Blender vs DAZ (Patreon)
Content
Let's compare the two. We have Blender on the left and DAZ on the right, or Blender first and DAZ second.
- Lighting: Blender wins this, hands down. I have more control over it than in DAZ (or in SFM, for that matter) and it does some really nice stuff with light bounces which you can see on the inside of the jacket. I also think her eyes look a lot more realistic in the Blender shot than in the DAZ shot.
- Colours: I see that the skin tones are completely different, however I didn't change them myself, which leads me to think that it's just how these engines and lights handle colours and light bouncing off of them and passing through them.
- Quality: Take a look at the final images, the close up of the inside of the jacket. You'll see, apart from the previously mentioned light bounce in the Blender image, that the DAZ image has a lot more grain. This could've been due to my DAZ settings (it most likely is, so take this point with a grain of salt, we're comparing the aesthetics more than the technicality of it all here), but it's got a lot more grain and I think it even took a lot longer to render, at the same sample rate.
- Conclusion: So, I mentioned this in the comments in my last post, but I think pairing these two engines would be pretty powerful. DAZ is very competent in making original models/characters and dressing them up in different clothes with different hairstyles has been so easy to do and I've only started messing with it for a week now.
I think Blenders' Cycles engine is superior however on all other fronts. It has better lighting, colours and Blender offers better controls behind the scene on lighting, camera, materials, shaders.
The only remaining question is.. what would you like to see?
Original characters or characters from games?
I think both of them have their merits; characters from games can bring in a lot more people because they're interested in those established characters, they might recognize them etc.
But I think original characters allow us to create those characters to our liking. Give them their own personality and appearance. Which is something I'm really interested in. Perhaps we can create a small "universe" or collection of reoccurring characters like in a series on TV. Or just something like Dmitrys and Incase have done in the past.
I'm going to test further on posing and animating in both of these engines the coming days.
In short;
Let me know if you want to see more original characters as opposed to characters from games. And which image from this comparison do you like more?