David J.

If you are already very experienced in 3D art, you will have your own workflow and Daz3D probably isn't for you. You will be creating your own art in all sorts of exciting, complex ways.

Daz3D is for novices who want to be able to begin making art with little or no existing 3D technical skills and who didn't go to art school. For these people, there is good news and bad news.

The good news is that the Daz3D program is free, there are lots of free tutorial videos on using it, the Daz3D forum community is helpful (and free), and you can import 3d items obtained elsewhere into Daz, meaning you don't have to rely on the Daz3D marketplace, at least not entirely. There are places on the internet where you can get cheap or free 3d resources. However, you will need to spend time sifting the flea markets of the internet to get them.

The bad news is that in order to make good quality art, you are going to have to spend some money. There are ways to minimize this. Use Daz-Deals to see the price history of items. Make the best use of the (constant) Daz sales. Aim to buy items at a 60% discount or better. Above all, don't outspend your ability. You will end up with products you don't know how to use or that you will regret having bought. Don't buy a product for one prop. You can get that prop cheaper individually elsewhere. Join the PC club if you do start buying because the fee is more than compensated for by the extra discounts.

Overall, though? I have 3 pieces of advice.

1.
Daz is an art tool. It can make the process easier, but the art comes from you. Daz won't make you a great 3D artist. Not overnight. No more than a paint set will make you a great painter. Or a fancy camera will make you a great photographer.

In order to produce decent 3D art with Daz you will need to learn a lot about the program, about how 3D models work, render settings, layering and lighting. You would be well advised to learn the basics of blender, at least.

2.
All the great looking images out there have been post worked. This can be as simple as applying filters, fiddling with exposure and color balance. Or it can mean using the Daz output as a base for significant additional work in photoshop.

3.
Daz runs on a computer and is subject to all the same hair tearing, rage inducing, "I'm going back to pen and paper" moments that computers induce in all of us from time to time.

If you are willing to invest the hours and some money and watch the videos and - most important, this - ask for help when you need it on the forums (don't bother with support tickets for technical issues), and learn how to use some of the ancillary programs for post work (Gimp is free), then you can make some respectable looking art with Daz. But appreciate you will have to learn a lot. Art is hard. But if (like me) you never could draw a straight line with a pencil, this is not a bad trade off.

However, if you want to match the output of a professional artist you will basically need to become one. Daz won't turn you into Leonardo DaVinci.