DAZ Studio Masterclass Outline (Patreon)

I had great plans for expanding my DAZ Studio 101 series over time, but as life happens I never got round to finishing it. Things move fast, and I feel I've literally missed the boat adding bits onto it. Hence, I feel it's time for starting afresh with a new series that covers how to get handsome looking renders out of DAZ Studio, specifically character portraits. I've learnt so much since then, and there's currently no cohesive Masterclass type course on DAZ Studio - I'd like to change that.

I'd like to release this as a paid-for series on the DAZ Store, as well as supporters with Early Access (if DAZ are OK with it). This is going to be a long course (8+ hours in duration), and my idea is to split the topics into three board chapters. Here's the tentative action plan, let me know what you think of it.

Part 1 is an introduction, like an extended version of my recent DAZ Boot Camp stream. I imagine this to take around 3 hours, giving me a chance to explain some topics in more depth.

• Grand Tour of the Interface, and creating a custom workspace 
• Viewport Controls and getting around
• Moving Objects, lining them up and the Snapping Function
• Navigating larger sets
• Viewport Preview Modes
• Working with Filament and creating a Default Scene
• Scene Tab, hierarchies, groups and empties
• Content Overview and Figure Generations explained
• Smart Content vs Content Library
• Working with Custom Libraries
• Filament Preview
• Loading figures and dressing them up
• Saving scenes, props and other items
• Lighting with HDRIs
• Lighting with Spotlights and Point Lights
• Lighting with Mesh Lights
• Cameras, Framing aides and Depth of Field
• Render Settings
• Putting it all together and building a quick portrait

Part 2 is delving much deeper and explores adjusting the intricate bits, like posing, shaders and how other apps can make our lives easier. This is going run around 4-5 hours:

- Custom Characters, Shaping and Parameters explained

- G8.1 subdivision implications

- Posing Characters (Power Pose, dials, presets

- Adding expressions

- The power of Puppeteer (for everything)

- Fitting clothes with dForce

- Adding hair and adjusting it

- Accessories

- Fixing poke through with the Geometry Editor

- Fitting a hat

- Shaders and Material Presets

- Adjusting clothing fit with Hexagon

- Adjusting clothing fit with ZBrush

- Fitting clothing with Marvelous Designer

- Adjusting things with Blender

- Post Production in Photoshop

- Putting it all together again with another portrait

Part 3 is a place to explain related techniques and expand on tips, including products that greatly aid in the process. I'll put everything here that doesn't quite fit into the other two parts. I expect this to run at least 2 hours, perhaps longer.

- Scene Optimizer

- Pose Architect

- Scene Tools

- Batch Rendering

- Cloud Rendering

- Content Package Assist

- Subscene Workflow

- Post Production in Clip Studio Paint

- Post Production in Paint Shop Pro

- Version Control with Git

I'm open to suggestions on what else might be useful. Let me know in the comments if there's anything you'd like to see covered in the series. I've deliberately left out animations as a topic, because I feel it's too deep a topic. I've explained the basics in a stream recently, and with a bit of luck I'll make an edited version of it available to you tomorrow.