How to Relax Muscles?

sumares_f2eb1f99b2

Hi all,

I notice that the Genesis characters will tense up the appropriate muscles when a limb is moving, but I cannot figure out how to force these muscles to relax again when the movement has stopped. The muscles remain tense in repose, and it looks wrong.

Any experts out there who have handled this before?

Many thanks!

Paul

Jaderail

Check to see if you have FLEX ON set to ON for the figure you are using, not all have it. Otherwise I think I'm missing the idea.

sumares_f2eb1f99b2

Sorry, I'm very new to the program ... I don't see a "Flex On" setting in the program or in the User Guide. Perhaps you could tell me where that setting is located?

To clarify, I have a Genesis character posed, and when I animate the arm for example, lifting it from the shoulder, the program automatically tightens up the surrounding shoulder muscles. But when the arm has dropped and should be relaxed, the muscles stay tensed as the animation continues.

When the animation sequence stops and the we are returned to the starting frame, the muscles show as relaxed again.

Jaderail

If you have NOT turned it On then its not on. I'm lost as to what you mean. The figures are designed to look as good as possible when posed so I would need a example to understand what you mean.

My figures do not STAY that way when animated. Are you MAYBE Key framing to much when you do your animation?

sumares_f2eb1f99b2

Okay. It looks like I must not have "Flex On" set to "On", since I never turned it on explicitly.

Here is a link to an extremely simple example. If you watch the figure's shoulder carefully, you will see it begin with the muscles relaxed, tense as the arm is raised (good), but then stay tense after the arm is lowered in repose again. The most obvious point at which this becomes apparent is when the 2-second animation stops, and you clearly see the muscle go from tense backed to reposed (the starting point of the animation). This switch happens when the animation has stopped, not during the animation. As long as the animation would keep running, the muscle would remain looking tense. As soon as it stops it goes to the relaxed state that I would LIKE it to be in DURING the animation.

Many times this problem is so stark that the animation just looks ridiculous and unusable.

http://youtu.be/wLL1cS9bvRs

I realize that DS may not be able to guess when I want to consider the figure in repose or not, but is there a way to force the state of the muscle into repose when I need it to be?

I'm finding that this will not be as big of an issue as I first thought because I saw that when rendering to a movie, the muscles do not automatically go tense as they do when building the animation. But then, this difference between render state and working (animation building) state makes it difficult to coordinate things like surface-to surface posing (e.g., hand and fingers placed on shoulder).

Jaderail

Hmmm I think all your seeing is the Viewport update. In the Render mode that should not show as it renders only after the Viewport fully updates.

sumares_f2eb1f99b2

You're right in that when I render, these adjustments do not show.

I'm using Daz 4.6 on Mac OSX 10.6.8 ... does this not happen on your version? What version and OS do you use?

As I mentioned, it's good at least that it will not render this way, but when placing two objects right on top of each other, if one of them has this modified shape while in the middle of the actual pose operation (which it does), it becomes hard to adjust and get right. I have to let go with the mouse in order for the normal shape to reappear, and only then can I tell if the two objects are touching properly.

That's a real pain. So I'm wondering why I am experiencing this, and others are not.

Jaderail

I'm Win7 and a i7 hex. Yep it happens on my system in the Viewport preview as well. But it never renders out, its the Mesh updating shape in the viewport slower than the timeline runs. The Timeline of 30 frames per second (default) is much faster than the Mesh can update to or from some poses.

And if you watch the lower right of your DS screen you should get a Update Bar that runs. Let the figure FULLY update before you do more work like you just mentioned.

sumares_f2eb1f99b2

I see.

Strange thing, though, is that the same result happens even if you slowly drag the scrubber knob across the timeline, or even hold it in place. Makes me wonder if it really is just a render speed issue.