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.

Alternatively, if we set the Environment Map image to None, we get a set of controls for using the Iray Sun. But why even use the Iray Sun when we already have lighting goodness from our Environment Maps?

• The Iray Sun allows us to create interesting patterns of light and shadow.
• We have very good control of the position of the Sun.
• The functionality comes for free with Daz Studio, so we do not need to look for or purchase environment maps that fit our scene.

Finally, it does not need to be an either-or situation. We can combine both the Iray Sun and Environment Maps to get the advantages of both, while minimizing the drawbacks when used alone. In this tutorial, we discuss how to effectively use the Iray Sun to create artistic images, like the one shown below.

Daz Studio Iray Sunlight Tutorial

1. Picking the Right Environment and Props

The main reason why I use the Iray Sun, is to create compelling and realistic patterns of light and shadow in my 3d-art. For this to happen, I must include the appropriate environment or props in my scene, which will block sunlight in exactly the right way and cast the shadow patterns I want.

A group that works well for this are buildings with interesting entrances for light, such as large windows, breaks on the roof, doorways, and more. For example, the image below uses Abandoned Interiors: Warehouse by Stonemason. By using this building with the Iray sunlight, we create light patterns on both the girl as well as in the background. Some other example buildings that work well with sunlight are The Old Barn by Age of Armour, The Ministry by Stonemason, and Rural Chateau by Jack Tomalin.

The Abandoned Interiors: Warehouse building by Stonemason is a great prop for using with the Iray sunlight because it has breaks in the roof, broken windows, and water on the ground to reflect the light.

Instead of using a single building, we may also create an outside scene with multiple buildings or structures. In this case, we use the buildings or structures themselves to cast our shadows. For example, our first Lady on a Clock image is an outside scene, with an open structure (from DM’s Fantasy Musings) placed over the girl to cast the proper shadows on the clock-face. Many of Stonemason’s external environments, such as The Streets Of Asia, The Enchanted Forest, and Urban Future 4, can be used with sunlight to create interesting shadows.

Creating patterns of light and shadow using The Ministry prop by Stonemason and Iray sunlight.

2. Positioning the Iray Sun

Next, comes the fun part of positioning the sun so that it hits our scene in the right way, and casts our shadows in the right position. The easiest way to do this is by using a spotlight.

• Add a spotlight by doing Create > New Spotlight, and call it Sun-Spotlight.
• Position the spotlight according to where we want our Iray sunlight to come from. This need not be an exact position, as we can refine it in the next step.

Set our active camera to Sun-Spotlight (top-right corner of the viewport).
• Set our active camera to Sun-Spotlight, which will show us exactly what our light is pointing at, what shadow shapes it will cast, and approximately where it will cast them. In this mode, we can also adjust our spotlight position by using the usual camera controls (i.e. we can manipulate our spotlight the same way we manipulate a camera).
• We go to Render Settings > Editor > Environment and set the SS Sun Node parameter to our Sun-Spotlight.
• After we do this, the location of our Iray Sun will be based on our Sun-Spotlight. If we change the position and angle of our Sun-Spotlight, the position and angle of our Iray Sun will also change accordingly.

For example, in the Lady on a Clock image, we set our Sun-spotlight view as shown below. We also place our structure directly in the path of our spotlight, so that it will cast interesting shadows on the clock face. Note that even though the structure is very much in the view of our Sun-Spotlight, we keep the face of the girl clearly visible, which means that it will not be occluded by shadows from our Iray Sun.

Sun-Spotlight camera view of our Lady on a Clock image. We also place our structure directly in the path of our spotlight, but we keep the face of the girl clearly visible.

In the Redhead girl with gun image, we set our Sun-spotlight to shine through a hole on the building roof.

In the Redhead girl with gun image, we set our Sun-spotlight to shine through a hole on the building roof.

Note that there are a series of controls for adjusting the Iray sun. I usually get good results without having to do any additional adjustments, but more details about them can be found here.

3. Combining the Iray Sun with an Environment Map

The Iray Sun is great for creating striking patterns of light. However, it can also create harsh lighting and overly strong shadows especially on the human figures in our scene. The images below compares Iray Sun lighting and lighting from the Tropical Ruins Environment Map.

In the Iray Sunlight image, there are great shadow patterns, but the light is too harsh on the skin.

In the Iray Sun image, there are strong shadows. The shadow silhouette of the girl is very sharp because it is close to the clock face. The circle and spoke pattern from our ceiling structure is more blurry because it is farther away. However, the light is too harsh on the girl’s skin, making it appear too glossy and unrealistic. This is in contrast to the Environment Map image which has softer contrast, producing more realistic looking skin.

To get the best results, we render both images as separate light layers and then combine them in Photoshop.

• Open both image files in Photoshop.
• Select all (Ctrl-A), copy the Environment Map image (Ctrl-C), and paste it (Ctrl-V) into the Iray Sun image file.
• Leave the blending mode at Normal and adjust the opacity of the Environment Map layer so that we get some of the sunlight shadows on the girl’s body, but also maintain the realistic look of her skin.

We adjust the opacity of the Environment Map layer so that we get some of the sunlight shadows on the girl’s body, but also maintain the realistic look of her skin.
• However, the Environment Map layer has weakened the shadows on our clock-face. One way to fix this is to only mask in the figure and remove the background of the image. This makes our figure’s skin be more realistic, but still keeps the strong shadows from our sun.

Only mask in our lady figure for the Environment Map layer. This makes our figure’s skin be more realistic, but still keeps the strong shadows from our sun.

For Iray sunlight, I set the material on my volumetric prop to Atmocam MedLight.

Finally, we may also render our Iray sunlight as a volumetric light to give our scene added atmosphere. I do this in the usual way using AtmoCam for Iray by Marshian. For Iray sunlight, I set the material on my volumetric prop to Atmocam MedLight.

The Redhead Girl with Gun image below has a layer of volumetric sunlight, which gives it added atmosphere in the background.

I do not always use the Iray Sun, but it can be a very valuable tool in our Daz Studio toolbox! 🙂

The Redhead Girl with Gun image has an added layer of volumetric Iray sunlight, which gives it added atmosphere in the background.

In this tutorial, we learn more about emissive shaders or surfaces by applying it to hair! 🙂 Of course the shader settings are general and can be applied to anything. Hair is used here, together with the Sci-fi girl image below, to provide a fun example.

Emissive Hair in Daz Studio Iray

1. Picking the Right Type of Hair

The first step, is to pick the right type of hair. I want something that is long and dynamic, with lots of movement morphs. The hair should be infused with energy, so much so that it emits light. A great example of this is SWAM’s Laguna-Naoko Hair.

It is long, with many separate strands, and some great movement morphs. It was created for a mermaid theme, so the many moving strands that make it look good in underwater scenes also make it especially suitable for light emitting hair.

In addition, Laguna-Naoko Hair comes with a variety of interesting and colorful textures, which make for a striking emissive surface. In our Sci-Fi girl example, we used the Electric Blue material setting. There are also fun colorful textures (see below) that produce very striking light effects.

Laguna-Naoko Hair comes with a variety of interesting and colorful textures, which make for a striking emissive surface.

2. Iray Emissive Surface Shader Settings

Now that we have settled upon a hair, comes the interesting part of playing with the Iray emissive shader settings.

For Laguna-Naoko Hair, I pick all of the hair strand layers. The only surface I leave-out is the base cap surface.

1. Pick the hair surfaces that we want to make emissive. In this case, I pick all of the hair strand layers. The only surface I leave-out is the base cap surface.

I set Emission Color to white and set the image map to the same one as my Base Color map.
2. I scroll down the shader parameters until I get to Emission Color. I set Emission Color to white and set the image map to the same one as my Base Color map.
3. Notice that as soon as we set Emission Color to something other than black, a new set of parameters become available to us including Emission Temperature, Two Sided Light, Emission Profile, Luminance, and Luminance Units. Here are some short descriptions from Daz as to what each of these parameters mean.
4. Emission Temperature allows us to set the color temperature of our light emitting surface(s). Different temperatures will tint out light differently (see below). In this example, I do not want any tinting, so I set Emission Temperature to 6000K.

 



Color Temperature Scale for our Iray emissive surface. From http://www.atlantalightbulbs.com/color-temperature-scale/
5. We leave Two Sided Light to the On position because we want our hair to emit light from both sides.
6. Emission Profile controls the shape of the light. We do not need to use it for emissive hair, but this Daz forum thread has a good discussion of it.
7. Luminance controls the strength or intensity of our light. In this case, we set Luminance Units to kcd/m^2 so that we can use smaller values in our Luminance setting.

3. Render Emissive Surface Light Layers

To get the glow and lighting effects that I want, I create three different light layers for my emissive Iray hair:

1. Low hair emission – I set luminance to 100 and render a light layer with just the hair (below-left).

2. Volumetric light – I leave luminance at 100, activate my volumetric container/prop, and render a volumetric light layer for my emissive hair (below-middle).

3. Strong hair emission – I set luminance to 3000 so that my light emitting hair will have a strong effect in lighting my figure’s body. However, at such a strong luminance setting, the hair itself becomes too bright. In this case, I only want the body lighting without the overly bright hair. I achieve this by setting Cutout Opacity to 0.0001 (below-right).

To get the glow and lighting effects that I want, I create three different light layers for my emissive Iray hair.

4. Putting it All Together in Photoshop

Here, we follow our usual 3 stage post-work process.

Stage 1 – Combining Lights

We combine our IBL, key, fill, and back lights in the usual way. In addition, we include the Low hair emission and Strong hair emission light layers we generated above. For the Strong hair emission layer, I mask out the hair cap.

Below, we show the image with just our usual lights (left). To the right, we have added in our two hair light layers. Now, it looks more like our hair is emitting light.

Left – Image with just our usual lights. Right – We have added in our two hair light layers.

Stage 2 – Post-Work Effects (Glow, Contrast, & More)

In this stage, we further emphasize our Iray emissive hair by adding glow. To do this, we create a separate glow layer just for our hair.

Adjust our glow according to taste.

• Open our Low hair emission file.
• Apply glow effects on just that layer.
• Adjust our glow according to taste. In this case, I only enabled the Glow 3 layer, but I set it to 100% opacity.
• Now I have a Hair Glow Layer that I can Copy Merged (Shift + Ctrl + C) into my Stage 2 file.

Copy Merged result of my Hair Glow Layer.

In the left image below, we perform our usual Stage 2 operations. The right image has our Hair Glow Layer, the Volumetric Hair Layer (generated in section 3), as well as some added contrast. Note that there is more glow and atmosphere in the image to the right.

Left – Usual Stage 2 operations. Right – Added Hair Glow Layer, the Volumetric Hair Layer (generated in section 3), as well as some contrast.

Finally, we perform our Stage 3 operations as usual, adding detail by running Color Efex Pro 4 from the Nik Collection. We also make a small collision fix. The final result is shown below.

Final Result from our Daz Studio Iray Emissive Hair Tutorial

Depending on the artist, some things can be more effectively done in post, and some in Daz Studio. We get to decide, which techniques best help us transform what we see in our heads onto paper.

Step-by-Step Daz Studio Iray Post-Work Tutorial

My current Daz Studio Iray post-work process consists of 3 stages:

• Stage 1 – Combine Iray light layers and fix rendering artifacts.
• Stage 2 – Soften, sharpen, glow, color, and contrast.
• Stage 3 – HDR filter. We are currently using Color Efex Pro 4 from the Nik Collection. Available for free here.

All three stages are performed in Photoshop, but depending on the look that I am going for, I sometimes skip Stage 3. We will be using the Pearls image above in our step by step post-work tutorial. My recent images can be found here.

Stage 1 – Combine Lights and Fix Rendering Artifacts

Add in a soft background layer and our 5 Iray rendered light layers.

1. Add a soft image to provide an appropriate background. Here, we used one of the photographs from Lady Kassie’s Oriental background set.
2. We rendered 5 different light layers in Daz Studio Iray – Key, Fill, two Back Lights, and an Environment Map. For the Environment Map, we used the Tropical Ruins HDRi from sIBL Archives. We have Dome turned off, and saved the light layer as a PNG file.
3. We add in our light layers using the process described in How I Combine Iray Lights in Photoshop.
4. The added gray Photo Filter layer on top of our IBL layer is used to darken our IBL image, so that it fits our background and composition. By changing the gray color, we can lighten or darken our IBL layer.
5. If we zoom in on our current image, we will notice that there are certain rendering artifacts. In particular, the Asian woman’s hair collides with her thumb-nail. In addition, there is a missing pearl on the strand around her hand.

The Asian woman’s hair collides with her thumb-nail. In addition, there is a missing pearl on the strand around her hand.
6. We can fix this in post by using the Clone Stamp tool. In general, however, we want to minimize the number and extent of fixes we need to make, as we will get better results by dealing with it in Daz Studio.

Removed collisions and added in a pearl using the Clone Stamp tool.
7. Copy our completed Stage 1 image (shown below) by doing Shift + Ctrl + C (Edit > Copy Merged).
8. Create a new file by doing Ctrl + N, and then Ctrl + V to paste our Stage 1 image into the new file.

Completed Stage 1 image.

Stage 2 – Soften, Sharpen, Glow, Color, and Contrast

1. Right-click on our Stage 1 layer and select Merge Down.
2. Add glow to our image by using the process described here.

After running the Shiba Glow action on our Stage 1 image.

Re-tone or recolor our image by using a Gradient Map adjustment layer, set to Violet, Orange color range.
3. Turn off the Tint layer by clicking on the eye icon to the left of the layer.
4. Select the Glow3 layer. Do Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map.
5. Select the Gradient Map layer and pick the Violet,Orange color range in the Adjustments menu (see right).
6. Set the blending mode of our Gradient Map layer to Screen and set opacity to 30%.
    
   We use the gradient map to retone/recolor our image. The Violet,Orange color range works well in in many cases, especially for realistic images. For fantasy pieces, I may use different colors in my gradient map.
7. Create a copy of all our layers by doing Shift + Ctrl + Alt + E (Stamp Visible).
8. Select our new layer, name it Soften, and set blending mode to Soft Light. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the radius according to the amount of softening that you want.
9. Open our volumetric light file and paste it after our Soften layer.

Adding two softening operations – Gaussian Blur layer and our Volumetric light.

Select the Levels layer and set the middle value to 0.75 in the Adjustments menu.
10. Select the Soften layer and do Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. This Levels layer will help to increase contrast in our image, so that it doesn’t look so flat. We set the middle value in the Levels adjustments settings to 0.75 (see right).
11. At this point, our image looks rather dark and a bit blurry. Therefore, we want to lighten our image and bring back some detail.

After our softening effects, the image looks rather dark and a bit blurry.

Right-click on the Environment Map layer and pick Duplicate Layer.
12. Open our Environment Map (Tropical Ruins) image. Right-click on the Environment Map layer and pick Duplicate Layer (see right). In the pop-up menu, under Destination > Document, select our current working image (see below).
     
    This will duplicate our Environment Map layer into our working document. We name the layer Lighten.

In Destination > Document, select our current working image file.

This is what our Photoshop layer stack looks like after adding the lighten and sharpen layers.
13. Set the blending mode of the Lighten layer to Screen. This will add the Environment Map light into our image. Adjust opacity to the level that we want. In this case I set it to 60%.
14. Duplicate our new Environment Map layer (this time into the same document, which is the default). Name this new layer Sharpen.
15. Set the blending mode of this new layer to Soft Light and opacity to 100%. Go to Filter > Other > High Pass. Set the radius to 5.0 pixels.
     
    This creates a sharpening layer from our Environment Map to bring back some of our image details. We can further increase sharpening by setting the layer blend mode to Overlay. As usual, we can use the opacity dial to make more minor adjustments.

 
After adding our lighten and and sharpen layers, our image is now brighter and has more detail.


Left – Before; Right – After adding the lighten and sharpen layers.

Add warm tint and a Vignette layer.
16. Turn the visibility of the Tint layer back on by clicking on the check-box to the left. This will give a warm tint to our image. We can control how warm our image is by changing the opacity of this layer.
17. Select the Tint layer and do Layer > New > Layer. This creates a new layer on top of our tint layer.
18. Select our new layer and name it Vignette. Ctrl-A to select the entire layer and do Edit > Fill. In the pop-up menu select Black as our fill color and make sure that opacity is set to 100%.
19. Set the blend mode of our Vignette layer to Multiply and opacity to 30%.
20. Do Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. Click on our mask layer to select it.

How to select the Elliptical Marquee Tool.
21. Select the Marquee tool on the left Photoshop toolbar. Right-click on it, and select Elliptical Marquee Tool (see right). Draw an elliptical marquee around the area of our image that we want to emphasize (e.g. her face and pearls). We can also do Edit > Free Transform to rotate and scale our elliptical marquee to get it to the right position, size, and orientation.

Draw an elliptical marquee in the area we want to emphasize. Edit > Free Transform to rotate, scale, and move, our selection.
22. Once we have it in the position that we want, do Edit > Fill > Black. This will create a light area around the part of the image we want to highlight.

Create a light area around the part of the image we want to highlight by using our Vignette layer.
23. Click somewhere else on the screen to deselect our marquee. Do Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to soften out the edges of our circle.
24. Duplicate our Vignette layer and set blend mode to Soft Light. This finishes our Stage 2 process.
25. As before, Copy our completed Stage 2 image (shown below) by doing Shift + Ctrl + C (Edit > Copy Merged).
26. Create a new file by doing Ctrl + N, and then Ctrl + V to paste our Stage 2 image into the new file.

Our image and layer stack after finishing the Stage 2 process.

Stage 3 – HDR Filter

1. Right-click on our Stage 2 layer and select Merge Down.
2. Click on Color Efex Pro 4 from the Nik Collection (Download for free here).
3. Select Detail Extractor in the Color Efex Pro 4 interface. In this case, I use the default settings (see below) and hit ok.

Use the Detail Extractor in Color Efex 4 from the Nik Collection to bring out more image details.

Our Detail Extractor layer with a mask for the areas we want to emphasize (e.g. face).
4. This adds a new Detail Extractor layer to our image file. We can then set the opacity of that layer to control the level of detail added. In this case, I set the opacity to 30%.
5. In addition, we may only want to add detail on certain parts of the image. To do this, select our Detail Extractor layer and do Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All. Then, paint in the areas where we want more detail.
6. Also note that the Detail Extractor operation will lighten our image. To re-balance the layer so that it better matches the original Stage 2 image, we add a Levels adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels). Make sure to check Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask, so that the Levels adjustment only applies to our Detail Extractor layer.

Make sure to check Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask.
7. Set the middle number in the Levels adjustments menu to 0.9. This finishes our Stage 3 process.

I do not always use the HDR filter. For this composition, I actually prefer the softer image, so I posted the finished Stage 2 image in my Daz Gallery. In fact, this applies to all of the methods outlined above; we only apply them if they help to enhance our image. Experiment with opacity and adjustment settings to get the results that you want.

Hope you enjoyed this step-by-step post-work tutorial.

Asian woman holding pearls final image (with HDR filter).

I use three main classes of lights in all my Iray scenes-

1. An image based light (IBL). This is a HDR image that I use in Render Settings > Environment > Environment Map.
2. Three mesh lights arranged according to the three-point light system.
3. One or more volumetric lights for softening effects and atmosphere.

Then, I may add point-lights or emissive surfaces based on composition.

How I Light My Daz Studio Iray Scenes

We will use the image above to illustrate the different classes of lights and why we use them, in this tutorial. The outfit and hair used in the image are from the NeoIndia Outfit and Hair Bundle by Arki and Shox-Design. The ruins in the backdrop is Mandgadfor by powerage.

1. Image Based Light (IBL)

I usually use a HDR image for this to provide my scene with –

• Realistic ambient lighting.
• Realistic reflections.
• Realistic background that is consistent with both lighting and reflections.

This beginner Iray tutorial has more on how I use a HDR image in Daz Studio Iray.

How well our IBL illuminates the scene will depend in large part on the HDR image we are using. In particular, what range of values it supports. The higher the range, the better the results.

I think about it this way … sunlight is a very strong light source, and its value should be many many times greater than anything else in the scene. Using a regular JPG image that only supports 255 values per pixel, is not going to work well for scene lighting. This is because the difference in range between our very bright sunlight and everything else will be overly compressed. I.e. a lot of light information in our IBL would be lost due to range limits.

A decent JPG can serve as a good enough background, but it will not be sufficient for providing good realistic scene lighting.

Below is our Princess of the East image, with just the IBL turned on. Here, we are using the Barcelona Rooftops HDRI from sIBL Archives. Here is a list of free HDRi sites. Dimension Theory and Orestes Graphics also has some great HDRi’s for Iray.

Scene lighted with just an IBL (Iray Environment Map).

2. Mesh Lights

If we are already using a good HDR image, why do we need to add mesh lights?

I add mesh lights to highlight my main figure(s) and make them stand-out from the rest of the scene. This is especially important in figure based compositions, because the focus of the image is on the main actor(s) in the scene.

I think about it this way … when we go out walking in the streets, the scene around us is very busy. Although we may imagine ourselves to be the center of attention, no single individual stands out from the rest. This is what we get with a HDR image.

In contrast, during a model photo-shoot, lights are added to bring out the figure so that it grabs the viewer’s attention.

1. To highlight my main figure(s), I add three Daz Studio spotlights (Create > New Spotlight).
2. I place my three lights according to the three-point light system (key, fill, back).
3. Then, I convert each of my spotlights into mesh lights by setting the Light Geometry parameter to Rectangle. This will give me softer shadows. For more details on how to convert a spotlight into a mesh light refer to this article.
4. I want my back light to have the sharpest shadows, so I set its size to be the smallest of the three. I want my fill light to have the softest shadows, so it gets the largest rectangle. The key light is somewhere in-between the two.
5. Finally, I select my three lights and add them to a group (Create > New Group), so that I can move them and rotate them together. In this way, I can easily center my three lights around the main figures within my Daz Studio scene.

To bring out my main figure(s), I add three lights according to the three-point light system.

After adding the three mesh lights to my IBL, my figure stands out a lot more from the background, and there is a much stronger silhouette on my figure. If we compare this image and the previous one, with just the IBL, we can clearly see that the lighting is more compelling here and the figure pops from the background.

If you do not want to create a light rig from scratch, the BOSS Pro Light Set for Portraits & Promos has ready-made key, fill, rim lights, and much more.

After adding my three mesh lights to my IBL, my figure stands out a lot more from the background.

3. Volumetric Light

I also like to add at least one volumetric light to my images to provide additional shadows and atmosphere. In this case, I add a spotlight shining onto my figure’s face. I then render it as a volumetric light by using Marshian’s AtmoCam for Iray.

You can also create your own volumetric light. Here are a few ways.

Add a volumetric spotlight shining on our figure’s face. This adds more shadows and atmosphere.

Finally, I re-tone the image some, add a little bit of glow, add some contrast, and I am done!

You will notice that I do not talk much about light intensities in this tutorial. This is because I usually render each light in a separate layer, and later combine them in Photoshop. I control intensity, tint, and more from within Photoshop.

Depending on how I combine these lights, I can create a day-time scene or a sunset scene. I can create a realistic image or a colorful fantasy setting.

By combining lights differently in Photoshop, I can get a day-time or sunset scene; a realistic or a fantasy scene.