Daz Some questions about Daz

[rainthart]

Heyo!

I am very new to using Daz, and any other similar software. But I have some questions about Daz3D.

What is an ideal way of working with environments? Let's say I have a couple of characters who are inside an apartment chatting. I would want some slight differences of the characters showing that they are speaking. What is "more optimal", rendering the environment once and "pasting" the characters onto the background or doing complete renders with characters and environment? If the first answer, how would you deal with lighting?

Also, how do most work with environments? Are developers limited by what is available on asset stores and such? I would think that building a neighbourhood of a city (if that is what is required) would be quite difficult and require some good skills in both modeling and texturing.

About characters, how do you create good looking characters? I've played a couple of VNs with some good looking characters and I would assume they are custom characters and not directly out of the box. Do you build a library of characters, pick a base, like Michael, and then do some morphing with features from other characters?

I've seen some assets directly refer to specific models/characters, is this something to keep in mind or at all important? Or is it workable on other characters?

I tried applying some expressions to a character but it did not work, nothing changed on the face, and if something changed it was a tiny little thing. It didn't apply the expression at all or only a little nudge of the skin, any ideas why?

And lastly, how are animations in Daz? I've read it can be quite a pain, or not that good. I haven't really tried myself as I am still figuring out the basics. I've played some VNs that have better animations than others, most are pretty stiff. How difficult is animations with Daz, is it possible to create some fairly dynamic animations?

These are a lot of questions and I hope you can answer some. Thanks in advance!

 

[Eezergoode]

I do kind of a combination... I figure out which lights and objects can be rendered for background only, and which lights and objects are directly affected by the characters and their shadows, then I split it into two groups... I render out the background and non-critical lighting once, then I only render out the figures, critical lights for the figures, and the miscellaneous objects that are affected by those lights and the shadows the figures cast. SOME lights have to be included in both renders, because they have obvious affects on both the background, and the "foreground" and that can get tricky, I usually try to place my lights in ways that make it easier for the method I use to work, it can take a little practice, but can be done. I'm sure there are better solutions, but since I am, at least for now, just a dabbler, I haven't done a deep dive into it. Mainly, I'm just making placeholder images that will server until I either have enough fully written story that I can interest a real artist, or, the more likely scenario, have enough time to learn more about it and try to increase both my knowledge and my skill.

 

[AllNatural939]

Heyo!

I am very new to using Daz, and any other similar software. But I have some questions about Daz3D.

What is an ideal way of working with environments? Let's say I have a couple of characters who are inside an apartment chatting. I would want some slight differences of the characters showing that they are speaking. What is "more optimal", rendering the environment once and "pasting" the characters onto the background or doing complete renders with characters and environment? If the first answer, how would you deal with lighting?

Also, how do most work with environments? Are developers limited by what is available on asset stores and such? I would think that building a neighbourhood of a city (if that is what is required) would be quite difficult and require some good skills in both modeling and texturing.

About characters, how do you create good looking characters? I've played a couple of VNs with some good looking characters and I would assume they are custom characters and not directly out of the box. Do you build a library of characters, pick a base, like Michael, and then do some morphing with features from other characters?

I've seen some assets directly refer to specific models/characters, is this something to keep in mind or at all important? Or is it workable on other characters?

I tried applying some expressions to a character but it did not work, nothing changed on the face, and if something changed it was a tiny little thing. It didn't apply the expression at all or only a little nudge of the skin, any ideas why?

And lastly, how are animations in Daz? I've read it can be quite a pain, or not that good. I haven't really tried myself as I am still figuring out the basics. I've played some VNs that have better animations than others, most are pretty stiff. How difficult is animations with Daz, is it possible to create some fairly dynamic animations?

These are a lot of questions and I hope you can answer some. Thanks in advance!

I think it all depends mostly on your physical resources. If you have a bad computer, the advantages of rendering scenes in layers are by far the best alternative. Now if you have a powerful computer, then it's better to move quickly and render everything at once. Remember that if you are trying to make a game you must render thousands of images and the less time it takes to do so the better, but that doesn't mean you should stop putting your best effort into achieving the best possible quality with the means at your disposal.
I have a shitty computer and I have to render in layers and also resort to a lot of tricks... But judge for yourself.



That image is actually 6 images rendered separately...



If I had tried to render that image in one go, it would have taken several hours (I'm using a wonderful 2gb Nvidia GTX 1050). Rendering everything separately and then stitching and post-processing, it was about 40 minutes total. You have to be careful with shadow management and sometimes be creative with the camera to hide possible errors... and that takes time. So if you have something powerful, it's best to avoid those problems.

 

[Eezergoode]

So if you have something powerful, it's best to avoid those problems.

While a powerful GPU will help, it doesn't negate the fact that sometimes you have to split the renders and composite them togher afterwards. I'm running a 3080 and still have to break up some scenes just because it takes up too much VRAM. And I have the 12gb variant.

Compositing separate renders together can still help even if you have a 4090, because rendering the full environment with characters still takes more time than rendering just a few objects and characters from that environment. If the only thing changing is the characters, and lighting/shadows don't interfere, it just makes sense to render out the background once and then just the characters/a few objects for each small change.