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

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

1. Depth of Field

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Mesh Lighs

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

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

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

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

3. Volumetric Lights

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Glow

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

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

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

To do this,

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

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

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

5. Soft Light & Gaussian Blur

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unicorn Princess Fantasy Art with very soft lighting effects.

What I want to achieve here is to give you the ability to set up a simple light rig and basic camera within Octane. I also describe how to add in displacement maps for increased realism.

In this tutorial, I will continue to use the Mei portrait image below as an example. For more on how I created a realistic skin shader, please refer to this tutorial. If you are new to Daz Studio Octane, there is an introduction article here.

How to Set-Up Camera, Lights, & Displacement in Daz Studio Octane

1. Daz Studio Octane Lights

Lighting in Octane can be achieved from the Environment Tab (Octane daylight environment or HDR Texture environment) and through emissive textures.  For my image, I used a single emissive key light and an HDR image (Playa Sunrise) from the fantastic sIBL archive.

Open the Environment Tab, set the image to the Playa Sunrise HDRi and adjust the settings as shown below (making sure the Gamma is set to 1).  That’s all you need to do to set up the environment light.  You can rotate the image using the Translation X setting. This is best done with the render window open and all objects hidden (from within Daz).  I will leave it as it is, because I want the sun in the image as the back light for my subject.

How to set-up HDRi lighting in Daz Studio Octane

Now let’s set up a simple emissive light in the scene.  Most people tend to use a plane primitive for emissive lighting, but I prefer to use a flattened sphere as a key light (I prefer the reflection you get in the eye).  I place the primitive as illustrated below.

Front view of where I place my emissive light.

Top view of where I place my emissive light.

To create the emissive material you need to return to the Octane material tab.  Right click the Sphere primitive and select Create new light source > Simple.

To create the emissive material you need to return to the Octane material tab.

Open the newly created material in the Node editor, right click on the diffuse node and select Smart Unfold.  This breaks down a node into its constituent parts so you can see how it is built.  As you can see, an emissive texture is simply a Blackbody Emission node plugged into a Diffuse node (you cannot have an emissive glossy or specular material).

How our newly created emissive light material looks in the Node Editor after selecting Smart Unfold.

Select the Blackbody node and update the settings as is shown in the left image below. The orange texture colour is from the horizon of the Playa HDR image, selected using the colour picker tool that is available when you edit the colour.  If you like, repeat the process and create a second primitive to the left side of the character as a fill light. This time select the blue colour from the sky in the HDRi (below right).

Set the colour of our key emissive light to the orange from the horizon of the Playa HDR image. Repeat the process and create a second light (fill light) to the left side of the character. Set the colour to the blue from the sky of our HDRi.

Test render after our initial light set-up.

Now, we can fine tune our lights from within the render viewport itself, even when the image is rendering.  Let’s start with the Camera Imager and Post Processing tabs. The following are the settings I used in my Mei portrait:

Camera Imager and Post Processing settings I used in my Mei portrait.

Test render after our new Camera Imager and Post Processing settings.

Choice of settings in the Camera Imager comes down to personal preference.  As I have said previously, I’m a big fan of the Agfachrome, Ektachrome and Kodachrome filters.  I also find adding bloom improves the natural lighting and softens the image.

2. Daz Studio Octane Camera Settings

• Create a camera in Daz and make sure that it’s selected within the Daz viewport.
• Position it so the face is in full portrait view.
• Now open the Octane viewport again.  Use the ‘Autofocus’ tool to select an area of focus (I tend to use the eye or nose as my focal point). This gives us a nice quick DOF effect.

Open the Octane viewport, and use the Autofocus tool to select an area of focus.

Using the eye as my focal point.
• To adjust the degree of focus, you need to select the camera within Daz and open the Cameras pane.  Use the Aperture Diameter setting in that pane. I usually set it between 5-15mm (the f-stop is altered automatically).
   
  I am sure this will probably cause photographers to scream “that’s not how to do it!” – but it works for me 🙂

Setting the Aperture Diameter in the Cameras pane.

3. Daz Studio Octane Displacement Maps

Some of you may have noticed that in the skin tutorial, we only used a diffuse map – no bump, normal or displacement maps.  The reason I leave it to now is that I prefer to use displacement maps, which can slow down render time. Therefore, I wait until I am happy with the scene, then add displacement and tweak as necessary.

I used a displacement map in the Mei portrait.  It needs to be a greyscale image and ideally 4k and above.  In this case I used the standard bump map that came with Mei 7, but in the past have used dedicated displacement maps (though rarely supplied) or have made my own from the diffuse map ( tutorial on making displacement maps ). 

The important thing here is that the black parts of the map are the parts that depress into the object (like pores) and the white bits extrude (like spots or eyebrows).  Ultimately, I find a displacement map produces a much better result as it physically alters the shape of the object, thus giving you subtle shades and shadows.

To add a map to the displacement node, return to the Material pane in Octane and open the face material in the node editor.

Note that there is already a greyscale image node waiting to be filled, which is attached to the displacement node.

You will notice there is already a greyscale image node waiting to be filled. This is attached to the displacement node, which in turn drives the displacement for the combined nodes before being applied to the surface.  If you have a bump map that has white eyebrows and black pores then you should be able to use it here.  Use the grayscale image node to load the bump map.

Next, select the Displacement node and check the level of detail corresponds to the image you have used (normally 4k).  The only other adjustment required is the height.  This is very sensitive, and you wouldn’t want to go beyond a height of 0.12cm. 

The height is very sensitive, and you would not want to go beyond a height of 0.12cm.

The image below shows (from left to right) no displacement, 0.06cm and 0.12cm.

From left to right – no displacement, 0.06cm and 0.12cm.

You will need to go back and update all of your skin materials for torso and arms accordingly, and make sure they are set to the same mid-level and height (but with different image maps). Otherwise, the seams between the UV areas will become visible.

You will need to go back and update all of your skin materials for torso and arms accordingly, otherwise the seams between the UV areas will become visible.

I have found that adding bump or normal maps alongside a displacement map adds very little if anything.  However, displacement maps can be very fiddly and more render intensive.  If you wish to use a bump map then create a new image node (greyscale with a gamma setting below 0.1) or normal map (RGB image node) and attach it to the appropriate connecter on the 3 specular and 1 diffuse nodes.

In the next tutorial I will cover a couple of other node adjustments you may find useful, and then cover briefly the other materials I used in the Mei render.

We will need a working version of the Daz Octane plugin installed (full or demo).  This can be downloaded at www.otoy.com.  Please note – if you are using the demo version then image size is restricted and will be watermarked, and you will not be able to access the material database. If you are not familiar with Daz Studio Octane, this introduction article will give you an overview.

In this tutorial, I will use the Mei portrait image below as an example.

Daz Studio Octane Skin Shader Tutorial

1. Start by downloading this .duf file.
2. Open Daz Studio.  If the plugin is installed correctly, you should have the following icons in your toolbar
3. Make sure the icon on the right is set to ‘Duf’ (click on it to cycle through the options) – this setting will make sure that all Octane settings and materials from the Duf file are loaded (Manual loads no Octane settings, Auto will try and build materials based on the settings within Daz).
    
   The left icon is for the Main Octane Settings, the middle opens the render viewport.
4. Unzip and open the SkinShader.duf file you just downloaded.  You should find a simple scene with a Sphere primitive.  If you open the render viewport the sphere will be rendered, but will be quite dark and not look very much like skin at the moment.
5. Now import a model – I have used Genesis 3 model (Mei Lin 7) in this example but you can use any model you have. Note that the available surfaces will be different for earlier generation models, but the same principles will apply – e.g. Torso in Gen 3 is Head, neck, hips etc. in Gen2.  For best results try and use a model that has a diffuse map that is photo-referenced, and not hand painted – Mei Lin 7, Olympia 7, Michael 7 and Michael 6 are good examples.
6. With your chosen model loaded, open the Octane Settings window, and select the materials tab.

The Materials Tab of the Octane Settings window.

The left part lists all available/used materials, the middle part lists current scene models with their available surfaces. When you select a surface a yellow dot will show you which material is attached.

7. Now apply the skin material to the model – click and drag SkinShader from the left and drop it on the Face surface.  Apply the same material to the Lips and Ears.  You can now delete the sphere from within Daz Studio.  It should now look like this:

After applying the SkinShader material from the left to the Face, Lips, and Ears surfaces.

Now you have the material applied open the render viewport.  It will still look a little dark and not skin like yet.  We need to add a few more  things to the material using the Nodegraph Editor (highlighted with a red rectangle in the image above).

Exploring Our Octane Skin Material

When rendering an object using a PBR (physically based renderer) like Octane, the material needs to replicate its real world equivalent.  With skin this involves creating layers for the deep scatter (blood vessels), hypodermis & dermis (fatty tissue), and epidermis (the outermost layer).  At the very least I feel you need the first and last if you want that lovely red translucency (scattering) in the ears. 

One way is to generate independent layers on the model (each with its own material), but this is cumbersome and from my experience does not add anything.  I prefer to generate all the layers within one material.

I do this by combining different nodes.  Octane has four primary nodes – Diffuse (solid matt surface), Glossy (solid shiny surface) and Specular (clear or transparent surface).  The fourth is a Mix Node where you can combine two or more of these surface nodes.

Node structure of the skin material I used in the Mei portrait.

The above is the node structure of the skin material I used in the Mei portrait.   Nodes 2 & 3 are adapted from the amazing skin material developed by TonySculptor (freely available in the Octane library) . I have added the other nodes around it, and they loosely represent the layers of skin as follows:

1. Specular Material (blood vessels, or deep scatter)
2. Specular Material (skin mid-layer)
3. Specular Material (skin mid-layer)
4. Diffuse Material (skin surface)
5. Displacement map (add texture and definition to the surface)

In isolation, each of the five nodes will look like the following (Figure 6 is all combined):


The five skin layers I am using in my Mei portrait skin. Figure 6 shows all of the layers combined.

The additional nodes in the skin material are:

6. Output node – the item/s that the material is applied to
7. Mix material node – used to combine two material nodes
8. Image node – used to place an image within a marterial
9. Colour node – used to set an RGB/Greyscale setting to a node
10. Scattering node – used to set the scattering parameters for specular or diffuse nodes

Note however, that our current skin material does not contain any texture maps. We will need to put in appropriate texture maps according to the nodes described above.

In particular, there is a Diffuse map in the 4^th picture – let’s go ahead and put that into the skin material.  Select the RGB Image node connected to the Diffuse node. The following settings should appear on the right of the editor:

Settings for the RGB Image node.

It’s all set to receive the diffuse map – simply select the drop down list and either Browse to the diffuse map location, or (if loaded) from the map list that is generated (in this example, the maps available for Mei are offered).  I want the MeiLin7FaceD_1001.jpg image.

Browse to the diffuse map location, or (if loaded) from the map list that is generated .

Now let’s return to the Material tab and generate two more skin materials – one for the torso, and one for the arms.  Right click on the SkinShader material and Copy as new material.

Generate two more skin materials – one for the torso, and one for the arms.

A copy will be created in the unused section (blue – not assigned).  Now drag this material over to the torso surface to assign it.  With the torso selected, open the Nodegraph editor and change the diffuse map we set before to the appropriate Torso diffuse map image.  The RGB node should now look something like this.

RGB image node after applying the appropriate Torso diffuse map image.

Repeat this again for the arms. We can ignore the legs and nails as they will not be visible. Your completed skin material list should look like this:

Completed skin material list.

You can right click each material and rename it if you wish, always useful when scenes get more complicated.  You can also save them as pre-sets so they are available in other projects.

We Are Done!

Congratulations! You have just created a Daz Studio Octane skin material. Open the render viewport again, and the image should start to look more like skin now.

How our Octane skin material looks in the render viewport.

To transform this image to a finished portrait, we will need to work on setting up displacement, lighting the scene and then setting up the camera. We will discuss how to do this in our next Octane tutorial.

Our finished Mei portrait with appropriate camera, scene lighting, and post-work.

This article and all of the images within were created by the very talented Brian Sains. Copyright © Brian Sains. Check out his gallery here.

Why Octane?

Why Octane?

I started using Daz just under a year ago now, with no background in art or design.  I run my own business (along with my wife) that specialises in developing communication skills for people with Autism and Learning Disabilities.  It was through my work that I discovered Daz Studio, and was interested in its educational potential for developing avatars that could represent different emotions, expressions and social situations.  I got to grips with the basics and soon developed some resources that were well received, but they were very plastiky and I wanted a little more realism.

I spent a couple of months working with 3Delight, iRay, Reality (Lux), Indigo (via iClone) and Arnold (via a Cinema4d demo), before discovering Octane. While the render engine does play a role in determining the quality of the render produced – I would place lighting, camera settings, more lighting, shader quality and perhaps even post-work above it in significance. 

Rendered with Daz Studio Octane, with minimal postwork.

However, as far as render engines go, Octane appealed to me – it allowed me to stay within Daz, use all of the assets I had accumulated, and most importantly the node based shader/material interface made complete sense to me.  It is also fast – very fast.  I started tweaking and twiddling skin materials about six months ago, and haven’t really stopped since!

In this article, I will introduce you to using Octane from within Daz Studio, along with the tools and settings you will need.

An Introduction to Daz Studio Octane

Octane Renderer

Octane is, like iRay, a Physically Based Renderer (PBR).  My understanding of this is that the engine accurately simulates the characteristics of light and it’s interaction with a variety of surfaces. In particular, simulated light bounces around a simulated environment hitting simulated surfaces until it hits the lens of a simulated camara.  This article does a great job at explaining the Basic Theory of Physically-Based Rendering.

There are two ways of using Octane with Daz Studio – through the standalone Octane Render Software or the Daz Integrated Plugin.  There is very little to separate them regarding the tools available or the quality of what is produced, but the Daz plugin is infinitely easier to use. You make an adjustment in Daz, it is updated in the render preview in close to real-time.  If you do not have a licence of Octane, a trial version is available for standalone and plugin versions (www.otoy.com).  I use the 3.0.6 beta version, but the tutorial will work just as well with the stable 2.24 version.  In terms of hardware I am using an 8 core i7 5960x, 32gb ram, and dual Titan X GPUs, though it will work quite happily on more modest machines (I started on an old Macbook pro).

Once installed, you can access the plugin from within Daz via the OctaneRender Main link in the Render menu, or use the toolbar icon (see below).

Once installed, you can access the plugin from within Daz via the OctaneRender Main link in the Render menu, or use the toolbar icon.

To get started, you need to be familiar with the Rendersettings, Environment, and Materials tabs.

Octane Render Settings

Dimensions

Set the dimension (in pixels) of the render image.  A number of commonly used ratios are available, and will be familiar to iRay and Reality users.

Set the dimension (in pixels) of the render image.

Kernel Settings

Octane has 4 different Kernel types for processing renders. I tend to always use PMC, though path-tracing is sufficient.  PMC is the most processor intensive, and would normally only be used when things like caustics are involved, but I prefer the result.  I rarely touch the kernel settings except when there is a seam visible between the forehead and scalp – then reducing the value for Ray Epsilon can help.

Max-sample allows you to set the maximum number of samples that will be calculated before the render pauses.

Octane has 4 different Kernel types for processing renders, but I usually use PMC.

Imager settings

A selection of filters that simulate the colour and tone of common cameras.  By default this is set to Linear.  I tend to use linear when I am setting up the scene and then Kodachrome or Agfachrome curves. The contrast they provide helps lift some of the finer details in the skin, such as pores and blemishes.

A selection of filters that simulate the colour and tone of common cameras.

Octane Environment

Here you can choose between the Octane generated daytime environment (left) or HDR texture environment (right).  You can also select to have a greyscale or RGB environment. 

Here you can choose between the Octane generated daytime environment (left) or HDR texture environment (right).

To set up a HDR image make sure RGB image is selected in the dropdown box on the right and then use the browse bar in the middle to locate the desired image.  Do make sure the Gamma is set to one.  Once in place you can transform the image using 2d or 3d controllers.  I will cover this in greater detail in the next tutorial.

Spheres showing the Octane generated daytime environment (left) and the HDR texture environment (right).

Octane Materials

This is where you assign materials (shaders) to your model within Daz.

1. Available materials (Used in this file, saved as presets, or from live database)
2. Selected model and available surfaces (blue – no material, white – material assigned)
3. Selected material properties
4. Nodegraph editor – opens the material editor in node view
5. Open viewport – opens the render window

This is where you assign materials (shaders) to your model within Daz Studio.

To create a new material either:

• Drag it from the used or preset area to the desired surface (you can use the same material on multiple surfaces)
• Right-click the material and copy as new material. The new material will be an instance of the original but can be edited. Then drag the new instance across.  This is very useful when setting materials for skin.
• Search the Live Database (not available in demo) – then drag that over to desired surface. This material will then be downloaded from the internet and applied. Materials from the database can be edited/saved as presets once downloaded
• Right click a surface window (2 in diagram), and select either:
  • Generate as new material > blank – will create a new blank diffuse material.
  • Generate as new material > auto – will take the existing material settings applied within Daz and try to create a suitable material. You will normally need to tweak these auto materials, particularly if they are based on iRay shaders in Daz (though this is improving with newer releases).
  • Generate as new light source – will create a new blank diffuse material set up as a simple, textured, or IES profile light emitter.

To edit a material either;

• Adjust settings in the right hand window (3 in diagram). This is suitable for minor tweaks.
• Select the node-graph editor (4 in diagram).

Below, I show the nodegraph editor (or NGE) with a simple diffuse material.

The nodegraph editor (or NGE) with a simple diffuse material

Next, is the node-graph of a more complex skin material. 

The node-graph of a more complex skin material.

Octane has four primary nodes:

1. Diffuse – solid material surface,
2. Glossy – solid shiny surface,
3. Specular – clear or transparent surface, and
4. Mix node – combines two or more of the previous surface nodes.

Nodes are available from the pull-out list on the left, can be dragged into the main viewport, and then edited on a node-by-node basis on the right.  It may seem a little daunting for anyone unfamiliar with node based systems, but this is by far the easiest way to manipulate materials in Octane (and in my opinion within Daz also). 

Once you become familiar it is very versatile and can lead to a multitude of new ways for generating materials; for example generating a greyscale image using a noise generator, mixing it with a turbulence generator and using the result instead of a bump map for variation on a the skin surface.

Other nodes are available for setting colour, placing images, generating procedurals (like noise), manipulating uv projections, setting displacement, setting emitters and so on.

Once nodes are placed they can be connected using the colour-coded terminals.  This is very useful when new to the NGE, as you can’t plug something in where it can’t be used.

It may also be worth referring to the online manual  for more information.

A finished render of my Daz Studio Octane skin using Olympia 7.

Octane Render Viewport

The final part of the plug-in we will explore is the viewport.  This is where you render the scene, as well as fine-tune some of the settings.  For example, you can:

• Set manual or autofocus
• Limit render to a selected region
• Adjust kernel settings
• Adjust camera settings
• Set post-processing (like bloom)
• Adjust environment settings
• Generate additional render-passes
• Save final image

Again, I will go into a lot more detail with using the viewport in the next tutorial.

I will go into a lot more detail with using the viewport in the next tutorial.

Summary

Now that you are familiar with the core functions and tools within the Octane Plugin, we can move onto setting up a scene based on my Mei image.  In the next tutorial I will set up the scene within Daz Studio and cover lighting, camera, and setting materials.

Check out the wonderful art of Brian Sains.

In the next tutorial I will set up this scene within Daz Studio and cover lighting, camera, and setting materials.

A great character that I am having fun with recently, is Frozen’s Queen Elsa.

While trying to create a likeness of her, I found that the two most important things are hair and clothing. In this case, the face and poses also matter, but to a lesser degree.

How to Create Frozen’s Queen Elsa in Daz Studio

Queen Elsa’s Hair and Clothing

The wonderful thing about Queen Elsa is that there is already a clothing set and hair that closely matches her’s. In the image above, we used the Frost Queen outfit and Aphrodite Hair.

We also added a furry wrap around her, to give it a more Christmas feel.

To get the clothing to look good in Daz Studio Iray, I also made the material more shiny and silky. For the hair, I used PHC : Aphrodite textures and simply applied the Iray Uber shader to it.

With the clothing and hair done, I am most of the way there! 😀

To create a good Queen Elsa in Daz Studio, we used the Frost Queen outfit and Aphrodite Hair.

Queen Elsa’s Face

In the two images above, we used Daz’s Aiko 6 base as our Queen Elsa. For her skin, we applied Tempesta3d’s Bambolina texture and the standard G2F Iray settings from Daz.

Aiko 6 has a more stylized look, which makes her appropriate for a toon character like Elsa. However, Aiko 6 also has a more realistically shaped face. Her eyes are smaller, her face is taller, and less round. With the right clothes and hair though, she still looks like Queen Elsa, but a more realistic version.

If we want to make our Aiko 6 look more toony, we can morph her face and enlarge her eyes. To do this,

1. I go to Shaping > Editor.
2. I open up Aiko 6 > Actor > Head.
3. I put Aiko in the search box and dial in some of the Aiko 5 morph by using Generation 5 Legacy Shapes for Genesis 2 Female(s). This makes her face wider up top and narrower at the bottom.

How to make our Queen Elsa more toony by morphing her face.

In the image below, I have Aiko 6 head set to 1.0 and Aiko 5 head set to 0.4.

A slightly more toony looking Elsa with Aiko 6 head set to 1.0, and Aiko 5 head set to 0.4.

I can also enlarge my figure’s eyes by –

1. Going into Shaping > Editor.
2. I open up Aiko 6 > Actor > Eyes.
3. I put size in the search box and dial in a larger eye size.

How to make our Queen Elsa more toony by enlarging her eyes.

In the image below, I have Aiko 6 head set to 1.0, Aiko 5 head set to 0.4, and Eye Size set to 0.7. If we compare this version to the first image, we can see that she looks a lot more toony, and more like the original Elsa.

A more stylized Queen Elsa with larger eyes. Aiko 6 head set to 1.0, Aiko 5 head set to 0.4, and eye size set to 0.7.

Queen Elsa’s Expression and Pose

Finally, expression, pose, and setting also play a role. For example, Elsa appears with a cheeky, crooked smile, in some of her popular images. We can add that to our character as well, to help increase likeness. To do this,

1. I go to Parameters > Aiko 6 > Pose Controls > Head > Mouth.
2. I put smile in the search box to narrow down the options.
3. I set Mouth Smile Simple Left to 1.0.

How to give our Queen Elsa the cute crooked smile.
4. I also close her eyes slightly by going to Parameters > Aiko 6 > Pose Controls > Head > Eyes.
5. I put eyes in the search box, and set Eyes Closed to 0.1.

How to slightly close her eyes.

These are the settings I used in the image above.

Elsa also does ice magic, so if we do magic poses with added spell effects, that would help increase similarity. To further strengthen my images, I used winter scenes and ice familiars, e.g. an ice golem.

Most important of all, have fun and let your creativity run free. 😀

However, this means I also end up with a Daz Studio scene file that has many unfinished and unused frames. This clutters up the scene file, and makes it more difficult to share and understand.

What I really want, is a simple procedure for saving out the one frame that I used in my final scene. This tutorial explains how to do that. Catwoman image below uses Have a Seat Poses and Prop.

How to Save a Single Frame in Daz Studio

1. Copy the Chosen Frame to Frame 0

• Go to the frame we want to save.
• Click on the Scene tab.
• Delete any unused objects.
• Do Ctrl-A to select all objects in our scene.
• Right-click on our selection, and pick Select > Select Children from the menu. This selects everything in our scene.

Select all objects in our scene, including all child objects.

After we do this, our main scene should look something like this. There are many rectangles in there, indicating that there are many selected objects.


Daz Studio interface scene after selecting all main and child objects.
• To copy this frame, select Edit > Object > Memorize > Memorize Selected Item(s).

To copy our save-frame, select Edit > Object > Memorize > Memorize Selected Item(s).
• Go to Frame 0.
• Select Edit > Object > Restore > Restore Selected Item(s) to paste our saved frame into frame 0.

Select Edit > Object > Restore > Restore Selected Item(s) to paste our saved frame into frame 0.

After we do this, frame 0 should be an exact duplicate of our chosen frame (i.e. the frame we want to save).

2. Remove All Frames Except for Frame 0

Set the Total Frames to 1. When we do this, only Frame 0 will be available.
• Go to the Pose tab.
• Go to the Timeline view.
• Set the Total Frames to 1. When we do this, only Frame 0 will be available (see figure).
• Save our Scene.
• Reopen it in Daz Studio, and there should only be a single frame.

We Are Done!

Hope you found this mini-tutorial to be useful. 😀

However, one of the key weaknesses of Daz Studio Iray is the difficulty of finding information on how to use it effectively, and how its’ new features can help to enhance my art. There is a lot of good stuff in the Daz3D forums, however one usually has to wade through pages and pages of images and posts, before getting to anything that helps.

Here, I want to list some of the useful Iray tips and tricks that I learned from the Daz forums, from talking to other Dazaholics, and from my own experiments with Daz Studio Iray. If you know of any additional Iray techniques, please let us know in the comments section below.

Daz Studio Iray Tips ad Tricks

1. Mesh Lights

Mesh lights are extremely useful for lighting an Iray scene because it provides soft and more realistic shadows. One of the best ways to get a mesh light in Iray, is to convert a spotlight into a mesh light. We can easily do this by –

1. Select our spotlight and click on the parameters tab.
2. Click on Light > Area.
3. Set the Light Geometry drop-down menu to Rectangle, and set the height and width parameters according to the mesh light size that you want. A larger mesh light will product softer shadows, and a smaller mesh light will produce harder shadows.

How to change a spotlight into a mesh-light.

And that is it! Our spotlight has now become a mesh light, and the really cool advantage is that we can still change our camera to the spotlight view, and see exactly what it lights. Similarly, we can change a point light into a sphere, so that it produces softer shadows.

I usually use an IBL to provide ambient light in my scene, and multiple mesh-lights to further accent my figure(s). In the scene below, I only used two mesh-lights.

Soft shadow pin-up scene of woman in heels. Only used two mesh-lights in this scene.

2. Fuller Hair

Example of thin, wispy hair in Daz Studio Iray.

A common problem that I faced in Iray is that certain hair props or figures may appear very wispy or thin. As I understand it, this is a problem with the hair transparency map not being strong enough, i.e. not white enough.

Hair is thicker and fuller now with the Cutout Opacity parameter set to 2.

One very easy way to fix this problem is to –

1. Select our hair object and click on the Surfaces tab.
2. Select all the relevant hair surfaces, and look for the Cutout Opacity parameter.
3. Remove the limits on the Cutout Opacity parameter. To do this, click on the gear icon to the right and select Parameter Settings (see below). Then, un-check the Use Limits box and click Accept in the pop-up box.
4. Set the Cutout Opacity parameter to a value greater than 1 depending on how much we want to strengthen the visibility of our hair strands. Setting a value that is too high may make things too strong, and lose the wispy look of our outer hair strands.

How to remove the max limit on our hair Cutout Opacity parameter.

Un-check the Use Limits box and click Accept

One very important thing to note is that removing the limits on the Cutout Opacity parameter, also changes the transparency map of all selected surfaces to the same image. Therefore, if we are changing several surface layers at once, we need to make sure that all their transparency maps match. Otherwise, the wrong transparency map will be used.

Instead of using Cutout Opacity, we may also lighten our transparency map in a separate image editing software. This method gives us more control over which parts of the hair we want to strengthen, and which parts we want to leave wispy.

What I do in Photoshop –

1. Load my hair transparency map.
2. Duplicate the transparency map into an additional layer.
3. Set the layer blending option of my duplicate layer to Screen.
4. I can change the opacity of this layer to control how much additional volume I want to add to my hair. I can also use masks to control which area I want to strengthen.
5. Once I am happy with the results, I merge both layers and save the transparency image to a new file.
6. I replace the transparency map, in the Cutout Opacity parameter, with this new Photoshop-ed image.

I got this tip from Fred Winkler Art. Many thanks Fred! 😀

Using UHT Hair Shaders for Iray by Slosh.

Instead of mucking with transparency maps and fiddling with hair surface parameters, we can also use UHT Hair Shaders for Iray by Slosh. So far, I am very happy with this product.

• It is easy to use,
• I like the extra displacement and shine options it provides, and
• It produces good results in most of my renders.

Lady with red hair, using UHT Hair Shaders for Iray by Slosh.

3. Shiny Eyes

Eyes appear shiny when the surface of our eye reflect the strong light sources in the environment. Therefore, to get lively, shiny eyes, there has to be one or more properly placed light sources to reflect off of.

For example, in the hair examples above, her eyes are shiny because they are reflecting some of the strong light areas in my IBL (image based light). Rotating my image map differently, will result in different eye reflections.

Sometimes, our light source may be properly placed, but the area of the eye that it affects (i.e. the area of reflection) may be too small to be discernible in my rendered image. In this case, we may increase the area of reflection by increasing the amount of cornea bulge in our figure.

Left – Cornea Bulge set to maximum, larger reflection. Right – Cornea Bulge set to minimum, smaller reflection.

To achieve this –

1. Select our figure and click on the Shaping tab.
2. Open up our figure and click on the Eyes section.
3. Enter cornea into the search box at the top to filter the shaping parameters that are shown.
4. Set the Eyes Cornea Bulge parameter to maximum.

How to change the area of eye-reflection on our figures.

Victoria 7 swimsuit pin-up with shiny eyes and cornea bulge set to maximum.

4. Metal Shader Textures

(A) Knight in armor after applying Iray Uber shaders.

One of the early problems I encountered with Iray is how to have my original armor textures show, after I apply an Iray metal shader. For example, I am creating a knight in armor image (A) using Luthbel’s Paladin armor for G2M.

First of all, I just apply the Iray Uber shader to all the objects in my scene.

Next, I want to further refine my armor surfaces. In particular, I want to apply metal surfaces to appropriate parts of my knight’s armor. I also change the cloth surfaces to Iray velvet, and the leather surfaces to Iray leather.

(B) Knight in armor after applying Iray Steel-Galvanized shader.

In the next image (B), I Ctrl-clicked on the Iray Steel-Galvanized metal shader, so that my original textures are preserved, but still, the armor appears a flat shade of silver. All my original texture colors are not showing. Why?!

This is because my armor texture only appears in the Base Color parameter. However, for some metal shaders, there is a much stronger, additional, Metallic Flakes layer.

How to have my original armor textures show after applying an Iray metal shader.

If I want my original armor textures to show, I will need to load those textures into the Metallic Flakes Color parameter.

1. I go into the surfaces tab.
2. I select all the metal surfaces on my armor object.
3. I note which image map is used in the Base Color parameter, and apply the same image to the Metallic Flakes Color parameter.

After I apply the Base Color image maps to the Metallic Flakes Color parameter, I get a more metallic looking armor with my original textures (C) – Success!!

(C) Knight in armor after setting the Metallic Flakes Color image map, to my original armor textures.

Next, I can enhance the glossiness of my metal surfaces by –

1. Setting Glossy Weight to 1,
2. Removing the image map from Glossy Color,
3. Setting the Glossy Color to an appropriate color. In this way I can tint my armor to whatever I want. For example, in this composition I want my armor to appear somewhat golden, so I play around with the Glossy Color until I find something that I am happy with. Once I find it, I drag and drop that color into my Custom colors panel so that I can easily apply it to other metal surfaces.

How to increase the glossiness of our armor and tint it appropriately.

Now that I have all the materials set up properly, I add in some lights to highlight my figure, and then finish with some post-work in Photoshop.

I am still learning the ins and outs of Iray, so if you have more Iray tips, please post them in the comments section below. Many thanks!

Final Golden Knight image with post-work in Photoshop.

Remember, however, that good lighting is dependent on the type of images that are created. I mainly create character based 3d-art, where there is a central figure(s) (e.g. person, animal, alien, robot) that is the main focus of the image. There are surrounding elements and an appropriate backdrop, but they are all in support of the central figure.

As a result, my lighting setup is also geared towards those types of images and may not be as appropriate for other types of renders, such as those that focus on landscapes, architecture, or large-scale scenes.

Bad Girl image rendered in Daz Studio Iray.

1. Headlamp

When I first started creating 3d-art, I spent most of my time on figures and posing. At the time, I didn’t know much about lighting, so I went with what was the default in Daz Studio, which is the camera headlamp.

The camera headlamp is a light mounted at the top of our active camera. In this way, it lights everything in our scene equally (i.e. everything pointed to by our active camera). This makes it very easy to set up scene lighting because –

• I do not have to manage or add any lights of my own.
• Everything is lighted well, so my main figures and their faces are not covered by unwanted shadows.

Unfortunately, this type of equal lighting also makes my image appear flat, overly bright, and non-realistic. This was less of a problem when I only used my images in support of my online articles or for creating website headers. However, my goals soon changed.

Fire Goddess and Phoenix, rendered with a simple headlamp in Daz Studio. Background and postwork in Photoshop.

At the time, there were a couple of contests going on at Daz3D, with some fantastic looking entries. Some entries were artistic and fantasy based, while others were more realistic. However, they all had interesting lighting which set them apart from everything else. These images and their wonderful artists inspired me to start learning more about lighting my 3d-art scenes. This artist is one of my top favorites when it comes to lighting.

2. Uber Environment Light and Spolights

The first thing that I did, to learn more about lights in Daz Studio, is to use one of the light sets that I already owned. The light set that I applied had an Uber Environment light and a couple of spotlights, so that became my new lighting setup.

A problem that I encountered right-off is that the faces of my primary figures were not bright enough, and were often set in shadow. I quickly discovered that I could solve this problem by cranking up the Uber Environment light.

Rendered using the Uber Environment 2 light in Daz Studio 4.6 Pro, with post-work in Photoshop.

The Daz Studio UE light is used to simulate environment as well as ambient or bounce light. Environment light is provided by an image that is attached to the UE light. There are also other controls in the UE light parameters to adjust shadows, bounce, render quality, and more. This very simple tutorial has the basics on how to use UE lights in Daz Studio.

The truth is, I never really played around much with Daz Studio’s UE light. All I did was apply a preset light group (I think I used an early one by Dimension Theory), crank up the UE light until my primary figures were bright enough, and that was it.

Note that UE lights only work in 3Delight and NOT in Iray.

Rendered using UE2 light and spotlights in Daz Studio. This image won the Daz PC monthly contest in December 2013.

The images above are a lot more realistic than the headlamp example. There are also some shadows which give the figures more depth and shape. However, because I am simply cranking up the environment light, the image is still fairly flat, due to the consistent lighting. The figures do not pop out from the rest of the environment, and the light is not very interesting because it is bright throughout. In particular, there is not enough contrast between the figures and the background, and also within the figures themselves.

3. Dreamlight and LDPR

At this point in my Daz Studio lighting journey, I saw a picture in the Daz3D Gallery that had wonderful lighting, and used something called Light Dome Pro – R (There is now also a version for Iray). I was intrigued.

I did some research, and the next time Dreamlight’s store was on sale, I got LDP-R and the DAZ Studio Illuminated tutorial.

Based on the beginner skill level I had at the time, I learned a lot from the tutorial. I now started learning how to add glow, tint, depth, and better contrast to my pictures. Compare the image below and my previous images, and you can see a marked improvement.

Scene created and rendered in Daz Studio 4.6 Pro, with Light Dome Pro Revolution by Dreamlight.

Some things that I learned from LDP-R and Dreamlight’s tutorial-

• I learned how to add glow and tint in postwork (Photoshop).
• I learned how to render my light sources into different layers and do fast lighting adjustments within Photoshop.
• I learned how to create interesting shadows and contrast with a distant light (mimicking sunlight).
• I learned how to properly light my main figures.

In my scenes, I would have the sunlight from LDP-R, and I would add in some spotlights to accent my figure according to the 3-point-light system. Occasionally, I would add in some environment lights if I want to accent anything in the background.

Next, I would render everything into layers using the LDP-R system. Then, I bring everything into Photoshop where I can further manipulate the strength of each light through Photoshop’s powerful layering system. Once that is done, I run the Miami Filter action which comes with the LDP-R package. This action adds glow, tint, and a vignette effect to my Daz Studio render.

Between a sad goodbye and a happy hello, is a period of quiet longing. Rendered with Daz Studio 4.6 Pro and LDP-R, with postwork in Photoshop.

4. Colored Lights and Light Rays

One of the things that was still missing though, is color. I enjoy doing fantasy type 3d-art, and much of the fantasy artwork that I admire, not only has great high contrast lighting, but also very saturated colors. Therefore, I wanted to explore using colored lights and also those cool looking light rays.

This was where I discovered Age of Armour’s wonderful lights and his Atmospheric Effects Cameras package. The Atmospheric Effects package contains a volumetric camera that allows me to easily render great looking light rays. I would render this in a separate image, and then integrate it within Photoshop.

Note that at the writing of this article, these AoA’s lights and cameras only work in the 3Delight renderer and NOT in Iray.

Rendered using Age of Armour’s awesome light products and their volumetric camera for the red light ray.

At this stage, I stopped using the Daz Studio portion of LDP-R, but I continued to apply the lighting principles I had learned previously.

• I use AoA’s ambient light to illuminate the entire scene.
• I add one distant light, similar to the sunlight added by the LDP-R system to provide sharp shadows.
• I add spotlights (according to the 3-point light system) to make my figure stand out.
• Finally, I add a spotlight to produce my light-ray. I render this light separately using AoA’s volumetric camera.

Soon after, I also discovered Advanced Light Presets for AoA’s Lights by Dimension Theory. These presets provided another way to add more interesting light and color into my 3d-art scenes. Instead of using just one ambient light and one distant light, I would instead use one of the presets in Dimension Theory’s package.

I usually use the distant light presets which contain one ambient light, and three distant lights. Then, I re-adjust the colors of the lights and the shadows, according to the look that I want. Usually I set one distant light up as sunlight, with sharp shadows. All the other lights I leave it at their original soft shadow settings.

In this scenario, I no longer need to separately light my figure with spotlights, as the multiple distant lights provide an interesting enough effect. I may sometimes add a spotlight to brighten my figure’s face, if it is in shadow.

Rendered in Daz Studio 4.6 Pro with AoA’s lights and Dimension Theory’s Advanced Light Presets.

5. Reality Plugin and LuxRender

After exploring colored lights for a few months, I became enchanted with some of the realistic looking renders in the Daz Gallery that were made with the Reality plugin and LuxRender. I won’t go into it in great detail here, because I already have a detailed article comparing the renders that I could make before, and what I can make with Reality and Lux.

Created in Daz Studio 4.7 Pro, and rendered using Reality/Lux.

From a lighting perspective, there are several key differences-

• There is no ambient light in Reality/Lux. Bounce light, which is what ambient light tries to simulate, is physically modeled in Lux, thus ambient surfaces and light are no longer needed.
• The use of distant lights are greatly discouraged since it causes unrealistic illumination. Because I relied very heavily on distant lights previously, this was a big change for me. Instead of using distant lights, I now added mesh lights to illuminate my figure(s) (still according to the 3-point light system).

  Mesh lights provide soft shadows and realistic illumination that takes advantage of the physical realism provided by the Lux renderer.

• The Reality plugin also comes with a Sunlight object that I use to light my entire scene and provide shadows.
• Finally, LuxRender has a great light-group mechanism that allows us to save each light group into a different image. This is similar to what LDP-R did for us previously, except that there is great flexibility here in creating as many light groups as we want.

  In addition, unlike LDP-R, we only need to make one render pass, which is a really good thing, since it takes a pretty long time to get a good quality image. I usually leave my renders on over-night.

Note that even though I am using a different lighting system, many of the lessons that I learned before are general, and can be applied to all my 3d-art renders.

Created in Daz Studio 4.7 Pro. Rendered using Reality/Lux.

6. Daz Studio Iray

Like Lux, Daz Studio Iray is also a physically based renderer. Based on my renders so far, I think that the results of both renderers are very comparable, in terms of quality. However, I have decided to focus most of my energies on the Iray renderer.

• The main reason for this is because Iray is integrated with the Daz Studio system. As such it will get great vendor support, which we are already seeing in the materials and light sets being offered. For me, this is an enormous advantage over Reality/Lux.
• The Daz Studio Iray renderer is much faster than Reality/Lux if one has a good nVidia graphics card. For me, the good graphics card is absolutely necessary.

  At the moment, Daz Studio Iray does not have the great light-group feature that exists in Lux. Therefore, I need to manually render each of my lights into a separate image. Because Iray is fast, this is not a big inconvenience and I no longer need to leave my renders on over-night. However, without fast rendering, this manual process would be excruciatingly painful. Ultimately, getting an image done would take much more time than in Reality/Lux.

  In addition, Daz Studio Iray does not have the awesome recovery feature in Lux. Even when Lux crashes, I can recover most of the rendering work already done because Lux intermittently saves out a recovery file.

In short, I mostly use Iray now, because of vendor support and rendering speed. However, without a good nVidia card, I would probably stick with Reality/Lux because of the light-group and recovery features which are both extremely useful.

Rendered in Daz Studio 4.8 Pro Iray. Postwork in Photoshop.

7. Conclusion

I have gone through many different lighting setups from beginner to now. However, in each step, I learned something new, and many of those lessons are general and can be applied later on.

What I have learned so far from this wonderful journey, is that knowledge is not wasted. I started with something very simple, and then slowly build up my knowledge one step at a time. I learned by looking at images in various galleries, and participating in 3d-art contests. Indeed, my very early images were weak in many areas, but the key is to identify those areas of weakness and learn how to improve on each one.

There are still deficiencies in my 3d-art today, but fewer than before. I have improved, gained some useful knowledge, and created some images that I enjoy looking at.

Created in Daz Studio 4.7 Pro, rendered in Reality/Lux, and postwork in Photoshop.

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.