July 2026 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Portrait Rendering and L.I.E.

ann0314 · July 2

New User's Challenge - July, 2026

Beginner Challenge - July, 2026

"Portrait Rendering (Expressions and Lighting)"

This month's focus will be Portrait Rendering, with an emphasis on the character's expression and lighting. Portraits are the way we show off the unique aspects of each individual. Expressions should convey their personality. Good lighting will enhance your portrait and set the mood. Portraits don't have to look like yearbook headshots. Get creative, hone your skills, and have some fun in this months contest.

A portrait is a representation of a person, group of people, or even a pet, that displays the expression, personality, and mood of the subject. The focus of a portrait is usually the subject's face, although the entire body and the background or context may be included. Depth of Field is often used to blur the surrounding environment to draw the eye to the subject.

Inspiration:

Portrait Tips and Examples:

Google Search - Portrait Expressions

Beginner's Guide to Portrait Composition

Foundations of Portrait Composition Part I: Framing Your Model

Lighting:

Portrait Lighting Patterns

Mastering Lighting in Blender (The first 25 minutes of the video are basic lighting theory and insights.)

Intermediate Challenge July 2026 - L.I.E. (Layered Image Editor)

What is the Layered Image Editor?

The Layered Image Editor (LIE) allows you to create, open, edit, and save DAZ Studio Layered Image (DLI) sets (*.dsi). A DLI is a composite of image layers into a single Studio material file which can then be applied to an object's material zone in Studio via the Surfaces tab. DLIs can be composed of any image file format supported in Studio (i.e., TIFF, PNG, JPEG, etc.). In addition, DLIs can contain other DLIs as part of its composition. The images composing the layers are not modified as the DLI file contains the pathname to the files and the opacity and blending information.

The DLI format provides a way of combining images without modifying the original images. For example, a tattoo could be available as an option on a figure. Usually, this might require separate texture maps for each skin color plus an extra set of maps with the tattoo. Using the LIE, a DLI file could be built layering the tattoo over the skin maps and the resulting .dsi file added to the material file to load via a MAT pose file. The original skin map can then be applied to the figure without the tattoo or with it, all without having to create two texture maps.

L.I.E. Video Tutorials

Daz Studio Layered Image Editor

DAZ Studio Tutorial - Layered Image Editor - Make your own Tattoos

Daz Studio Tattoo Tutorial

L.I.E Article Tutorial

Daz Custom Tattoos Tutorial

Forum Threads

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/19670/how-do-i-use-layered-image-editor-lie

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/191661/how-to-save-a-layer-image-editor-l-i-e-preset

garrett_3d · July 2

Beginner, posed and rendered in Daz 4.24. All assets from Daz store.

Tried two different approaches, colour and mono.

Burlesque Dancer.

Brian&Alicia · July 4

intermediate entry: LIE

this challange seems like a good one, and the video was helpful.

i knew how to apply L.I.E materials, from the products. but not how to make my own.
so i made the eyeliner webby design, and applied that to the character. this is my first attempt at doing this. looks like i got it right.?.

yuyu.atem · July 7

Title: The Old Chief

Challenge: Biginner

Maybe the render is a bit surrexposed... I used the Godray to enlight the character, but I had difficulties to balance the scene lighting...

Brian&Alicia · July 8

yuyu.atem said:

Title: The Old Chief

Challenge: Biginner

Maybe the render is a bit surrexposed... I used the Godray to enlight the character, but I had difficulties to balance the scene lighting...

Try these settings, .05 for lower density, and .02 for the upper density. And hight at 2000. Then at the bottom option in environment to .98. I normally cut environment intensity to .5 and the next environment option just below to 1.0. This seems to work for me. Also using a spot light, seems to work best for me, with the godray effect.

ann0314 · July 9

Brian&Alicia said:

intermediate entry: LIE

this challange seems like a good one, and the video was helpful.

i knew how to apply L.I.E materials, from the products. but not how to make my own.
so i made the eyeliner webby design, and applied that to the character. this is my first attempt at doing this. looks like i got it right.?.

Very nicely done. I recall the first time I played around with LIE. It's a lot of fun and it opens up so many possibilities for additions to just about anything. And it can be used to weather things etc as well. While often you see it used more on characters, keep in mind it can be used on anything - any model. So you wish a building you bought had some spray paint? You can add that for your render etc. It gives an extra layer of personalization that can be really nice when you need something very specific

ann0314 · July 9

Brian&Alicia said:

yuyu.atem said:

Title: The Old Chief

Challenge: Biginner

Maybe the render is a bit surrexposed... I used the Godray to enlight the character, but I had difficulties to balance the scene lighting...

Try these settings, .05 for lower density, and .02 for the upper density. And hight at 2000. Then at the bottom option in environment to .98. I normally cut environment intensity to .5 and the next environment option just below to 1.0. This seems to work for me. Also using a spot light, seems to work best for me, with the godray effect.

Thanks for sharing some settings to try.

ann0314 · July 9

garrett_3d said:

Beginner, posed and rendered in Daz 4.24. All assets from Daz store.

Tried two different approaches, colour and mono.

Burlesque Dancer.

Very fun. I like both versions. I used to enjoy trying to reproduce the older style ads etc This sort of reminds me of that,

OT for those that don't know, you can enter more than once so feel free to keep experimenting and playing! The more you focus on and utilize any given feature or style, the more you learn about it or how best to utilize it in your artwork.

ann0314 · July 9

yuyu.atem said:

Title: The Old Chief

Challenge: Biginner

Maybe the render is a bit surrexposed... I used the Godray to enlight the character, but I had difficulties to balance the scene lighting...

The brighter lighting does show all of the character in her face really well. But I would maybe try what was recommended above and see if that maybe helps get it closer to what you envisioned.

That said, lighting tends to be a lifelong process IMHO. You'll consistently be learning new things about lighting. So try not to get discouraged if you hit a wall. Heavens knows I have over the years. And sometimes how a surface is setup is just as important (because the settings directly effect how it interacts with the light. So keep that in mind as well. If something has a roughness more towards white then the light will wash it out more so sometimes tweaking surfaces a bit can also help (or trying a diff set of settings if the character includes options for different skin translucency - not sure if this one does though) But you can try playing with the translucency settings on the skin and lowering them a bit (doesnt hurt anything since you arent changing the presets etc. You can always get back to the default just by reapplying the skin shader)

Brian&Alicia · July 10

ann0314 said:

Brian&Alicia said:

intermediate entry: LIE

this challange seems like a good one, and the video was helpful.

i knew how to apply L.I.E materials, from the products. but not how to make my own.
so i made the eyeliner webby design, and applied that to the character. this is my first attempt at doing this. looks like i got it right.?.

Very nicely done. I recall the first time I played around with LIE. It's a lot of fun and it opens up so many possibilities for additions to just about anything. And it can be used to weather things etc as well. While often you see it used more on characters, keep in mind it can be used on anything - any model. So you wish a building you bought had some spray paint? You can add that for your render etc. It gives an extra layer of personalization that can be really nice when you need something very specific

Ty, I'm just glade the video was easy to follow. This was one thing I was really wanting to learn. But, I'm stubborn and typically try figuring things out. Next will be learning to find the texture maps for stuff, so I can dabble with making my own textures. Or an easier way then trying to find them manually... I'm too lazy for that lol.

Brian&Alicia · July 11

intermediate entry: LIE
created the scar and stitches LIE metarial.
added the png file for the scar and stitches, incase someone liked and wanted to use it.

Notifications

July 2026 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Portrait Rendering and L.I.E.

New User's Challenge - July, 2026

Comments

Beginner Challenge - July, 2026

"Portrait Rendering (Expressions and Lighting)"

Inspiration:

Other Helpful Links:

Intermediate Challenge July 2026 - L.I.E. (Layered Image Editor)

What is the Layered Image Editor?

L.I.E. Video Tutorials

L.I.E Article Tutorial

Forum Threads

Title: The Old Chief

Challenge: Biginner

Title: The Old Chief

Challenge: Biginner

Title: The Old Chief

Challenge: Biginner

Title: The Old Chief

Challenge: Biginner

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