Why is Daz studio so problematic when it comes to animation?
Kenos0000001
Posts: 0
I've recently got daz and immediately I ran into problems with the animation it is quiet bad considering how long the software has been out. Doing the simplest of things in daz for animation is a nightmare where as in blender, maya or 3Ds Max is relatively easier. A few examples of this are, I want to simply move a keyframe, I've managed to do this once or twice and then afterwards no luck ever again lol. can't even move a keyframe. As if that wasn't bad enough now I want to loop it try to loop my animation by copying and pasting the keyframes and the whole thing just messes up and the software closes with an error. I cannot find any real help other than hear say about daz being broken. I want to know if anyone else is experiencing things like this too? Animations not saving, animations closing the program, unmoveable keyframes etc??
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Which version of DS is this - Help>About Daz Studio? What are your steps? Keyframe animation has been getting an overhaul recently, but it is still a work in progress.
Are you working with the keyframe/graph editors or Animate editor?. if your trying to work in animate-lite that is include with the daz download. that is just a demo version of animate2 and you need to by the full license to unlock all the features.
if your just using the keyframe or graph editor it maybe your just not use to the daz studio software timeline( there is some limits to it.) Daz Studio is nothing like Blender, 3DS, Maya ,or Lightwave. if those are the software your use to working with, then you maybe better off sticking to what you know.
when someone is new to"Daz Animations" it has a fairly steep learning curve, its not a drop and drag animation tool, like steam. But the longer you use and learn how studio software works, the more understanding you will have on what can and can' be done with it in aniimation.. Studio has no hard surface pinning solutions, The IK-chian system is new and is limited in the ability to create interaction with it ,but improvements are being added all the time..
Studio is nothing like Pixar or Disney's proprietary animations renderman or Gaming render engine. its can take a very long time to render out animated scenes in studio.
IMO Daz is geared more toward the hobby user with a lot of nice improvements for the professional user in the last year when it comes to animation use. Studio now has fluid simulation, dforce to create dynamic hair and clothing, A Improved Timeline with Keyframe and graph editor (which does takes time to learn ) & all in the same location. before you had to buy 3rd party plugins for the same tools
yes you are right daz is nothing like the software you mentioned, but then again Daz3d never claimed it was. so if your use to using that types software then I would stick with what I know. I have been making animations with daz studio for years and I only see it improving as time goes on.
I do agree with the statment that Studio need much better documents on how to use the software. But it does have a document center http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/start & https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/hc/en-us & for the basics a video tutorial sections https://www.daz3d.com/help/help-daz-3d-video-tutorials
Good day and welcome to another animator! The version you are using and what products you may have already purchased in the past are important factors here. Up through 4.11 you needed Animate2, Keymate, and Graphmate to do animation reasonably well. With 4.12 the system has completely changed - the earlier products are no longer available because they are being built into the program. But it is definitely having a rough transition. For now, I am using 4.11 for my main work and using 4.12 as a beta version to experiment with and learn. I shall most likely not switch to 4.12 as a main version until the bugs are worked out. Admittedly, the general concensus is that DS has a low position for animation programs ... yet I use it almost exclusively and have learned how to make it work for many different things - even now I am experimenting with a claymation type of animation and it seems to be working. It is a free program (although they do get a lot out of me on vendor products) and I am VERY glad that they do include animation. I hope they continue to improve it!
@Kenos0000001
I believe the simplest answer is that animation has never been a primary goal for DAZ Studio, the same fashion as detailed modeling of objects.
Then why include it?
If I could ask for only one thing from animation in Daz, it would be the ability to move the body and keep the hands and feet in place. Like in Blender, if I have Rigify on the character, I could click on the torso box, hit G and I can make the character bend down and the hands and feet stay in play and I don't have to adjust the height axis of the character at all, then I can go and adjust the hands and feet. I know Maya has the same feature by clicking the hip bone, I believe, if I remember the tutorial I saw a few months back correctly. If we could just get that into Daz, it would be a huge game changer.
Well animation tools are currently being worked on so hopefully it gets better.
I already own Animate2, KeyMate and GraphMate. Can they still be used in 4.12?
I tried using them in an early version of 4.12 beta and YES, they did work within it then. I am not sure about the latest updates though.
3DUniverse has a tool that may help:
https://www.daz3d.com/glue-to-floor-utility-for-genesis-8-females
Their Pose Architect tools may possibly also be useful for animation (haven't tried), here's a test video of one of them:
https://taosoft.dk/temp/pose_architect_test_2/pose_architect_test_2.html
yes they still work . I prefer the graph mate over the daz graph editor myself
To my experience, it works kind of well for a lot of things, but not really well for most things - at least not for big projects.
For short projects like animated gifs and the like, it's actually quite useful and fun. Aniblocks and Puppeteer are a blast for some functions.
The longer your project, the more of the missing subtleties you'll find yourself working around, especially if you have ever worked with any of the more comprehensive toolkits.
DS has some really bright spots in its capabilities, based on their target features. While modelling (use hexagon) and generating terrains/atmospheric backgrounds (use bryce) are not really integrated like Carrara, figures and figure management are pretty solid.
To my thinking DS animation is trying to find its place, and currently ranks about a B- in (good hands). Some of the comments in here come from seasoned veterans, so take their feedback to heart.
The DS devs are definitely revamping the entire DS timeline, which is exciting, but letting the dust settle a bit is highly recommended. YMMV.
As mentioned, if you have DS 4.11 and KeyMate/Graphmate, you might want to continue to do your production work there, and experiment with the new 4.12 features on test projects until it settles down. It's a big change of a complex system but shows promise and that it's being reworked is meaningful to us who have invested in this platform.
--ms
for loading and animating DAZ figures with joint controlled morphs it is excellent
and of course HD morphs, geografts, shells etc
simply because most of that is in house and not easily used in other software
I mostly render png series of DAZ figures in it to composite elsewhere
Personally, I find animation very difficult to produce in Daz Studio.
It relies heavily on other plugins also and makes Poser animation look highly sophisticated but at the same time easier to use than Studio.
Well, when it comes to DS it also depends on which version you are using. Also DS it not really an easy program to use and it could take a while to really learn it. I never got far enough to even try animation. Honestly I don't use DS I tried it several times on and off and while I can learn it I just got to the point that I did not want to continue, It just frustraighted me. I don't really like the program at all and I don't think I ever will so I really have not gone back to it in a real long time. I don't do much as far as character creations are concerned as I do with 3D digital as I'm more into film editing and visual effects, but I do occasionally create a character with some animation. My choice program is Poser it always has, Ive used Poser since 1999 and have update to each new versions over time. Poser is much more user friendly but I'll admit DS has some really good and improved features Poser don't have and unfortunately Poser has made very little upgrades but its still a good program and I still use it. The only drawback to Poser now is that it no longer allows you to install and use any of the new Daz stuff that's come out from characters to even props and full scenes which is a real shame and almost all new stuff is designed for only DS. I use to be a premieum club member here and I bought a lot of stuff here for my V4/M4 characters and lots of scenes and props and cloths which I still have, in fact you can't even find much stuff here anymore for V4/M4 anymore and 95% of scenes and Props are for DS, so I don't come here very often, I have better chances with Renderosity and even they have started to cater to DS a bit more so finding older stuff is much harder. Its sad because I would love to use some of Daz's new stuff and new characters but since I don't like using DS that's something I can't do. DS does have the DSON but that to is complicated and not easy to work with to get stuff into Poser. Anyway Good luck with using DS.
Daz did try to work with Poser to support everything across both platforms. The owners of Poser decided they wanted to go in there own direction and make their own figures and content so that's on them and not Daz. It would be nice if they would approach Daz and try to work things out but it's very doubtful.