How to improve rendering level

jin62352

Hi everyone, I have been using Daz for over a year.

But recently I feel that my rendering level seems to be declining, especially after watching too many talented 3D artists on X. The characters, light and shadow in their works are always so real. I don’t know where the difference is, whether it’s the texture, the lighting method, or the difference between Iray and Cycles.
For the characters, I will use some PBR textures from the Daz store, and the light and shadow are also HDRI or some classic lighting methods. Later, it will be processed through PS or LR. But the result is still unsatisfactory, the characters look fake.

I hope you can give me some suggestions!

Mod edit: removed formatting to be readable.

SofaCitizen

Like a lot of things, the best way to improve will be: practice, practice & practice. Also, I would say that unless you came to Daz with a whole lot of transferable skills then you should take care not to compare yourself to other artists. Many of those could have 5, 10 or even 20 years experience over you and so the comparison is not fair to yourself - much better to compare your new renders with your own older ones to see the progress you are making.

As you have mentioned, lighting is very important and if you are focussing on portrait-style renders then there are several products in the store offering default setups to get you started. Alternatively, you can watch some YouTube videos on lighting for Photography since there is quite a bit of overlap with 3D rendering there.

There is another thread in the forum where people are discussing realistic renders which may have some more info.

Richard Haseltine

You might want to post some examples of your work (asuming they are ToS compliant).