Noswen's Corner
Noswen
Posts: 358
in Art Studio
So I've been using Daz for a bit over a year now and beginning to start to get to grips with using it, so I felt it's time to start up a thread here and see what comes of it and hopefully improve a bit. That and it might help prompt me to post up a few more renders instead of me running them for a while and never saving them as I do from time to time 
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Welcome to the Art Studio forum and looking forward to seeing what you post.
Thanks for the welcome
First up is the latest one I've started working on, a character called Hogden Tane (name randomly inspired by a delivery company managing to somehow misread a signature in the we've delivered your parcel email to barely include any of the same letters!).
Typically I just load a character up and leave it at that, but for this one I've made one of my first forrays into loading up the Genesis 8 base character and then mixing and matching various character dials. I had tried it previously but it always just terrifyingly wrong until I chanced upon a post which mentioned they should all only really add up to 100% or thereabouts...
On top of that also used the more specific shaping dials to increase weight, msucle, and alter his face further.
Welcome to the art forums!
He looks very real, you did a great job of making his body and face look lie a slightly older warrior would look. The lighting is very good as well. Looking forward to seeing what else you post!
Welcome to the Art Studio, it's addictive!
I like your dialed character, he's unique and has a lot of personality. Nice job!
Welcome to the Art Studio, it's addictive!
I like your dialed character, he's unique and has a lot of personality. Nice job!
Welcome over here :D nice to see you start your own thread. And if there is more to come in the way that first one turned out I'm very curious to follow.
Thanks all, would feel a little bad taking credit for the lighting as that was done literally by what was in the environment pre-load so will mention that
Not entirely sure what I'm going to work on next, may take a look around some of the threads in here, perhaps get a little inspiration from something I see. Always feel a little wary commenting on them though as I don't really know what I'm doing.
Great looking character, well done! I picked up a few hints from that thread you speak of too, and need to work on my dial spinning. My results in the past have often been less than satisfying so I'm going to try the 100 percent rule.
Honestly, a simple, hey I really like this is just as acceptable as anything else lol. I don't always know what to say either so if I don't have anything helpful I just say I like it and if I can figure out why I like it I will post that as well.
Welcome aboard, Noswen. I like this first one. Few of us really know what we're doing so early in, so don't sweat it. I'm always glad to hear from someone, as @IceDragonArt said, even if it's just "I like it."
Now, about the credit thing. You need to get over that. Sure, there's a lot of stuff in Daz that someone else created, but ultimately, you make the image, you choose the figure, any poses, background, props, and you made a decision, even if due in part to level of skill and understanding, to go with the lighting presented to you. And you chose to share it. You, as the artist, are valid. So, by all means, give credit to the wonderful folks who made what you're doing possible whenever possible or appropriate, but don't ever feel bad about taking credit for the work you do and the art you make. This image is all yours, and that's a good thing.
Very nice character and render, Noswen. Insofar as the credit thing is concerned, generally if you are using a purchased product you are not obliged to give credit, so it is optional. However, there are many instances where those viewing your work may be interested in knowing what was used because they may wish to use it themselves. They can always ask, of course, so it is entirely your call. The exception to all of that would be if you are using free content that you obtained elsewhere, where personally I feel obligated to acknowledge that contribution whether it is required or not. The least I can do sort of thing.
Good point. I hope I didn't imply anything to the contrary.
I want to expand a bit on the your comment about not taking credit for the lighting. The thing is, you chose the lighting to enhance your image so while no, you didn't set up each light, you did choose the components (the HDRI, the props, the camera angle etc etc.)and blended them together to make an image that is unique to your vision. Look at it this way, a painter doesn't usually go out and grind his own paints or make his own brushes and canvases. They are all tools that are provided to allow us to bring our own unique ideas into the world.
I almost never set up my own lights. I know how to do it, but I don't want to. I don't like it, it takes me forever and I honestly, don't have time. I do sometimes tweak premade lighting but, there is a reason that people make lights sets and HDRI's. And I'm it lol. The fact that I use pre made lighting for my scene does not in any way take away from the fact that its my vision and my art because I took all the pieces and made something new with them. So don't ever feel bad about using something straight out of the box.
Wow... I didn't expect that spark so many comments with that, I had simply meant it was straight out of the box settings
. Thanks for them all, and I'll accept them.
When it comes to free stuff I would probably put a comment in about where to get it from as well if I remember at the time.
I like HDRs mainly because they seem to render so so much quicker than an actual environment more than for how they look, though a lot of them do look great as well.
@Noswen - @IceDragonArt is correct. One might also liken it to a photographer who doesn't make the mountains, the sun, the flowers, or the pretty lady, but brings them together in a way that touches the soul who is an artist.
Welcome to the Art Studio! Nice first image to your thread. I like him. Lots of character. :)
As for lighting, straight out of the box is what a lot of us do. Lighting takes time to set up properly. We have some really excellent vendors who do an amazing job giving us fantastic lighting setups. That's what it is, a tool. Use it however you like. Straight out of the box or tweaked, there is still a lot of creativity that goes into getting the lighting just right in your particular scene. Don't feel bad about taking credit for how you use it.
Just make sure to remember to list the tools you use when you post to the gallery and a vendor might even stop by to let you know how much they like what you've done. Vendors love to see what people are doing with their hard work. When you list the tools you use, Daz lets the vendors know periodically when their products have been used in an image.
He's a great character, really different. I also love the way you've set up the scene and the way you have posed him.
Thanks again for the comments, I'm looking forward to using him as a character in a game and I'm accepting the advice on taking credit for picking the lighting options
. I never realised the product listing in the gallery was used that way though, also thought it was just there for anyone looking through the gallery. I've been filling it in when I haven't been mixing in a lot of characters, but I hadn't gone to the effort of checking each one that was used on Hogden for example. As it's used for that I might go back and update some of them to list things. On that topic, is there a way to filter the dials to only show ones which have been used?
Made a start on a new character today, once I managed to find my Genesis 8 figure which has suddenly become Lost and Found for some reason
. Pose and background are just placeholders for the moment, working on the shaping and surfaces menus first.
I don't know if there's an easier way, but I find that if I just scroll slowly enough through the parameters not to miss any, I just watch for the ones that are highlighted as being different from default (I think white vs. black type). If anyone else has thoughts on how to do this more easily, I'd love to hear about it.
Welcome to the Art Forums Noswen!!
You have made a fantstic start and am courious to see more of your great characters!!!
@Wanderer, it might well be the only way, doubting there's too much call for a filter like that.
@SapphireWild: Thanks
Played around with the surfaces tab for the skin a bit, so many options that I have pretty much no idea what they do, after altering some values through trial and error I got it looking slightly different from the default settings. Not sure whether it's an improvement or simply different, but it gave me some looking through dials, so nothing lost.
And now with a pose added in and hopefully giving a bit more character. And remembering that more action orientated poses make the camera not so point and click to place
@Wanderer
On the left hand side of the parameters tab there is an option labelled 'Currently Used'; just select this and it will list the parameters with none default settings.
Ooh, that's going to be useful! Thanks!
How did I not notice that before?
Posting up this thread has defnitely given me some impetus to keep on working on things and actually save and post them
. Next up is adding the environment and the HDRI: -
I've attempted to frame the character between the two windows and rotated the dome to try to get the light in a better position for this. I need to work on either raising every single object in the scene or lowering the dome as this looks too much ground level at the moment for what I want, but can't find an easy way to do that in one go, will probably just do each item individually if needed
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Also a shoutout to https://hdrihaven.com/ where I got the HDRI from for this, and most of my renders where they're visible (even if not much of it is visible in this particular one), some great free stuff on that site.
@nattaruk - Wow, thanks. I'm so glad you chimed in.
@noswen - Probably because there are tons of buttons and tabs in Daz Studio constantly but quietly calling for attention. Hey, I appreciate you sharing information on your processes. I may not always speak up, but it's a huge help when people do that. That's why I post all the bits I post - hoping it profits someone ultimately, besides just me. Interesting character and scene. You should really consider joining us in the new users challenges. I waited too long to get serious and put myself out there to grow. You're doing quite well, and I think you'd make a welcome addition.
@Wanderer: Thank you, I have posted up pictures in a number of the New User Challenges before, I had intended to for the March one, but things happened which took out a lot of time for the first half of the month, so I sat that one out. And Daz is certainly complex, even after over a year (just a baby compared to some
) I have very little idea of what I'm actually doing, with a whole lot of turning semi-random dials and reverse them if it goes wrong 
. Wasn't that long ago I even realised how to apply a shader to a surface.
Well, I do hope you'll decide to join in the fun. Just don't wait like I did for too long to get out there.
Nice proceedings with the fighter lady! And spinning dials is always good, how els will you learn what the settings change. But I agree sometimes it seems that subtle a change you don't really get what it does for a while. I created a kind of Laboratory scene for me, with just neutral backwall and ground where I can put things I want to see and understand, so I won't cause havoc on a nice setting I had. there I can try with sunlight or other light sources and even dial to the extreme to see what happens.
Thanks. Sounds an interesting idea, though I'll probably stick with just spinning the dials on the existing scene and graually (I hope!) learning what things actually do
Sadly nothing I can do will make it so that my camera moves up the y axis of the hdri dome, it looks to be permanently centred on the camera itself, and changing the orientation dials for the dome has some odd and unwelcome effects with the light, so I'll probably stick to leaving the HDRI as it is. Did try rotating the dome a further 180 degrees, but the light coming through the window isn't enough to give the effect on the floor it currently has. Next step I guess will be to turn on depth of focus and then render it at a higher quality setting.