Daz is a free, 3d rendering program. It is an extremely powerful program that can cross many different platforms such as zbrush, maya, marvelous designer, the list literally goes on.
Costs?
The base program is 100% free. It already comes with a good amount of things to get you started. Anything extra like special clothes, hair, figures, etc, you can buy from the Daz Studio Shop or other websites like Renderosity. (or you can make them yourself, if you know how. i’ve dappled in making clothes but beyond that, i’m blind)
Pretty fuckin sweet. I know.
Now, if you see yourself committing to this program and really diggin in like I have, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND BECOMING A PLATINUM MEMBER (PC+) on their website. I have saved SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY from doing this. It’s literally not a cashgrab (well it is) when they say that it literally pays for itself. IT FUCKING DOES.
Again, any extras cost. but the actual base program DOES come with a good handful of things that can get you started. So long as you’re creative, you can actually end up creating a lot of dope things just from the base program.
Learning curve?
Ho ho ho yes. But once you figure it out, its an extremely simple program. But it will take a while to learn. Once you do, its so rewarding.
Anything to be aware of? Yes.
This program takes up a LOT of space on your computer. For me, my laptop (with everything I’ve bought, created, and was making with large photoshop files and downloads for this program) could not handle it. So just keep in mind, if you are planning to commit, this takes up a LOT of memory.
with that being said, if you are just using it for its base uses, you’ll be perfectly fine on a standard laptop/computer.
And just as some extras for those that want to get started, here are some of my most versatile and favorite pacts – along with what i use them for. Keep in mind that the shop literally has sales every single day. If something I list is not on sale when you look at it, i guarentee it will be sometime during the month. ALSO, renderosity has a lot of clothes and other things for a lot cheaper than the official shop. However, downloading these things can be a bit difficult.*
Also, keep in mind, these things I suggest are because I end up painting all of my renders and changing things around. These are what I find to be the most versatile when it comes to references while I paint.
***Daz = automatic 30% off discount with membership. its. worth. it. also when daz goes on sale for everyone else, thats usually an extra 25% off. so with a membership and during the sale, things can go from 55%-65% off. its worth it. dont buy things on impulse. every single creator, even outside of daz, goes on sale. so literally, just wait. i guarentee within the next month that artist will pop up.
Here are some of my favorites from the official shop ( these will be split into ‘male’ and ‘female’. It’s just how it is on the website to make it easier for you to navigate this list):
my favorite skin pack for characters. There are ways to change skintone, etc. which I can explain in a video. but there are such beautiful colors in this skin. it is absolutely ridiculous. Beautiful reds and it renders like a god damned dream. I use this for males and females.
Another gorgeous skin pack. I use it for males and females. It also has a ‘no eyebrows’ option, which Drusilla does not. Very very handy, especially with their ‘fibermesh’ eyebrows and shape options.
Allows you to use female/male skins on opposite figures. this expands sooooo many possibilities. I personally prefer female skins over the male. they’re usually more luminous when painting.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Not only does this come with wet hair, but it also comes with wet skin. I used this for my Mermay painting. highly, highly recommend.
I use this all the time for male characters. I’ve used it many times for Andrew.
Clothes are completely up to you. most things are highly customizable with a few tricks. so i’m not going to list specific packs. but look out for ‘dforce’. dforce is a software (idk what its called) that daz studio uses to conform the clothing to the figures body under the ‘simulate’ tab. can be a bit tricky but highly rewarding. also when looking for clothing, make sure its compatible with the figure in order to make it look the best. (genesis 8 – genesis 8, genesis 3 – genesis 3, etc. i can make a video in the future to show how to make those things cross)
Accessories – same thing. just depends on what you would like.
as well as Environments. some things come with more than most. I would look on the ‘product pages’ for everything you look up. see what it comes with. and think ‘can i use this for something else in the future?’
Lighting:
Not NECESSARY but i feel make the render look best. these are my favs –
*I AM THINKING ABOUT MAKING A PATREON. On there, I can make Daz tutorials, painting tutorials, etc. Because I find a lot of videos online are literally so long winded with all these fancy ass terms that I literally ended up just slaving away and figuring everything out on my own. So if yall would like that, let me know!
the tag “fur-ry” (minus the dash) is among those in the site-side blacklist, and is why so much artwork and so many blogs are suddenly invisible from the search.
provided this isn’t a temporary measure, i strongly advise to remove the “fur-ry” tag and use stand-in tags such as “anthro” and “kemono”, since neither are affected.
the New Xkit extension “Tag Replacer” is an easy way to swap your tags over, and you can change it back if this issue gets resolved!
Holy shit. This actually is real. Non-furs can laugh all they want but Tumblr seriously just fucked over a load of artists and blacklisted a wholeass subculture, which is really fucked.
Soup.io – well-known alternative to Tumblr. Reblogging, post types, themes, collab blogs, dashboard, artsy, great community already there. Soup can auto-import everything you’ve posted on Tumblr.
TypePad – Includes reblogging. Dashboard and post types similar to Tumblr.
They’re turning your explicit content private, yes. But they are not deleting your entire blog, everything else will be public. You can still support our work and post other content! We need you guys so please please please don’t delete your blogs as disheartening this all is.
replying is how you make friends! reply to anything you want and be friendly. don’t make rude jokes if you’re not friends already though!
quote retweeting is a no-no. when you “retweet with a comment” it’s not liked by content creators because it makes a new tweet out of their tweet and they don’t get the likes and retweets they would get if you’d just retweeted it straight up. if you want to comment on a retweet, reply to it or post a new tweet starting with “LRT” which stands for “last retweet” (it’s fine to quote retweet dumb memes and so on.)
you can make your tweets private. this means no one but your followers will be able to see what you post and no one will be able to retweet your content. you can switch back and forth between private and public at will. some people make a separate private account to tweet personal stuff and let mutuals follow it only. it’s a good way to keep things separate.
what is privatter? privatter is a third party web app that content creators can allow to be attached to their twitter. it lets them tweet content that they can make exclusive to logged in users, followers, mutuals, or a specific list of users. as long as you are logged in to twitter and fall into the intended category, you’ll be able to see it.
you can mute people you follow. (and those you don’t, ofc.) you can also mute words and phrases and entire conversations. if you mute someone you follow and they reply to you, that reply will still show up in your notifications. it’s a good way to keep the peace!
you can limit notifications to people who follow you or to mutuals. (notifications from people you follow will still show up regardless of which option you’ve selected.)
miscellaneous tips and warnings: if you accidentally unfollow and refollow someone, it won’t show up in their notifications as long as it’s within a couple minutes. no more accidental stuff. everyone can see who everyone follows so watch out. people will know if you unfollow. if you want to report someone and want them gone forever, report a tweet where they used a curse word. screenshotting tweets for harassment is a no-no and can get you banned. don’t be lame. don’t be a dick. vaguing others is generally really bad form and so is complaining about content within a fandom you’re in. use the mute tools at your disposal and don’t be a spoiler. you won’t come back from a rep like that and everyone sees everything.
that’s it! happy tweeting!!
how do i keep all my content together on twitter?
threads are your best friend!! you make a tweet with your commission info and links and so on and pin it to the top of your page. then reply to that tweet with a copy and pasted link to the tweet where you posted the art/fic/etc you want to not lose. reply to that new tweet with the next piece of artwork and so on. you can also make a unique hashtag for your content to use when you post, so that when you search that hashtag later you’re able to see just your art. good luck!
Astronaut bird 