Beginning with Daz 3D Studio - Viking Visual Art Tutorial

Daz 3D Studio is a very powerful piece of software allowing you to use 3D models to create artwork and/or animations.
It is completely free - and you can get a long ways with the program without spending anything more than time. Like many powerful pieces of software (Gimp comes to mind), there is a fairly sharp learning curve involved with learning how to make the best use of the program. There are also plenty of people out there happy to help you learn how to use Daz 3D Studio.

My friend @jamerussell is just getting started, so since I'm putting together a cover image at the moment - and involved him in the editing process, I felt it was only fair to do a very basic tutorial to show how I got to where I did.

As I picked up Daz a few years ago, I have a few more characters to work with than just the current Genesis 8 actor. So, when I began this image, I decided to get out all my toys and compare them as I went along.

Actors

I decided to line up Genesis 2 (in front), 3 and 8 (they skipped some numbers to bring Genesis in line with the Victoria/Michael (Poser) characters.) I also have the original Genesis, but I decided not to use it this time. Later, I also found where my Victoria 6 character was hiding, so I brought her into play as well.

When the dolls load, they are without clothing and with varying amount of features. In general, genitals are only strongly featured with downloaded add-ons, though Victoria 6 is considerably more detailed than any of the Genesis actors in the basic form. They come in various "neutral" poses.

I do (almost) all the character modification while they are in this neutral pose.

Dressing

I started looking through my clothing files, beginning with the Daz own clothing. There is a simple rule - if it fits, it fits... if not, it might be easy to fix or it might not. (If you're really into this, you can make anything fit any doll - though you may need to learn how to use Blender, Hexagon (included with Daz now) or other programs to make it work... but that's way beyond my skills!) Anyway, this difficulty is why I began with most of my dolls up front.

To fit a piece of clothing to a character, make sure the character is selected by clicking on it in the "scene" tab (my top-right corner as seen in the following image.) Then, double click on the item of clothing you wish to add to your person.

The shirt I grabbed at first - to illustrate for you - was from the original Genesis model. As I'm fitting it to newer character models, I have to tell the program what I'm doing... I have screenshot the moment when the program asks the question - who is this for? I tell it (or guess as close as I can) which model the garment was designed for, then what kind of clothing it is. Often it works, but not always. Here, I am fitting this vest to my Genesis 2 male.

Other things to note in this picture...
On the left, you see my content library - by the way, this library does get to be a bit of a mess, especially once you start adding third party content. I've looked into organizing it better, but the reality is, it's better to trust the product developers and put it where they tell you to put it... It's another reason I start with all my dolls, so I can grab everything I think looks interesting on the way through the list. (A notebook is also a useful thing, so that you can keep track of your favorites.)

Anyway, back to my content library, you can see that I found this vest in the original Genesis character in the "People" folder. The green "wardrobe" swash tells you that it's an actual piece of clothing. (Not all products do this... so often it's trial and error.)

In my next picture, you can see the folder "Materials" and how the yellow swash tells you that it's a material to be applied to a piece of wardrobe.

With the piece of clothing selected (back to your scene tab - it might be listed as part of your person - or it might be separate below the list of people), double click on the material and it will add itself to the model.

In this yellow dialogue box, you can also see important pieces of information such as where on your computer the product is located and who made the product - doubly important if you're doing anything commercially where you need to give credit.

I continued and added the accompanying pants for my men, although I didn't expect to use them in the final. In this case, they all wore the clothing quite well... I didn't add the materials this time because I anticipated creating my own on Gimp.

Now, when I looked at my ladies, my luck wasn't quite so good. At least to begin with.
I liked the look of these T-shirt and boxers sets, and fortunately, someone had had the good sense to make some of the materials feminine.
Technically-speaking, these were designed for one of the "kid" characters anyway, so it was really remarkable that any of them fit!

Here's what I was left with...

(The fronts were worse - not all able to be shown here...)
I was down to Genesis 8 as my only option.
I continued down my clothing options until I found what I liked for my men - and found my Victoria 6 character - who, amazingly fit this outfit perfectly. So, after this point, I was down to two possibilities for my men and my women...

In the front row is my Victoria 6 and my Genesis 2 male. The back row has my Genesis 8 male and female. These are what I'll be working with - but I don't like the colors I'm seeing... so I realized I'd have to do some alterations - at least for my ladies!

I ended up using the Victoria 6 and my Genesis 8 male as he wore that t-shirt better, but I used the hair currently on the Genesis 2.

Next time, I'll show you how I went about altering their clothing, using GIMP.

Past tutorials:

Map Development for Alacantis (on GIMP), part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Cover image for Acting the Part
Cover image for Brighid's Blood (part of the update).
Cover image for Birth of the Neví, part 1, part 2
Map Development for Velantia, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Map Development for Kranisis, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Cover Image for Name of the Neví, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6

Crossposted at Steem, Whaleshares and WeKu.

Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
photographer/graphic artist for Viking Visual
verified author on Goodreads
find me on Twitter
also on: Whaleshares, WeKu

_{Join us in the Official Whaleshares server in the text channel "the-phoenix-project"}

Beginning with Daz 3D Studio - Viking Visual Art Tutorial - Part 1

Actors

Dressing

Past tutorials:

Photo salvages:

Coloring Tutorials & Mini-tutorials:

Miscellaneous Artwork: