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

One of the first things that I had trouble with, was how to include properly sized images in my forum posts. I finally figured out how to do this, so this short tutorial gives step-by-step instructions on how to do this with the least amount of fuss. I am using the Chrome browser.

1. Click on the Attach a file link.
2. Click on the Choose File button, and select the image file(s) we want to post. This will upload our image files onto the Daz3D forum server.

After attaching an image to our Daz3D forum post.
3. If we hover our mouse over any of the attached image thumbnails, a small menu will open up below it showing us the file size, and giving us the option to delete the image if we so choose.

How to get our attached image URL.
4. Instead, right click on our attached thumbnail and select Open image in new tab. This will open up our thumbnail image in a new tab on our browser.
5. Go up into the browser address bar and remove thumbnail/ from the URL. This will give us the URL of our newly (large) attached image, on the Daz3D forum server.

How to get our attached image URL.
6. After we delete thumbnail/ from our address bar, and hit , we should get the large sized image we just uploaded onto Daz. Go up to the address bar and copy this URL.

Copy the address (url) of our newly attached image.
7. Now we are ready to insert the image into our forum post. First, (a) click on the insert image icon in the Leave a Comment interface, at the bottom of each forum page. This will open up an Image Properties popup-window. Then, (b) paste our image URL into the URL box..
8. 

   How to insert an inline-image into our Daz Forum post.
9. At this point, we can also change the width or height of our image so that it is not too large. I usually set the larger of my image width or height to 520 pixels. Changing one, will cause the other to shift accordingly, to preserve the aspect ratio of our image.

Resize our forum image so that it comfortably fits a browser window.
10. Next, click on the Link tab and paste our attached image URL in there as well. Then click on OK.

Use the Link tab to attach a link to our forum post image.
11. This inserts our attached image into our forum post. We may then add text around it as we so choose.

Success!! We have now inserted our attached image into our Daz forum post.

Hope you found this mini tutorial to be useful and thanks for visiting!

However, some argue that she is nothing special, and similar results can be achieved as a morph on G2F. Others acknowledge that there are certainly posing improvements. However, those do not justify yet another generation figure, a mere 2 years after the release of G2F.

Here, I talk about my own experiences with Victoria 7, what I like, some of the difficulties I encountered, how much extra bucks I would have to spend, and most important of all, whether I think V7 is worth the money spent.

Victoria 7 – Good, Bad, or Meh

Victoria 7 – The Good

1. Victoria 7 looks fantastic!

I don’t usually buy base figures when they get released. I know that if I am patient and wait a few months, I can probably pick things up at a much better discount. However, as soon as I saw Vicky 7, I was very tempted to get her right away. The promo images and the expression packages look absolutely fantastic!

After agonizing over it for 1 day, I got the base figure and Victoria 7 Attitude Expressions by Cake One. I figured that at the very least, I get a “good morph” and a good Iray skin.

2. Expressions make a big difference

The first thing I noticed when playing around with V7, is that the enhanced expressions make a big difference to my renders. A good expression can make a so-so render into a good one, by making the piece more expressive and realistic. Some images are made, just by an expression.

Since I most enjoy doing figure based pieces, the enhanced expression in G3F is a BIG win for me.

The enhanced expression in G3F is a BIG win for me.

3. Clothes transfer pretty well

Another happy surprise is that clothes seem to transfer quite well. I fit V4 and Genesis clothing on a G2F figure first, and then refit that onto Victoria 7. The only items that I had problems with so far are some G2F boots, which get all twisted when auto-fitted onto V7.

Hair also works pretty well, as long as it comes with enough adjustments to move things around based on the figure pose. I just use the hair as a prop, parented to my figure’s head.

This is super great news because I can focus my Daz bucks on expressions and perhaps a bit on new poses.

Older generation clothes (V4, Genesis, G2F) transfer pretty well.

4. Doesn’t take too much to get started with G3F

The G3F base figure comes for free with Daz Studio 4.8. However, as with previous base figures, it doesn’t look very good. Therefore, getting Victoria 7 base was necessary for me. At the start, I got –

• Victoria 7 Base Figure,
• Attitude Expressions by Cake One,
• Genesis 2 to Genesis 3 Pose Converter by Zev0/DraagonStorm, and
• FWSA Adaline.

These four products were sufficient to start generating images that I am quite happy with.

Doesn’t take too much to get started with G3F.

Victoria 7 – The Bad

1. Old poses need to be converted

Because of changes in the rigging structure of Genesis 3 figures, old poses will generally *not* work very well. However, there are already two different converters (one by Zev0 & Draagonstorm, and another by 3D-Universe) that allow us to easily upgrade our G2F poses for use in G3F. In addition, Zev0 is working on a batch converter for V4 poses into G2F. Therefore, with these two converters, we can ultimately transfer V4 poses for use in G3F.

However, as expected, the converted poses will not work as well as the original. I usually need to tweak each converted pose that I use, some more than others. I prefer the results that I get when I do not unlock the ZForearm (Z-unlock). As a result, I need to manually get the arms into the right position myself, which takes up more time. Not surprisingly, I get the best results when using poses that are crafted for V7.

A useful tip that I got from this Daz Forum thread is that –

If you want even more accurate hands, we discovered that the G1 to G2 hand preset from Handy Dandy (for Genesis2) works really well on the converted poses for Genesis3.
~~[Zev0]

Old poses need to be converted, and those will not work as well as the original.

2. Old skins and characters won’t work

Not surprisingly, old generation skins and character morphs are not going to transfer. It is still early though, so perhaps converters will be created for these at some later date.

3. Spend more bucks rebuilding character, pose, and expression library

Even though the startup cost is not too great, there is no denying that we would need to spend additional money getting characters, poses, and expressions that are designed for G3F, to get the best results.

4. Not Poser compatible

If you look at the Victoria 7 product page, only DAZ Studio 4.8 is listed in Compatible Software. At the current moment, Victoria 7 and Genesis 3 are not supported in Poser.

I do not know what the actual details are for figure compatibility here. According to a comment on this Renderosity thread, it would require some non-trivial updates from Poser.

To even attempt a DSON version would require Poser support industry standard dual quaternion skinning, which is how Genesis 3 is rigged. Note that is just one of the things blocking a DSON version, though it is the most obvious.
~~[bhoins]

I haven’t seen anything on this from either DAZ3D or Smith Micro.

Spend more bucks rebuilding character, pose, and expression library.

Victoria 7 – Good, Bad or Meh?

Personally, I rather like Victoria 7 and for me, the good outweighs the bad. I like the renders I can make with her, and I think they look more realistic than my older renders. My startup costs weren’t too great, and I am already pretty happy with what I can render so far.

However, art is subjective, and results are going to vary depending on art style and composition.

What do you think of Victoria 7? Are there big advantages or disadvantages that I missed? If so, please share them with us in the comments section below.

What do you think of Victoria 7?

On a Break

For those interested, here are the past winners.

If you want announcements of site events and winners, follow us on Facebook.

Thank you very much for all your condolences and well wishes.

For those who did not see in my previous posting, I just lost my best (furry) friend to cancer. It is a terrible thing to suddenly lose someone that you spend so much time with every day, creating light and happiness. I am still trying to muddle through this, so I will be taking a break from posting new contests for a while.

Hopefully, we will be back soon. Thank you to all for participating, viewing, posting comments, as well as for your positive energy and support. The Daz Studio community is totally awesome and I hope everyone stays safe in these very difficult times. Big hugs to you all.

Siberian Husky dog Lara (a.k.a. JJ). I miss you and love you always.

May there be light in this darkness.

If you have ideas on how to improve the contest or other fun contests you would like to see, please let us know in the comments section below. If there are vendors you would like us to feature, also let us know.

Love always to Shania and Lara.

Prizes

I love gift certificates because they are easy to deliver, claim, and use. Prizes will all be in DAZ gift certificates.

• 1st Place – $50 Daz3D Gift certificate.
• 2nd Place – $25 Daz3D Gift certificate.
• 3rd Place – $15 Daz3D Gift certificate.
• Honorable Mentions – $10 Daz3D Gift certificate.

Winners will be announced at around the 10th of the following month. Please remember to post a comment with your email in the monthly winners page to claim your GC.

Contest Rules

1. Anybody can enter except judges and organizers of the contest.
2. Entries need to contain at least one item from any of the featured vendors. Each month will feature one or more vendors, but your entry only needs to contain one item from one of the featured vendors.
3. Please include the qualifying item used in the description of your image. For example –
   

   Qualifying items used –
   FW Sebastian by Fred Winkler Art,
   Paladin HD MMXV by Luthbel.

4. Enter as many times as you like.
5. Old and new images are welcome. Entries can be submitted to other contests.
6. Postwork is allowed and any software may be used.
7. By entering this contest, you give us permission to post your contest images on this site, for example in an article announcing the contest winners.

We want everyone to have fun, so there aren’t many rules or restrictions. The only real requirement is to include at least one item from one of the featured vendor stores. Links for the featured vendors and stores will be updated at the beginning of every month.

How to Submit Images

To submit an image to the Daz3d gallery, click on MY GALLERY.

We will be using the Daz3D gallery for contest entries.

1. To submit an entry, you will need to have an account at Daz3d.com. It is very simple to create, and takes very little time to make one.
2. Then, click on your account icon to the top-right (step 1 in the image to the right), and go to MY GALLERY (step 2).
3. Next, simply drop an image at the “drop image” icon, or click on it to load an image from your local directory.

How to edit an image in the Daz3d gallery.
4. Hover your mouse over the image, and click on the Edit Image icon (circled in red to the right).
5. In the description section of the image, enter in the qualifying items used for this contest. Qualifying images must contain at least one item from one of the current featured vendor stores.

Enter the qualifying items used in the description section of the image.
6. In the tag section of the image, enter the current contest tag. For example, shiba-6-15. Click on the plus [+] button to the right to add the tag.

How to enter tags for images in the Daz3d gallery.
7. Save your image, and that is it!

Hope You Have Fun!

And thank you for participating! If you have any additional questions, suggestions, or comments, please post them below.

In this tutorial, I will describe how I started out with Daz Studio Iray, and how I created a simple realistic render from start to finish. This tutorial is intended for Iray beginners who are already familiar with the standard Daz Studio Interface.

If you are only starting to use Daz Studio, then check out this Daz Studio for Beginners tutorial.

First Iray image I created with an image based light (IBL).

1. Creating the Scene and Materials

I create the scene in the same way as I would in regular Daz Studio. However, one very important aspect of getting a scene to look right in Iray is in using the right materials.

In this tutorial, I make a very simple scene with a female figure and a dragon tattoo on her back. She has interesting, long, wind-blown hair and is wearing a bikini. I make sure to use a highly detailed and realistic looking skin on my human figure. In this example, I am using the Bambolina skin by Tempesta3d. I also get pretty good results from the Daz3d Elite skins that I got from Michael 6 HD Add-On and Victoria 6 HD Add-On.

This simple scene allows me to focus on learning the basic material and lighting aspects of Iray.

This simple scene allows me to focus on learning the basic material and lighting aspects of Iray.

After I finish creating my scene, I need to apply Iray shaders to all of my scene objects (figures, clothing, props, environment). One simple way to do this, is to –

Expand all objects within our scene.
1. Click on the Scene Tab. Then, right-click on the Scene pane, and select Expand > Expand All.
2. I do Ctrl-A to select all items in my scene pane. Then I Ctrl-click to un-select lights and cameras.
3. Next, (a) I click on the Surfaces Tab, (b) click on Editor, and (c) select all the objects within it

Select all object surfaces in the scene.
4. Now, (a) I click on Presets. Within the Presets pane, (b) I select Shaders > Iray. If you are not using the Smart Content functionality within Daz Studio, you can get at the Iray shaders through your Content Library by going to Shader Presets > Iray > DAZ Uber in your Daz Studio directory. Finally, (c) I double click on the !Iray Uber Base shader to convert all the objects in my scene to using Iray shaders.

Apply Iray Uber Base shader to all object surfaces in my scene.
5. Note that Iray also has specialized shaders for glass, metal, water, fabric, leather, and more. At this point, I identify any special surfaces in my scene that fall into these categories, and assign them accordingly.

I select Ignore, and then click on Accept to to keep the original textures of my selected objects.
6. I do Ctrl-double click if I want to keep the original textures of my selected objects. This will open up a pop-up window. I select Ignore, and then click on Accept.

How to apply Iray shaders to my Genesis 2 Female figure.
7. There are also specialized shaders for Genesis 2 males and females. These shaders will use the existing skin textures that we have on our figure. Therefore, I select my female figure in the Scene pane, (a) go to the Surfaces Tab, (b) click on the Presets button, and (c) select Materials > Iray > Feminine. (d) I double click on the Iray Optimized Genesis 2 Female MAT to apply this shader on my figure.
8. Finally, I tweak my surfaces as needed. I find that the Iray skin shaders are a bit too glossy/shiny for my taste. Therefore, I select my G2F figure, go to Surfaces > Editor. Open up Genesis 2 Female and select Skin. Then I change the Glossy Layered Weight to 0.5.

How I lower the glossiness of the skin on my female figure.

This finishes the material setup of my simple scene. As I learn more of Iray and create more complex scenes, I will probably want to do more here to get the best render results. However, that is for a later time and tutorial. 🙂

2. Iray Image Based Light

A very simple way to light my Iray scene in a realistic way, is to use an image based light (IBL). To do this –

1. I go to (a) Render Settings > (b) Editor.
2. I select (c) Environment > Dome.
3. I assign an appropriate image to light my scene in the (d) Environment Map control. In this example I am using Barcelona Rooftops that I got from sIBL Archives. That is a great site to get free IBL images. Dimension Theory also has some great HDRI packs in his DAZ store.

   As far as I can tell, the Environment Map slider also controls IBL intensity. For example, rendering at Environment Intensity 1 and Environment Map 1 gets me the same result as rendering at Environment Intensity 0.5 and Environment Map 2.


How to set an image based light (IBL) in Daz Studio Iray.
4. Next, I set Dome Mode to Finite Sphere so that I have more control over how the image map is used in my scene. When I do this, additional controls appear including Dome Scale Multiplier, Dome Radius, and Dome Origin XYZ.

   Dome Scale Multipler and Dome Radius allows us to scale our environment map, and Dome Origin allows us to reposition our environment map. I set Dome Scale Multiplier to 3 so that I can see more of the image in my scene.


Setting Dome Mode to Finite Sphere so that I have more control over how the image map is used in my scene.

Iray render of scene with the render settings specified above.
5. Next, I want to position the sun in the image map at the right place so that it casts a nice rim or silhouette on my figure. To do this I need to better understand how my image maps onto the 3d-dome in my scene.

How the sections of our image based light map to the dome in our 3d-scene.

A simple way to think about it is to divide our image into four segments.

• Section A maps to the front of the dome (what we see in the scene).
• Section B maps to the right of the dome.
• Section C maps to the back of the dome.
• Section D maps to the left of the dome.

The four segments of our image map.

Essentially, the left of the image maps onto what we see, and then it goes clock-wise from there.

The sun in our image is in section C (back of the dome). Therefore, to move it to the front of my image, I rotate the dome by 180 degrees. This gives me a nice rim or silhouette effect on the left of my figure. Rotating 270 degrees shifts the light-rim to the right of my figure.

Iray render of scene with IBL dome rotated by 180 degrees.

However, it looks like there is also too much light in my scene, and there does not seem to be enough contrast between the rim set by the setting sun and the rest of the image. This is because of the camera headlamp.

In particular, if there are no lights in the scene (other than the IBL), Daz Studio automatically adds a headlamp to the top of the camera to light our scene. This headlamp is adding too much light and reducing the contrast of the IBL that I want. To turn off this headlamp, I simply add a Daz Studio light to the scene, and then turn that light off. In this way, the only light source is my image based light (IBL).

Iray render of scene with the Daz Studio camera headlamp turned off.

3. Postwork and Done!

Finally, I add some glow to my image, tone it to a more orange sunset color, lighten the figure a little bit, and I am done!

With an nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN X card, I was able to render a 1000×1300 version of the image in under 5 minutes.

Finished image after adding glow and tint.

Below is a more complex second scene that I made. I set the armor to the Iray iron shader (keeping my original textures), and I exported the lion hair as OBJ from the Look at My Hair plugin.

Lionheart – Daz Studio Iray render.

• What is this Reality and LuxRender?
• Is this something that would enhance the images I create?
• Would I have to do a lot in terms of changing materials and lights to get my Daz Studio scene to render well?
• Would I still be able to do rapid render iterations to test out different light setups?
• Would I need to significantly change the way that I do things in Daz Studio to use these tools?

The short answer is that the Reality plugin and LuxRender are both awesome! 😀

Below is an image that I made with a mix of Daz Studio, Reality, and LuxRender. It surpasses what I can do with just the Daz Studio renderer (3Delight).

Mix of Daz Studio, Reality, and LuxRender.

What is Reality and LuxRender

LuxRender is a physically based and unbiased rendering engine. Based on state of the art algorithms, LuxRender simulates the flow of light according to physical equations, thus producing realistic images of photographic quality.
~~[LuxRender.net]

What does this mean compared to the Daz Studio renderer (3Delight)?

One of the key things with Lux is that light bounces are captured, so we can light a scene pretty well with fewer lights. In general, I can light a scene in Lux better and more easily than with 3Delight, because some of the lighting effects that I would need to fake in 3Delight are already handled for me by the renderer in Lux.

This does not mean that all images rendered in Lux will be superior to those rendered in Daz Studio, or that one cannot render great looking images in Daz Studio. However, it does mean that the Lux images that I render almost always turns out looking better than the ones that I get from just Daz Studio alone. I get the best results by using both Lux and 3Delight.

What then is Reality?

Reality is an awesome plugin that allows me to easily import Daz Studio scenes into LuxRender. There is also a version of the Reality plugin available for Poser.

Luxus is another plugin that allows us to render Daz Studio scenes in LuxRender. However, I picked Reality because based on what I have seen –

• The Reality team does a good job in updating their plugin with bug fixes and adding in great new features.
• There is a version of Reality for Poser. I like the dynamic cloth system in Poser a lot better than in Daz Studio, so I ultimately want to also render in Lux from Poser.
• I have seen some great looking images that were created with the Reality plugin.

Rendered using Reality + Lux, with postwork in Photoshop.

Will Reality + LuxRender Enhance the Images I Create?

Below is a panel of 4 images showing a very simple scene with just a girl in a t-shirt that I created in Daz Studio. I rendered this scene in both Lux and Daz Studio, and created 4 different images.

1. LuxRender only, no postwork.
2. LuxRender only, with postwork in Photoshop.
3. Combined renders from Lux and Daz Studio.
4. Daz Studio only, with postwork in Photoshop.

** For more detail, click on the image to get a larger version.

Comparing Daz Studio render with Reality and LuxRender

This is the first render that I made using Lux and even with the limited skill that I had here, I already like the Lux version more than the DS version. Her face looks softer and more realistic, and so does her skin.

Below is another quick comparisons.

Again, her face looks softer and her skin has more detail and better tone.

How Much Work Is Required to Create a Good Render in Lux?

The key work in creating a good render in Lux is in setting up materials and lights.

Reality +LuxRender Materials

The good news is that –

• Many of the Daz Studio materials get automatically transferred over to Lux pretty well by the Reality plugin. I haven’t had to do much material editing in the plugin. For example, in the T-Shirt Girl and Victorian Girl examples above, I didn’t do any material editing at all.
• The material editor in the Reality plugin is easy to use. There are already pre-made material groups, including cloth, metal, glass, water, and more. Most of the time, I only need to change metal and water surfaces.

In the Dragon Girl scene below, I changed the material of the two dragons to metal, I also changed the trim of her dress to metal, and I changed the pond at her back to water. I needed to do some test renders to set the visibility of the water to something that looked good in the scene, but that was very doable and the results are well worth it.

Again, the face and skin of the girl looks better in the LuxRender image. In addition, the background water also looks more realistic .

Some things to look out for –
1. No ambient component in Lux

Unlike in Daz Studio, Lux surfaces have *no* ambient component. Ambient light is used to ‘fake’ global illumination or bounce light. As we know, bounce light is something that is physically modeled in LuxRender, making ambient light and surfaces unnecessary.

Daz Studio surfaces with the ambient component turned on, may get converted to a light emitter surface by the Reality plugin. For example, when I render the Daz Dragon 3, his mouth appears as a bright white area. This is because the surfaces in his mouth has an ambient component, so they get turned into light emitter surfaces.

To solve this issue,

1. Go into the Materials tab in the Reality plugin, and select the mouth surfaces with Emitter marked as Y.
2. Click on the Modifiers tab below and uncheck the light emitter box.

This will turn off all the light emitter settings for the dragon’s mouth.

How to select light emitter surfaces and turn them off in the Materials > Modifiers tabs.

In Daz Studio, ambient shader settings are sometimes also used to achieve glowing surfaces. In this case, we want to leave the light emitter option on, but scale it properly so that it does not overpower our other light sources.

In this scene, I had to turn off all the light emitter settings for the dragon’s mouth.

2. People with black eyes

Some characters render with black eyes in Lux no matter what we set the iris color to. This happens because we sometimes fake eye reflection in Daz Studio by putting in a reflection image map on the cornea or eye reflection surface of the character. Lux has true eye reflection of light sources, so these are no longer needed and get in the way.

The very simple fix to this issue is to make sure that all image maps are removed in the cornea and eye reflection surfaces of the character. I click on the wheel icon to edit the texture. Then I set it to Color (instead of image map) and set the color to white. I also set both to glass, and set the IOR value to Human > Eye, Cornea.

How to set the human cornea surface to remove the black-eye effect.

Rendered in Reality + LuxRender, with postwork in Photoshop.

Reality + LuxRender Lights

How lights transfer from our Daz Studio scene, will depend a lot on how we light our scenes. There are point light and spot light equivalents in Lux, so those get automatically transferred by the Reality plugin.

There are no ambient lights in Lux, so those either get converted to Mesh Lights if we have that setting checked, or they do not transfer at all. I generally turn off all ambient lights from Daz Studio, because we already have bounce light in Lux.

Things become a bit more complicated when it comes to distant or infinite lights. I make heavy use of these in Daz Studio, partly to help provide more interesting ambient light, and partly to provide shadows. However, the use of infinite lights are discouraged in Reality + Lux because it does not correspond to any type of real light, except for sunlight.

Distant Lights (Studio) or Infinite Lights (Poser) should never be used with Reality and LuxRender

Let me repeat this: never.

Those lights are harsh, unrealistic and can create fireflies and high noise. One Infinite/Distant light is one too much. Two of those are a disaster and three are the render apocalypse.

Combine those lights with others and you have a real mess that will never clear to a satisfactory results.

Infinite/Distant lights are an invention of 3D biased renderers that don’t have any connection with real life. Think about it. With the exception of the Sun, where can you find an Infinite or Distant light in nature?

The key to realism if to replicate lighting conditions that are based in real life, not to apply biased tricks to an unbiased renderer.

~~[Reality Documentation]

In Reality + Lux, I mostly use Mesh Lights to light my figures and indoor scenes. I use the Reality Sun light, together with Mesh lights for outdoor scenes. I am currently learning how to make proper use of Image Based Lights (IBL), so I hope to integrate more of those in the future.

Night Scene – Lighted mostly with Mesh lights.

Day Scene – Mostly lighted with the Reality Sun-light.

One very useful feature in Reality + LuxRender is the Light Groups feature. I usually set each of my lights in a separate light group in the Reality plugin. Then, when I bring up LuxRender, I can go to the Light Groups tab, and control the strength and color properties of each of my lights in real-time.

Controlling each of my lights separately in LuxRender by using the Light Groups tab.

Conclusion

My workflow did not change much after integrating Reality and LuxRender. I continued to create scenes the way I usually do in Daz Studio. However, I now pay less attention to the light and material settings within Daz Studio, and spend most of my time in setting these within the Reality plugin.

Once my scene is ready, I do a bunch of quick test renders within Lux, while tweaking lights and materials to get them looking right. Happily, rapid prototyping is still possible because usually, after one or two minutes I have a good enough scene to judge lights and materials.

When I get something that I am happy with, I leave it to render overnight and when I wake up in the morning, it is ready!

I am definitely very happy with the Reality plugin and LuxRender.

• I did not have to change my workflow much.
• I have to put in a little bit more work in terms of materials.
• Effort in lighting the scene is about the same, except now I focus on using Reality lights.
• I still can do rapid prototyping to test out materials and lights.
• There is a very noticeable improvement in the images that I render.

I am definitely very happy with the Reality plugin and LuxRender.

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.