Think, Draw, Art!

for art lovers

  • Home
  • Gallery
  • Contact
  • Recent Articles
  • Article Categories
    • Daz Studio
    • 3D Art
    • 2D Art
    • Contest
You are here: Home / Daz Studio / Top 6 Fantasy Art Environments for Daz Studio

Top 6 Fantasy Art Environments for Daz Studio

We are a Daz3d affiliate and we use affiliate links in our pages.

by shibashake 12 Comments

I mainly do figure-based fantasy art, where the humans, animals, and creatures are the main focus of the piece. However, the environment is still important because it needs to complement and support the figure, while not detracting from it.

In this article, I highlight my favorite fantasy art environments, talk about why I like them, and how they help to enhance my images.

Redhead pirate girl pin-up with her smiling and holding a gun. Pirate ship with flag in the background.
Top 6 Fantasy Art Environments for Daz Studio

1. Skies of iRadiance – High Sky HDRI Bundle for Iray

This set is extremely useful. In many of my renders, I want to just render sky in the background without having to worry about other elements in the HDR image such as houses or buildings, which may not fit well into my fantasy art scene. At other times, I may use a modeled external environment for my backdrop, where a good sky backdrop is also needed. Indoor scenes with windows also benefit from a sky environment map.

Fantasy art of woman in a mech suit flying in the sky and meeting a small, cute, dragon.
Skies of iRadiance – High Sky HDRI Bundle for Iray.

It is true that I can add a 2D sky later on in postwork, but using a HDR sky as my environment map will produce consistent lighting, shadows, and reflections.

Alternatively, I may use a skydome prop and make the surface emissive. However, a HDR image is still best because it has a much larger range of values, and can provide us with higher contrast lighting.

Another fun thing that I do with this package is render different sky layers, and then combine them in postwork. This allows me to create interesting sky colors and patterns. For example, the image above uses a combination of DTSol-NightTimeE from Skies of iRadiance – Night Sky HDRIs for Iray, and DTSol-SunsetL from Skies of iRadiance – Sunset HDRIs for Iray.

I use this package with many of the sets that I describe below.

Fantasy art portrait of a redhead devil girl, with green eyes, horns and body spikes. She is turning towards the camera and smiling seductively.
Fantasy art background rendered using Skies of iRadiance – High Sky HDRI Bundle for Iray.

2. Neitherhenge

This environment is arresting, flexible, and unique, with glowing fantasy letters that provide us with great color and lighting opportunities. There are great textures included with this set including bump, specular, and displacement maps. In addition, there is also an ambient map for the glowing letters, so that I can set
the proper parts to be emissive in Iray.

This is not an Iray ready scene, so I had to manually assign some of these textures and increase the bump to make things work well in Iray. However, after I set things up once, I can save it out as a material preset for future use. The fantasy image below shows an Iray render of the Neitherhenge environment.

White haired fantasy girl being embraced from behind by a smiling horned Devil. Red portal with glowing letters in the background.
This environment is arresting, flexible, and unique, with glowing fantasy letters that provide us with great color and lighting opportunities.

In addition to Neitherhenge, Orestes Graphics has many more marvelous environments that I frequently use in my images. Many of them share the same qualities of being arresting and unique, with a strong fantasy theme. My two other favorites are Sacelleum of Corlyk and Realm of Krystillum.

Sad fantasy woman warrior with head bent, standing in front of a strange stone statue head, with bones strewn on the floor.
Fantasy art with a sad warrior woman and Sacelleum of Corlyk as the backdrop. Rendered in Daz Studio Iray, postwork in Photoshop.

3. DM’s Enchanted Hill

Of course, any discussion of fantasy environments must include the works of Danie and Marforno. They have a wide variety of fantasy environments including beautiful nature scenes with large mushrooms, a boot house, superb open-air fantasy structures, Gothic indoor scenes, and much more. In addition, each scene usually comes with a set of superb poses, such as only this talented duo can produce.

It is difficult to pick a favorite from such a high quality store, but the one that I have used most often is probably DM’s Enchanted Hill.

Cute fantasy girl on a large mushroom, holding a brush, and painting a picture of Santa Claus. This image is called "Present for Santa".
Fantasy art environment created with DM’s Enchanted Hill. 3Delight render, postwork in Photoshop.
Pied-piper girl, wearing a bone helmet,  playing a flute to a group of skeletons.
Used one of the flute playing poses from DM’s Enchanted Hill.

This product comes with several premade scenes, so we can get started with just a few clicks. However, there are also a variety of well-made props that we can put together in any way we want, to create a unique scene. For Iray, I just apply the Uber shader to all scene surfaces.

The accompanying poses are terrific, and I have used the flute playing presets in many of my fantasy compositions.

Cute pixie girl wearing a witch hat, resting against a mushroom, with many fantasy creatures around her.
Fantasy art environment created using DM’s Enchanted Hill. Rendered in Daz Studio Iray.

4. Easy Environments Road to Hell

This is a light-weight environment that loads fast and renders fast. It is especially appropriate for spooky scenes, but I also use it in more general night-time scenes. The set comes with a very versatile floor terrain that has a flat road surrounded by a more craggy/rocky landscape. The flat part is great for posing our figure, while the rocky area makes it interesting, and helps it to naturally meld with the background sky.

There are various tree props that adds to the spooky feel of the scene.

Undead gunslinger with two large guns, wearing a cowboy hat, and long dark coat. He is standing on a road surrounded by spooky dark trees.
3Delight render with Easy Environments Road to Hell as the backdrop. Postwork in Photoshop.

The trees and dark terrain give the scene tension, and help make foreground elements stand-out. In the Red Riding Hood image below, this dark scene not only makes the red of her outfit pop, but also lends the composition some drama. In Iray, I apply the Uber Shader to all surfaces and then make the base color darker.

Flipmode has other cool Easy Environments products, but I use this one most frequently. My next favorite is Easy Environments: Snowy Mountains which comes with Iray materials and render settings.

Red Riding Hood fantasy girl with two guns and a big black wolf companion.
The darker environment and trees make the foreground figure pop, and adds some drama to the composition.

5. Lakeside Folly

This set is gorgeous! It comes with a water prop and three different Iray render settings for day, sunset, and dusk. I especially like how the environment maps were designed so that the sky seamlessly fades into the water on the horizon (with depth of field). Even without the little house, just the water prop and HDR images make this environment a winner.

For example, in the Fantasy Water Angel image below, I just used the water prop and sunset render setting.

White haired fantasy water angel, with water wings and standing in the sea. She is hugging herself and is surrounded by fireflies.
In this Fantasy Water Angel image, I just used the water prop and sunset render setting. Rendered in Daz Studio Iray, postwork in Photoshop.

The light setup is also excellent, with several lanterns placed around the little house and small dock, which cast light reflections on the water.

Elegant girl in a long tight dress standing on a dock in front of a little cottage. There are lanterns all around the cottage casting warm light reflections on the water.
Daz Studio Iray render, postwork in Photoshop.

6. Return To The Enchanted Forest

To wrap things up, we have the amazingly talented Stonemason. His environments are always top-notch, easy to use, and loads well in Daz Studio. Whenever there is a good sale on Stonemason’s store, I always load up my cart!

My favorite is probably The Enchanted Forest and Return to the Enchanted Forest. Both sets are highly detailed, loads quickly, and renders well in Iray with just the Uber Shader applied.

Forest dryad calling in a light beam to rejuvenate the plants and encourage new growth.
Dryad Fantasy Girl in The Enchanted Forest. Rendered in 3Delight, postwork in Photoshop.

I can also remove some trees to create a more open wooded area. For example, in the image below, I wanted the papa and mama moose to stand out more against a lighter sky background, so I simply removed some of the vegetation.

Fantasy art of a girl in a white dress and flowers in her hair bidding farewell to a baby moose that she has rescued. The proud moose parents are in the background.
Girl in a white dress saying goodbye to a baby moose. Rendered in 3Delight, postwork in Photoshop.

More recently, Stonemason has released the Fern Lake Bundle, which contains two beautiful wooded environments specially made for Iray. I will definitely get these when they come back on sale. They look spectacular!

And that is it for our top 6 fantasy art environments. Hope you enjoyed our picks. Feel free to share your favorite environments with us below.

Fantasy art fairy with white hair and blue wings flying in a Crystal Realm.
Feel free to share your top fantasy art environments with us below.

Related Articles

Top 5 Fantasy Women Outfits for Daz Studio and Poser

My top five fantasy women outfits. These are the outfits that I use time and time again in my fantasy renders and artwork. Here, we focus on outfits made for Victoria 4, but that still works well with Genesis 2, Genesis 3, and Daz Studio Iray.

How to Create Fantasy Art in Daz Studio (for Beginners)

I have always loved fantasy art. I am not trained as an artist, but even as a Daz Studio beginner, I can use it to create cool looking art that I previously would never be able to produce. Here, I talk about my early experiences with Daz Studio, how I add fantasy figures and environments, how I set up some simple lights, and ultimately make my imagination real.

Daz Studio Lighting - Beginner to Now

One of the biggest thing that sets a 3d-image apart from others is the lighting used. Lights can add depth, change mood, create tension, guide the eye, and much more. In this article, I talk about my Daz Studio lighting journey. I describe all the different lighting setups that I have gone through, what I have learned from each one, and why I switched to something else.

Check Out the Latest Sales at Daz3D

DAZ Studio FREE 3D MODELS AND SOFTWARE

Comments

  1. Sam says

    February 9, 2021 at 9:56 am

    thank you so much for these! Your page has been a great help for a beginner like me ^^
    is it possible to ask where I can find the white dress in you work of the baby moose? πŸ™‚ Thank you again!

    Reply
    • shibashake says

      February 12, 2021 at 4:22 pm

      I made the image a while ago, so I don’t remember what outfit I used that. I think it could be the morphing fantasy dress.

  2. smritter says

    July 4, 2016 at 3:13 pm

    Hi,
    could you please give some information how to make the letters glowing in Neitherhenge with iray? I am completely stuck with this. I made the arch emissive but cannot figure out how to reduce the glowing to the letters only…
    Thx!

    Reply
    • shibashake says

      July 5, 2016 at 3:53 pm

      There is an ambient texture in the texture directory that just includes the letters. I put that in the Emission Color parameter. I am currently on my laptop so I can’t give you the exact file names, but let me know if you still have problems and I will look it up tomorrow.

  3. OrestesGraphics says

    June 29, 2016 at 3:18 pm

    I just came across this! Thanks for the comments on my sets. I’m very happy you enjoy them! And wow! your renders rock! Excellent work!

    Reply
    • shibashake says

      June 30, 2016 at 12:07 am

      Wow! This makes me feel so happy. You can probably tell that I am a very big fan of your work. πŸ˜€ Thank you very much OrestesGraphics.

  4. Jayne Wilson says

    April 13, 2016 at 6:17 pm

    I just purchased Skies of iRadiance and have a test render going now. It’s taking forever and I’m wondering if it’s because I have other things in the scene (Forest Superior) or that the default “Environment Lighting Resolution” is 4096. So far it’s been over an hour and still Zero % done on a 1000 x 800 pixel image.

    Other than the time it takes, I’m loving the look of the render though. I’ll have to play around with that environment resolution and see what sort of difference it makes when I dial it down.

    Reply
    • Jayne Wilson says

      April 14, 2016 at 7:08 pm

      Bit of an update here. Well it finally finished and was all grainy, so I took it back to basics — DAZ Horse 2, the Forest Superior ground (no grass or trees) and the Skies of iRadiance) and it rendered well. But of course, I wanted trees etc in it, so I added a few trees and it worked slowly, but okay. However, when I increased the number of trees even when it finished it was very grainy. I gave up with that scene. Too much light bouncing around. Now I’m rendering a scene with Michael 6 and a prop of a small building called “BRC Tranquility” and one of the iRadiance skies. I liked my test render so much I doing a larger render now — 63% done at 2hrs and 40 mins, lol. Good thing I like looking at Michael 6!

    • shibashake says

      April 16, 2016 at 4:10 pm

      I liked my test render so much I doing a larger render now

      Haha, that is great to hear. I would love to see the image, so post us a link when you are done. πŸ˜€

    • shibashake says

      April 16, 2016 at 3:27 pm

      I think that Forest Superior has quite a lot of geometry. The forests by Stonemason have always worked well for me. I haven’t bought his latest one yet (Fern Lake), but the renders that I have seen look great. It seems more complex, but Stonemason sets seem to work more efficiently for me. I think Stonemason has some secret sauce on his side. πŸ™‚

  5. Shozai says

    April 12, 2016 at 10:44 pm

    Stonemason makes wonderful environments, all know it, all use it πŸ™‚ So i will not talk about his masterclass of design, or i have to post many comments πŸ˜€

    I have one Environment i want to show you, that is wonderful for little Forest scenes, blending perfect via photoshop into any Backround and you can use it with Iray without many changes, maybe the moos and the water.

    Fallen Tree
    http://hivewire3d.com/shop/environments-props/plants/fallen-tree-stack.html

    I really love it πŸ™‚

    Reply
    • shibashake says

      April 13, 2016 at 5:07 pm

      Thanks for this. I have been eyeing this set for a while now, but now that you have recommended it, I am definitely going to get it! πŸ™‚

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Recent Posts

  • Item used: VR X01 BYOS Modular by Studio360.3D-Art Contest Winners ~ April 2020
  • Qualifying item used Inside Linday's Daz Studio Iray Scenes by Linday3D-Art Contest Winners ~ March 2020
  • Qualifying item used –Z Beauty Poses for Kalea 73D-Art Contest Winners ~ February 2020
  • Qualifying item: - Li'l Scrap Boy HD for Genesis 8 Male by Pixeluna3D-Art Contest Winners ~ January 2020
  • Qualifying items used –Ancient Tomes by Merlin Studios3D-Art Contest Winners ~ December 2019
  • Shiba contest qualifying Item used: Mech Dancer Outfit3D-Art Contest Winners ~ November 2019
  • Shiba contest qualifying items used – Greeble City Blocks, Greeble City Blocks 2, Greeble City Blocks 3; and Greeble City Blocks 04 by Stonemason.3D-Art Contest Winners ~ October 2019
  • Shiba Contest Featured Vendor Petipet. Used: Car Edi, Unicycle Bob, Bus Maxis, Bus Pegasus & Motorbike ZAZ3D-Art Contest Winners ~ September 2019
  • Qualifying item for shiba contest - Z Almost Human Poses by Zedicuss3D-Art Contest Winners ~ August 2019
  • Qualifying items used – Rei HD for Genesis 8 Female by Mousso.3D-Art Contest Winners ~ July 2019

Recent Comments

  • Sexy Fantasy woman with horns, standing in water, surrounded by skulls. Fantasy art. Daz Studio Iray image render.Why Is There Noise in My Daz Studio Iray Render and How to Remove It
    • Dorf
      - Can you tell me what asset you used for the abs on the girl with horns? Or is it a custom morph?
  • Sexy darked haired fantasy woman sitting on the floor with lace dynamic cloth draped around her. Night time fantasy art scene with fireflies.Daz Studio Dynamic Cloth (dForce) Tutorial for Beginners
    • Carlos Moreno
      - Magnifico tutorial, he aprendido muchisimo...para un ignorante como yo es una gran avance. Gracias, ...
  • Girl with pink hair, pink dress, and pink petals blowing in the wind. Daz Studio dForce Iray picture. Fantasy Art.How to Save a Daz Studio dForce Frame as a Morph
    • Frank Rizzo
      - First, thank you for this and your other articles. I hope I'm not too late in contributing this:In ...
    • emu
      - I have been trying to apply this to dForce hair, but the result does not really match the original simulated ...
  • White haired fantasy girl being embraced from behind by a smiling horned Devil. Red portal with glowing letters in the background.Top 6 Fantasy Art Environments for Daz Studio
    • Sam
      - thank you so much for these! Your page has been a great help for a beginner like me ^^ is it possible ...
  • Catwoman sitting on a papasan chair with several cats around her. Moon in the background.How to Save a Single Frame in Daz Studio
    • Mike
      - This works great except for one problem. I realize this article was posted a few years ago and this problem ...
  • Cute cat girl fantasy pin-up art with folded arms and standing in a forest or woods. Fantasy art rendered in Daz Studio Iray.Best Fantasy Women Skins, 3D-Art
    • - Can I ask how you got the Tigerlily skin on a G8F figure?
  • Girl reaching upward for a flying bird (signifying knowledge, dreams, or more) while another holds her down to earth.Daz Studio Iray Tips and Tricks
    • G.Carlo
      - Very Helpful, thanks!!!!
  • Blonde haired sci-fi elf girl with sword, standing next to an owl robot. Fantasy sci-fi woman art. Daz Studio Iray image.What Is Daz Studio?
    • Shanique
      - Hey please check your inbox on deviantart ASAP, I’ve been trying to reach out to you. Thanks
  • Screenshot of the Environment Map interface in Daz Studio Octane.How to Set-Up Camera, Lights, & Displacement in Daz Studio Octane
    • dmc
      - In my case I turned up the intensity of the spherical light. In Octane:(1) Select the Sphere-Default ...

Copyright © 2021 · Genesis Skins by ShibaShake · Terms of Service · Privacy Policy ·