ways to make Iray Daz renders more realistic?

PrefoX

actually you shouldn't need to adjust the shader to get a realistic look if they are made correctly and the renderer is doing a propper job. 

jestmart

Increasing the SubD level of an object does not increase details unless the object has an HD morph.

davidtriune

Rev2019 said:

to TS 3 years later ;)

you can start by adjusting the tranlucency weight for the skin on your models.

90% of the models i see in the renderers are way too dark and looks pasted into the enviroment.

and to make them less cartoonish looking reduce the glossiness alot.

 

you need to adjust  tranlucency weight so the carcter blends into the enviroment better.

usually you want an low setting around 0.1 compared to 0.5 or higher that is default for most skins.

the first renderer is not from an canvas but use canvases as they give richer colors with higher dynamic range (32bit vs 8bit for an normal renderer) and you also have totalt control over the lights in the scene.

 

As for rendering settings allways use spectral rendering natural or faitful.

bump up texture compression to 4096 both for min and max if you have an GPU with atleast 8gb ram.

 

increase resolution for all objects in the scene if you have enough Ram. (32gb as min)

subdivision level at min 3

for base resolution objects you need to turn on "show hidden properties" so you can change it

for high resolution objects you can just change it right away.

the G8F on the second renderer here have subdivision level at 4.

 

someone mentioned that eyes doesnt look alive.

they sure dont with the default settings

it takes some adjustments to the eye surfaces and also a special light that gives them that realistic depth and reflection. (renderer two here)

 

Thanks so much for these tips. People rarely share their secrets on these things. 

If I have a tip, it's to set burn highlights / crush blacks to 0 . This gives you a linear workflow which everyone should work under first, then post process after.

Timbales

Don't be afraid to play with the camera settings - depth of field, f-stop - and the ISO under the Render tab. You'd be surprised how a little change can make a big difference.