This Daz3D Shortcuts & Time Saving Techniques article is all about making you faster when working with Daz Studio. We will explain everything step by step. Having ways to save some time can be very helpful and convenient. In this article we are going to look at ways how you can make your Daz Studio experience more comfortable. Mainly by using shortcuts, but also other ways that can help you.
Daz3D Time Saving Shortcuts
Most of your time in Daz Studio you will spend by moving around your scene, looking everywhere and making changes to it. So one of the best ways to save some time and get more comfortable with the software is to use the following Daz3D shortcuts.
Daz3D Customize Daz Studio Window
First of all let’s open the “Customize Daz Studio” window. You can either press [F3] to open it or go to the “Window > Workspace > Customize”.
In this window you can customize how your Daz Studio looks, feels and controls. We are here for the last one. You can find basically any function that is in the Daz Studio here and see which shortcuts it uses. So for example Render is [Ctrl+R] and Render Settings are [Ctrl+Shift+R]. By the way, Mac users should replace any Ctrl in this article with ⌘.
Also using this menu you can change any of the shortcuts. Or even add shortcuts to things yourself. So if you often create Spotlights, why not just create a shortcut for it?
Daz3D Scene Navigation Tool
One useful tip before proceeding to the shortcuts: you can move around your scene from the first person perspective. Meaning that this is done like in computer games. To turn this one, you will need to turn on the Keyboard Navigation and Scene Navigation Tool.
When this is done, you can move around your scene using [Left Mouse Button] (LMB) to rotate your view and keyboard keys to move around. [W], [A], [S] and [D] to move forwards, left, backwards and right. [Q] and [E] to move up and down and [U] with [O] to roll your view.
Then you can use [Alt+P] to cancel all the rolling and rotation you have done and return to normal.
While the “Scene Navigation Tool” is active, you can open the Tool Settings window to see all the controls that have been mentioned above but via buttons instead of shortcuts. Also here you can control how sensitive Controls are by changing the number beneath them.
Daz3D Navigation Shortcuts
Now let’s talk about the shortcuts and how you can navigate your scene using them. The main controls that you need are Orbiting, Panning and Zooming and they can be found as buttons on the top right of the viewport.
You can utilize these controls using shortcuts instead. They are: orbiting(Rotating around) – [Ctrl+Alt+LMB]; Panning – [Ctrl+Alt+RMB]; Zooming – Scroll wheel. There are more to controls than just Orbiting, Rotating and Zooming through. To Reset the Camera press [Ctrl+Alt+R] and Frame Selection is [Ctrl+F].
Frame Selection on the eye
You can also move like you are in first person without using the Scene Navigation Tool. For this simply click on the Navigation buttons on the top right of the viewport with the Right Mouse Button instead of the Left one.
On the top right you can also switch between Shadings for your scene. Instead of opening this list each time, you can simply use shortcuts for them.
The shortcuts are [Ctrl+#] with # being any number from 0 to 9 on the keyboard. Both regular numbers and Numpad works. With [Ctrl+9] and [Ctrl+0] being the most useful ones as they are Texture Shaded and Nvidia Iray shading respectively.
To the right of the Shading menu you also have a view controls list. Here it is possible to change your view and see your scene from a specific angle.
And again, for your convenience you can use shortcuts for this. They use arrow keys and are pretty easy to remember and understand:
- Front View – [Ctrl+↓]
- Left View – [Ctrl+→]
- Right View – [Ctrl+←]
- Back View – [Ctrl+↑]
- Top View – [Alt+↑]
- Bottom View – [Alt+↓]
- Perspective View – [Ctrl+P]
Front View
There are a lot more shortcuts in the Daz Studio, I can’t mention all of them. A couple more useful ones: [Ctrl+L] changes your lighting in the Texture Shaded and [Shift+F11] makes your viewport full screen.
Full Screen Viewport
Daz3D Other Time Saves
Additionally let’s talk about other time saves except the shortcuts. Firstly I would recommend you to use search function. Yes, this sounds very basic, but it can save a lot of time in a long run.
When you have a big collection – finding stuff can be difficult. So search bar is your lifesaver. It is located at the top of the Smart Content window. You just need to type in the product name that you want to use and it will be filtered out for you.
One of the biggest ways to save time is your renders. Rendering is the thing that will take most of your time working on the scene usually. Some renders can take up to tens of hours to complete.
So a huge recommendation to you would be to always make a test renders before the final one. Just lower your “Max Samples” amount in the “Render Settings” window and see how your scene looks. At least approximately.
Besides simply lowering your Samples amount – there are more ways to speed up your renders. We already made an article devoted solely to that topic – Daz3d Faster Render Tips: How to Speed up Renders. And even made a video that is based on this article on our Youtube Channel – Daz Studio Faster Render Tips | Daz3D Tips.
Test Render Example from Daz3d Faster Render Tips: How to Speed up Renders
Daz3D Time Saving Products
Another major method of saving your precious time. It implies that you, instead of doing all the work manually on your own, will get it done by someone instead. On the Daz3d.com/shop you can find a wide range of most different products. Some of them are very specific, so always give this a try.
For example, instead of creating your own facial expressions and spending a lot of time on that – you can get ready ones. Just like The Expression Collection for Michael 8.1 by Daz Originals & Quixotry. Michael 8.1 is the newest and most advanced male figure there is at the moment.
Source The Expression Collection for Michael 8.1 by Daz Originals & Quixotry
Or find more expressions for the earlier Genesis figures. Like an astounding collection 101 Expression Library with Dials for the Genesis 8 Male by Daz Originals & Gustef. There are so many expressions in this pack, that they are divided into ten categories.
Source 101 Expression Library with Dials for the Genesis 8 Male by Daz Originals & Gustef
Another thing that you can try to spend a lot of time to create yourself is Materials and Shaders. And instead of doing that there are a huge selection of different products of this type. Just like Iray Materials Collection Vol 3 by Polygonal Miniatures that includes 25 organic Iray materials such as wood, bark, oil, stone and more.
Source Iray Materials Collection Vol 3 by Polygonal Miniatures
There are a lot of shaders and materials on the market. With different purposes each. You can find something that could be used for the clothes of your figures. Like Sublime Iray Shaders by Daz Originals & JGreenlees.
Source Sublime Iray Shaders by Daz Originals & JGreenlees
And there are even some very specific shaders. For example Putting On The Glitz – Shiny Shaders for Iray by Daz Originals & MartinJFrost. It has a distinct holiday christmas theme with all the glitter and shine.
Putting On The Glitz – Shiny Shaders for Iray by Daz Originals & MartinJFrost
One more example of a thing that you can find on the Daz3D.com and that will save your time is Poses. Creating a pose is very important and you need to do that basically in every scene.
Reusing your poses all the time is not perfect and creating each time your own one is very difficult and needs a lot of time. So why not just look for something like Naturally Poses for Genesis 8.1 Female by Daz Originals & lunchlady
Source Naturally Poses for Genesis 8.1 Female by Daz Originals & lunchlady
Again, there are some specific poses that you can find here. Like couples poses that Z Everyday Couple Poses for Genesis 8 and 8.1 by Zeddicuss adds.
Source Z Everyday Couple Poses for Genesis 8 and 8.1 by Zeddicuss
Conclusion – Daz3D Shortcuts & Time Saving Techniques
I hope you find these Daz3D Shortcuts helpful. Saving time in the Daz Studio can be easier than you think. There are multiple ways of doing so, such as getting faster renders or having a wide collection of assets to use. But by far the most useful one is getting comfortable with your software. If you will learn how to use Daz Studio properly, learn shortcuts and features – you will get much faster while working, which is great.