(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