BullyPup messing around with Daz3D.

Don't bother with Poser.  Daz Studio does what it does and much better.

Personally, I would choose a package or 2 and learn those.  They all do pretty much the same thing. The only major difference is the render engine behind them, and the quality you are after.

My personal opinion is, if you want to render still images of gorgeous looking women, then Daz Studio is the first choice.  Simply because of the sheer number of models and the quality of them that are available.

DS can even handle animations pretty well, if you want to go down that road.

Once you start looking into other 3D packages, then, as Random pointed out, you will need to export from Daz and import into that particular package.  Sometime this goes smoothly. MOST times, its a huge pain in the ass 

You get problems with textures not aligning properly, geometry exploding for no reason (especially hair), lighting not working, all manner of headaches.

But, if final quality is of paramount importance, then yes, Daz is not the best render engine on the market.  That goes to Octane imo.

DS apparently has an Octane plug-in, but from what I've heard, it has issues atm.

If you want to explore 3D packages - Blender is the choice because its free with lots of support.  But I would argue Maya or 3DS are FAR superior (reflected in their price).

Just my quick thoughts

Peace.

/K

kikass2014

Thanks man.  Lots of helpful info.   Have you used the "Firefight" asset?  

This one? www.daz3d.com/iray-firefight

I've used the squibs a little and I got the bullet holes to work after some finagling but LFan was able to do a better job with effects in post.

I have a hate/hate relationship with iRay decals and that product uses them a lot.

You're welcome Bully

Have you used the "Firefight" asset? 

I haven't used it sorry.  Things like blood smears and stuff I find easier to do in post.

I may setup a "reference" in the render to give me a perspective or scale for example. But usually its just doing it PS or AE.

Peace.

/K

Thanks Fats!    Definitely another rabbit hole and I just dove in head first

kikass2014

Yeah, I was doing the same. Just adding other FX in Photoshop. But, I bought the "Firefight asset and a lot of it looks promising.

Gincognifo

When you have time, think you can teach me the bulletholes? I have yet to figure how the decals play into it.

When I saw that white goddess costume, it reminded me of something I'd seen before. So I dug around and found this from back when you were having costumes made by perhaps the best seamstresses on the planet for making costumes -- the people who did the exotic costumes for Vegas shows. 

And, those fine costumes were filled out by hot blondes.  

Loved the style then, and love it now. But man, has the world changed. Now it's mostly CGI. Which is a new kind of freedom, and probably a lot less problems, but those were some good days back then. 

Check out this old costume from the wayback machine. I bet there is a story that goes with it.

 

Shadar
 

Good Days indeed, Shadar.
Kendall was a babe..

I tried a couple of times to bring back the Steele's. I've even had a few photoshoots, But with my schedule shifting on me (sometimes without notice), it's difficult getting enough time with my family, much less keeping a level of consistency with shooting and editing.

I still film and edit, but it's totally different now and most of it evolves my family.
I will return to it someday, but It'll have to wait till I retire. In the meantime, I think this is the perfect way to bring everything that's been stirring in my noodle into the world.

I guess this one was inspired by Kendall. 
  

I guess this one was inspired by Kendall.

Nice render

The background is Urban Sprawl 3 (by Stonemason) if I'm not mistaken.  Love his models and use them a lot myself

Peace.

/K

kikass2014
You are not mistaken. I also like that it's not a GPU hog

These are awesome! LOVE the flying ones over neighborhood and city!

A different kind of "face palm" scene with the cop...
 

Tech geek question. Is an older Macbook Pro w/16 GB Ram and a 1GB GPU enough to get feet wet with some of these programs? I enjoy the great scenes I'm seeing here, would like to poke around with some free 3D software to see if it's a good rabbit hole for me.

AUphoric

I honestly don't know, but DAZ and Blender are both free.  I say download them and give it a try.  

Tech geek question. Is an older Macbook Pro w/16 GB Ram and a 1GB GPU enough to get feet wet with some of these programs? I enjoy the great scenes I'm seeing here, would like to poke around with some free 3D software to see if it's a good rabbit hole for me.

If I remember right, Daz Studio will ONLY use an NVIDIA graphics card.  If your Macbook does not have one, your renders will be done by the cpu, and that will take AGES (depending on the complexity of the scene, but even basic ones take MUCH longer then if you have a PC with an Nvidia gpu).

Blender should be fine.

Peace.

/K

It is an Nvidia GPU, and runs the previous version of Davinci Resolve for some lightweight editing. So Daz might be worth a try. Thanks!