[Daz] Step by step guide/tutorial to create a "professional" render in Daz Studio?

[GhostPhil]

Hello,

I am pretty new to Daz Studio and currently I am going through many tutorials, but I kind of want to see one that goes from 0% to 100%.
Are there any guides/tutorials on how to create a "professional" looking render in Daz Studio.
So things like:

1. choosing your assets
2. loading them through DIM and with this it would be great to see how you integrate third-party items, so you can use them as smart conten
3. a step by step guide with all the assets that were choosen earlier to make a finished scene with it
4. EDIT: I also would appreciate a guide on how to use genital assets from renderotica in Daz Studio

Thanks in advance

 

[Elementario]

Well, i am pretty new to Daz Studio too considering all the others here have way more experience than me, but i will try my best to explain
So, first of all guides
I would suggest going on

You must be registered to see the links

Its daz's official youtube channel, good for starters
I would also suggest going through this great guide for Daz by MrKnobb,

You must be registered to see the links

If you still get any problems, feel free to ask here anytime, everyone helps each other and its a pretty great community
Now that that's out of the way,
1. Assets
Depends on your taste really, you can choose any models you like but i would suggest using Genesis 8 figures as they have realistic expressions and finger bends, etc
Also they are the ones most popular now and are still getting more assets daily, they can mostly wear clothes and hair from other Genesis figures and also you can use

You must be registered to see the links

To convert Genesis 3 Poses to Genesis 8
If you are asking about where to download them from,

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

These are the two most popular paid sites, if you want them free you can search here, there are plenty of assets here and if you want something you can't find just put up a request and sooner or later someone would post that
2. Using Dim
I am guessing you know how to install the official assets, so i will show you how to install third party assets through DIM
First download

You must be registered to see the links

Then,

Spoiler: Process

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

3. Step by Step guide
First of all, if you want to start now i would suggest downloading the Daz Studio 4.11 public beta
As it includes a Denoiser which is very helpful in making good looking renders in little time
Now as for the process,

Spoiler: Process

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

I skipped a lot of things and most importantly the lightning to keep it short and simple and if you are new to this it will be too much to take in and just end up confusing you
Try playing around with this, once you understand the basics you can move on to lightning and other things
If i missed something or if you have any doubts feel free to ask me or anyone else here
I hope i was able to help

 

[GhostPhil]

Well, i am pretty new to Daz Studio too considering all the others here have way more experience than me, but i will try my best to explain
So, first of all guides
I would suggest going on

You must be registered to see the links

Its daz's official youtube channel, good for starters
I would also suggest going through this great guide for Daz by MrKnobb,

You must be registered to see the links

If you still get any problems, feel free to ask here anytime, everyone helps each other and its a pretty great community
Now that that's out of the way,
1. Assets
Depends on your taste really, you can choose any models you like but i would suggest using Genesis 8 figures as they have realistic expressions and finger bends, etc
Also they are the ones most popular now and are still getting more assets daily, they can mostly wear clothes and hair from other Genesis figures and also you can use

You must be registered to see the links

To convert Genesis 3 Poses to Genesis 8
If you are asking about where to download them from,

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

These are the two most popular paid sites, if you want them free you can search here, there are plenty of assets here and if you want something you can't find just put up a request and sooner or later someone would post that
2. Using Dim
I am guessing you know how to install the official assets, so i will show you how to install third party assets through DIM
First download

You must be registered to see the links

Then,

Spoiler: Process

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

3. Step by Step guide
First of all, if you want to start now i would suggest downloading the Daz Studio 4.11 public beta
As it includes a Denoiser which is very helpful in making good looking renders in little time
Now as for the process,

Spoiler: Process

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

I skipped a lot of things and most importantly the lightning to keep it short and simple and if you are new to this it will be too much to take in and just end up confusing you
Try playing around with this, once you understand the basics you can move on to lightning and other things
If i missed something or if you have any doubts feel free to ask me or anyone else here
I hope i was able to help

Wow! Thanks! I really appreciate your detailed guide! I also will check out the guide of MrKnobb.
This will definitly help me a lot. And of course I should start simple and work on getting better with time.

I also edited the post, because I forgot to ask for a guide for the usage of genital assets in Daz Studio.

 

[Elementario]

Wow! Thanks! I really appreciate your detailed guide! I also will check out the guide of MrKnobb.
This will definitly help me a lot. And of course I should start simple and work on getting better with time.

I also edited the post, because I forgot to ask for a guide for the usage of genital assets in Daz Studio.

Happy to help, if you need anything else feel free to ask
I am afraid i am not that sure about the genital assets as i have only used it once or twice
But i am sure someone here could help you out with that

 

[Elementario]

Also, one thing I forgot
You might also wanna check out

You must be registered to see the links

mCasual has a ton of useful daz scripts that helps out a lot
Scripts like LookAtTheCamera, MakeHeadCam, FaceTheFace, etc are of great help in setting up scenes

 

[GhostPhil]

Happy to help, if you need anything else feel free to ask
I am afraid i am not that sure about the genital assets as i have only used it once or twice
But i am sure someone here could help you out with that

Also, one thing I forgot
You might also wanna check out

You must be registered to see the links

mCasual has a ton of useful daz scripts that helps out a lot
Scripts like LookAtTheCamera, MakeHeadCam, FaceTheFace, etc are of great help in setting up scenes

Thanks again, if I have any questions, then I will definitly ask here again
I guess now I have a lot too take in for now :biggrin:

 

[Elementario]

Sure, take your time :closedeyesmile:

 

[FlipTopBin]

As I think it was mentioned earlier, lighting is a massive topic and something I still struggle with. There is a great walktrhough of how to light an actual VN scene though here:

You must be registered to see the links

 

[GhostPhil]

As I think it was mentioned earlier, lightinh is a massive topic and something I still stryggle with. There is a great walktrhough of how to light an actual VN scene though here:

You must be registered to see the links

Yeah lightning seems to be the most important thing after the character model itself.
So thanks for the link to the tutorial

 

[OhWee]

Yeah lightning seems to be the most important thing after the character model itself.
So thanks for the link to the tutorial

Looks like @Elementario has been doing a great job showing you the ropes!

If you want some instant iray lighting gratification in the meantime, hdri domes/environments can light up models pretty well, at least to get you started.

You must be registered to see the links

has a bunch of free indoor and outdoor hdris.

I use HDRIs a lot, especially for outdoor scenes. Indoors they aren't nearly as useful, as your character is essentially 'floating' in the middle of a sphere that just happens to look like a room (which can still be useful to a point). Note that the outdoor ones can still be used for 'exterior environments' for outside of your room through a window, etc.

That being said, you will still need to get the hang of lighting using more traditional methods. Even I still struggle with that, despite working with Daz for over a year and a half...

 

[Kavick Vu]

Nice Thread and nice people help each together.

 

[Aeilion]

Little advice for genitals:

Take Golden Palace and / or Dicktator.

From there everything is very well explained directly in daz3d when you will want to create them. (the big "hint" button)

Very simple regarding the change of surface to match any type of skin (or almost I imagine) of your characters. A lot of slides to personalize the stuff etc ...

After that if there are things you do not understand or can not do, you can always come back with more specific questions.

 

[Aeilion]

Sorry for the double post, but I still want to add something that I think has not been said.

Pay close attention to what you buy ... Sometimes it looks good from a distance, but it's not. The best advice I can give is to be a bad guy / girl and take pirated assets to test them and if it really suits you you can buy them.

Between the hair, the clothes and even the environments etc ... which do not have modification / adaptation (the pretty slides in all the directions which are very useful), you find yourself quickly with things that you prefer never to use .

 

[Boogie]

Sorry for the double post, but I still want to add something that I think has not been said.

Pay close attention to what you buy ... Sometimes it looks good from a distance, but it's not. The best advice I can give is to be a bad guy / girl and take pirated assets to test them and if it really suits you you can buy them.

Between the hair, the clothes and even the environments etc ... which do not have modification / adaptation (the pretty slides in all the directions which are very useful), you find yourself quickly with things that you prefer never to use .

I will second what Aeilion said. I'm also new to working with Daz and even though I bought a PC+ membership and pay for assets I want, I still dl a lot of assets from F95 and other pirate sites to try them out first. As a newbie to Daz, I want to stick to the newest G8 assets but I have learned that just because something is G8 doesn't mean it has the best level of detail. There are some really good G3 and some really poor G8 assets, so be picky.

 

[p_staker]

As a newbie to Daz, I want to stick to the newest G8 assets but I have learned that just because something is G8 doesn't mean it has the best level of detail. There are some really good G3 and some really poor G8 assets, so be picky.

It's been like this for years.

I started noticing this in the jump from V4 to Genesis and then to G2f.

First it was the HD morphs, then iRay hit and OMG it "has to have the iRay" and now it's dForce "dForce all the things!"

My biggest annoyance is that most of the female character assets are almost identical with maybe a slight texture mod if that. Almost an asset flip of a merchant resource. You do a nice enough set of renders with a different hair color/syle and you can keep selling the nearly same thing over and over.

It's worse on Rendo then Daz but not by much.

EDIT:
Do a quick search on google for this phrase and see how many come that are very similar.

The head and body for are uniquely custom sculpted in Zbrush site:daz3d.com

 

[Urok]

I also found this blog quite interesting:

You must be registered to see the links

 

[GhostPhil]

Looks like @Elementario has been doing a great job showing you the ropes!

If you want some instant iray lighting gratification in the meantime, hdri domes/environments can light up models pretty well, at least to get you started.

You must be registered to see the links

has a bunch of free indoor and outdoor hdris.

I use HDRIs a lot, especially for outdoor scenes. Indoors they aren't nearly as useful, as your character is essentially 'floating' in the middle of a sphere that just happens to look like a room (which can still be useful to a point). Note that the outdoor ones can still be used for 'exterior environments' for outside of your room through a window, etc.

That being said, you will still need to get the hang of lighting using more traditional methods. Even I still struggle with that, despite working with Daz for over a year and a half...

I just came back to this again and wanted to ask, how I use the hdr-files in Daz?

 

[OhWee]

I just came back to this again and wanted to ask, how I use the hdr-files in Daz?

Under render settings, under environment, there is a setting called Environment Map. Click on the spot that texture maps usually appear with the small icon just to the left of the slider, and choose 'browse'. Then browse to where you have your HDRI's installed. That should load the HDRI map/pic that you downloaded (from HDRI Haven, Daz, or wherever) into the scene.

Note that the HDRI will provide lighting whether Draw Dome is set to On or Off (setting just above Environment Map), but to see the HDRI picture, set to on. Otherwise, you get the transparent background. Also note that you want to set Environment Mode (which is above Draw Dome) to Dome and Scene, or perhaps Dome Only. I usually do Dome and Scene, that way if I load additional lights, I'm covered.

 

[recreation]

and if you want to preview the thing without rendering you have to turn on iray preview mode

 

[Nitroxyde83]

First off, id like too say im sorry if the solution has been posted elsewhere.

I only just began, tinkering with DAZ and im trying to add 3rd party assets.

I am using CPA, and adding it as IM to get everything in my library.

However, whenever i open DAZ..they dont seem to load, or there's an exclamation icon where the icon should be.

So im trying to figure out, what im doin wrong for the past 5-6 hours now.

Not sure wether this is causing it, but i am deleting the packages after they have been installed.

Just to save drive space mainly.