Wow! Some super duper awesome entries in July so you guys totally rock! The judges had a very difficult time picking just six, and there was a lot of griping and banging fists. In the end, everybody had some pizza and it was all good.

Hope to see you all in our August Vendor Awesomeness Contest!

July 2015 Contest Vendors

AprilYSH
Stonemason
Lady Littlefox
or Lady Littlefox RDNA

Also, in celebration of the release of Victoria 7, any image that contains Victoria 7 also qualified for the July contest!!

July contest entries.

1st Place – If the Death Walk

Artist – Shozai

First place in July 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

Love the lighting on this piece. The strong rim-lighting gives it a very sinister mood, and defines the shape of the monsters. Lady Littlefox’s Werewolf Hunter outfit, is beautifully accentuated by the pose of the girl, and also by the wonderful camera angle. The glowing red eyes on the girl and the bones on the ground, further add to the ambiance of this wonderful bad-ass composition.

Seeing this image makes me want to buy the outfit! Awesome work!

2nd Place – Break at the End of the World

Artist – Ippotamus

Second place in July 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

Wonderfully creative scene, with great details and depth. Excellent juxtaposition of the regular and mundane, with the ruination of the World. Wonderful details with the records strewn all over the floor, together with the rubble, which further emphasizes the message of the piece.

Finally, there is the red record box, which draws the viewer’s eyes, representing music, fun, and good times. The red color of the box matches little bits of the girl’s clothing, which helps to bring both figures together, as well as differentiate them from the gray backdrop of Stonemason’s wonderful City Ruins Bundle.

Love it!

3rd Place – Mech2012

Artist – ShawnBooth

Third place in July 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

Great realistic lighting! Just fantastic use of light and shadow to perfectly showcase the richness and complexity of the excellent Mech 2012 Enforcer by Stonemason. Another great example of a very compelling image that makes me want to buy the product.

Masterful lighting and post-work!

Honorable Mentions

Mermaid Trio by luannemarie

Honorable Mention in July 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

A great idea for showcasing AprilYSH’s Leyton hair from several different angles, with beautifully posed mermaids, within a wonderful environment. Lovely piece.

Mea Culpa by ThatGuy

Honorable Mention in July 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

Creative and funny, with great realistic lighting. It shows Victoria 7 and Stonemason’s The Village Pool to great effect.

Playing with my GUmi BOT by knaakie

Honorable Mention in July 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

Wonderful composition with great lighting and materials.

Strange Friends by EmotionalOutlet

Honorable Mention in July 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

Creative, adorable, and heart-warming.

A Big Congratulations to all the winners!!

Winners, please post a comment below with a valid e-mail in the comment e-mail box. This is what I will use to send you your DAZ GC code.

There are three types of water shaders that come with Daz Studio Iray – water, water dispersive, and water thin. I started learning about Iray water shaders by creating a very simple scene – just a girl wearing a swimsuit, who is standing in water.

The image below is the finished product of my water shader experiment. In this tutorial, I talk about the different parameters of the Iray water shader, and what I focused on to create my pin-up render.

Water Shader Tutorial for Daz Studio Iray

1. Water Shader

Barcelona Sunset environment map with zero rotation.

I create the scene as I normally would. Here I am using FWSA Gillian HD and LF Sorbet Swimwear, which fits in very well with a water pin-up scene. The only extra change I made here, is to make her skin appear more wet by increasing Glossy Reflectivity to 0.9, and decreasing Glossy Roughness to 0.4, for all skin surfaces.

Once I am done, I make a plane primitive and apply the Iray water shader to it. When I look at the surface properties of my water plane, there are two key properties – reflection and refraction.

a) Reflection

To get a good reflection on my water, I want to pick a good environment map and rotation angle. I like the Barcelona Rooftops HDR that I got from sIBL Archives, so I use it here, starting with zero rotation. Unfortunately, at this rotation, it is filled with large buildings and palm trees, which is not a very pleasing reflection on my water. Therefore, I adjust the rotation until I get an interesting far-away skyline, that I am happy with (rotation = 270 degrees).

I adjust the rotation of my Environment Map until I get a more open, far-away, skyline that I am happy with.

b) Refraction

Slight change of the camera angle so we can see more of the refracted foot.

Another important aspect of the Iray water shader is refraction. Light travels at a different speed in air than in water. Therefore, when light enters water, it gets bent (at the point of crossing), thereby allowing us to see more of the leg that is submerged. Without refraction, her foot would not be visible.

Submerged objects always appear to be shallower than they are because the light from them changes angle at the surface, bending downward toward the water.
~~[HyperPhysics]

Create a Ground Plane by duplicating my water plane.

However, because all we have is our water plane and there is no ground plane, her foot looks like it is not standing on anything. To fix this, I duplicate my water plane by going into Edit > Duplicate > Duplicate Node(s). This creates a duplicate plane which I call ‘Ground Plane’. Next, I apply the Concrete Iray shader to my ground plane, and then move it down so that my pin-up girl is standing on it.

Notice that there is now a shadow under her foot, and there are also interesting patterns on the water due to refraction of the ground plane.

I add a ground plane so that the pin-up girl’s refracted foot, under the water, is standing on a solid surface.

c) Waves

You will notice, that there is wind in our render that is blowing out our pin-up girl’s hair. This wind will also create waves/ripples on our water. To add waves to our currently flat water plane, we add in an appropriate normal map. We can do a search for “water normal map” or we can get a normal map from one of our existing environments.

Load my water normal map into the Normal Map parameter of my water plane.

Next, I edit my water plane surface, and load in my water normal map. I can increase the number of Horizontal and Vertical Tiles in my shader parameter, if I want to make my water be more wavy. Finally, I can also color my water plane, for example make my water appear more blue, by changing the Base Color parameter of my water plane.

Added waves on my water plane by loading in an appropriate water normal map.

2. Water Thin & Water Dispersive

The Water Thin Iray shader is just like the Water shader except that it has the Thin Walled parameter turned on. This just means that the water shader is only applied to the surface of the object, instead of the entire volume of the object.

Thin Walled – This property sets the volumetric effects of the surface. Compare a bubble (on) to a marble (off) for example.
~~[Daz Documentation Center]

When Thin Walled is Off, the bubbles look like droplets of water.

For example, cornea surfaces are often set to Water Thin. Another great example of a thin surface object are bubbles. In my first bubble image, I have the Thin Walled parameter set to Off. In this example, my bubbles look more like droplets of water rather than bubbles.

When Thin Walled is On, the bubbles look a lot more like bubbles.

Completed Pink Lady and Bubbles image.

Another very cool aspect of bubbles is that they have chromatic dispersion. These result in the many colors we may see on bubbles, in an oil slick, or in a rainbow.

A bubble film is a sort of sandwich: a layer of soap molecules, a filling of water molecules, and then another layer of soap molecules. When light waves reflecting from one layer of soap molecules meet up with light waves reflecting from the second layer of soap molecules, the two sets of waves interfere. Some waves add together, making certain frequencies or colors of light brighter. Other waves cancel each other, removing a frequency or color from the mixture. The colors that you see are what’s left after the light waves interfere.
~~[Exploratorium]

That is what the Water Dispersive Iray shader addresses. It has an additional parameter called Abbe.

Abbe is a conatant chromatic dispersion. Lower numbers (but greater than 0) give more dispersion on the surface, and the higher the value, the less dispersion. This works on surfaces with volume, not on Thin Walled surfaces.
~~[Daz Documentation Center]

Note that Abbe does not work on Thin Walled surfaces. Therefore, to test this out, I need a double layered bubble (i.e. a bubble that is geometrically represented by both an outer and inner layer). I found such a bubble in the 3D Bubbles product by MindVision G.D.S.

Water Dispersive Iray shader applied to two-sided bubbles. Abbe set to 2.

Chromatic dispersion works here. However, the two sided bubbles look a bit too substantial for bubbles, and ends up looking more like glass. Personally, I like the Thin Walled version best.

Another example image with Thin-Walled bubbles.

3. Under-Water Scene

There are two important aspects in an underwater scene, volumetric or atmospheric effects and caustics. I achieve my underwater atmospheric effect by using AtmoCam for Iray by Marshian. We can also set up our own volumetric cube by following some of the guidelines discussed here (in the Daz3D forum).

In optics, a caustic or caustic network is the envelope of light rays reflected or refracted by a curved surface or object, or the projection of that envelope of rays on another surface.
~~[Wikipedia]

In water, cool caustic patterns are made by the curves of surface waves. To generate these caustic patterns in my underwater scene, it is easiest and most time effective to fake it using a Gobo light.

1. I first did a search for “water caustics texture” and download some patterns that I like.
2. Then, I placed a spotlight up high up in my scene, and point it down at my focus area. I want it high enough so that it casts a bunch of almost parallel rays into my scene.
I invert my caustics image using the Layered Image Editor.
3. Next, I create a plane and apply my water caustics texture to the Cutout Opacity parameter of the plane. White represents opaque and black represents transparent. Therefore, I want my caustics lines to be in black and all the rest to be in white. If necessary, I can invert the image using the Layered Image Editor.
4. Finally I position the plane in front of my light so that it casts the proper shadows onto my underwater floor plane.

Finished underwater mermaid scene with caustics from a Gobo light.

Another way to achieve caustics is to do it for real by setting up an appropriate scene with appropriate shaders, and then letting the Iray renderer physically generate the water caustics pattern. This will take much longer to render, but will create more realistic looking results.

It was a big challenge for me to get Iray to generate caustic patterns in my underwater scene. I was finally only able to do it by using Overcomeon’s underwater caustic test scene.

Remember that the caustic patterns are formed by reflection and refraction off the curved surface of waves, on our water. Therefore, we will need waves on our water plane. In addition, reflection also plays a very important role to bounce off our light rays, thereby increasing the area where the patterns are created. To get caustics in my scene, I needed to place several large planes around my scene to bounce off my sunlight.

Finally, we also want to go to Render Settings > Optimization and turn ON the Caustic Sampler parameter. This will hopefully increase render efficiency of caustics in our scene. Note that this is just an optimization or render efficiency setting.

Finished underwater mermaid scene with real caustics from the Daz Studio Iray renderer.

Thank you all for participating in August and congratulations to all the winners of the August Vendor Awesomeness Contest!

September is Published Artist month at DAZ3D, so we will be celebrating the vendors here as well. There will be double the number of vendors and also double the prizes! We will be awarding the first set of prizes at around the 20th of September, so that you get bucks to spend on Daz. The second set of prizes will be announced at the usual time at the beginning of next month.

So what are you waiting for?! Join the September Double Awesomeness Vendor Contest!!

August 2015 Contest Vendors

Silver
SWAM
Arki
or Arki RDNA

August contest entries.

1st Place – Ayashe – Cave 2

Artist – knaakie

First place in August Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

Super realistic and so wonderfully done. Awesome looking materials, great looking face-paint, accessories, and depth of field. Arki’s Raven Mohawk Hair looks absolutely fantastic here. I went over to RDNA and downloaded it as soon as I saw this image!

Here is the link for this wonderful freebie by Arki.

2nd Place – Squaw

Artist – luannemarie

Second place in August Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

Love it that you combined Kelsie Hair and Wachiwi Hair seamlessly together to make a stunning new creation! Also great scene, pose, materials, and everything else. Creative and beautiful!

3rd Place – Home sweet Home

Artist – Shozai

Third place in August 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

What a kick-ass composition! Great integration of so many products by Arki as well as Vyla by Silver, in this stunning scene. The water looks amazing, as does the posing and colors. If this were a book cover, I would buy the book. Fantasy at its’ most awesome!

3rd Place – Owl Queen

Artist – Tetsuwan Atom

Third place in August 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

And we have a 3rd place tie this month! Just a wonderful integration of Arki’s products into an amazing and creative portrait. The colors and materials are magnificent, in this very eye-catching piece. Would make an amazing promo image!

Honorable Mentions

Celestial Advisor by reserv888

Honorable Mention in August 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

Wonderful effects, pose, and a great feature of Aloisia by Silver.

Freedom Angel by Tiger Lee Arts

Honorable Mention in August 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

Superb rendering of an angel, using all of Arki’s products to great effect!

Is it a pigeon? by Lemeya

Honorable Mention in August 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest

Beautiful, delightful, and full of grace. An all around wonderful image that lightens the mood and keeps one coming back for more. Mane hair looks just great here!

Congrats and thank you all for participating!!

Winners, please post a comment below with a valid e-mail in the comment e-mail box. This is what I will use to send you your DAZ GC code.

After seeing Dave’s wonderful wet skin image on the Daz Gallery, I was inspired to try creating a wet skin render in Daz Studio Iray.

Creating wet skin involves three key steps-
1. Making the composition fit. If our figure is to have wet skin, then we want our composition to support that.
2. Making the skin properly shiny. Wet skin is more shiny and reflective than dry skin because there is water on the skin’s surface.
3. Adding water drops on top of the skin. In addition to being more shiny, there will also be some drops of water clinging to the skin, and trailing down the skin.

How to Get Wet Skin in Daz Studio Iray

1. Making the composition fit

First, I create my scene in Daz Studio. Since I want to focus on the skin, I want my figure to be fairly large, and to have a good amount of skin visible. In addition, she should be doing something that will result in wet skin. In this image, I decided to create a dynamic scene, featuring Victoria 7 exercising with weights. Hair is NJA Ponytail Hair, which is one of my favorites. Outfit is Heat Up for G3F and G2F.

Below is the first pass of my composition with regular Victoria 7 skin. Lighting is just with an IBL. At this point, the skin does not look very wet.

Woman exercising with weights with regular Victoria 7 skin.

2. Making the skin properly shiny

Next, I want to change certain settings on my Victoria 7 skin to make it more shiny. To do this, I select my Victoria 7 figure, and go into Surfaces > Editor. I select my V7 skins and make the following parameter changes –

• Glossy Layered Weight set to 1.0.
• Glossy Reflectivity set to 0.9.
• Glossy Roughness set to 0.4. This can be set lower if we want to increase the wet effect on skin. Setting it too low though, will make the skin look unrealistically shiny. Therefore, tweak it according to personal taste.
• Top Coat Layering Mode set to Fresnel. Top Coat IOR set to 1.49 and Top Coat Thin Film IOR set to 1.4. Again, Top Coat Roughness can be adjusted according to taste. A lower Roughness value will increase shininess and a higher Roughness value will decrease shininess.

Victoria 7 skin after changing Glossy and Top Coat parameters.

3. Adding water drops on top of the skin

There are multiple ways to achieve this final step. I use a simple technique here, which utilizes the Daz Studio geometry shell.

• First, I select my Victoria 7 figure.
• Next, I go into Create > New Geometry Shell. This creates a shell over our Victoria 7 figure.
• I then select the Geometry Shell and apply the Iray Water shader to it.
• I go to Parameters > Mesh Offset and set the Offset Distance to 0.001.

Victoria7 after adding a geometric shell with surfaces set to the Iray water shader.

In the image above, she looks like she has cellophane wrapped all around her. This looks strange because water on our body does not form an even continuous shell. Instead, we only want certain small parts of the shell to be visible, simulating water droplets.

To do this, I do a search on “water condensation bump”. I download an appropriate black and white water condensation image, and apply that to the Cutout Opacity parameter of my geometry shell. I can then adjust the Horizontal and Vertical Tiles parameter to control how much water there is. I decided to go for the more subtle effect here with water drops that are not overly prominent.

Finally, I also add some mesh lights to further accentuate the shininess of my wet skin and shell.

Added water condensation map to our water geometric shell, so that only small parts of shell are visible. Also added mesh lights to accentuate our wet skin.

Another way to achieve water droplets on skin is to use crafted specular maps. This is what is done in Wet Body Geometry Shells by SimonWM. However, this product does not work with Genesis 3 figures because the specular maps are crafted for the Victoria 5 UV, which currently is not compatible with G3F.

This is what I did-

• I apply the Wet Body geometry shell to a G2F figure (Victoria 6).
• I select all surfaces on the geometry shell and apply the Iray Uber shader.
• I set Glossy Weight to 1.0, Glossy Reflectivity to 1.0, and Glossy Roughness to 0.
• Finally, I can further control the strength of the drops by changing Translucency Weight. A value of 0 has the strongest wet map.
Water Goddess image with stronger Sweat Rolling specular wet body map.

This first image has a stronger wet body look, and uses the specular Sweat Rolling map. For contrast, we also use a more subtle wet body look, and the Water Beads specular map.

Water Goddess image with more subtle Water Beads specular wet body map. Also using more fantasy lighting here.

Some super great entries this time!

September was Premier Artist Festival Month at Daz3D!! In celebration of PA month, we doubled the number of vendors in the September 2015 contest, as well as doubled the prizes. There were two sets of prizes awarded – one around the 20th of the month and another at the usual time in the beginning of October.

Here are the winners for both rounds of the September Vendor Contest. Congratulations to the winners and hope everyone enjoyed the Vendor Festival at DAZ. I know my wallet is a lot thinner because of it!

September 2015 Contest Vendors

Design Anvil
FirstBastion
Ignis Serpentus
ironman13
RawArt
Sabby
SHIFTING IMAGES

September contest entries.

Round 2 Winners

1st Place – Rules

Artist – Shozai

First place in the September Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part 2).

Such a beautiful detailed piece, full of character and charm. One cannot help but feel lifted by the antics of the animals in the image. Wonderful use of Design Anvil’s Old Oak Tree as well as Grass and Plants to create this magical environment. Great colors, fantastic poses, and an overall awesome composition!

Here are a few more captivating images by Shozai. If you have not visited her gallery, I highly recommend it!

Amazing story-telling and mood.

Beautiful soft-look portrait, of Gillian by Sabby and Fred Winkler Art.

2nd Place – Dragon Cove

Artist – EmotionalOutlet

Second place in the September Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part 2).

Dragons playing with crabs. Just gotta love this!

The pose of the main dragon is perfect to convey playfulness, a bit of uncertainty, and youth. It is often difficult to capture emotion, tell an interesting story, and evoke a strong positive reaction from the viewer. This image gets an A+ in all three!

Awesomely creative and great use of First Bastion’s wonderful environment.

3rd Place – Wingless Dragon Haven

Artist – Penne’s From Heaven

Third place in the September Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part 2).

Another creative composition that beautifully captures the bond between human and non-human. The dragon having his head scratched, has absolutely the best expression. You can almost hear her purring. Great combination of Ignis Serpentus’ Prisoner Of War outfit and RawArt’s Asian Dragon.

Honorable Mentions

A Bloodymess by Drakenborg

Honorable Mention in the Septeber 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part2).

Superb application of blood on not just the main character, but also on the table, walls, and the little scary implements. Masterful work!

Catch The Mummy by knaakie

Honorable Mention in the Septeber 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part2).

Great story-telling and expressions. Love it!

Its A Storm Outside by TrixterMatrix

Honorable Mention in the Septeber 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part2).

Excellent rain effects, lighting, and expression. All work together well to convey the mood of the piece. The added red from the Fantasy Cloth Wrap by Shifting Images is a great touch.

Lets Go by luannemarie

Honorable Mention in the Septeber 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part2).

Stunning pin-up! Great use of lights and materials.

Round 1 Winners

1st Place – Invasion Earth Failed

Artist – reserv888

First place in the September Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part 1).

Wow! Absolutely love this piece. Very cool composition, the light on water and reflections look awesome, the materials are great, and it shows off First Bastion’s Secluded Shoreline to great effect.

Really hope there is a First Bastion sale soon, because he has some really great environments.

2nd Place – Going Dark

Artist – Storypilot

Second place in the September Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part 1).

Always love the light and atmosphere in your pieces. Great combination of multiple outfits from Shifting Images, and wonderful how you converted the sword into a light-saber!

Excellent work!

3rd Place – The Art of Dance

Artist – freespinner

Third place in the September Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part 1).

Awesome pose and great use of light to accentuate the shape of Fred and Sabby’s Dayna figure. Especially love the attention to detail on how the fabric drapes over her body.

Simply captivating!

Honorable Mentions

Firstborn by Shozai

Honorable Mention in the Septeber 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part1).

Beautiful composition showcasing two big favorites of mine – Dragon’s Tor and Black Dragon by Design Anvil. Love how the baby dragon is coming out of the egg, as the proud mother watches and protects. Awesome!

Guarded Entry by ThatGuy

Honorable Mention in the Septeber 2015 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest (Part1).

This image looks like a still from a fantasy movie I would love to watch! Wonderful action, expressions, and a great showcase for Battle Cat and Nox Aeterna by Ignis Serpentus.

Congrats and thank you all for participating!!

Winners, please post a comment below with a valid e-mail in the comment e-mail box. This is what I will use to send you your DAZ GC code.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Fantasy art environment created with DM’s Enchanted Hill. 3Delight render, postwork in Photoshop.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Feel free to share your top fantasy art environments with us below.

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.

Wow! March Madness was just crazy good this year. There were a bunch of great items that I really loved and some terrific deals. We are also beginning to see a bunch of RDNA items appear in the DAZ store. In fact, some of the best deals in March were on these items, many of which had multiple stacking discounts, so they were priced at $2-$5. Hard to pass up on a deal like that!

I was actually hoping to hold back some in March, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Based on the March contest entries, it looks like the popular items used include –

• Legacie Hair by goldtassel,
• The Hunting Drake by Valandar, as well as
• Stonemason’s Japanese Maples and Fern Lake Bundle.

Originally, I was going to feature these three great vendors for April. However, it looks like Goldtassel and Valandar were very recently picked, so I had to switched things up a little bit. I added in RuntimeDNA’s Daz store and DzFire, because of the fun April’s Fool joke that Daz played on us today with V8.

April 2016 Contest Vendors

DzFire
RuntimeDNA Daz Store
Stonemason

Images with the newly released Izabella 7 will also qualify.

April contest entries.

1st Place – Morning Haze

Artist – Ippotamus

First place in the April 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Absolutely love this piece! Excellent story-telling, composition, and render.

My eye is first drawn to the lantern on the pier, … there is a map! What are we looking for? A cure, some treasure, a new home? We see the ships sailing away into the haze, into an uncertain future. But there is hope, because there are always lights to illuminate our way.

A very creative use of RDNA’s Star, which together with the fantasy boats, adds a whimsical feel to the image.

All the materials look great, the water and haze are wonderful, and the accents from the warm lights are perfection. An amazing piece of art.

2nd Place – Immortal Fighter

Artist – Drakenborg

Second place in the April 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

A marvelous dynamic image, blending the old with the new, fantasy with sci-fi, as well as Eastern with Western. It creates a fabulous showcase for Stonemason’s Streets Of Asia 3 and Sci-Fi Bedroom.

I especially love the movement of the character and hair, as well as her outfit, which encapsulates this blending of different elements, and yet appears as a seamless whole. Wonderful concept and marvelous use of colors and materials in its execution.

There were many great entries in April (thank you all so much for participating), so the judges had another tie for third place.

3rd Place – Gang Activity

Artist – Joe Webb

Third place in the March 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Fantastic camera work and tension!

I especially love the clever use of shadows to increase the threat presented by the armored swordsman. Light bathes the current action portion of the scene, which is where our eye is drawn to first. But then, we notice the fallen man in the shadows, and realize that his brave comrade is standing ready to protect him.

Great details with the dropped sword and hat on the floor, as well as the broken crockery.

The walled in lane from Stonemason’s The Streets Of The Mediterranean helps to increase the tension of the image, and the light is superbly placed to cast shadows in exactly the right place. A brilliant example of using the environment to help capture story and mood.

3rd Place – Curious Look

Artist – Shozai

Third place in the March 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Who would not fall in love with this image! AM’s Raccoon is wonderfully emotive and adorable. The little fella is cautious, but he is also curious and perhaps looking for some adventure.

Amazing textures on the bark and everything else. I like the use of the gray bark, which helps to camouflage the hiding raccoon. However, the gray also sets the foreground elements apart from the rest of the greenery.

A terrific image from an outstanding artist.

Honorable Mentions

Grounded by Alx

Honorable Mention in the April 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Excellent concept and great use of Stonemason’s Dirt Shaders to give her outfit a battered and battleworn look. The grave mood of the scene is further enhanced by the environment, darker lighting, expression, pose, and smoke effects.

Absolutely wonderful how everything works so well together to draw the viewer into her story.

Let there be light … by Lemeya

Honorable Mention in the April 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

A creative and delightful composition featuring RuntimeDNA’s Lumen Tenebris front and center. It looks like both sprites are in a contest to get to the light, which makes the item even more desirable. In addition, the beautiful colors, background, and mist, make this into a clear winner!

The Evening Flight by EmotionalOutlet

Honorable Mention in the April 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

A gorgeous composition rendered in Vue.

I have always wondered about the complexity of porting Daz Studio assets into Vue, so it is great to see that the materials from Stonemason’s The Streets of Tuscany transfer so well. Beautifully put together and rendered.

Thank You and Congratulations!!

Winners, please post a comment below with a valid e-mail in the comment e-mail box. This is what I will use to send you your DAZ GC code.

Thank you all so much for sharing all your wonderful ideas and artwork with us. You are all totally fabulous! See you in our May 2016 contest!

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

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 /li>
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.

Evergreen Tier 4+ Patron Freebies

• My Daz Studio Iray light rig and render settings
• Shiba Glow + Orton Effect
• Scene & PSD Files for Iray Wet Skin Tutorial
• Scene & PSD Files for Iray Lighting Tutorial
• How I Combine Iray Lights in Photoshop [Patron Exclusive Tutorial]

Iray Material Presets for:

• The Frost Queen Outfit
• Top 5 Fantasy Women Outfits

November 2015

Featured images, scene files, and PSD files –

• A Frozen Halloween
• I Am Catwoman
• Vampire Hunters

December 2015

Featured images, scene files, and PSD files –

• Desert Dance
• Mermaid Magic
• Motorcycle Girl Pin-Up Art

January 2016

Featured images, scene files, and PSD files –

• How to Add Glow to Daz Studio Images [Special Tutorial Reward]
• The Dragon Queen Fantasy Art
• The Little Witch
• Christmas Angel Olympia7

February 2016

Featured images, scene files, and PSD files –

• Freebie Minion 3d-model for Daz Studio & Poser (fully rigged)
• The Dragon Returns
• There Is Beauty Still
• Broken

March 2016

Featured images, scene files, and PSD files –

• Daz Studio Iray Skin Tutorial [Special Tutorial Reward]
• Dance of the Elements
• Girl with Blue Eyes Portrait
• Girl with Guns Pin-Up Art

April 2016

Featured images, scene files, and PSD files –

• 5 Ways to Create ‘Soft Lighting Effects’ in Daz Studio & Photoshop [Special Tutorial Reward]
• My Top Fantasy Art Environments Iray Material Presets
• Angel of the Tribes
• Red Devil Girl Fantasy Art
• Remembrance

May 2016

Featured images, scene files, and PSD files –

• Step-by-Step Daz Studio Iray Post-Work Tutorial [Special Tutorial Reward]
• Gorgon Medusa Fantasy Art
• Pearl of the Orient
• Unholy Romance

June 2016

Featured images, scene files, and PSD files –

• Emissive Surfaces in Daz Studio Iray [Special Tutorial Reward]
• Fantasy Woman Warrior vs. Lizardmen
• Sci-Fi Girl with Iray Light Emitting Hair
• Pirate Girl Fantasy Art

July 2016

Featured images, scene files, and PSD files –

• Daz Studio Iray Sunlight Tutorial [Special Tutorial Reward]
• Mecha Cat Girl with Guns Pin-Up Art
• Native American Girl & White Tiger Cubs Fantasy Art
• Lost Time

Shiba Shake on Patreon

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

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.

My favorite April item has got to be Mei Lin 7. Luckily, March Madness was extended, so we could get her packages at a pretty good price. I don’t have her HD add-on yet, but I am definitely going to get it when it goes back on sale.

There certainly were many Mei Lin 7 renders in the Daz Gallery last month. In fact, almost half the pictures I made in April were of Mei Lin. A beauty like this needs an equally beautiful companion, and what better friend than an Asian tiger cub! Therefore, this May, we will feature Mei Lin 7 and Alessandro_AM.

Mei Lin 7 and Tiger Cub

A girl also needs beautiful textures to wear and interesting places to visit, so our two other vendors are Anna Benjamin (fashion texture extraordinaire) and ironman13 (sets and pose genius).

May 2016 Contest Vendors

Alessandro_AM
Anna Benjamin
ironman13

Images with the newly released Mei Lin 7 and Lee 7 will also qualify.

May contest entries.

1st Place – Defender of the Forest

Artist – Storypilot

First place in the May 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Wow! Fantastic!

Straight away I get drawn into the action of the piece. The blurring effect is outstanding. It creates a strong feeling of danger and tension, where everything seems to be getting sucked into the creature’s big maw. We cannot help but feel strongly for the wolf who is defending her home from this evil alien presence.

Brilliant use of colors. The red alien creature stands out well against the blue backdrop, and its color and texture make it look more threatening. The wolf is marvelously posed and the superb camera angle intensifies the entire scene.

Masterful use of pose, camera, colors, shaders, and post-effects to capture a wonderfully dynamic story moment. Bravo!

2nd Place – Love and Security

Artist – Shozai

Second place in the May 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

I absolutely love all the tender, funny, and happy moments that Shozai captures in her amazing animal artwork.

This image is brilliant! The elephants’ poses and expressions convey a perfect feeling of contentment and happiness. One cannot help but share in that feeling, and want to protect it.

The dappled light on their bodies is beautiful, as are the blue and green hues, which further accentuate the peacefulness of the scene. This is both visually and emotionally spectacular!

Make sure to view May’s submissions for many more delightful and majestic moments captured by Shozai.

A majestic image of the Indian Elephant by AM.

There was just a butt-load of amazing artwork this month, so a big congratulations to you all. The judges were unable to pare down their favorite entries, so we have a three way tie in third place, and lots of honorable winners! Get ready for the awesomeness!

3rd Place – Stampede

Artist – Budo-san

Third place in the May 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Magnificent scene and snow effects. One can almost hear the thundering sound of gigantic feet and feel the ground shake. A truly wonderful showcase of Alessandro_AM’s marvelous Woolly Mammoth.

3rd Place – Walking alone

Artist – MikeD

Third place in the May 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

The lone wolf, making his way bravely through adversity. This image speaks strongly to us all as we go through life’s challenges. We hope to face them with courage, dignity, and grace, all of which are captured here in AM’s magnificent wolf. Excellent concept, pose, environment, and seamless integration with Ron’s Magical Snow brushes.

3rd Place – Nile Ballet

Artist – Joe Webb

Third place in the May 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

A gorgeous, playful, and wonderfully creative image. The crocodiles are beautifully posed, basking in the sun. They are to one side, while the hippos are on the other, thus creating the fascinating interplay of the Nile Ballet.

The dance of light on water creates another compelling visual all on its own. Love the composition, love the backdrop, love the lighting, love everything about this stunning work of art.

Honorable Mentions

Defiance by mugzie101

Honorable Mention in the May 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

A superb fantasy character featuring the Eternal Desert Warrior Outfit by Anna Benjamin. Great looking pose, combination with the bow, and very sultry expression. All in all a captivating promo image, which would certainly get me to cart and buy.

Washing Day by knaakie

Honorable Mention in the May 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Hahaha! Love this! As Arnold would say, …

Punk: Wash day tomorrow? Nothing clean, right?
The Terminator: Nothing clean. Right.
~~[The Terminator]

A very clever piece of art with fabulous camera angle, framing, and depth of field. Always love your work, ingenuity, and humor. Ironman13’s Laundromat Environment is looking very hot and spicy!

Old Pirate by luci45

Honorable Mention in the May 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

A remarkable character portrait featuring the Crimson Seas outfit and textures by Anna Benjamin. Excellent lighting that draws our attention straight to the face, which is rich in detail, expression, and sporting an excellent beard. We want to hear the many exciting adventures that this old sea dog has to tell, starting with the one about the great big gem!

Samurai Temple by Jaellra

Honorable Mention in the May 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Yay! A Lee 7 render!

Awesome composition, lighting, and effects. Love how smoothly Ron’s brushes are integrated into the scene, as well as the pose and backdrop. Terrific use of materials, especially the light reflections on the ground. Outstanding image!

Mesmerized by Ferretmania

Honorable Mention in the May 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

The viewer’s attention is instantly captured, by the expression of terror on the girl’s face. I like how everything is darkened so as to quickly draw one’s eye to where the action is. Incredible expressions, posing, and story-telling.

Rabbit and Steel: Together Again by Ippotamus

Honorable Mention in the May 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

A dynamite image, with great characters, story-telling, and whimsy. This would make a terrific comic book series!

As soon as I saw the samurai bunny, I loved it! The girl’s pose and outfit are superb, as is the cool looking scooter. Great color blends of blues and yellows, and an awesome backdrop. Everything fits perfectly together in this charmingly creative composition.

Thank You and Congratulations!!

Winners, please post a comment below with a valid e-mail in the comment e-mail box. This is what I will use to send you your DAZ GC code.

Many thanks to you all for joining us on this journey and making this contest interesting, illuminating, and fun! We hope you will all join us for another year as well as give us suggestions and thoughts for improvement. See you in our June 2016 contest!

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

Sub-surface scattering (SSS)

In the introduction to this series I explained how Physically Based Render engines work – simulated light bouncing around interacting with surfaces.

SSS is the process that defines –

• How light passes through a translucent object,
• How it interacts with the properties of that object, and
• How it exits the object (at a different point – hence scattered).

In practical terms, particularly with skin, it is the effect where you see light pass through extremities like the ear, producing a reddening glow.

Showing Sub-surface scattering (SSS) effects as it passes through the ear, producing a reddening glow.

That is about as far as I can take the science, so let’s look at how SSS is controlled within Octane.  SSS is applied to a material node using a scattering node, which can be applied to both diffuse and specular materials (but not glossy ones).  If you look at the skin shader material in our previous skin tutorial, you will see there is a scattering node attached to all four material nodes (3 scattering nodes, as one is shared between two specular nodes).

Node-graph diagram of our skin shader showing the a scattering node attached to a material node.

The diagram below shows the three scattering nodes controlling (from left to right) the skin’s deep/mid layer, the mid-layer and the surface layer.

Settings for three scattering nodes controlling (from left to right) the skin’s deep/mid layer, the mid-layer and the surface layer.

Octane Scattering Node Settings

1. Density

Density controls how fast light travels through an object, the higher the value the faster it travels (a value of 0 would result in no scattering).  My interpretation of this is that the higher the value, the deeper light can penetrate a surface.  When using other materials, particularly those from the online database, I have found this setting to be very low.  It is very dependent on the size of the model, and therefore the scale used within Daz.  Normally these materials have been developed for use within other 3d applications with a different scaling system, which is why they tend to be set lower.

2. Absorption

The scattered light will be the opposite of the absorption colour.

This setting defines which light is absorbed faster, in the case of the 3^rd node it’s a green/blue.  It took me a while to get my head round this, but essentially the effect is the scattered light will be the opposite of this colour (from a wavelength perspective).  The image shown here is from the colour picker within octane – a colour set to absorb blue will scatter as red.

3. Scattering

Scattering is similar to absorption, but defines the speed at which light will be scattered when it passes through an object.

4. Phase/direction

This controls the direction the light is scattered:

• 0 – light scattered the same amount in any direction
• 1.0 – more light continues to travel in the direction it was originally traveling
• -1.0 – light backscatters in the direction it came from

5. Adjusting the scattering nodes

Sadly there is no one definitive setting that will work across all objects. It very much depends on scale, lighting, position, kernel settings and so on.  It is very much a case of trial and error, and an area I still need to work on.

Practically, you may not need to worry about this setting too much, for example if the object is distant or if the ears are covered.  But if you do need to, it’s a juggling act between getting the right amount of scattering across all skin materials. 

Light wouldn’t scatter like that through a hand.

Note – any changes you make to one material (e.g. ears) will have to be adjusted in other skin materials (e.g. arms), otherwise the change will be visible in the UV seams.  Consider the girl with the red ear above – she was one of my first attempts at SSS.  Now look at her hand …

Light wouldn’t scatter like that through a hand.  As a result I tend to pose a model with the hand next to the ear, and then adjust the density (starting with the deep scatter node).  Density (from left to right) 1, 250, 500.

I tend to pose a model with the hand next to the ear, and then adjust the density. Density (from left to right) 1, 250, 500.

Glossiness

The last area I would like to cover regarding the skin material is gloss/reflection.  This is for subtle gloss effect, so you wouldn’t use this for a wet skin look, but more for areas like the lips, nails, lacrimals, or eye socket. 

Gloss is controlled in Octane using the Roughness setting in both specular and glossy nodes, but is not available in diffuse nodes.  The scale between 0 and 1 determines the level – the lower the roughness, the more glossy/reflective the surface.

The lower the roughness, the more glossy/reflective the surface.

Let’s consider a practical example using the lips.  The lips are currently sharing a material with the face and the ears, which is no good as we don’t want a shiny face! 

• Return to the Material tab and select the Lips surface.
• Select the material assigned to the lips and copy as a new material.
• Now apply this new copied material to the lips. It now has its own material that we can edit.

Select the material assigned to the lips and copy as a new material.

You can get away with this with the lips as they have a clearly defined line between the surrounding face surface, so the seam is less obvious.

With the newly assigned lip material selected, open the node viewport.  I have found, surprisingly, that the best place to adjust the roughness for the lips is in the uppermost scattering node (the one for the deep scatter), which to me, sounds counter-intuitive.  The image below shows the lips with roughness set to 500,250 & 0 (top to bottom).

Lips with roughness set to 500,250 & 0 (top to bottom).

Finishing up in Daz

Octane comes with a free online material database containing 100s of organic and non-organic materials.  I used the auto-material function in Octane for the eye-lashes. This feature takes the surface settings from within Daz and tries to convert them into Octane. The results vary, and it struggles with iRay materials (though it is getting better). Within the Material tab, right-click the item and select Create new material > Auto Material.

I used the auto-material function in Octane for the eye-lashes.

The other materials I used in the Mei portrait are:

1. Cornea and Eye Reflection – Clear cornea shader  (Octane database)
2. Eyelashes – Auto-material
3. Iris – RedSpec
4. Pupils – RedSpec
5. Sclera – TonySculptor Sclera (Octane database)
6. Hair (Actual Hair 2) – RedSpec Hair Shader

The RedSpec materials are part of a set purchased from a 3^rd Party.

I used the iRay OOT Hair Shaders for colour and transparency maps.  I sometimes increase the smoothing value within Daz for hair as well.

Mei portrait

I have always had a real dislike of the Tear object around the eye, which is now part of the eye moisture object in Genesis 3 characters.  I remove it in Daz by using the geometry tool.

• Click anywhere on the tear.
• Right-click and do Geometry selection > Select connected.
• With the tear now selected (see image below), you can right click Geometry assignment > Create surface from selected.
• Name it, and then repeat with the other eye.
• I then apply a null-shader (diffuse node with no settings, and opacity set to 0) to the tears, and there you have it, no more tears!

Selecting the tear area on our figure’s eyes.

Summary

So that’s it for Daz Studio, Octane, and skin.  I still have some work to do, in particular on skin reflection, index of refraction, Fresnel effect, falloff textures and more.  I also want to break down the material a bit more and make it more processor efficient.

Having spent so much time on the skin, I also need to work on bringing the standard of my other materials up to scratch. You will notice many of my models don’t smile, simply because I am yet to develop a material I am happy with. Same goes for clothes.

Thank you for visiting my Daz Studio Octane tutorials. Hope you enjoyed them.

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

How time flies! We started this contest a year ago, and we are so happy with the wonderful entries we get every month. Thank you all for joining in, visiting our contest pages, and sharing your fabulous artwork with us.

Here are the vendors we featured in our first year!

Qualifying item used – Sacelleum of Corlyk by Orestes Graphics.

In celebration of the new contest year, we will pick totally new vendors that we haven’t featured before.

June 2016 Contest Vendors

Cake One
Danie & Marforno
Orestes Graphics

Images with the newly released Kalea 7 and Kimo 7 will also qualify.

June contest entries.

1st Place – Little Cheater

Artist – knaakie

First place in the June 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

This series of images with the Hob Goblin is just crazy funny. The judges had a difficult time picking a favorite and so did I!

I finally settled on this one which has marvelous story-telling, action, expressive poses, and depth. The image captures everything so well that no additional text is needed. In addition, the main character comes through as very lovable even though he is a rogue.

It is rare to see an image that is so naturally and eloquently posed. It makes an already great image into an excellent one. You definitely want to check out more of your favorite Hob Goblin adventures here!

2nd Place – Some Enchanted Evening

Artist – Areyna

Second place in the June 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

This looks like a book cover!

The fantastic colors and lighting quickly grabbed my attention, and the awesome characters held it. Especially love the glow on both their hair, and the incredible romantic setting.

Her come-hither look and great details like his gold chain and cigarette, make this into another outstanding story-telling piece. I would definitely buy this book!

In addition, Kalea looks lovely here, so it would also make an amazing promo image.

3rd Place – Blackbird Tattoo

Artist – Kismet2012

Third place in the June 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

What a terrific concept!

The tattoo is excellent. I like that it is a bit faded, which makes it blend naturally and realistically with her skin. Pose, jewelry, and hair, complements the tattoo perfectly, showing both grace and beauty. In addition, skillful use of blue in the jewels, background, and lighting, further enhances the picture and brings out the blue of her eyes.

An exquisite portrait, with many interesting elements, all of which are working in harmony to express elegance and style. This would have made another great promo image of Kalea.

3rd Place – Thinking

Artist – liquidsnake4ch

Third place in the June 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

I was immediately drawn to the beautiful angel with radiant wings. She seems vulnerable, pensive, and a bit sad.

DM’s Grotto looks exceptionally fine here. The materials and lighting are perfect, and it complements the angel marvelously. Both cross and structure contributes to the mood of the piece, but doesn’t compete with the primary figure. I especially like how the cross shows in-between her wings.

Finally, the tilt of the camera provides further artistry and creates an overall fantastic image.

Honorable Mentions

Peaceful by Sasje

Honorable Mention in the June 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

What strikes me first about this image is the superb framing and camera angle. The borders of the image wraps around DM’s Elder Rock, and the rocks perfectly wrap around the figure. The sharp bottom-up angle of the camera differentiates the image, and the little bird balancing on his finger finishes the piece off with balance and finesse.

Brilliant composition and camera work.

Cosmic Opal by Jaellra

Honorable Mention in the June 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Love the combination of outfits to create something totally unique and creative. The hair also fits the ensemble very well, and everything fits splendidly with the beautiful background. Great combination of cool colors with her warmer hair and skin. This is all topped off by the cool energy ball effects around her hands.

Incredible character and colors.

“Cooling Off” VA June Entry #2 by Hemms

Honorable Mention in the June 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Wonderful feature of DM’s FIT ‘n SEXY Outfit. I like how the colors of her hair and outfit fit with the colors in the background. Also great glow on the figures’ hair.

Definitely a cool looking duo.

Girl From Japan 8 by LaMuserie

Honorable Mention in the June 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Who doesn’t love a cute ninja cat girl!

Just a fabulous character and terrific feature of DM’s Sensual Aiko 6 – II poses. Love the depth of the scene and the subtle warm highlights on the girl and dagger.

Many Thanks and Big Congratulations!!

Winners, please post a comment below with a valid e-mail in the comment e-mail box. This is what I will use to send you your DAZ GC code.

We always have great fun going through the images so thank you all for participating. See you in our July 2016 contest!

We are giving out our first 3D-object freebie, which is a cool side head-piece (shown below). In the image, I combined the original textures of the head-piece with the wonderful Bone and Fantasy Scale Iray Shaders by JGreenlees. Other items used in our image –

• Samurai for Genesis 3 Female(s) by Pretty3D,
• Sapphire Hair by outoftouch,
• Elven Sundial by lilflame

Download August 2016 Freebie

Hope you like it! This file will be available from now until the end of August. Follow us on Facebook or Deviant Art for future freebie announcements.

Side Head-piece August 2016 3D-object freebie

This freebie was made possible by Sixus1 Media and our awesome patrons at Patreon. We thank them from the very bottom of our hearts!

If there are particular freebie items you would like to see in the future, please let us know below. We also have a cool 3D-art contest with Daz GC as prizes.

Side view to give a clearer shot of the head-piece.

June was a pretty quiet month on Daz-land. Perhaps the most significant was the release of Rune 7 and Ivan 7, which are both interesting characters with fantastic looking skin.

In a recent newsletter, Daz also introduced the Suicide Squad Contest by Warner Bros. Pictures. The interesting twist is that Daz is offering an additional $1000 store credit to anyone who wins the contest (i.e. gets selected by Warner Bros. Pictures) and puts Daz in the title.

Harley Quinn has always been a favorite character of mine, so I thought I would try creating the Suicide Squad version of her using G3F. In addition, Jerry Hair by SWAM is perfect for this character! I am not sure if I will enter the contest, but I had a lot of fun with this challenge.

Qualifying items used – Irelia by Silver, Jerry Hair by SWAM, and Tin Pan Alley by Stonemason.

July 2016 Contest Vendors

In honor of Suicide Squad’s Harley Quinn, our featured vendors for July are:

Silver
Swam
Stonemason

Images with the newly released Rune 7 and Ivan 7 will also qualify.

July contest entries.

1st Place – Dinner Time

Artist – Sasje

First place in the July 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Superb composition, lighting, and atmosphere. The t-rex looks very large and menacing in the background, especially with his head in shadow. The much smaller but fleet footed Gallimimus’ are well chosen and fantastically posed. Together, they give the image wonderful movement and tension.

Stonemason’s tunnel is magnificently showcased here.

There is bright light coming in from the entrance, which is dominated by the very large and scary predator. The tunnel is darker but with little patches of light to properly bring out the shapes of the running prey. The atmosphere provided by the volumetric light and little areas of fog further enhance the light and mood of the scene.

An absolutely brilliant image!

2nd Place – Hardsuit Romance

Artist – alx

Second place in the July 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Everything fits amazingly well in this piece.

The two characters look awesomely cool together and grab our attention right away. Both are fabulously posed so that they look like two parts of a complete whole. This is further helped by the grungy textures on both figures as well as the environment. The large robot looks menacing, which contrasts well with the more relaxed expression and pose of the girl.

The stark contrast of the image and more limited color palette, gives it gravitas and an excellent post-apocalyptic feel. In addition, the bottom-up camera angle is perfect and SWAM’s Yunko Hair looks marvelous with the Tau Ceti Overseer outfit.

An incredibly compelling duo that certainly leaves this viewer wanting more!

3rd Place – Thoriana

Artist – Budo-san

Third place in the July 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

An outstanding environment that is extremely rich in detail. There is amazing depth to the scene and superb composition of both 2D and 3D elements. The character is marvelous, with dirt on her skin, torn clothing, and a beautiful light accent from the lantern on her right hand.

Stonemason’s various ruins products (Rubble 1: Urban Ruins, City Ruins : Vehicles) are very well integrated with the rest of the backdrop, providing a great post-apocalyptic scene. Swam’s Octavia Hair provides a nice contrast to the otherwise severe landscape, making the girl seem younger, with a quality of innocence.

Terrific image with fine storytelling and rich elements in both the foreground and background.

Honorable Mentions

Survivors by Heidi

Honorable Mention in the July 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Breathtaking large-scale scene with vibrant colors and detail.

I love the orange sky in the background and how it contrasts so well with the green landscape in the foreground. It also brings out Stonemason’s After the War ruins, and together with the haze, gives the environment wonderful depth.

The lush green landscape in the foreground is littered with debris, showing that life comes back even after great destruction. It will be difficult for our two little survivors, but perhaps there is hope for a new beginning.

Wapi – American Indian name meaning “Lucky” by mugzie101

Honorable Mention in the July 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Excellent mix of cool and warm lighting to bring out the shape and features of this beautiful fantasy woman. Her hair as well as the feathers from SWAM’s Wachiwi hair are very well posed, showing flow and action. Her intricate tattoos are exquisite and merge splendidly with her outfit.

Depth of field is used very well here to bring focus to her face.

Fantastic character, movement, and lighting.

Casualties Of War by MikeD

Honorable Mention in the July 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

A very powerful image with great details and effects.

I am currently reading a book on the life of a family in England during World War 2. The book is fiction, but it reveals a lot of the surrounding political situation leading up to the war. I cannot imagine that there are very many people who want war, and yet it seems to always track and dog us.

This very strong composition made me think a lot about large scale human conflict; what causes it and why it continues to occur.

Partygirl by Lemeya

Honorable Mention in the July 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Love this fun, colorful, and happy picture.

Great blends of blues and purples as well as sparkly highlights. The character is delightful and she looks fabulous wearing Silver’s Cherish Top.

In every life time, there are always challenges we must face. We shall be better able to face them if there are periods of smiles and sparkles to succor us.

Thank you and Congratulations!

Winners, please post a comment below with a valid e-mail in the comment e-mail box. This is what I will use to send you your DAZ GC code.

Thank you for sharing your art and ideas with us. See you in our August 2016 contest!

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

In my final tutorial of this series, I will cover the postwork steps I generally use in Photoshop when working with skin.  As with using Octane, this isn’t a recipe, and some tweaking is required depending on the render I am working on.  That being said, I do routinely use these steps as a starting place with nearly all my renders.

They are also quite rudimentary – I only started learning Photoshop shortly after learning Daz Studio – so less than a year.  Therefore, this will be a tutorial mainly aimed at beginners.

Daz Studio Octane Postwork Tutorial for Beginners

Step by Step Photoshop Postwork Process

To start off with – you can download the original 4k render here.

You can also download the .duf file for the Daz scene. You will need to own Olympia 7 and Olympia 7 HD Add-On (if you don’t, go buy her, she’s fantastic).  I tweak my skin textures on almost every new render, so this scene includes a newer skin texture from the one included with the previous Octane skin tutorial.

Go ahead and open the original render file in Photoshop (if you use Gimp, almost all of the following can still be applied)

1. Duplicate the Background layer – right click layer > duplicate layer > OK
Duplicate the ‘background’ layer – right click layer > duplicate layer > OK
2. From the main menus select image > auto tone. Then repeat with image > auto colour.  Select Edit from the main menu and fade auto colour to 80%
After applying Image > Auto Tone and Image > Auto Color in Step 2.
3. Create a new fill/adjustment layer using the circular icon underneath the layers, and select colour balance. With the new window that opens choose the shadows tone and adjust the yellow/blue slider towards the blue by no more than 10.  Repeat by setting the midtones towards cyan by 10, and the hightlights towards yellow by 10.
In step 3, create a new Color Balance adjustment layer. Then set Color Balance adjustments according to the image on the right.
4. Create a new merged layer (shift+ctrl+alt+e) – this will copy all of the layers and merge them into a new layer, thus preserving the original layers if you need to return to them (this is called a non-destructive workflow). Your layers tab should now look like this:
   Our layer stack after creating a new merged layer (shift+ctrl+alt+e).

   With the newly created layer selected, select image > adjustments > brightness/contrast.  Set the brightness to -70 and the contrast to +70, then OK.  Now select image > adjustments > hue/saturation and set the saturation to -40.

   Select filter > blur > gaussian blur, and set the radius to 8.

   Finally select the blending mode (drop down menu at top of layer window) to screen, and set its opacity to 50%.

Setting the Blending Mode (drop down menu at top of layer window) to screen.
5. Create a new fill/adjustment layer like in step 3 but this time select a photo filter layer. Set the filter to cooling filter (lbb) and adjust the density to 10%
Our new Photo Filter adjustment layer settings.
6. The final step is to create a new merged layer (shift+ctrl+alt+e) like in step 4.  Perform a final auto-tone like in step 2.

Final result of our Photoshop postwork process to the right compared to our original Octane rendered image to the left.

Summary

I hope you have found this series of Octane tutorials useful, and they have encouraged you to try the octane demo.  Octane is a very different beast compared with iRay, and it can be a daunting prospect when you first open it up and see the node based system. 

However, you can get pretty good results by using the auto-convert texture tool or using pre-built shaders from the library. To get the most out of it though, you really need to overcome your fears and dive into the nodes – where with time you will be rewarded with a plethora of ways to enhance your renders.  And did I say, it is really, really fast!

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

There were some great July sales in Daz-land. I know things are going to be bad when I use up both my PC-club coupons on the first week of the month.

Three highlight releases for me were –

• Kenji 7 – I instantly loved all the outfits in the Pro package, as well as the poses. The base character is also fantastic, being in the bishonen anime style that I love, and have always wanted for G3M. This was an instant buy for me.
• The Harpwood Trail for Daz Studio – I have always been a great fan of Howie Farkes and could not be happier to see his awesome environments for Daz Studio Iray. This one looks amazing, and I am looking forward to trying it out! Hopefully he will also make Daz Studio versions of Maple Meadows and Stoney Creek.
• War Bird Outfit and Poses – The wings on this outfit are detailed, unique, and they look fantastic! One additional thing I would love is a LAMH groom for the upper portion of the wings. This would provide thicker natural hair cover, with even greater detail. Doing some full LAMH based wings would also be very interesting.

Qualifying item used – Kenji 7.

August 2016 Contest Vendors

This August, we will feature three very talented artists from each of these areas, character, clothing, and environment.

Fred Winkler Art
IgnisSerpentus
Jack Tomalin

Images with the newly released Aiko 7 and Kenji 7 will also qualify.

August contest entries.

1st Place – Femme D’ailleurs 7

Artist – LaMuserie

First place in the August 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Love everything about this image. The character is intriguing, with fantastic skin materials and clothing textures. Superb warm highlights on her, and excellent how the bottles on her belt pick up the surrounding light.

In addition, the composition has marvelous depth, with a rich backdrop showcasing Jack Tomalin’s Cheirocrates. The different buildings are very well integrated, and the flying birds in the distance are a great touch.

One cannot help but be caught by those magnificent blue eyes as she is about to leap off into the sunset. Who is she? Where in this beautiful city is she headed? And will we see her again?

2nd Place – The Guardian

Artist – VortigensBane

Second place in the August 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

A wonderfully creative image with outstanding storytelling, posing, and atmosphere. Jack Tomalin’s Winterblack Halls is brilliantly used here to create a magical night-time environment with interesting light and shadows.

The girl is fabulously posed, and her dynamic gown drapes beautifully on her and her Guardian. It is precious that she has fallen asleep holding her doll, while her young friend carries her and is on the look-out for threats. This artfully captures the deep trust and bond that exists between the two young friends. That she is holding a doll further accentuates her young age and vulnerability.

A terrific concept with incredible execution.

3rd Place – Headhunter

Artist – knaakie

Third place in the August 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Another wonderful series of images with superb creativity, humor, and storytelling!

I must say that I am really loving these monthly story arcs and your talent brightly shines through. Your characters are always engaging, with great expressions, and marvelous poses. Your scenes are rich in detail, interesting, dynamic, and funny as hell.

Excellent feature of Aiko 7 here as the evil Robot Queen. My hat’s off to you.

3rd Place – Memories

Artist – Ferretmania

Third place in the August 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

The pale luminous skin is perfect for Fred Winkler Art’s Livia character, and marks her as a vampire right away. Her fangs and eyes further add to her look. Everything else, from the deep wood textures, to the detailed bricks, and the metal buckles, are extremely well done, and enhance the wistful mood of the scene.

A very captivating render with fantastic emotion, mood, and story.

Honorable Mentions

Playmate by DeathKnight

Honorable Mention in the August 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Outstanding shaders on this picture. Skin, clothing, and hair all look very realistic. The pose, expression, and lighting also work very well for this alluring pin-up. It looks like something out of a fashion magazine!

This would make an amazing promo image for FWSA Grace HD by Fred Winkler Art and Sabby.

The War Horse by Saidge

Honorable Mention in the August 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Creative, touching, and magical.

Love the expression of awe on the child’s face at discovering this majestic statue. One can almost hear him thinking to himself, “what is this amazing, mythical being?” There is also a sadness to it, of course, because it implies that the statue is from another time, in the past.

The realistic lighting and textures as well as old photograph style, gives it a strong atmosphere of nostalgia. Of course, Jack Tomalin’s Trinity Atrium Fallen is a perfect fit. Truly a wonderful captured moment.

Time In A Bottle by Jaellra

Honorable Mention in the August 2016 Vendor Awesomeness 3D-Art Contest.

Fantastic whimsical piece with great colors and sparkle effects.

Awesome poses, character, and dragons! There is such an enchanting feel here that is made even more so by the beautiful blue tones, expertly blended with the glitter. It feels as if I am in a beautiful dream. I wish it could go on forever, and that I can somehow trap time in a bottle.

Excellent use of the Wild Spirit Bundle by Fred Winkler Art, Fisty & Darc, Lilflame, Sabby, & Sveva.

Congratulations!

Winners, please post a comment below with a valid e-mail in the comment e-mail box. This is what I will use to send you your DAZ GC code.

Many thanks to you all for participating in this contest, and checking out our contest gallery. We always have the best time going through all your incredible submissions! Hope to see all of you in our September 2016 contest!

You have just put the finishing touches on your latest Daz Studio masterpiece, now what?! How do you connect with other like-minded people? How do you get viewers, input, and followers?

One great place to hook up with other fellow artists is Deviant Art. Deviant Art is huge! There are 3d-artists, traditional artists, digital painters, photographers, photo manipulators, and much much more. There are beginners, hobbyists, students, writers, and professional artists.

If you like a large social setting for art with a lot of diversity, then definitely check out Deviant Art. To get us all started, we did a great Q&A session with Becarra, a popular 3D-artist on DA and a wonderful friend.

Mando Creed Fan Art by Becarra.

This article and all of the images within were created by the very talented Becarra. Copyright © Becarra.

Q: How do I get to know people?

I have a simple philosophy for this. ‘I have never met a stranger’

Simple as that!

Well okay, it’s not really as simple as that but I hope you see my point.

I’m a bit of a chatterbox, I like getting to know people. In my replies, responses and comments on other’s work, or to notes I receive, I do try to leave more than just a passing comment. Sure I get lazy sometimes and it’s all too easy to just say ‘Outstanding’, ‘Well done’ or something similar.

(I do find myself doing it quite a bit at times if I’m honest, and I kick myself each time!).

When I do manage to say a little more, I try not to make it about the art directly by commenting on the lighting or some other technical aspect. I try to make it a personal comment and inject a little humour, or even leave an open comment which may garner a response from the artist themselves. This opens the door to a two way dialogue and if you just treat other’s as people then they are more likely to chat with you.

Never be afraid to ask questions, but do stay away from the personal one’s. I never ask for personal details such as ASL (age, sex, location), Skype or messenger details. No, no no! Just don’t do it!

You won’t win any friends that way, plus you never know who you’re talking too!

In essence, play it cool, play it safe.

Disney Princesses – Frozen Fan Art by Becarra

Q: How do I get watchers (followers)?

Hmm… It sure beats me!

Seriously though, getting followers is something that I don’t actively try to do, I never say ‘watch for watch’ or offer incentives to people. I don’t see anything wrong with that but I think my work speaks for itself, and if other’s like it enough then they may consider adding me to their watch.

Many artists old and new often doubt themselves and their work, myself included, even to this day!

While other’s may see our work and either like or dislike it based on personal tastes, us artists will always see our work in a different light. Even on completed pieces we still see flaws and omissions, which is why I am always open to any feedback whether positive or negative. If something is pointed out about an image I’ve made and I think it needs fixing, I’ll do my best to do so. People often appreciate the fact that you’ve taken their views into account.

One thing I learned early on is to leave ego out of the equation. If you can’t or are unwilling to accept other’s views of your work, then maybe a public forum isn’t the place to showcase said work. You could always disable comments I guess, but where’s the fun in that!

Feedback is always welcome, and I think potential followers appreciate this openness, and feel as if they can be a part of your creative process.

Another way of attracting followers is to get yourself out there by joining groups, submitting your work and becoming an active deviant. Lol that sounds wrong but I’m sure you know what I mean!

More on groups later!

900 Watchers by Becarra

Q: How do I get views?

Views in my opinion are something that we have very little control over. It’s entirely up to the individual if they want to ‘view’ any given deviation. If they choose to move on, then so be it.

Our followers are more likely to view our work, and even then they may not comment on it. They don’t have to of course, many people are here just to look at the pretty pictures, some are here for very specific reasons and I say it’s each to their own. I’m not here to judge anyone’s tastes, besides, it would be a boring old world if we all liked the same thing anyway!

Now this is just me, but I cannot limit myself to just one style of art. Some like to focus on portraits, nudes, pin-up’s, scenery, animals, vehicles… the list is endless.

I like colours, the more bright and vibrant the better, I like sci-fi, fantasy, horror, pin-up’s, nudes, humour… I think my work reflects this in some ways (this is me being modest here!), and I think that if your personal gallery has more to offer than just one focus, then it may attract more views, and hence, more followers!

50k Pageviews – Another Life! by Becarra

Q: Should I join some groups?

Yes. Definitely. Without a doubt! Didn’t I say we’d get back to this!

Groups are another way of gaining a broader community presence, and allow you to see art you may not have stumbled upon in your travels through DA.

There are many types of groups. Some like to focus on a particular art style, photography, writing, poetry, even tips and tricks, Photoshop, stock images and more…

If you can think of it, there is probably a group for it out there.

Individual groups themselves will always have their own guidelines and rules, which is to be expected, but they can offer so much more than just an outlet for your artistic talent. They are micro communities of like minded individuals who can share tips and tricks, jokes, stories and above all, friendship if you are brave enough to delve into their world. Many groups have affiliations with other groups and this just widens your exposure to both other artists work and yourself for others to view.

If you feel so inclined you can offer to become a contributor to your group or even ask if it’s possible to become a group admin! You may have to have been a member for a while or be vouched for before it becomes official, but it can show that you’re serious about both the group and your community presence.

You don’t have to limit yourself to just one group either! It can easy to find your way into many groups, so remember to take your time, and only join those that you think you have something to offer!

Groups can offer a place to belong, a reason to do what you do and above all they can offer the support you may be looking for.

So what have you got to lose?

When Darkness Falls… by Becarra

Should I do NSFW art or not?

Let’s be clear, not everyone knows what this means. I sure didn’t when I first heard it. The following is the simplest explanation I could find via the internet:

NSFW. (Not Safe For Work).

Used to describe internet content generally inappropriate for the typical workplace, i.e., would not be acceptable in the presence of your boss and colleagues (as opposed to SFW, Safe For Work).

Now let’s be honest, this is generally referring to anything that contains the following:

Nudity, gore, vore, violence, peril, racially or religiously orientated subjects, and of course, things of a pornographic nature.

In reality (i.e., the workplace), it can mean just about everything. I have never worked in a place that allows anything other than what they need to run their business. Even using a simple inoffensive wallpaper of kittens gets taken down!

But should you make NSFW art?

Only you can answer this. Try asking yourself the following questions.

1. Do you feel that you need to do so in order to gain recognition or followers?
2. Do you feel comfortable drawing/creating such things?
3. Where would you draw the line?
4. Are you ready to accept sometimes hurtful or perverted comments and/or requests because of this?
5. Sometimes it can open a door to a whole new world of weird and wonderful follower’s. Are you ready?

If you can answer yes to all of the above then what are you waiting for? Show me what you can do!!!
If you answered no to any of the questions then take your time to think about it before deciding.

Just because you may see a lot of this kind of work on Deviant Art, does not mean you have to do the same, unless you want to of course! Just remember that making your art should be fun and guilt free!

Note – DA has their own policies regarding Nudity and what they consider pornographic content:

• Nudity FAQ
• Pornography FAQ

Will being on DA make me any money?

This is a tricky one for me to address as I’ve never tried selling anything on DA or offered to do commissions. I can only comment based on what I’ve heard so I apologize if any of this is misleading.

While I have not sold anything on DA, or even tried, I have bought a print, just a single print hehe. It was priced under £5 or would have cost 400 points. So far so good. The checkout process, with shipping and handling more than doubled that, then I had to buy a frame for it…

I did look into selling some of my work as prints a while ago. Unless you have a Core Membership you have to use the prices set by DA, otherwise you can set your own. While this may sound appealing you have to remember that DA still takes their cut, they are the ones that actually print the print, pack and ship it after all. I recall at the time I looked into this, I didn’t feel it worth my while to go ahead with offering prints for sale as I’d have to sell a lot of them to see any kind of real profit.

Commissions are another way of making money or DA points.

Many artists offer their services to other members by producing customized works for them. Generally you would discuss in private via note what you want the artist to make. They, in turn, would then discuss fees based upon the type/style/quantity of work requested. This would go back and forth until both parties are satisfied, with the completed work only being given after payment has been received. Most artists use Paypal for these transactions.

Above all you have to respect what an artist will and will not do, for more info, see more NSFW above and not pester them for inappropriate details and/or content. This is all of course looking at things in the short term.

Can you make a living from your work?

Many artists on DA do, either through constant or regular commissions, or even doing some professional work. There is always somebody out there that will be willing to pay for your work, no matter the style or skill level of the artist, you just have to find them!

Revenge of the Fifth 2016 by Becarra.

This article and all of the images within were created by the very talented Becarra. Copyright © Becarra.

In the tutorial How I Light My Iray Scene, I describe the common lights that I use in Daz Studio Iray. I render each light into a separate layer and then combine those lights in Photoshop.

Here, I describe the light combination process. In particular, I talk about adjusting light intensities, tinting, and more. Again, I start with the simple Princess of the East image.

In the Princess of the East image, I have the following light layers:

• An IBL light layer using Barcelona Rooftops from sIBL Archives.
• A Key, Back, and Fill layer, following the three-point light system.
• A volumetric spotlight layer.

How I Combine My Iray Lights in Photoshop

Step 1 – Control IBL layer intensity

1. I open all light layers in Photoshop.
2. I go to the IBL light file.
3. I right click on the IBL layer and select Duplicate Layer. I rename the duplicate layer IBL.
Duplicate my IBL background layer.
Set the layer blend mode to Screen and control the intensity of my IBL through the layer opacity slider.
4. I select the Background layer, then go to Edit > Fill, and choose Black in the pop-up box. This should fill our Background layer with a solid black color.
5. I select the IBL layer, and set the layer blend mode to Screen.
6. Now I can control the intensity of my IBL light by increasing or decreasing the opacity of that layer.
7. If I want to increase the intensity of the light by more than its original, then I simply duplicate the layer.

I can increase the intensity of my IBL light by more than its original by duplicating my IBL light layer.

Step 2 – Add in Key, Back, and Fill lights

1. I copy my Key, Back, and Fill light layers, and paste them into my working file in Step 1.
2. These layers quite often have speckle noise. To remove this, I go to Filter > Noise > Despeckle. I repeat this operation on each layer until most of the noise is removed.
3. I set the blend mode of each of these layers to Screen.
4. I adjust intensity by changing layer opacity or duplicate the layer, if necessary, similar to what we did for the IBL layer in Step 1.

In this case, I want a strong silhouette to the right, so I want a very strong back light. I achieve this by duplicating the Back layer to double its strength. To further emphasize the strong back light, I weaken the Key layer, by setting its opacity to 30%. I leave my Fill at 100% to lighten my entire figure.

Finally, I also create a duplicate IBL layer and set its opacity to 30%. This allows me to lighten everything in the image, including the backdrop.

Final result after adding in my Key, Back, and Fill lights, and adjusting intensities according to the values above.

Step 3 – Toning, Tinting, and Masks

A few other Photoshop operations that come in especially handy for combining my Iray lights include:

1. Changing light tones with the Levels Filter.
2. Tinting lights with Photo Filters.
3. Lighting areas selectively by using masks.

I illustrate these additional operations using my Luthbelli Classic image. Another useful lighting tip that I use here, is to add another Back light on the left-back side of the scene. In this way, I can add light rims on both the left and right sides of my figures.

Useful Photoshop operations for combining my Daz Studio Iray lights.

1. Changing light tones with the Levels Filter

I use the same process described above to combine my Iray light layers and control their intensities. In this image, I set my IBL opacity to 50%. When I add in my Key light, I find that it is adding too much light to my figure. In particular, I want there to be greater contrast between the left and right sides of the girl’s face.

Too much illumination added by my Key light, so there is not enough contrast in my pin-up girl’s face.

To change this,

1. I select my Key layer, and then add a Levels adjustment layer by going to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. I make sure to check “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” in the pop-up window, so that my Levels adjustment only applies to my Key light.
2. I reduce the level of mid-tones in my Key light (0.70), and increase the level of highlights (201). This article has a detailed description of the Levels adjustment filter in Photoshop.
3. I add my second back light to get a rim on the left side of my figures.
4. The final result is that there is greater contrast between the left and right sides of my pin-up girl’s face.

Changing light tones using the Photoshop Levels Filter

2. Tinting lights with Photo Filters

To make things more interesting, I add my main back light to the image, and tint it blue so that I get a blue rim around the right of my figures.

Tint my Back light blue by using the Photo Filter adjustment layer.

1. I do this by going to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter. Again, I check “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” in the pop-up window, so that my Photo Filter adjustment only applies to my main Back light.
2. I set my Photo Filter to Cooling Filter (82), which is a blue color. I then adjust intensity until I get the right level of blue for my Back light, which in this case is at 83%.

I add my main back light to the image, and tint it blue so that I get a blue rim around the right of my figures.

3. Lighting areas selectively by using masks

Blue highlights that I want to remove are marked by the red circles.

Unfortunately, I do not like some of the blue highlights in my current image. In particular, I do not like the sharp highlight on the body of the motorcycle and the blue on my girl’s headdress. To remove these unwanted highlights, I can mask them out.

Masking out certain blue highlights and masking in only the eye areas of my fill light.

1. For the headdress highlights, I just want to remove the blue color. Therefore, I mask out the area in my blue Photo Filter adjustment layer. I do this by selecting the mask layer on my Photo Filter and then painting the area black.
2. For the motorcycle body, I want to totally remove the highlight. To do this, I go to my Back light layer and do Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. This creates a layer mask for my Back light. I select my layer mask and paint the area I want to remove black.
3. I add in my Fill light, but I only mask in the eyes area to brighten my pin-up girl’s eyes. To do this, I go to my Fill layer and do Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All. Then, I select my mask layer and only paint the eye area of my figure white.

Finally, I create a layer with all of my lights combined by doing Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E. I set the layer blend mode to Screen and name the layer All. This allows me to brighten all of my lights. In this image, I set the opacity of my All layer to 50%.

And just like that, we are done! In the next tutorials of this series I will discuss my post-work techniques including adding glow, softening effects, creating contrast, and more.

Final image with all my Iray lights combined including IBL, Key, Back, Back2, Fill, and All.