Digital Art Zone

I am certainly open to refinements.

Implementing every feature of Motion Builder is probably outside the scope of this plugin.

Just wondering if keyMate can help with a situation like this: I’m doing a “dance” animation with several Santa Clauses. I move the camera, for example. I also turn the heads and hips and make the eyes wink. I try to get the keyframes set so that each change will happen where I want it to happen in the animation. But, the animation tends to blend them in such a way that, well, isn’t awful, but really isn’t what I intended. Can keyMate keep the camera (maybe on a different timeline) movements separate from the dancers’ movements? Can I start a hand movement (maybe on a different timeline) so that it doesn’t occur as a turn is being made?

I am going to yes it can help in that you can see and manipulate the Studio Keyframes of the Dancing figure seperate from the Camera.  Perhaps this image helps.  See the yellow keys that I have selected.  By dragging them I can adjust the timing of those keys independant of the keyframes in the other objects.

I just bought keyMate. I went to the DAZ3D MY SERIAL NUMBERS, to get the registration information. It does not show a serial number for keyMate. Is it too soon? Meanwhlie, I can’t use keyMate, because when I start DS, I get the screen asking for “Registration.”

Here’s the screen telling me that I need to register keyMate, but the MY SERIAL NUMBERS page still does not show “keyMate” nor any registration information.

inquire - 13 December 2012 05:27 PM

I just bought keyMate. I went to the DAZ3D MY SERIAL NUMBERS, to get the registration information. It does not show a serial number for keyMate. Is it too soon? Meanwhlie, I can’t use keyMate, because when I start DS, I get the screen asking for “Registration.”

My Keymate serial was the last item on the list, so if you have multiple pages, it may be hiding with the older numbers.

Harvell - 13 December 2012 05:37 PM

inquire - 13 December 2012 05:27 PM

I just bought keyMate. I went to the DAZ3D MY SERIAL NUMBERS, to get the registration information. It does not show a serial number for keyMate. Is it too soon? Meanwhlie, I can’t use keyMate, because when I start DS, I get the screen asking for “Registration.”

My Keymate serial was the last item on the list, so if you have multiple pages, it may be hiding with the older numbers.

OOPS! That’s it. Dahhh! Thank you.

Hmmm, now I can’t get it to dock. I can get other things, such as animate2, and the timeline to dock. Again, I’m on a Macintosh. Does the Macintosh version not dock, or am I just doing something goofy again?

inquire - 13 December 2012 06:20 PM

Hmmm, now I can’t get it to dock. I can get other things, such as animate2, and the timeline to dock. Again, I’m on a Macintosh. Does the Macintosh version not dock, or am I just doing something goofy again?

OK, SCRATCH THAT. I got it to dock. I had to select the Layout and reset it. Then, keyMate would dock.

Key mate looks like a good start, but…

I would also like to see more control over interpolation: ease in, ease out, fast in & out,

And a solid curve editor is really needed!

example: If you take a look a the bouncing ball animation (which is a standard “first animation exercise”) that is done in the getting started video here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX_knWUBOGk
You can see that it is not really a “bouncing ball” but just a sphere moving up and down.  A bouncing ball will have correct interpolation on the keys (fast in and out on the “hit ground” keys and ease in and out on the “in air” keys)

Once again it’s a nice try but without further development KeyMate is only half way there and does not fill the huge gap in the animation tools of Daz Studio. It’s a pity since I have been waiting for years to introduce Daz Studio to my animation class and still can’t recommend it even for beginning animators.

Why is a good curve editor/key frame editor in Daz Studio so hard to implement? It’s a standard tool in any 3d animation package even other free ones like Blender. I would pay twice the price for KeyMate if it solved this problem.

I don’t know what algos ease-in/out use, but they tend to be cubic splines in animation, which would make them always wrong (!). The correct speed is quadratic, but I have never seen it discussed anywhere. That’s a simple idea for a future enhancement.

Just bought Keymate and I already have Animate 2. My question is: can I create an animation and include aniblocks within it? For example - if my character is moving around as I need him to by creating his motions with Keymate, can I include some of the useful aniblocks such as breathing, blinking, etc?

The reason for the question is that I get the impression that the two products don’t play nicely together (not that I have spent the time experimenting yet).

I’m also not sure what the difference is between non-linear and linear

wao,,I check topics about keyMate again.. .

then need to ask some question

Redave said,, ds timeline is cubic linear animation,
I think I do not have the way to edit curve of linear line in ds timeline,,

then,, KeyMate is non linear key frame animation, so that ,,
it means,
I can not tweak and adjust curve of movements between two key frame ^^;?
thoguh I know,, we can edit the curve of linear in animate 2 keyframe edit mode,,

(of course it seems useful I can change the value of each key frame in ds timeline,,
so I may not regret to get keymate)

and,, Go figure said,, there was bug, when use keymate with auto-fit,
then,, have the bug are alredy removed ?

now I download it. if I need send pm?

marble - 14 December 2012 09:08 AM

Just bought Keymate and I already have Animate 2. My question is: can I create an animation and include aniblocks within it? For example - if my character is moving around as I need him to by creating his motions with Keymate, can I include some of the useful aniblocks such as breathing, blinking, etc?

The reason for the question is that I get the impression that the two products don’t play nicely together (not that I have spent the time experimenting yet).

I’m also not sure what the difference is between non-linear and linear

aniMate and keyMate attack the same problem(making things move), but in different ways.

aniMate is an NLA system and uses premade clips and strings them together.  Editing is fairly easy.  You can make animations from scratch, but it fairly complex to get what you want.

keyMate is a much more traditional keyframe animation solution.

As far as interaction between the two here are some scenarios, where I see it working out well

Scenario 1) Use aniMate for all or some figure animation(like walking, dancing, etc).  Use keyMate for camera, lights, and simple objects and any other figures.
Scenario 2) Bake an aniBlock to Studio Keys.  Use keyMate to add animation to the end or move/delete a section of keys and create by hand a new section of animation.
Scenario 3) Bake an aniBlock to Studio Keys.  Delete all the keys on a particular body part.  I am thinking all the keys on the arms.  Keyframe new arm animations.

And of course
Sceneario 4) Use keyMate to create animations from scratch.  Create an aniBlock from the Studio Keys you just created.  Tip: always save before you do this.

Using keyMate and aniMate2 on the same figure at the same time is generally not recommended.  aniMate2 has the starts and the masking of those starts.  Masking shuts off aniMate2 for that section of time.  This is generally not worth the work or steep learning curve to do it successfully.

Doesn’t baking to the timeline make every frame a keyframe? What effect will deleting whole sections of keyframes have? And can I just select the frames affecting the arm after baking?

Sorry if my questions are too basic.