In DAZ Studio there are 5 different types of shaders including Surface, Light, Volume, Imager and Displacement - with surface shaders being the most common. If we take this a step further, we can say that a surface shader is a “Shader” that is specific to a surface or multiple surfaces. A surface shader ultimately determines the RGB value for every pixel in the scene. It calculates how a surface reacts to light, how or whether it reflects, or refracts etc. The simplest way to describe a surface shader is to say that it is a program that is run, by the “Render Engine”, for every visible/sampled point on a surface in order to describe what the final color and opacity of that surface should be. The reason being that you can't really see a surface shader in your scene, you can only see the results of one.
#DAZ STUDIO GENESIS TEXTURE MAP LOCATIONS SKIN#
I will continue to evolve my light setup and skin settings as I render more images, and learn more of what works and what does not.The last foundational concept we need to cover before getting into the meat of this chapter is that of a “Surface Shader.” The concept of a surface shader is a little more abstract than that of a surface, or an image map. In this way, when I reduce the size of my image, I get a sharper picture with more details. I have also started rendering larger images (minimum width or height of 3000 pixels). In postwork, I reduce my softening and glow effects, so that I preserve more skin detail. I also want there to be enough light to bring out the effects of my new Iray skin settings. The cold and warm lights help to bring out the different skin hues and also accentuates my figure’s shape and musculature. I like combining both cold and warm lighting, so I generate a cold light layer using DTSol-NightTimeE from Skies of iRadiance – Night Sky HDRIs for Iray, I generate a warm layer using DTSol-SunsetL from Skies of iRadiance – Sunset HDRIs for Iray, and finally one using the more neutral Tropical Ruins HDR. I still use my three point light system, but I have added another back light, and I combine lighting from multiple IBLs or Environment maps. Similarly, changes in skin settings may require different lights, and changes in light may require different skin settings.Īfter creating my new Iray skin shader, I also had to change the way I light my scenes and do postwork. Different texture maps will likely require different skin settings and lights to get optimal results. This is why there is no single right or best skin shader.
![daz studio genesis texture map locations daz studio genesis texture map locations](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bd/40/2d/bd402df9770e30faf1cd3b6df74a7fb6.jpg)
However, shader settings interact with both textures and light to create the end result.
![daz studio genesis texture map locations daz studio genesis texture map locations](https://www.renderhub.com/ion/genesis-3-female-uv-map-mask/genesis-3-female-uv-map-mask.jpg)
This is mostly what people talk about in discussions of creating realistic skin and will also be the main topic in this tutorial. This tutorial has more on how I light my Iray scenes. Part of getting skin to look good, is to light it well. Materials (including skin) interact with scene lights to produce the final render result. This includes not just the base textures, but also the very important translucency, specular, and bump texture maps. The way skin looks in a render will depend on three key things – The first thing I realized when I started playing around with skin shaders in Daz Studio Iray, is there is no one “right way” to shade skin.