Digital Art Zone

i’m thinking of getting Mimic Pro, but i’ve got a couple of questions. any help from existing users would be welcome:

firstly, it doesn’t say so in the blurb that i could see, but i guess that you can drive it by using sound files as well as mic input? i want to get voice actors to record the lines in wav (or mp) format, and then use those sound files to drive the process. is that feasible?

secondly, i’ve just switched from DS to Carrara for animation, but i may go back to DS again at some point. i don’t want to buy two copies of Mimic Pro, so the question is: which app to buy it for?

there are drawbacks to both. if i get the DS version it will be yet another add-in that will probably need recompiling when a new version of DS comes out. and if i get the Carrara version it will only work in Carrara. no real way to use the output anywhere else i guess?

i’m leaning towards getting it for DS and then exporting the face/pose files from there into Carrara. it’s not a great solution workflow-wise, but it might offer the most flexibility. has anybody any advice to offer on that?

thanks

Mimic Pro is standalone, you export .pz2 pose files from it to use in Poser or Studio or Carrara.  You will use the audio files AND a text version of any dialogue you record simultaneously in Mimic Pro, I’ve never used it for live recording.

The big advantage of using the standalone version is it allows you to edit the phonemes, and to export .DMS configuration files for each character you are animating. This can be important also if you are also using the facial expressions feature of Mimic Pro. And (from my perspective) the standalone Pro version fits with a variety of workflows, for example you can import the .pz2 files for a character into Poser, Studio and Carrara without drama.

If your needs are light you can use Studio’s built-in mimic functionality and the Poser Format Exporter script to port pose files to Carrara.

AFAIK there is no 64bit version for Intel Macs, I use Mimic Pro on Windows.

thanks for the reply

i was a bit confused (no change there then), because there was the standalone version, which i’d assumed was for DS, and a version specifically for Carrara (as well as a lite version too)

from what you’re saying it sounds as if the best plan is to get the standalone version

(and from a closer reading of the store description i can now see that the blurb did actually answer my first question)

well, i WOULD buy it if the moronic new system let me

i add it to my cart. it says “you have no items in your cart”. i try and add it again. it says “The maximum quantity allowed for purchase is 1”

it’s like they don’t WANT my money

even the lite will export pz2 files you can use in Poser, studio and Carrara, you just cannot create new dmc files or edit strength etc.
The pro standalone version is what you need to create new dmc files for characters without one but with phoneme morphs or ones created by you in Hexagon or whatever and a new cr2 saved, I have never done it but in theory you should be able to.
I still use the stand alone a lot in Carrara for non-genesis characters because Carrara will not recognize my speakonia wav files, a bug I have had on both computers.
I think it gives better results than the Carrara plugin too and I still save it as an nla clip.
some say they cannot get it to work but prob 90% of my Carrara animations have used it so it does indeed work for me, I mostly use the Carrara plugin for Genesis only.

thanks

i’ve just purchased the standalone version (after faffing around trying to make the store recognise that i’d got something in my cart) and…

...downloaded it…

...and the zip file is corrupt… so i can’t install it…

i give up

just redownload the zip, I get corrupt downloads a lot, not just from Daz, the evil internet does it!!!

i’ve downloaded it three times now, once after doing a reset, and it always comes up with the same message

i’ve raised a help request as i’ve never had any similar problems before

(but yeah, i’d agree, the internets IS evil)

ahhhh. i see what the problem is. the unzipper in Win7 isn’t able to unzip the file, but if i use UltimateZip on it i can unzip the file, which THEN has to be further extracted

wendy♥catz - 10 September 2012 11:49 PM

just redownload the zip, I get corrupt downloads a lot, not just from Daz, the evil internet does it!!!

Strange, it’s very rare I get any.

One thing I know though is that IE will often corrupt files if it takes too long to find the folder you want to place the file in. Looks like it drops the connection very quickly if you don’t click OK so you only get the first part of the file. An old bug that’s been in all versions up to and including IE8.

Just tested it in IE9 in win 7 - 64 and it seems they have finally fixed it.

i’ve finally got it installed, but i haven’t got it working

well, that’s not strictly true, i can get it to work ok for the default v3 character (*)

but what i CAN’T do is to get it to work for v4. and i can’t see any .DMC file for m4 either. does that mean he isn’t supported?

for v4, i’ve pointed it to my v4.cr2 and to the victoria4.dmc file, and i’m seeing the v4 head in the preview window ok, but when i add sound i get nothing, zip, nada. she just sits there staring blankly, her lips steadfastly refusing to move

anyone got any ideas?

(*) m3 too, and any of the supplied figures that i’ve tried so far

ok, sorted. tried a different v4.cr2 file, and that one worked

still wonder why there’s no m4.dmc file supplied though?

hieronymous - 11 September 2012 01:23 AM

i’ve finally got it installed, but i haven’t got it working

well, that’s not strictly true, i can get it to work ok for the default v3 character (*)

but what i CAN’T do is to get it to work for v4. and i can’t see any .DMC file for m4 either. does that mean he isn’t supported?

for v4, i’ve pointed it to my v4.cr2 and to the victoria4.dmc file, and i’m seeing the v4 head in the preview window ok, but when i add sound i get nothing, zip, nada. she just sits there staring blankly, her lips steadfastly refusing to move

anyone got any ideas?

(*) m3 too, and any of the supplied figures that i’ve tried so far

here is the link to the manual”

http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/artzone/pub/software/mimic/mimic_pro_user_guide_071408.pdf

After you record your sound you need to let mimic analyse a sound file first by opening the Session Manager window and pointing mimic to the audio file and a config file and a text file containing the words you recorded. Alternatively you can type the words into the Session Manager directly.

thanks for the link to the manual

as i’d said, i’d been able to get the app working for most of the included figures, just not for v4. however when i pointed it to a different v4.cr2 than the “official” one, it started working ok, mysteriously

have to say that i’m not that impressed with it so far, even putting aside the problems getting it installed and running

does nobody use it for animating mike4? there are only dmc files included for mikes1 to 3 as far as i can see. i can see that you can create your own dmc files, but i’d have thought that it would have shipped with an m4 file as standard

also, you say you can add text into the session manager and get it to process just that, but it won’t do that for me unless i provide it with a sound file too. i guess that could be a “sound of silence” sound file, but… even so…

also, it would have been nice to be able to do some basic editing of the sound file in the app too. as it is it looks like you have to trim it in something else like audacity first

so, first impressions are that it will just about do what i bought it for, but i won’t be singing its praises from the rooftops

your dmc files should be in program files x86 Daz 3D studio 3, 4 whatever plugins mimic configuration files, depending on what flavours of Daz studio you have installed, also in mimic, I have all my dmc files in a new folder seperate with my music files actually where I can find them!
and my pz2 files!
I have made a seperate runtime folder there with the lot!

On XP it’s C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\plugins\dzmimic\Configuration_Files

So I guess those come with the plugin included in Daz…

I wonder why the pro installer wasn’t updated with all the dmc’s, as well?

What about Poser users? (If DS4P were to stop being free, would DS4-basic have the mimic plugin?)