Hi gang!

So... after having shared some critical opinions about Daz Studio and the Daz3d company I'd now like to focus on something more positive. I mean... say what you want but isn't it kind of amazing that this software is (still) provided free of charge? I know, I know! => "Freemium", fair enough. But still, you cannot deny the fact that you don't have to buy anything if you know what you're doing and understand how things work.

And to be perfectly honest with you guys... my absolute favorite figures are all Daz Originals, and IMO for a very good reason. I'd like to specifically mention Sukai 8, Riley for Stephanie 5 (yups: a Genesis (1) figure!) and let's be honest... there's something special about Micheal & Victoria; I often jokingly refer to them as "Daz Studio's Barbie & Ken", I mean... both are cute couples from my POV (no, no... I don't play with Barbie dolls but my gf still has hers). Oh, context: this is coming from someone who owns multiple generations of the "power couple" (basically from V&M v4 and up) and I still enjoy working with all those generations.

At the time of writing I'm in a very good mood, felt like sharing and so... let's do this!

10 tips for both beginning and advanced users alike which I hope you guys can both enjoy and put to some good use.  (too bad that this forum doesn't have headers, but we'll make it work!).

#1 Customizing everything!

Is it me or is Sukai looking a little grumpy today? ;)

One of my absolute all-time favorite features is F3: "Window => Workspace => Customize...", this feature is totally insane (in a good way!) because let me tell you: Daz Studio is like elastic: you can bend, shape and customize it in any way you'd like. To my knowledge many Daz Studio users select one of the awesome workspace layouts and then, well, start using that.

Nothing wrong with that of course, don't get me wrong here (!) but the thing is... if you'd like something to be a bit different then there's a very good chance that you can make that work. Let's start with the interface: I'm fairly certain that my help menu shown above doesn't look like yours. After mis-clicking one too many times when I only wanted the list of my active plugins I decided to re-arrange it. I did the same for the GoZ option that got a bit buried in the File menu. 

Or what about the panes? I'm also fairly certain that my workspace as a whole doesn't fully match yours either. Or what about the toolbar? Keyboard shortcuts anyone? (in my Daz Studio you press Ctrl + 1 for textured shaded, Ctrl + 2 for Filament and of course (!) Ctrl + 3 to render the viewport with Iray). 

There's nothing wrong with using the software as-is, but at the same time it can also help to change things in a way that works best for you.

Warning! => If you do customize (parts of) your workspace then do yourself a favor and make sure to save those customizations. Sure, Daz Studio will remember your changes, no problem, but what if you need to suddenly re-install or.. what if there's a glitch somewhere?  The quickest way to save all of this is using F4 ("Save layout"). This will save the layout, actions (like keyboard shortcuts?), menu's and toolbars.

#2 Smart contents + Content library = power use!

The smart contents pane is much more than just an easy option to find related items for whatever you have currently selected in your scene. If you look at my above screenshot again then you probably won't recognize my Figures => Genesis category, because I set that up myself. As a result it's much easier for me to add a Genesis base figure to my scene (I heavily rely on this to check out custom (= 3rd party) characters). And the best part? None of these changes have any impact on my actual assets. You don't have to worry about assets suddenly not working because... the smart contents pane is basically a "virtual storage system" if you will, moving assets around in here won't affect anything else.

Now... you might be tempted to only use this smart contents pane, but ... be careful: you're missing out if you do. Big time. For multiple reasons...

> Daz3d vendors aren't always careful...

This here is "Mummy HD for Genesis 8 Male", an awesome ("antagonist?") figure for some scary and/or dangerous renders (warning: bandages sold separately). Yet there's one "small" problem with it: the ridiculous placement within the smart contents categories as shown above: right within 'Figures => People'. See: the smart contents pane always recurses the display of its contents. Meaning? Well: when I select "Figures => People" within smart contents then I get 370+ figures (!) to go through which makes it pretty much impossible to spot this one single character.

True story: I bought this character several years ago during one of Daz3d's awesome (!) sale periods. However... I then also managed to overlook and forget all about it for nearly 2 years, for the simple reason that I relied a little too much on "smart" contents back in the day.

The solution should be obvious: use the content library pane to check out your categories sometimes, unlike 'smart' contents this one doesn't recuse its results and makes it pretty obvious what is where.

And no, this isn't the only example... many wardrobe vendors are even more sloppy.

> Easy product overviews

Please don't tell her that I told you guys, but Sukai has a really cool tattoo on her back (yes dear random reader, I have way too much imagination pouring over at times). More seriously though: sometimes I don't want that to show and as one could expect: there's a preset to remove said tattoo. The only problem... "Materials => Iray => Feminine => (looking for): Sukai 8 => Skin". Oh no, wait! : "Tattoos". Each and every time. Meanwhile I can also use the option shown above and that will open the Content Library pane while showing the full product overview for Sukai 8. Removing the tattoo now only requires me to scroll down and double click the setting. Easy!

> Never underestimate "3rd party" markets!

I'm of course talking about Renderosity, but also my personal favorite of Renderotica. Please be advised that the name says it all, viewer / visitor discretion is definitely advised. Apparently the staff doesn't mind casual mention of other places, so I couldn't resist doing this one time.

But why bother, I hear you ask? Sure... you need to download the archive(s), unpack/extract them, look up your contents in the content library... lots of work. True. So why bother?!  Well....

You won't find these two beauties on the Daz3d marketplace <3....

I apologize for the lazy (Filament) render but I'm already 90+ (or so) minutes into writing all this up, so yes: I am cutting a few corners.

These two figures showcase my 2 favorite vendors. 3DLoki (left character is Violette, the very first I bought from him (notice the birthmarks?!)). The right character is Meher Gayatri by the amazing Aiylaf Learning. You guys know her (?) as Aiylaflrn. When their characters share surnames... they also share character traits as well. Notice the facial expressions? I didn't do anything here!

Fun fact: the outfit on the left? Cyberpunk outfit for G8F & G8.1F, bought full price from Daz3d because ... well, for starters: just look at it!  Loki showcased Violette with this outfit and I was so caught up... I just nabbed it. Never regretted that, this is so cool.

#3 The surfaces pane = awesomeness!

I'm not gonna lie here: if you have the option to get your hands on Substance Painter and (!) Designer (Steam perpetual FTW!) then that will become a sure way to put an end to ever buying into texture packs ever again. Yes, the 'designer' learning curve can be a little steep, but I'm not exaggerating here. 

... yet don't cut the Surfaces pane and all its material presets short either!  I present you... the golden biki..., errr: Cyber (swim)suit!

Seriously you guys... SO many times I didn't even need to fire up Substance and just find the right surfaces, select the right presets and I had a solid looking figure, but differently.

Oh, and if you think this is awesome....you should check out the Shader Mixer sometimes as well.

And there you have it!

Truth be told I was going for a top 10 but...  I'm being told that I've been at this for quite a while so I'm leaving it at 3 (for now ;)).  The forum doesn't do drafts either, so I need to be careful.

Whatever you may think of Daz Studio and/or the Daz3d company.. there's no denying that we get access to easy to use software which provides a ton of options and all free of charge. We can purchase awesome contents and don't even have to think too hard about the installation process. And some of said contents... are IMO totally awesome.

Oh... and I'm going here: Richard even tries to help out people "over here" despite many of us being kinda critical? Sorry, but I have mad respect for that!

(context!) => there's a reason though I'm posting this "over here" vs. "over there", I'm on probation ;)   But that's not something I hold against the Daz moderators, I was harsh, critical (seriously!) and let's not forget: their house, their rules. Heck, I don't even lash out on Reddit (I'm also a vivid Redditor?). I can't help mention though that I did find it funny to see several other forum users over here who apparently have the same kind of issues "over there".

But none of that takes anything away from the fact that Daz Studio is one of a kind software.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed (I hope this gets saved! (it didn't!)) and I hope this is going to be useful for some of you.