I call this "Daydreamer" because I've closed his eyes ... there's a reason his eyes are closed: in a raytace, they render flat black, in IRay they render flat white, one looks weird, one looks blind! But having said that ... this is a two hour render in IRay, and this is Genesis 8 with a very few tweaks applied to the body, which are permitted by the rudimentary controls available in the program.
I'm just going to post the one image tonight, and invite you to see it full size (1200 x 1800) and go all over it. It's ... pretty good. I think I have the IRay lights just about worked out, after 4,427 experiments. I did the lighting for this myself, didn't load anything automatic. And I think I might have worked out how to make IRay "honor" the textures in fabric ... those shorts look very real and all the maps on them are my own. Now, if I can just solve the eye problem, I'm down to chucking great gobs of money at hair and costumes!
To cut a long story short (because it's the wee small hours and I'm tired), the uninstall, reinstall of DAZ Studio went fairly well. 80% of problems are solved, and I can just about live with the remainder. So ... oars back in the water?! Maybe! I surely hope so. I've been wrestling with this for over a month now, and it would be wonderful to have it all working properly!
Anyway: Daydreamer. Genesis 8 base figure, two hours in IRay, my lights, my textures on the costume, nothing "out of the box." Not bad at all. There's space for real optimism here! Am very happy with the luminous skin textures on this, and the render is a beaut. 😀
