Digital Art Zone

3dsamm - 30 May 2012 03:04 AM
im trying not to use puppeteer as it keyframes all body parts..?
very annoying i cannot use geppetto in DS4.. im sure there is someone out there that would just love to convert it
.

Puppeteer will Keyframe any part or “node” you have selected.  If you just Keyframe the hand, it will only save the hands position, if you have the root selected, it will keyframe the entire figure.

Super Newb - 30 May 2012 09:48 AM

3dsamm - 30 May 2012 09:09 AM

ug.. now later down the timeline I need to rotate and move it so it fits in the hand better but the move/rotate controls dont seem to work in parent mode?

Not sure why the “move/rotate” tools wouldn’t be working.  Which tool are you using?  I just tried with parameters, the node selection tool, and the Univeral manipulation tool, and they all work even when the item is parented.

3dsamm - 30 May 2012 09:09 AM

ive gotten around this type of thing in the past by creating another object with 0 opacity at keyframe 0, then when i need to use it at this point on the time line i switch the opacity to 100 and change the parented object to 0.

i cant work out how to animate the opacity on this object. or use the move/rotate tools..

Your not going to want to hear this, but you can’t animate the surfaces in DS4 (such as opacity) ... *protects head with hands*  You can do it with Geppetto in DS3…

I guess your probably getting the idea by now why some of us are waiting for DS5 or staying in DS3 for animation…...

One other trick you can use though, instead of opacity - Is to create your “other” object as you said, but do it “off screen” (where it can’t be seen in the animation.  When you need it, instead of changing the opacity, just pop it in to place with keyframes.  The trick here is that because Studio tweens every thing between keyframes, it will try to slowly move your object from the off screen location to where you want it.  So, say you want it to appear instantly at frame 15: at frame 12,13 and 14 keyframe the object in the “off screen” location.  At frames 15,16 and 17, keyframe it in the new position on screen.  By doing repetitive keyframes like that, it will force Studio to move the object in one frame (rather than smoothing out the movement) and to the naked eye, it will “appear” magically.

thanks for your help super newb..

cannot animate surfaces? ridiculous and shameful :(

i would try the other trick but after restarting the computer and using parameters, node selection and universal tool the object in his hand just wont budge. can anyone offer advice? is this common?

now my only other option is to animate the object alongside the genesis without parenting

I managed to move the object in his hand by going into animate2 constraints, sliding the Active slider to 0% - and now I can move/rotate the object. I have then changed the Active sider back to 100% when I need it to parent again and it works.

Sorry, 3dsamm, I didn’t get notifications and didn’t see the thread. <rant>This forum is not as easy to use as the old one</rant>. Thank goodness for spammers bumping .

cannot animate surfaces? ridiculous and shameful :(

There is a script by Casual called MatAnim, which does allow you to animate surfaces, and it works in DS4. You can set the surface you want to be animatable. Unfortunately you can’t see keyframes on the animated surfaces (as you can with Geppetto in DS3).

http://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/matanim

As for pinning - yes, IK is not great. But you can generally get what you want by using the ActivePose tool, which pins well, together with IK. I use shortcut keys (Edit Menu > Customize) to go between the tools rapidly.

This is the old thread on pinning, unfortunately with images gone:
http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=2633665#2633665

Did that answer all questions?

Oh, there was somewhere where you said that you wanted to move the animation, and somewhere else where you said why would you put it in an aniBlock. In theory, if you did your animations inside aniBlocks, you can layer them, so you could put your hand animations on a subtrack, and then slide the block around in time on that track. But it depends on the way you animate.

I shouldn’t have said Puppeteer keys all the joints. You can do Puppeteering in layers. I tend to use it in Edit mode to hold poses, and of course when you click it in Edit mode to recall the joints, it creates keys on all joints, but in Record mode, it doesn’t.

This is a very good Puppeteer tutorial by Cliff Bowman:
http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=68689

And here’s the official documentation, which explains layers:
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/puppeteer/start

3dsamm - 30 May 2012 08:11 AM

Animating is really frustrating in poser and dazstudio yes. (not in iclone)
IK features & better handling of keyframes on timeline or graphic/ visual curves to handle keyframes
things are missing still missing, i read this on the old forum.
we need more user friendly tools to do some serious animation.
i tought daz was working on this for studio 5, not?

Ive just googled iclone, in your experience of using DS and iclone to animate, would you recommend exporting the 3ddaz character and animate and pose in iclone then? What features do you recommend for DS?

no i think export to iclone and import back is not a good solution.

what i would recommend. do a good search on goole about iclone and i think you find alot of useful things we are missing
start with a good ik setup.

iClone5 Preview Video - Human IK & Direct Puppet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pijbJ7PcvrI

Walking along the Path. iClone 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEnRetrPtIQ

Iclone 5: creating a rag doll part one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS5Tgo0O6zQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T6PtGrjh7U

and many more, search on youtube.

animation is endless in iclone, all this stuff would make animation in studio great.

carnite - 31 May 2012 04:03 AM

Sorry, 3dsamm, I didn’t get notifications and didn’t see the thread. <rant>This forum is not as easy to use as the old one</rant>. Thank goodness for spammers bumping .

cannot animate surfaces? ridiculous and shameful :(

There is a script by Casual called MatAnim, which does allow you to animate surfaces, and it works in DS4. You can set the surface you want to be animatable. Unfortunately you can’t see keyframes on the animated surfaces (as you can with Geppetto in DS3).

http://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/matanim

As for pinning - yes, IK is not great. But you can generally get what you want by using the ActivePose tool, which pins well, together with IK. I use shortcut keys (Edit Menu > Customize) to go between the tools rapidly.

This is the old thread on pinning, unfortunately with images gone:
http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=2633665#2633665

Did that answer all questions?

Oh, there was somewhere where you said that you wanted to move the animation, and somewhere else where you said why would you put it in an aniBlock. In theory, if you did your animations inside aniBlocks, you can layer them, so you could put your hand animations on a subtrack, and then slide the block around in time on that track. But it depends on the way you animate.

I shouldn’t have said Puppeteer keys all the joints. You can do Puppeteering in layers. I tend to use it in Edit mode to hold poses, and of course when you click it in Edit mode to recall the joints, it creates keys on all joints, but in Record mode, it doesn’t.

This is a very good Puppeteer tutorial by Cliff Bowman:
http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=68689

And here’s the official documentation, which explains layers:
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/puppeteer/start

 

thankyou very much for your help carnite and everyone else, its been very very useful.. looking forward to helping someone out sometime in the future!

i will have more of a play.. im sure i will have more questions on this carnite! but you have been a great help, thanks again!

3D SAMM,

Are you still animating?  I’ve been away for awhile….

(Sent you a PM)