Never was interested in 3D rendered pornography until a few days ago. I have zero experience in any kind of graphic design. Seems like most stuff on this site is still images, but I'm more interested in animated stuff. How much work goes into making just one still image, and how much work goes into making a full animation, e.g. a short 20s clip, or a full 30 min video like the g4e video?

There are a number of apps you can use, my main go to app is Daz 3d.

But there is also blender, maya, sfm to mention but a few.

My advice is learn the still shots first before progressing to animation.

You'll probably need to use a rendering farm to render an animation.
I did a short 7 second animation.  I rendered it on my laptop and it took 3 days.

a render farm will spread the animation out and do it quicker.

But yes, I'd definitely learn the basics first so you know how to pose, prop and light the scenes first.

It depends on the render engine you want to use. If you want to use unbiased render engines like Iray or Octane, you will need an nvidia gpu. You can use CPU for that but it would be really slow, so I don't consider that a realistic option. There are unbiased render engines that can work with  radeon cards (like LuxRender iirc). And well, there is also the option of using biased render engines which render quite fast using the CPU, like 3delight or the one in Carrara. I currently use Iray and to give you an idea, I have a GTX 1070 8gb, 16gb RAM and an i5 7400. Now, this is not really too optimal, especially the RAM, but it can get the work done.

Also, in case you are wondering, in short and very simply put, as I understand it an unbiased render engine is based on reality while in biased render engines the computer tries to imitate reality? In my opinion, both are good alternatives, it's not really that one is better or not, it's more about what look do you want to achieve. Do you want as much realism as possible? Yeah, you need an unbiased render engine. If not, and don't want/can't get a decent GPU or even if you just really want a more videogamey' look, then you are probably just fine with a biased one. Although the thing I'd keep in mind when specifically considering Daz Studio is that Iray is currently more popular, so support for getting new stuff with materials already ready for render in 3delight is not as common.

If you are going to use the built in Nvidia iray engine that is in Daz be sure then you want a nvidia card. I personally recommend the nvidia RTX cards, even just the RTX 2060 Super (8GB) is a phenomenal card and can be purchased for around $300 (possibly less since the 3000 series is coming soon)  I reccomend at least 8GB of video memory on the card as some scenes can use up quite a bit. You'll also want at least 8GB of system memory (I recommend at least 16GB though) as for the CPU, you'll want something with at least 8 cores in my opinion, even though it can be done with less. The reason being is because if you go over your memory limit (that your video card has) in your scene then daz will automatically use your CPU to help render the scene regardless if you have it checked or not. So when I would do large scenes on my old system it would basically bring my entire system to a crawl. Also keep in mind if you use Genesis 2/3 charters then they don't use up nearly as much resources, and can be easily done on less powered systems. However genesis 8 looks a lot better in most cases. 

What I started with (I could do most renders in about 30min-5hours depending on the scene)

• CPU: i7 6700 (Quad core)
• RAM: 16GB
• GPU: Nvidia GTX 980

My current system (Even my really large scenes that use up over 30GB of memory take less than an hour)

• CPU: AMD Threadripper 3970x (32 core)
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080 Super
• RAM: 64GB

It all depends on how deep you want to go down the rabbit hole.

If you are starting out then Daz/Poser/MB-Lab for Blender/Vroid Studio/Magic Poser.

If you intend to go further than loading up premade models and posing and scale/resizing bodyparts, then 3dsmax/Maya/Blender/C4d/Mudbox/Zbrush/Sculptris, would be good to start learning.

This is seriously subjective to be honest, firstly it depends on the budget; whats your average income for a side project? Do you save your money? What is your opinions on sub based programs for your projects if you use them, etc etc. Personally, I'd stay away from laptops completely as they are usually for flair and not for impact say a rare few. Just build yourself a desktop, the more with 32GB mem sticks which are pretty affordable compared to 9 years ago same with SSDs -- that's usually a safe bet for anything that would be fit with dozen of polygons and meshes fixed for many characters... OR if its just two characters or less but with many motions and movements in higher frame rates. Which is why this can pose a problem for anyone starting in the beginning with animations. For example Umemaro3D usually takes a full year to complete something that is 30+ minutes well on its own and sure, you could find faster ways to do this but NOT w/o compromises and those films are also well over 30 minutes nowadays. The time still is required based on the due diligence of the user and a speedy computer. On top of that, other things like Voice Actors, and other background simulations are many parts of it to be considered.

DUUUDE!!! Thank you sooo much!!! I'm developing a lewd/BDSM action-adventure game, and you just cut my custom modelling in half!!! Keep in touch, and I'll throw you a free copy of the Beta when it's ready. Holy eff!!!

Hi. Just wanted to add my 2 cents regarding system requirements and performance based on some research I did based on what you've said. This is just informational and meant to complement not dispute or contradict (hopefully) anything you've said.

I have a Lenovo Yoga 730-15IKB laptop with the following components/features:

• CPU: i7 8550 (Quad core)
• RAM: 16GB
• GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Mobile (4GB dedicated; 8GB shared)
• Drive: 1TB Samsung M.3 NVMe

I'd guesstimate my laptop to be marginally better than your old desktop, as, even though the GTX-980 is about 50% faster, the GTX-1050 Mobile can pull an additional 8GB from the system RAM for a total of 16GB dedicated to rendering. That's assuming I step away and just let the system render—which, of course, I would. Additionally my processor is 2 generations newer, and my M.3 NVMe drive has an insane access speed. (I have a cold boot time of 7 seconds.) However, at best, my system appears to be have between 1/3-1/2 the performance of your current desktop (as given). I included links for benchmark comparisons below.

RTX-2080 Super vs GTX-1050 Mobile

GTX-980 vs GTX-1050 Mobile

Further, which Nvidia GPU you choose will have an affect on which program you use. There are three graphics rendering performance enhancing plugins: Iray made by Nvidia and V-RAy & Phoenix FD produced by the Chaos Group.

Iray is made specifically to run on Nvidia RTX processors but will not run on GTX GPUs. (Which leaves me ass out.) Iray has been optimized for Maya, 3DS Max, Daz 3D, and Substance. I could find no mention of it supporting Blender.

Nvidia Iray

Iray Plugins

Conversely, V-Ray is optimized for Blender, and the Blender plugin is also the only one which is free. All other programs can range in price from $200/yr for the Unreal engine to $1200 for a lifetime license for other 3D programs. Their second product, Phoenix FD, has separate versions which support either 3DS Max or Maya. But, they're not cheap. I couldn't find anything which specifically limited either V-Ray or Phoenix FD to any specific processor.

They also offer an online render farm service called Chaos Cloud. It only generates JPGs &/or EXRs and seems rather technical to setup and run. It also says it supports cloud rendering for V-Ray for 3DS Max and Maya but not Phoenix FD, which is odd, since I couldn't find any reference for buying said 3DS Max and Maya versions of V-Ray. Methinks their marketing department is not talking to their programming department.

V-Ray for Blender

Chaos Group Product List

So, if you want high-performance and have the money to shell out, get an Nvidia RTX with Iray and use Daz 3D (which is free). If you only have the money for or already own an Nvidia GTX (like me), use Blender (also free) with the free V-Ray plugin.

As for me, it honestly won't matter that much, as I'm an indie game developer using the Unity engine, for which I'm limiting my graphics quality to midgrade (think gaming graphics from 2016 or earlier). This will have the double benefit of allowing my games to run on low-end/older PCs, consoles, mobile devices, and ultimately VR, thus reaching a broader market and not having to spend money on high-quality graphics. There's tons of midgrade assets which are either free or super cheap. I've only been studying game design for a few months, and I've already constructed my first level. Still needs tons to do, including working out the actual mechanics, but for my needs, the processing power of my laptop is ample.

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