Jay Versluis
patreon
DAZ Studio Masterclass Outline
🕑 Added 2022-02-07 00:22:18 +0000 UTCI had great plans for expanding my DAZ Studio 101 series over time, but as life happens I never got round to finishing it. Things move fast, and I feel I've literally missed the boat adding bits onto it. Hence, I feel it's time for starting afresh with a new series that covers how to get handsome looking renders out of DAZ Studio, specifically character portraits. I've learnt so much since then, and there's currently no cohesive Masterclass type course on DAZ Studio - I'd like to change that.
I'd like to release this as a paid-for series on the DAZ Store, as well as supporters with Early Access (if DAZ are OK with it). This is going to be a long course (8+ hours in duration), and my idea is to split the topics into three board chapters. Here's the tentative action plan, let me know what you think of it.
Part 1 is an introduction, like an extended version of my recent DAZ Boot Camp stream. I imagine this to take around 3 hours, giving me a chance to explain some topics in more depth.
- Grand Tour of the Interface, and creating a custom workspace
- Viewport Controls and getting around
- Moving Objects, lining them up and the Snapping Function
- Navigating larger sets
- Viewport Preview Modes
- Working with Filament and creating a Default Scene
- Scene Tab, hierarchies, groups and empties
- Content Overview and Figure Generations explained
- Smart Content vs Content Library
- Working with Custom Libraries
- Filament Preview
- Loading figures and dressing them up
- Saving scenes, props and other items
- Lighting with HDRIs
- Lighting with Spotlights and Point Lights
- Lighting with Mesh Lights
- Cameras, Framing aides and Depth of Field
- Render Settings
- Putting it all together and building a quick portrait
Part 2 is delving much deeper and explores adjusting the intricate bits, like posing, shaders and how other apps can make our lives easier. This is going run around 4-5 hours:
- Custom Characters, Shaping and Parameters explained
- G8.1 subdivision implications
- Posing Characters (Power Pose, dials, presets
- Adding expressions
- The power of Puppeteer (for everything)
- Fitting clothes with dForce
- Adding hair and adjusting it
- Accessories
- Fixing poke through with the Geometry Editor
- Fitting a hat
- Shaders and Material Presets
- Adjusting clothing fit with Hexagon
- Adjusting clothing fit with ZBrush
- Fitting clothing with Marvelous Designer
- Adjusting things with Blender
- Post Production in Photoshop
- Putting it all together again with another portrait
Part 3 is a place to explain related techniques and expand on tips, including products that greatly aid in the process. I'll put everything here that doesn't quite fit into the other two parts. I expect this to run at least 2 hours, perhaps longer.
- Scene Optimizer
- Pose Architect
- Scene Tools
- Batch Rendering
- Cloud Rendering
- Content Package Assist
- Subscene Workflow
- Post Production in Clip Studio Paint
- Post Production in Paint Shop Pro
- Version Control with Git
I'm open to suggestions on what else might be useful. Let me know in the comments if there's anything you'd like to see covered in the series. I've deliberately left out animations as a topic, because I feel it's too deep a topic. I've explained the basics in a stream recently, and with a bit of luck I'll make an edited version of it available to you tomorrow.
Comments
Jay Versluis
Yes indeed, plus one. Mesh Grabber is one of those tools that many people use, so I'll make room for a section on it in the third part. Although I personally don't use it, I appreciate that it's a nice solution for adjustments directly inside DAZ Studio, without having to leave the application. Thanks for the input!
Jay Versluis
Hi David! I've been to Bourbon Street a few times over the years, I'm looking forward to what you can build in a virtual version of NOLA :-) Thanks for the input, I'll put it on the list - perhaps a bit of atmospheric fog or volumetric lighting might be a nice advanced topic. I'll see if I can fit it in as a "stretch goal".
David Summers
Hi, Jay. I enjoy your Master Classes, since I often pick up small points that I hadn't thought to use, in making more efficient and better images. Having watched the video on Billboards I am now trying to decide how best to make and then use them in the best way to populate a street (Bourbon Street in NOLA). My other current focus is on adding Atmospherics, mainly at the moment through taking classes on how to do it in Photoshop, though I have several tools I don't use for doing it in DAZ itself. Not sure how this blends into portraiture - for which I think there has to be some element of story telling (I am currently watching the "Portrait Artist of the Year" series, hoping to learn more on composition. Don't know if this helps, but looking forward to the series.
Babka Yoshka
One thing which I found extremely useful for fine-tuning characters is mesh grabber. It would be nice if you could touch its use too. Maybe you could tell a word to Daz developers that a lack of sculpting tools is a huge drawback of Daz compared to blender and zbrush!
