April 2026 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Open Render Challenge
Scott Livingston
Posts: 4,352
New User's Challenge - April 2026
Sponsored by DAZ 3D
Are you new to the 3D World? Are you at the beginning stages of learning 3D rendering? Have you been around for a little bit but feel you could benefit from some feedback or instruction? Have you been around a while and would like to help other members start their creative journey? Well then, come and join the fun as we host our newest render challenge!
Back by popular demand (or well because we think it went well LOL), we are breaking down each month into 2 different challenges:
A Beginner Challenge and then also an Intermediate Challenge.
So which "Challenge" should you choose?
Follow the Beginner Challenge if you are:
- New to the New User Challenges
- New to Daz Studio
- Newer to 3D Rendering in General
- Or if you have not participated in the Previous Month's Composition Challenge
Follow the Intermediate Challenge if you have:
- Participated in the New User Challenge for awhile
- Know the basics of Daz Studio and would like to learn more in depth topics
- Been using 3D Rendering Applications for awhile and feel comfortable with learning Intermediate Topics
- Or if you have all ready been spotlighted in the Previous Month's Composition Challenge
*Please don't forget to note in your post with your render whether the image is for the beginner or intermediate challenge, and to also mention which of your new skill set(s) you used in creating your image!*
Check out Daz3D's Free Masterclasses on Daz Studio from Jay Versluis! It's a great series for everyone from the Newest User to the OG's of Studio!!
"Open Render Challenge"
The Open Render Challenge is also referred to as a "free" month, where you can concentrate on using and combining the skills you learned in the past few challenges.
If you would like to review the previous topics and information you can find the topics/threads here:
- Beginner/Intermediate : Composition/Instancing & Duplication
- Beginner/Intermediate : Lighting/Light Effects
- Beginner/Intermediate : Posing/Posing II
We will be checking in as will the rest of the Community Volunteers to try and help with anything you all may need.
For a list of the current challenge rules, please see this thread: Challenge Rules
Closing Date: April 30th, 2026
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Comments
As someone who has only just found the competition pages, I assume for this one I can post pretty much anything that's SFW?
Welcome, garrett_3d! Yes--any image that complies with the general challenge rules and the forum Terms of Service (especially sections regarding content policy) is fine--there is no restriction on the theme or subject of the image as long as it complies with these rules.
OK that's great. I'm still pretty new at all this (less than 12 months in to my first VN) but here's one I did at Hallow'een for my Patreon subscribers.
(I'm guessing there's an attachment size limit as I've had to reduce the size quite considerably from it's original 4K size to get it to upload).
Very nice! Yes, an image like that, that shows off various skills that we have explored in other New User Challenges (like lighting, composition, and posing) would work well for this open render challenge. It should be a new image created specifically for the challenge (see #7 in the New User Challenge Rules).
Ok great, I'll put something together when I'm back from holiday.
Here's my start for the month.
Spent 5 hours today putting this one together and another 3 rendering it (I re-did it twice). Although I was working on my other PC at the same time so not strictly an accurate timescale. Here's my entry for April - The Soldier's Prayer.
Oh, I'm a beginner by the way - it probably shows
Nice start, both of you!
@Shinji Ikari 9th: I like what you've done with the emissive surfaces, but the overall lighting is a bit dim. Maybe try some rim lighting on your figure, or else a light source on either the left or the right side of the scene, to add some dimension and depth?
@garrett_3d: Powerful scene! I like the dramatic lighting and composition. The way you have faked motion blur on the lead airplane's propeller is a nice touch. Have you done much work with shaders? Adding some dirt or grime on some of the surfaces might help to increase the realism. There could be other ways of going about this too, such as adding more debris in the foreground, making some dirt or water puddles (one way would be to use a cylinder primitive with a very low height), etc.
I've not really touched shaders or primitives, I'm still learning my way around DS. The motion blur was done in paint.net (I refuse to pay for Adobe).
I didn't want to crowd the scene with too much additional clutter but a bit more debris could work, if I can figure out how to do it with what I've got in my library.