firfli

I've updated and corrected this article based on DAZ's documentation.  You should read that if you want more information.  This will continue to be more of a "plain talk" breakdown. Let us begin with the different types of shaders from the "Base Mixing" dropdown at the top.  Choosing one of these will hide or gray out some options and reveal others. The Iray shader behaves as though it has three layers: The "base" layer, the "metallic flakes" layer on top of that, and the "top coat layer" on top of that.  It is possible to turn off the top two layers and not use their settings, but the ability to use them is a property this shader has that

Props such as navel piercings, earrings and the like often do not come with bends.  This makes it difficult to adjust them to look like they are following the laws of gravity after you've posed the parent figure.  Sometimes these props include morphs to add swing, but these morphs usually result in the shape deforming or exploding the more you dial them in.  A better solution is to add new bones and joints to the prop, as these allow bends without deforming.  This is a quick tutorial on how do to this. Note that this tutorial is targeted at making multiple segments out of a prop that has natural split points (such as between links in a chain

updated: 6/2 currently: working on doll This morning I came across a thread at DAZ that linked back to a forum post where Catherine (MEC4D) shared her basic skin settings for Iray renders. I copied and saved what she wrote but didn't bookmark the actual page and now I can't find it again for the life of me. I tested these settings in a basic scene and while they are an improvement over what I had, they're still intended to be used with properly prepared textures. Cath creates albedo diffuse maps, normals, and SSS/translucency maps, so none of us are going to get renders like hers just using these settings. They're still a nice start though