Okay ... the oars are at least dipping into the water LOL! First render off the new computer, first glimmering of mastery over this version of Studio. The challenge was to FIND everything, which is far from easy, as yet. Then to configure everything (ack). Then to get the DOF figured out. No problem there. Am still faffing on with the lighting, but I'm about halfway through the process. Don't get too excited yet: almost everything you see here is a preset, just arranged and configured.
The only real fly in the ointment today was trying to get Affinity Photo to play nice, and it refused; and finding out that my Wacom Bamboo will need to be re-re-reconfigured for the new computer; as it stands, it just doesn't work, and/or is pure torture.
So ... first render. The Genesis 8 "Rex" character, plus shirt, plus hair, plus a shader on the shirt, and a necklace; add a set, add a backdrop, suitably blurred to match the DOF; add lights. Render --
Results? This hairstyle never would render on my old computer. The GPU "choked" before it was finished, at about the two hour mark. This was the work of about four minutes flat, rendered at 2000 pixels wide, and middle-high quality. Smiling there!
I needed to paint part of the shirt for "poke through" that couldn't be fixed prior to rendering, and if I'd been able to do it in Affinity Photo, I'd have been delighted with today. Nope. Had to start up the old system, and used Photoshop as a tide-over. These problems will be addressed tomorrow, when I'm not so tired!
All in all, I'm quite happy with this as a first experiment. Lots and LOTS of problems to iron out, but now we're on our way!