Tools of the Trade: DAZ Studio 3 Advanced

DAZ Studio 3 Advanced has been my MVP software lately. DAZ 3D - DAZ Studio 3 Advanced

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpfdWZvWRm8

DAZ does a better job of explaining it, so here's the copy from their site:


DAZ Studio Advanced provides advanced hobbyists and professional artists with the features needed to bridge the gap between art and reality.

This is accomplished with added render enhancements allowing the artist to control the how, what, and where of rendering. These enhancements in combination with new features will have you rendering like never before. New features include; Figure Mixer, Morph Follower, Shader Builder, Shader Mixer, Shader Baking, aniMate Lite, Map Transfer, and 64-Bit capabilities.

DAZ Studio 3 Advanced

• Advanced Shaders and Effects - DAZ Studio now includes HDRI, IBL, Ambient Occlusion, Area Lights, Volumetrics, Velvet, Indirect Lighting, Translucency, Layered Anisotropic Specularity, and Sub-Surface Scattering. Special thanks to omnifreaker.
  
  
  
  • UberEnvironment 2 (by: omnifreaker)
    
    
    
    • Image Based Lighting (IBL)
    • High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI)
    • Global Illumination (GI)
    • Indirect Lighting
    • Color Bleeding
    • Ambient Occlusion
    
    
    
    
  • UberSurface (by: omnifreaker)
    
    
    
    • Sub-Surface Scattering (SSS)
    • Velvet
    • Skin
    • Layered Anisotropic Specularity (hair)
    
    
    
    
  • UberArea Lights (by: omnifreaker)
  • UberVolume [Fog/Smoke] (by: omnifreaker)
  
  
  
  
• Scripted Renderer - Gain full control of the rendering process. If you're into scripting and are familiar with the RenderMan API, this is for you.
• Shader Mixer (Advanced Material Editor) - Mix and match over 90 included shader bricks (or design your own) to create custom lights, cameras, and surfaces within a simple node network for amazing render effects.
• Figure Mixer - Now you can blend between different figures to create your own unique figures. This tool will not only blend two or more shapes together, but it will also provide a working joint rig and preserve the original morphs of the figure you started from.
• Morph Follower - This feature allows you to add support for new figures in old clothing by automatically creating new morphs to fit an unsupported shape. (Based on technology by EvilInnocence)
• 64-Bit for Windows - This functionality not only makes things go faster, it expands memory support, and allows large scenes to be arranged and rendered much easier.
• Map Transfer - This allows you to convert a texture from one figure's UV's so they can be used on another figure's UV's.
• Shader Builder - Built for advanced artists who need a deeper level of control and want to create shaders from scratch.
• Shader Baker - Bake surface shaders, bump maps, displacement maps, and textures into a single image-based texture for a final-render look straight out of the box. You can then share or sell to other users who may not have the same advanced shaders you use to make it look its best.
• Animation Keyframe Editor - Now you can easily see where your keyframes are. Add, delete, copy, paste and/or move your keyframes around with great visual feedback. Special thanks to GoFigure!

DAZ Studio 3 (core)

• Improved Render Engine - DAZ Studio is now compatible with version 8.5 of the powerful 3Delight render engine. Improved performance and memory management reduce render times and handle heavy, complex scenes like never before.
• COLLADA Import/Export - Now you can export figures, conforming clothing, morphs, and scenes into Carrara 7.
• aniMate Lite - Create animations by dragging and stacking aniBlocks into a timeline. Special thanks toGoFigure!.
• Visual Helpers for Cameras and Lights - Provides visual cues for the spread angle and falloff of your spotlights, as well as the limits of your camera's depth of field. Special thanks to Dreamlight.
• Selection/Bounding Box Display - Change the opacity, size, color, and length of the selection bounding boxes.
• Render Album - Store recent image renders in an album format, which can then be loaded into the Render Editor to perform various editing functions on the image. The editor provides options for blending two images, adjusting colors, comparing images, and applying filters without having to open a separate paint program.
• Visible in Render - Added support for whether or not a node's geometry is visible in render without the need to make surfaces transparent.