Reflections

I own the intellectual copyright for the written tutorial.  What you make is yours, but please do not take my tutorial.  Share only my link.

This tutorial was created for some friends of mine who wanted to begin learning more about DAZ Studio.  It is intended for beginners to learn how to make reflections in DAZ.  If you have any questions, please feel free to Email  me.

To do this tutorial you will also need DAZ Studio.

You can download a mirror prop from the Free Stuff in Renderosity.  I chose the Poseable Standing Mirror about midway down the page.

1.  Open up your figure  and dress and pose him or her.

2.  Right-click on the figure, select him and rotate him so that he is facing the back.

3.  Here are my parameters for Michael 4.  Realize that these are only suggested parameters.  You will have to tweak them for your figure and pose.

4.  Load the mirror that you are using.  Select the mirror and move it into position so that your figure is standing in front of it, but to the side somewhat.

5.  Here are my parameters for the mirror base.

6.  You need at least 2 lights -- a distant light to light up the scene, and a light to be the reflection source.

Create a Distant light

7.  Here are the parameters for the distant light.  Basically you want it shining on the back of the figure so that we can see it.  

8.  Create a New Spotlight

9.  Here are the parameters for the spotlight.  Basically, you want to place the spotlight, just barely above the mirror and behind the mirror.  You want the spotlight to be pointing towards the figure so that its light shines down onto the figure, and think of it bouncing off the figure and to the mirror.

10.  Here's a way to check the placement of your spotlight.  Set the view to Spotlight

11.  This is what I see in my view.  You want to see the light is shining down on the figure, not blocked by the mirror.

12.  Go back to Perspective View

13.  Now we got to make the mirror reflective.  Click on the Materials tab.

14.  Choose the Mirror from the files, and in the Advanced tab set the Reflection color = white, and Strength = 90 to 97%  You will not see a change in your picture.  Reflections only show up in renders.

15.  Now we are going to test our set up.  And I do mean test.  We are going to do some spot renders to see if the angles of the lighting and the mirror is set up ok to show the reflection.  You may have to do several test renders and move things around before you get it to work. 

Click on the Render tab, and choose the spot render tool (see pink arrow)

16.  Draw a box around the part of the mirror that you should see a reflection in.  When you release the mouse, DAZ will immediately begin a render.

17.  a spot render will only occur inside the box that you drew.  As you can see here, we can see the reflection. 

18.  Left-click on the image to clear the render.  If you were not happy with your render or if your reflection did not show, you will need to move the figures around.  Remember, You should have your figure in front of the mirror, then the mirror, then the spotlight.  (The distant light is only there for lighting up the scene, and it should be in front)

19.  When you are happy with the reflection and placement, render the scene fully.  Render > Render. 

20.  Save your last Render as a JPEG and post it in the forum to share.

Here's a reflection on a car:

 Please do not remove this tutorial from my site.  Share my url.