Pins, what is up with them?

v1si0n4ry

Hello, fellow artists and tech gurus,

Is there a way to efficiently use pins with the universal tool for hands and feet? I am trying to make an animation where the character has to climb something. How do I succesfully pin the character's hands, so I can move the body without losing the actual contact point, so it doesn't seem like its hand slipped during the movement?

Daywalker Designs

Pinning in DAZ Studio only holds whatever position the body part is in; it does not act as an anchor as in most other animation software. This is a common complaint of people doing animations in DAZ Studio, by the way.

v1si0n4ry

Daywalker Designs said:

Pinning in DAZ Studio only holds whatever position the body part is in; it does not act as an anchor as in most other animation software. This is a common complaint of people doing animations in DAZ Studio, by the way.

Is there a workaround for this? Or will I just have to struggle remembering the global position of limbs when making those kinds of movement?

gederix

Use the active pose tool and pins instead (red pins as opposed to purple). Make sure to have the tool settings pane open/available and preferably docked to your workspace somewhere, start with default pin settings, position and pin each hand/foot where you want them, then grab the pelvis and lift. If the hands/feet move too much play around with pin at end or both in tool settings pane. Both is most rigid, keeps things in place the best but not always best option, often pin at origin or end results in more natural posing, but sometimes not. Also, sometimes pinning fingertips works better than the actual 'hand'. Or toes rather than foot, allows better motion depending on circumstance. FWIW I dont do animations but I do a crap ton of intricate posing. For hwat youre doing... no clue, but active pose should give better results than universal. 

Universal tool pins are only situationally useful imho, and not at all for what you are trying to do. 

You can find tutorials for active pose on youtube. Very handy tool IMHO. I use universal mainly for initial positioning of figure in scene, not posing just placing and maybe rotating (figure diving or something). Or if I need to rotate a figures hips/pelvis, which is not possible with active pose tool as there is no rotation aspect to it. So Ill purple pin the feet and then use rotate tool to twist pelvis, but its not perfect, can quickly go hinky. Turning of limits can help also with janky figure movements while posing.