Renderotica

Get a DAZ+ Membership. It will save you a lot of money.

Yes, DAZ sales are constant and generous and we all love discounts on top of the already free software and figures, but if you see something you want/need and can afford it, it's also nice to support the creator.

Go for Genesis 8.1, not 8.

DAZ STUDIO USER SINCE 2006

Originally Posted by: BrimstoneOmega

Welcome to the fold! As Blir said, it can become an all consuming hobby, especially when it comes to your wallet. This place isn't so bad as far as that goes (though it can add up quick), but be careful over at the Overlord's site. Be patient, there's always another sale, and usually the next day you can find something you wanted for significantly less than it was the day before. Never buy anything unless it's at least %50 off, and be careful with bundles, they've started bundling certain items in multiple different bundels, so it's possible to pay for things multiple times, unlike here where you get a portion of the price reduced if you already own something in a bundle.

Originally Posted by: Hellboy

Get a DAZ+ Membership. It will save you a lot of money.

Yes, DAZ sales are constant and generous and we all love discounts on top of the already free software and figures, but if you see something you want/need and can afford it, it's also nice to support the creator.

Go for Genesis 8.1, not 8.

Caveat to what I said; Buy any of the products released by Soto that you like, at any price. You will not be disappointed. Might I suggest Maia and Maxx to start off with, and maybe the Sultry Bun Hair for Maia, and the Topknot Hair and Beard for Maxx. Those are two of the most versatile and unique characters you can find out there. 

P.S. Love your work Hellboy!

First efforts are abyssmal. I'm using IRay with an NVidia Quadro P2200. Do I need a different renderer? Do I have enough power? Something's very wrong...

Originally Posted by: Sandino

First efforts are abyssmal. I'm using IRay with an NVidia Quadro P2200. Do I need a different renderer? Do I have enough power? Something's very wrong...

Keep at it.  Don't worry about hardware, focus on content, lighting, composition and your chosen work flow.  And, most importantly what pleases you.  Smaller, simpler images often turn out out better than chasing, complicated, bigger, all inclusive scenes that require loads of processing power and take hours to render.  Chasing the last 10% of rendering detail for the illusive perfect image can make you insane and ruin your hobby in frustration.

I don't use DAZ and never used iRay.  I do all my work on a lowly 15" laptop without a dedicated graphics card.  Almost all my images rendered in less than 10 minutes @300 dpi, typically 9"x7", and if a render takes longer, I try to simplify the image.  That works fine for me and keeps me interested in the hobby.

First render. Learning how to navigate to my stuff through Daz, getting genitals to work, playing with posing, shaping, lights, etc. Definitely seeing this as potentially a fun new hobby. Some of the links in the forum interface don't seem to be working on my PC. 

 www.renderotica.com/gallery/shorturl/624215/Right-Foot

Sandino attached the following image(s):

Originally Posted by: Digital_Mercury

Under Render Settings > Progressive Rendering set Max Samples to 512, Turn Render Quality Enable to On and you can set Render Quality to 0.1 or lower without loosing much in visible quality.

Thanks. That one image took over an hour to render!

So first of all... obviously... welcome to the dark side! (don't mind me too much here, I just like the dramatics a bit) ;)  But I really think it's awesome that you got the drive and decided to make stuff on your own, nothing is as much rewarding than to work out your own (erotic) fantasies. And Daz Studio?  Well.. it's sure one of my all time favorite environments.

Alas, some hints and tips which I hope can be put to good use...   Including the "naughty stuff" of course ;)

• Renderotica > Daz genetalia => If you buy into "pro" bundles on the Daz website then you may get a hold on genitalia for their Genesis models. Both male and female. Unfortunately... having the prop (that's basically all it is) does not imply that the character you're going to use will also be supporting it. Plenty of characters don't. Go to the source, and that is Renderotica.
• Speaking of which...  at this time I need to be honest: bias goes into effect here.  But ... at this point in time I am paying more attention to buying female figures "over here" then "over there". I'm currently using "Violette" in my main story renders, bought it from this place, and I could write a whole essay as to why that character is just.. so amazing!  SO much attention to detail, and not just the naughty bits, but the character as a whole.
• THAT brings me to: suspense can be erotic too. There is something as make-belief nudity and .. IMO it can be arousing too. More so: if you're making renders then sometimes not every detail will matter. 
• Don't cut short on 3Delight & Filament.  All the cool people use Iray and nothing else? I beg to disagree. There's a lot you can do with those as well. Sure, I love Iray too, but this has its place too (somewhat explicit but nothing over the top there, I am a sucker for those tensional renders).
• Careful with Daz+!!  Yes, it has its advantages, IF you plan to buy a lot from their store. Otherwise, tread carefully, because if you don't you're going to be coughing up a lot of cash for... nothing else but the opportunity to buy into more stuff.  See, most of their "freebies" have strings attached: you "only" need to own a certain product. Which more than once isn't on sale, but ey: you get Daz+ discounts!  Question: would you REALLY be buying into that if it weren't for Daz+ pointing it out in the first place?  This is only useful if you'll be purchasing stuff at a steady rate.
  • First question: why only focus on "that place"?  There are more places for 3D props and Daz Studio is a standard. Not to mention...  they support Poser too *
  • Second...  Just so we're clear: I am not "dissing" Daz+, used it myself too, of course then it was called something else. These days though I don't, and I still manage to find solid deals for fair prices WITHOUT the annual $70 (which I'd rather spent on being Premium here, just saying (yes, I am a bit of a fanboy but I am also fully honest)).  If you're going to buy a lot of stuff over there (there IS a LOT of awesome stuff to be found "there", fact!) then it has its merits. Just be careful!
  • I apologize up front (really!): Renderotica freebies > Daz+ "freebies".  Sorry, but had to be said. I once grabbed a full female character from this place, for FREE. She's still available I think, you will not find THAT on "the other place we do not link to" :)  (it's the most heard complaint on the membership forums).
• Consider getting a 3D editor / modeller.
  • This heavily depends on how far you want to go with this but...  sometimes it can make a difference to be able and change stuff yourself. Blender is free for example, so is Hexagon (I think?).  Most 3D modellers have a learning curve, and some can be quite expensive to purchase. But if you really want to get "more" out of this then I do suggest to consider it.
  • I stopped paying for texture packs, at all, for whatever product because I now have both Photoshop Elements as well as a 3D "editor" of my own which allows me to do my own thing whenever I need it.
• Most of all: make sure to have some FUN with all this!!
  • It may sound silly, but I cannot stress that part out enough. Focus on fun first.

Ok, now, I am in "that" mood... I don't think I can add spoilers here but...  meh...  With all due respect and all...

• Keep clean underwear in stock!
  • At the risk of grossing out people but please hear me out...  I'm actually serious. Sometimes my fantasy / imagination can get way ahead of me. More than often you can be working with very attractive figures which you then place in rather explicit positions. That always had some effect on me. I am not talking about "helping yourself" but getting excited over your own work. It's going to happen. And you may need to deal with that.

Welcome aboard!

You absolutely nailed it, Bumper. I've been dabbling in Poser first in 1997/98 I think and after 2K I moved to DS (originally because I was getting frustrated at the lack of geografts and the overcomplicated library system). And from day one to now, I have NEVER been really satisfied with whatever render I have produced. The only thing that helps a bit is for me to leave the renders in a folder with their scene file, and forget about them for a while. When I go back to them a week or a month later, I have regained a bit of a fresh eye and can see how well they worked out after all, in opposition to my initial feeling on the spot. All things considered, writers do that too. Stephen King explained more than once that he would write a first draft of his stories, drop them in a drawer and leave them alone for more than two months before going back to the "word processing machine" as they called them back then. Looks like it worked out damn well with books such as "It" and "The Stand".
Rendering should never be "forced". The idea has to come naturally, as well as setting up the basics of you scene. It's always better to first create a scene which *lacks* a few things than too many things from the get go. If you start small, then you can add elements and see how far you can crank it up. Once you find that you've added all that's needed, a first test render will be doable. After that render's done, let it sit in its folder for a few days, get back to it, see what needs to be tweaked and run it again. You might be surprised how well this works :)
It follows the same logic as when you play a video game and fail that boss battle or that specific sequence of platform jumps over and over. After several attempts, you decide that you suck, period. Only... if you calmly leave the game, get back to it the day after and retry... you usually make it on the first try. It works for doing thins, it works for *looking* at things. When you leave a project aside and get busy with something entirely different, your brain doesn't stop working on that "failed" project. In fact, the solution is being worked out in the back of your mind in a scarily efficient way. When you reapply your conscious mind to it later, all the building bricks are there.
I don't think you need to obsess too much about improving your craft. This will come with practice, patience, good reading and tutorials. It takes time. You need to learn how not to be too hard on yourself and trick your eyes in seeing less the "flaws" and see more the beauty of what you make.