Makeover: Aranée! by NetWorthy

DAZ|Studio • People • posted on May 10, 2009

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Description

(Best viewed full size!) I've been playing with a few neat new light sets, and it became painfully obvious that it doesn't matter how good your lighting is if your textures and shaders suck. So I've done my homework and now I'm doing texture/shader makeovers for my recurring characters! Of course, Aranée is my current main character, so she and her wardrobe and gear get the treatment first. This is a straight render, NO postwork other than the logo! I wanted to hone in on textures and shaders only for this exercise so there are no specialty lights or sets here, just 6 standard Daz spotlights:

One 75% white spotlight with deep shadow mask, placed high and angling down to simulate the sun;
Three 20-25% very pale blue spotlights arrayed around the stage, beam coverage angled to 150 degrees, and pointing down from treetop height to simulate reflected sky ambience;
Two 10% very pale green spotlights, beam coverage angled to 150 degrees, pointing up from ground level to simulate backscatter from the grass.

I discovered several sets of FREE shaders that all serious D/S artists should have in their toolboxes:

questar sets (get them all!) HERE. Wonderful metal shaders, I used them for Aranée's weapons and other metallic gear, clasps etc.
georgehaze set HERE. several sets at once, including photorealistic metal surfaces (including modern hi-tech metals), and a really great leather / shiny cloth set. I used the leather and shiny cloth for some of Aranée's clothing and gear.
joelegecko set HERE. A lot of intersting toon and anime stuff, but I REALLY use the heck out of the velvet shaders for clothing. Here, I used a slightly modified velvet shader for her shirt.
marianne sets HERE. One set has Supershine colors and the other set gives a shiny topcoat for existing mats and textures. I used the topcoat shine shaders for her eyes - the ONLY shader I've found so far that makes realistic-looking eyes in D/S.
And of course, don't overlook the D/S builtin shader presets found in the STUDIO folder: I applied the D/S shiny metallic shader to her hair prop and voila - hair with realistic looking highlights!

And finally a purchased shader destined to be my most-used tool, worth every penny: omnifreaker Human Surface Shader HERE. I used it on Aranée's skin tex with fabulous results, but the name *IS* a bit misleading: I now use it for ANY textured or non-textured surface because it gives you exquisite control over shininess, velvet/downy effects, semi-transparent surfaces, you name it. ALSO, it allows use of the many available tileable textures and transmaps that won't normally work because D/S tends to stretch ONE copy of a tile over an entire object. HSS cures this by allowing up to 10 repeating tiles to cover the object. This is the shader I consistently reach for when I don't have a readymade preset to get the job done. Well, what do you think of Aranée's makeover? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Image © 2009 Larry Hodge

Comments (35)

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mambo

4:36PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

Gorgeous scene!!!!*****

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drifterlee

4:43PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

Beautiful!!

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PhilW

4:47PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

Great makeover! Her skin looks great and I like her top - it has a slight velvety look to it. Looking forward to her continuing adventures!

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icerian

4:50PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

She has an angel face. Very nice work!

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adrie

4:55PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

Fantastic scene work my dear friend, superb pose and lighting excellent done...love it.

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Cimaira

4:58PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

She is gorgeous! Wonderful scene and fantastic make over!

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Darkglass

5:15PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

Nice scene gorgeous character !!

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1010

5:19PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

Stunning lighting!

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3x3

6:19PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

wonderfull composition x

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neelzonline

7:53PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

A very cool image

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flaviok

8:40PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

Esplendida, magnifica ambientação e obra, aplausos (5)

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jandunne

9:46PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

She was beautiful before, but now she absolutely GLOWS. Bravo, Larry!

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LBAMagic

10:25PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

Excellent image. Thanks for the lighting tips. So hard to get lighting consistently right. Your image surface shades are really good. I have georgehaze's fast metal shader; it's awesome. Thanks for the links to the other shaders.

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ledwolorz

10:49PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

Fantastic composition and lighting.Wonderful work.

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ladyinblack

10:58PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

Wow, she's absolutely gorgeous. Great work with the shaders and your lighting is beautiful. Wonderful work and good to see an upload from you :)

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Minda

11:29PM | Sun, 10 May 2009

wonderful scene and she look stunning and your lighting is perfect...great to see you post again..

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restif

12:34AM | Mon, 11 May 2009

She's lovely. You can see some nice skin detail and I love the eyes! Nice Work!

joaq

1:12AM | Mon, 11 May 2009

Great composition and fantastic character!Bravo!

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Kyronimos

10:12AM | Mon, 11 May 2009

She looks realy fantastic with her new skin!

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royo12

3:13PM | Mon, 11 May 2009

Just great!

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magnus073

11:04AM | Tue, 12 May 2009

she looks great Larry, really nice scene

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e-brink

2:06PM | Tue, 12 May 2009

Your character looks excellent here, Larry. Great shaders too.

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LBJ2

1:56PM | Wed, 13 May 2009

Wonderful render and composition,Larry. And thanks for all the shader links. Great looking warrior you have created. Very nice shadows in the forest too.+5

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Deane

4:09PM | Wed, 13 May 2009

Beautiful character and a very impressive makeover. Excellent work!

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lyron

2:07PM | Fri, 15 May 2009

Great scene. Excellent work!!

leezace

12:38PM | Sun, 17 May 2009

Love this scene. her expression is gorgeous, with no post work it is brilliant, the shading and lights are just stunning, nice one my friend 5+

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dbrv6

8:46PM | Sat, 23 May 2009

Great work and its good to read of your exploring the shaders and textures - I am in complete agreement with you and why I spend so much time tweaking the material settings in addition. Of course what type of lights you chose to work with can completly change how the texture and materials work. Keep going!

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