camera focus point to be between our figure’s eyes. Notice that based on these settings, our figure is sharp whereas the background elements have been blurred-out.

Image with camera depth-of-field turned on. Notice that the figure is sharp whereas the background elements are blurred.

In the next image, we turn off depth-of-field to highlight the differences. Notice that the previous image is much softer because of the blurring effect, however, a lot of the background details (for example on the stone statue) is lost due to this blurring.

Fantasy art image with camera depth-of-field turned off.

One very simple way to properly set camera depth of field in Daz Studio, is to use the framing tool. This great tutorial from Flipmode describes how you can do this.

Note that to get more accurate DOF effects, I add a null point to my scene (Create > New Null), parent it to my figure’s head, and place it right between my figure’s eyes. I can then use this null point as my camera framing point.

2. Mesh Lighs

Another way to soften lighting is to use mesh lights instead of spotlights. Here is a quick and simple way of turning a Daz Studio spotlight into a mesh light.

In the image below, the fantasy girl to the left is illuminated with a point-spotlight, creating very sharp shadows on her body. In contrast, the fantasy girl to the right is illuminated with a mesh light, in the same position, creating softer shadows. The larger we make our mesh light, the softer our shadows will be.

Mesh lights (right) have a softening effect because it creates softer shadows.

If we want to create softer lighting with an IBL or Environment map, we blur our environment map image.

3. Volumetric Lights

A great way to create atmosphere and soften scene lighting is by using volumetric lights. In the real-world, there are dust particles in the air. When light hits those particles, you get scattering effects that can make the light-ray appear visible to us.

Volumetric lighting is a technique used in 3D computer graphics to add lighting effects to a rendered scene. It allows the viewer to see beams of light shining through the environment; seeing sunbeams streaming through an open window is an example of volumetric lighting, also known as crepuscular rays.
~~[Wikipedia]

Fallen Angel Fantasy Art with volumetric light rendered using AoA’s Atmospheric Effects Cameras for DAZ Studio. 3Delight render.

In 3Delight, I can get volumetric light effects by using Age of Armour’s Atmospheric Effects Cameras for DAZ Studio. The Volumetric Camera in this package allows me to select which lights to render atmospheric effects on. It is simple to use, fast, and I like the results that I get. The image above uses AoA’s camera to render the beam of light (from a spotlight) shining on the fallen angel. There is also a Fog Camera in the package that is useful for adding atmosphere to our images. Note that these AoA cameras only work in 3Delight.

In Daz Studio Iray, I get volumetric light effects by using AtmoCam for Iray by Marshian. Because Iray is a physically based renderer, we need to actually model our volume of air with scattering effects. Marshian’s package comes with a large volumetric prop that we use to encapsulate our scene, as well as a set of materials to get different scattering effects and colors. While this simplifies some of the volumetric-light setup for us, it is not as easy to use as AoA’s atmospheric cameras (in 3Delight only).

White Angel, Dark Tentacles, Fantasy Art. Rendered in Daz Studio Iray using Marshian’s AtmoCam for Iray.

Some things to keep in mind while setting up Marshian’s AtmoCam –

• The volumetric prop is only visible in wireframe view.
• To work properly, the volumetric prop needs to encapsulate the entire visible area. It also has to encapsulate all lights that we want to render with the volumetric effect.
• However, our render camera needs to be outside the volumetric prop.
• I find that the easiest way to properly adjust the prop is by using a Top Wireframe view (see below).

Some things to keep in mind while setting up Marshian’s AtmoCam.

We can also create our own volumetric prop and shader by following the procedure outlined here in the Daz Forum.

I usually include at least one volumetric light in my images to get atmosphere and softening effects. In the image below, the fantasy girl to the right has an added volumetric light shining on her face, which helps to soften the overall scene.

Right image has an added volumetric light which helps to soften our scene.

Physically based volumetric lights can be time intensive to render, so I usually stop it before full convergence. I can then remove much of the noise in Photoshop by doing Filter > Noise > Despeckle. I repeat this operation until I get the results that I want.

A cheaper but less accurate way to get light rays in Daz Studio is through the use of props, for example the Simple Godrays props for 3Delight or the Expanded Godrays Iray props for Iray. These will render faster, but because they are just props, the light and shadow patterns may not realistically match the objects in the scene.

Another way to add light rays or fog into our images is to do it in postwork, for example with Photoshop brushes. However, we will need to make sure that our added 2D light rays properly match with the 3D lighting in our scene, which can be a challenge.

This is why my preferred method for adding volumetric light effects in Daz Studio is to render it, either through AoA’s camera (3Delight) or Marshian’s AtmoCam (Iray). This will give us realistic light and shadows according to our scene.

My preferred method for adding light-ray effects in Iray is by using a volumetric prop, for example with AtmoCam for Iray.

4. Glow

I add glow to my images in Photoshop. This earlier tutorial gives a detailed explanation on how I add and control the level of glow in my Daz Studio images.

Right image has added glow effects in Photoshop, which helps to soften our scene lighting.

We can also get glow effects from the Daz Studio Iray renderer by turning on the Bloom Filter.

To do this,

How to turn on the Bloom Filter in Daz Studio Iray to get glow effects.

1. Go to Render Settings > Editor > Filtering.
2. Click on Bloom Filter Enable. This will open up more options for controlling the strength and area of bloom.

Unfortunately, bloom can be expensive to render, thereby making even minor adjustments time intensive and painful. This is why I add glow in Photoshop, where I can quickly and easily control the area and strength of bloom.

5. Soft Light & Gaussian Blur

Finally, we can create a soft and dreamy look in our images by using the Gaussian Blur filter in Photoshop.

How to soften our image using Soft Light and Gaussian Blur in Photoshop.

1. Create a composite snapshot of our current image by doing Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E in Photoshop. This will create a merged image of all our current visible layers.
2. Select our merged layer and change the blending mode to Soft Light.
3. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. I usually set blur radius to 80 in the pop-up box. However, this will depend on image size and personal preference. Play around with this value until you find something you are happy with.
4. To further strengthen the softening effect of this layer, we can change our blending mode to Overlay.
5. Finally, we fine tune the strength of our softening effect by changing the opacity of our merged layer.

The image below shows the softening effect that we get from using Gaussian Blur in Photoshop. Note that the technique also increases the contrast of our image, making it appear darker and more saturated. Those are things that we will need to readjust for.

The image to the right has our merged layer blend mode set to Overlay, Gaussian Blur radius set to 50, and opacity set to 100%.

These soft lighting techniques are useful tools for enhancing our Daz Studio images. However, a softer image is not always better because when we soften, we also lose image details. How we choose to soften our image, in what areas, and by how much, will depend on our composition, the mood we are trying to capture, as well as personal style and taste.

Unicorn Princess Fantasy Art with very soft lighting effects.