When we listen to our Muse and create a piece of art, the process may carry us to unexpected, surprising, and sometimes scary places.

In fact, art has long been used by some therapists to connect with their clients, as well as help them uncover and resolve psychological knots. This is especially true with younger children and those who may have trouble verbally expressing themselves.

Since the deaths of my beloved dogs, I have been on a journey. During this journey of life and self-understanding, I started to see certain themes in my artwork. I think that when we look closely at what we create, we start to understand ourselves better. It is also quite a lot of fun to go back and travel through mental imagery that made it to media. So I invite you to join me in this wonderful expedition. Look at your own artwork, and share with us below what you find. Here are some of the things that I found when I looked.

What a work of art is all about is a sense of delight. Touch here, touch there, delight. It is an appreciation of things as they are and of what one is — which produces an enormous spark. Something happens — clicks — and the poet writes poems, the painter paints pictures, the musician composes music.

~~ [Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, “Artists and Unemployed Samurai” from The Teacup and the Skullcup]

1. Fierce Red-Haired Warriors

I have a whole section in my gallery dedicated to fierce red-haired warriors. They are powerful, confident, bold, strong, independent, gorgeous, fearless, and the opposite of damsels in distress. These strong women save themselves, are comfortable standing alone, and do not need a Conan by their side.

Powerful, confident, bold, strong, independent, gorgeous, fearless, and the opposite of damsels in distress. These strong women save themselves, are comfortable standing alone, and do not need a Conan by their side.

While this may all sound good on the surface, it can also lead to the development of unhealthy aversions and fears if not properly addressed. Attachment to power, strength, independence, and courage, may lead to the aversion of their opposite. In this way, any kind of perceived weakness, dependence, and fear leads to great dissatisfaction. In my pursuit of strength, I forsook gentleness, kindness, compassion, trust in others, and ultimately developed a deep intolerance for fear. Intolerance of fear leads to fear of fear and chronic anxiety.

What happens when strength fails and independence or power is of no help? It is in our conditioning to value these traits. However, blind attachment and direct pursuit often lead to the opposite of what we desire, causing us much suffering. Strength and courage are not about being gorgeous, the color of our hair, what we wear, or carrying a big sword. True strength and courage comes only when we face our deepest weaknesses and fears, and learn to embrace them.

True strength and courage comes only when we face our deepest weaknesses and fears, and learn to embrace them.

2. Duality – The Good and the Bad

The concept of duality – strength and weakness, courage and fear, good and evil, beauty and the beast, winter and summer, life and death, are expressed in many of my images. One of my favorite fantasy artists of all time, Luis Royo, often combines erotic love with the juxtaposition of beauty and ugliness, black and white, good and evil.

This concept of duality, strength and weakness, courage and fear, good and evil, beauty and the beast, winter and summer, life and death, are expressed in many of my images.

Duality is pervasive in our upbringing, our learning, and our society. Indeed, it is weaved into the very fabric of our lives, because it is how our mind works. We love greatly, and in so doing, we fear (or want to avoid) the opposite of what we love. We love happiness and fear unhappiness, we love success and fear failure, we love doing the right thing and fear doing the wrong thing, we love being good and fear being bad. Most of all, we greatly love life, and so we fear death. We love being in-love and fear being afraid.

We greatly love life, and so we fear death. We love being in-love and fear being afraid.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with fear, rather, it is the avoidance of the things we fear that causes problems, dissatisfaction, and suffering. For example, we love happiness, so we want to avoid being unhappy. However, happiness does not and cannot last forever. As with all things in reality, it is impermanent. When the feeling of happiness fades and we begin to feel something else, we get dissatisfied. This pushes us even farther away from being happy, which leads to feeling more dissatisfaction and so on, until we spend most of our time feeling dissatisfied at being trapped in a World where happiness is, in fact, impermanent. The more we try to avoid unhappiness and directly pursue happiness, the less happy we become. The more we try to avoid the darkness within us, and directly pursue the light, the more mired we become in darkness.

Duality – Beauty and the Beast.

If we are brave enough to look below the surface of duality, however, we eventually see that duality is mind-made. Based on culture, learning, and inherited brain wiring, our mind categorizes phenomenon into good, bad, and don’t care. This is very good news because new research in neuroplasticity show that our brains are highly adaptable and with training, we can change our brain wiring, update learned thoughts, and modify old habits.

Our brains are highly adaptable and with training, we can change our brain wiring, update learned thoughts, and change old habits.

In my journey of self, I have found a very simple rule that helps me to transcend duality and reduce suffering. It is simply this:

To always face my fears.

I face my fear by leaning into my fear and embracing the very thing that I am afraid of. This is also known as exposure therapy. When we avoid the things that we fear, we become controlled by our fear, and cause it to grow in intensity and scope. When we face our fear, we weaken its grip on us and diminish its power.

When we avoid the things that we fear, we become controlled by our fear and cause it to grow in intensity and scope. When we face our fear, we weaken its grip on us and diminish its power.

There were some that found the image above so disturbing that it got removed from my Daz Gallery.

There are two kinds of suffering. There is the suffering you run away from, which follows you everywhere. And there is the suffering you face directly, and so become free.
~~[Ajahn Chah]

3. Lots of Furry Friends

While my fierce warriors do not need a Conan, they are often travelling with or enjoying the company of furry and not-so-furry animals. Animals have always been a great comfort to me, especially dogs. Dogs can sense, hear, or smell our emotions much better than people can. They seem to have a natural ability to be happy in the moment, even when experiencing difficult circumstances. Dogs appear emotionally liberated in a way that people usually are not.

While my fierce warriors do not need a Conan, they are often travelling with or enjoying the company of furry and not-so-furry animals.

I trust animals a lot more than I trust people, most likely due to my childhood. My parents divorced when I was quite young, and they both have many issues. Childhood was very unstable, restrictive, and full of poor decisions. As a result, I learned to rely on my own choices rather than the advice or dictates of others. This is perhaps a good lesson to learn, but it came at the price of not trusting others and being quite bitter about life.

In truth, everyone loves, wants to be loved, and wants to do the right thing. However, fear of not being loved and not doing the right thing, often leads to unskillful action because we try to protect ourselves from emotional pain, discomfort, dissatisfaction, and other similar perceived threats.

I trust animals a lot more than I trust people, most likely due to my childhood.

The deepest emotional pain I have felt though, was when I lost my beloved dogs. No person has ever made me feel this kind of pain. The deep pain was because of the deep love I feel for them. They are gone now, but I still love them very much and will likely do so for the rest of my life. Therefore, I will also feel the pain, but together with it, there is the wonderful feeling of unconditional love.

After going through this type of grief, it is easier to embrace everyday annoyances from people, and be less bothered by them. It is easier to put the pain caused by my parents into a healthier context. Sure, I still feel these emotions, but they no longer hold the power of being a real threat. Pain, discomfort, dissatisfaction, are all part of my emotional landscape. If I can embrace them, I will be liberated to feel any emotion, to think any thought, to recall any memory, and to love broadly and freely. For all this, I just need to do one thing – always face my fears.

“He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.”
~~[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Deep pain comes from deep love. With loss, I will feel the pain, but together with it there is the wonderful feeling of unconditional love.

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. 🙂

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.

Currently, there are two options that I know of for transforming previous skins into Base Female (G3F/G8F) UV maps.

1. Blacksmith3D’s Texture Transformer together with their add-on packs.
2. Various Legacy UV products by Cayman Studios.

I use Blacksmith3D’s Texture Transformer because it transforms the actual texture maps, allowing me to combine textures from different generation characters. In contrast, Legacy UVs work by adding new geograft areas. Note though that while I have had good success with BTT, it does not work on all textures.

Here, I highlight some of my favorite skins from Victoria 4 until now.

Best Fantasy Women Skins, 3D-Art

1. FWSA Dayanara HD

Dayanara has two main skin options – natural and snake skin. Both are fantastic, especially the snake skin version which has great detail, scales, and is very distinctive. Below are both the natural and snake versions of the skin, side by side. Natural-skin is on the left and snake-skin is on the right.

FWSA Dayanara has two main skin options – natural and snake skin.

This very impressive character by Fred Winkler Art and Sabby is one of my all time favorites. I still use her skin textures today and my most popular image on the Daz gallery features Dayanara.

This very impressive character by Fred Winkler Art and Sabby is one of my all time favorites.

2. MDD Shimmer for V4.2

Another fantasy skin that I use very frequently is Shimmer by Maddelirium. She is a Victoria 4 character but I transferred the texture over to Base Female UV (G3F/G8F) and have been using it with various G3F and G8F morphs. It consistently produces results that I am very happy with. For example, the image below uses Shimmer texture with TW Ktarya G8F morph.

Dragon lady portrait
with MDD Shimmer texture and G8F morph.

The cool tattoo designs, displacement maps, and striking colors make this skin unique and arresting, whether in a portrait close-up or a more zoomed out pin-up. Next, we have Victoria 8 with Shimmer skin in a classic pin-up image, and wearing the superb Bootleggers 2 high boots.

Victoria 8 wearing the Shimmer skin in a classic pin-up image and wearing the superb Bootleggers 2 high boots.

With the G3F UV Swap or G8F UV Swap products by SloshWerks, I am also able to use this transformed texture on G3M and G8M. The following image features a G3M character wearing MDD’s Shimmer skin with the adorable Daz Squirrel on his shoulder.

With the G3F UV Swap or G8F UV Swap products by SloshWerks, I am also able to use this transformed V4 texture on G3M and G8M.

Maddelirium’s Fire and Water as well as Earth and Air elemental skins are also fantastic. In fact, if you like fantasy skins as I do, definitely take a look at her store at Renderosity.

MDD Fire skin on G3F character. Rendered in Daz Studio Iray.

3. Tigerlily

Tigerlily has always caught my eye, but before I was able to get her, Genesis 3 and Iray were released. That got me very busy for a long while, and I never got around to getting this very striking cat girl. It wasn’t until this last PA sale that I finally saw her, got her, and I am very happy that I did!

In the image below, I have G8F wearing the Tigerlily skin with the LY Moxie Sparks morph. Her hair is Ktarya Hair for G8F.

Adorable fantasy cat girl pin-up . G8F with Tigerlily skin rendered in Daz Studio Iray.

I am a big fan of cat girls, so will definitely be doing many more renders with this amazing skin texture.

4. Aunrae the Dark Elf

Of course, no fantasy character-list is complete without a dark elf. My current favorite is Aunrae by Hinky Punk. She has wonderful skin detail and a great variety of colors and face tattoo options. Our fierce dark elf girl (below) is also wearing awesome claws from the Eagle-Guard Armor as well as the NightQueen Hair.

G3F character using Aunrae’s dark elf skin texture. Rendered in Daz Studio Iray.

I also like the results on G8F. Definitely a skin that I keep coming back to again and again. Works well as both a bad-ass dark elf (above), or a more smiley, happy dark elf (below).

G8F character using Aunrae’s dark elf skin texture. Fantasy art rendered in Daz Studio Iray.

5. FWSA La Llorona and Muneca HD Bundle

Last but not least, we have the zombie girl. This bundle by Fred Winkler Art and Sabby has a large variety of skin options. My favorite is probably the face with stitches and different skin patches from the La Llorona creepy options. It is highly distinctive and while it can be scary/creepy, it can also be sexy/dangerous or sad/vulnerable.

Sexy and dangerous zombie girl using the stitches and patches skin from the La Llorona creepy options. Rendered in Daz Studio Iray.

A more sad and vulnerable zombie girl with her teddy bear. Rendered using Daz Studio-3Delight.

The more minimalist skin with dark tear-streaks around the eyes and stitches on the lips is another excellent option. It is not as striking as the previous skin, but works well in a larger variety of contexts.

Lonely zombie girl sitting with cats. Here we use the more minimalist skin with dark tear-streaks around the eyes and stitches on the lips. Rendered in Daz Studio – 3Delight.

What Are Your Favorite Fantasy Skins?

Are any of the skins above in your favorite’s list too? What is your list of best fantasy women skins? What are those character skins that you end up using again and again? Hope you will share some of your choices with us in the comments section below! 😀

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.

I just started with Daz Studio about 3-4 months ago, and I must say that I am really loving it. Why?

• Daz Studio is free!
• I like the Daz Studio interface. It is fast, smooth, and intuitive. It did not take me very long at all to get comfortable with it.
• I like the Daz Studio lights. I am very much a newbie when it comes to lighting, but with some simple distant lights and the Uber Environment2 light, I was able to get nice looking scenes with very little effort. I just need to point my distant lights at the right place, and I am done. No positioning needed! I will talk more about this later.
• I like the Daz Studio renderer. It is quite fast and allows for rapid prototyping. I usually push down render quality and image size for my initial test shots, and then push them back up for the final shot.
• I like where Daz Studio is headed. There have been a lot of cool features added into Daz Studio in recent times that allow for some great renders (sub-surface scattering, object instancing, subdivision surfaces, collision detection, and more). I mostly do figure based images, and that is where the Daz Studio system really shines. From what I have read, it is weaker when it comes to environment based scenes. However, I think the future looks very bright.

Fantasy art rendered in Daz Studio 4.6 Pro. Post-work in Photoshop.

In this tutorial I will talk about my early process in using Daz Studio to quickly start creating cool looking fantasy art. I also discuss my favorite figures, environments, and the simple lighting system that I used.

1. Figure, Clothes, and Environment

How to easily navigate through our Daz Studio content by using the smart content pane.

The first step is to determine what we want to put in our image. For a start, putting in one figure is the simplest, so that is what we will do. One simple way to do this is to –

1. Click on the Actors, Wardrobe & Props tab on the top left corner of the interface.

2. Make sure we have the Smart Content tab selected on the right of our content pane.

3. This gives us a list of content objects that we currently have available. Note, to get a full list of content objects, we want to make sure that we do not have any objects selected in our scene.

We can see all the objects in our scene by looking at the right-most panel in our Daz Studio interface, and clicking on the Scene tab. For example, in the screen shot below, we have one object in our scene – the Genesis figure.

Selected objects are highlighted in yellow. If we select the Genesis figure, note that the categories on the Smart Content pane to the left will shrink to only show those elements that are related to our selected object.

Clicking on empty space on the Scene pane to the right will deselect all objects.

Screen-shot of full default Daz Studio interface.

Content will automatically appear on the Smart Content pane if we install them using the Daz Install Manager (DIM), which we can get and install for free. Then, when we buy products at Daz, they will automatically appear on our DIM interface for download and installation.

The Daz Install Manager is easy to use and very convenient. I highly recommend it.

If there are problems with our Smart Content pane, here is an article from Daz on Why isn’t the Smart Content Pane Working?

a) Adding a Figure

Adding a figure using the Smart Content pane.

At this point, we can simply go with our pre-loaded Genesis figure, or alternatively, we can delete it and add our own figure. To delete an object, simply select it in our Scene pane, and hit the Delete key.

Daz Studio comes with the basic Genesis figures, and we can get additional figure morphs from the Daz Store. We can get to our available figures by clicking on the Figures category in our Smart Content pane. There are further sub-categories after that. For example, in the screen-shot to the right, I have selected Figures >> People >> Female >> Real World and then I double click on the Olympia 6 actor to add it to my scene.

For figures, I really like the Olympia 6 figure, and also characters by Fred Winkler Art. The first image on this article as well as the image below are examples of the Olympia 6 figure.

The Olympia 6 figure wearing two different styles of fantasy clothing.

In the beginning, I only use one figure or at most two. We can still create very nice looking images with single figures if we pose it right, and set it off with the right clothing and environment.

Interesting scene with a close-up of just one figure. I used Olympia 6 here as well.

b) Adding Clothes

Selecting clothing for our Olympia 6 figure from our Smart Content pane.

To add clothing, I simply select my Olympia figure in the Scene pane to the right, and then select Wardrobe on my Smart Content pane.

This will show me all the clothing items that are available for this character.

Note that a big part of the power of the Genesis figure comes from its Auto-Fit tool. This tool is included in the Daz Studio installation and it allows us to fit clothing from older generation figures (e.g. Victoria 4) onto our new Olympia or Genesis 2 figure. This gives us access to a wide range of clothing items.

We do not need to do anything with this now, but just keep it in mind for later when we start looking for a greater range of content.

One of my very early renders with Daz Studio. Single figure with a one click background environment by Stonemason (Streets of Asia 2).

c) Adding an Environment

For environments, you definitely want to check out Stonemason. His environments are not only great looking, but they are also very well created, so that navigation is smooth and rendering is fast in Daz Studio.

Environments also usually categorized under the Environments option as well as under Props (look at Props >> Architecture or Props >> Landscape).

Sometimes, clicking on an environment will cause it to want to over-write our existing scene. One interesting trick I discovered is to right click on the environment tile instead. This will open up a drop-down menu, and we can pick the Merge Into Scene option to merge our selected environment into our existing scene.

Some people prefer to render the figure separately, and then combine it with various backgrounds later on, by using image manipulation software such as Photoshop or GIMP.

Indeed, this was the process I used in the past because it allows for very rapid prototyping. However, it restricts the use of interesting camera angels, shadows, and lighting.

Merging an environment into our existing scene.

2. Posing

To pose a figure, simply
1. Select the figure in the Scene panel on the right of our interface.
2. Click on the Pose and Animate tab at the top
3. Select the Poses >> By Function category in our Smart Content pane.
4. Double click on a pose tile to apply it to our selected figure.

To zero out the pose of a figure,
1. Select the figure in the Scene panel.
2. Select Edit menu from the top of the Daz Studio interface.
3. Then select Figure >> Zero >> Zero Figure Pose.

There are also options for zeroing out the figure shape, or zeroing out only particular parts/items of the figure. Zeroing-out a figure pose removes all pose applications on *all* the elements/children within the figure.

How to zero-out a figure pose.

For more unique renders, we can also compose multiple poses together.

Composed pose for Olympia figure – riding pose and archery pose. Fantasy art rendered in Daz Studio 4.6 Pro with simple distant and UE2 lights. Post-work in Photoshop.

3. Very Simple Lights

One of the things I absolutely love about Daz Studio is that I was able to light my scene really easily, even as a newbie.

The two lights that I used in the beginning are-
a) Distant Light

Creating a new distant light.

Distant lights have direction but no position, so they are very easy to use. The easiest way to understand a distant light is to consider sunlight. It has direction, but the sun is so far away, that for all intents and purposes, its light rays are parallel to each other from a given direction. That is what a distant light approximates – sunlight.

To create a distant light, we go to the Create menu up top, and select New Distant Light. Then, we simply change the direction of the distant light to illuminate different parts of our scene.

Fantasy art rendered in Daz Studio 4.6 Pro with Distant Lights and the UE2 light. Post-work in Photoshop.

b) Uber Environment2 Light

The main purpose of the Uber Environment light is to provide indirect lighting to our scene. There are many ways to provide indirect lighting or global illumination. The UE2 light uses image based lighting.

To add a UE2 light,
1. I click on the Lights & Cameras tab up top.
2. I select Lights >> Other in my Smart Content panel.
3. I right-click on the UberEnvironment2 Base tile, and select Merge Into Scene.

How to add an Uber Environment2 light.

4. I select the UE2 light in my Scene panel.
5. I go to Materials >> Lights on my Smart Content pane, and then double click on one of the tiles to apply it to my UE2 light. This applies an image to our UE2 sphere.

Apply environment map to our UE2 light sphere.

For more on UE2 lights, refer to-

• Beginning Help with Uber Environment 2.
• UberEnvironment2 User Guide.

Like distant lights, UE2 does not need a position. We can rotate the UE2 sphere to change the lighting from its environment map. However, for my early simple scenes, that is not really necessary.

Many of my early Daz Studio renders uses just one or two distant lights, and a UE2 light. I then do some post-work in Photoshop to adjust contrast, brightness, saturation, and more.

This image won the Daz PC monthly contest in December 2013. I started learning Daz Studio the month before, in November.