Animating transformation from one character morph to another

UpL8Rendering

Hello,

I put together a tutorial and a Blender script to help in animating the transformation from one character morph to another.

https://imgur.com/f6Q68SA

*Still haven't figured out posting gifs

 

You can find the script and tutorial on my github page:

https://github.com/GNVR-Dev/BlenderScripts-DazBone-Morph-Constraints

I will also post the tutorial part below:

I very much welcome any feedback/comments/questions - good/bad or otherwise that you might have

UpL8Rendering

Start by importing your two characters

For this example we will transition from Basic Male 8 to Arch Demon

I have removed the eyelashes from the Basic Male 8 character because the Arch Demon doesn't have them

I have removed the horns from the Arch Demon character because the Basic Male 8 doesn't have them

I imported the Basic Male 8 first so he will be the Gensis8Male

I imported the Arch Demon second so he will be the Genesis8Male.001

Click on the Scripting tab at the top and click New to Create a new text data block

Paste the script

Change the Add_Constraints('Genisis8Male','Genesis8Male.001') to match your characters

and click Run Script

This will move all the bones in the 'Genesis8Male.001' Arch Demon character to the same locations as the  'Genesis8Male' Basic Male character

Select the Genisis8Male.Shape.001 first then CTRL select the Genesis8Male.Shape second

Open the Object Data Properties panel

In the ShapeKeys area click the little down arrow and select Join as Shapes

This will add the Arch Demon shapekey (without bone transforms) to your Genesis 8 Male character

Click on the Genesis8Male.001 rig and go into Pose mode

Hit the "a" to select all the bones

Go up to Pose - then Constraints - and Clear Pose Constraints

This will put the Arch Demon back to his original shape

Go into the Animation Tab at the top

It might be helpful to hide the Genesis8Male.001 (Arch Demon) shape and rig

Make sure the Timeline scrubber is set at the beginning of the timeline

Click on the Genesis8Male Rig

Press "a" to select all the bones

Right click on the rig and Insert Keyframes

And choose Whole Character

Go back into the Scripting Tab

Change the order of the characters
So change:
Change Add_Constraints('Genisis8Male','Genesis8Male.001')
to this:
Change Add_Constraints('Genisis8Male.001','Genesis8Male')

Run the script again

Go back into the Animation Tab

Move the timeline scrubber up to something like frame 120

Make sure all bones are still selected

Go up to Pose - then Apply - and choose Apply Visual Transform to Pose

The right click on the rig and click Insert Keyframes

And choose Whole Character

Next go back up to Pose - then Constraints - and Clear Pose Constraints

You should now be able to scrub the timeline to see the bones animate between the two characters

To animate the morph target/shapekeys:

Change from Pose mode back into Object mode

Click back on the Genesis8Male.Shape

Make sure the animation scrubber is back at the beginning of the timeline

In the shapekey area select the Arch Demon Shapekey (Genesis8Male.shape.001)

Make sure it's value is set to 0

Click the little dot to the right to Animate property

Once again move the scrubber to 120 (or where you set it before)

Change the Value to 1

And click the dot to the right again to Animate porperty

Scrubbing the timeline will now animate the bones and shapekeys together to transition from one character to another.

UpL8Rendering

Adding your own animation:

Go back into Pose Mode and select a bone

Scrub along the timeline to the point you want to add the animation keyframe

Rotate or move the bone

Right Click and Insert Keyframe

This time select Location and Rotation

Keep adding animations as needed.

UpL8Rendering

Bonus tutorial not included on Github read me file:

Animating the transition from one texture to another while your character is changing

Open the Shading tab at the top and the Material Options panel on the right

Select the first material in the list

Right click on the Texture node and Duplicate

On the new texture node there is a little arrow to the left of the texture name

This will let you bowse to a different texture

Because this is the Face material we will look for the second characters face texture

In this case AD_DemonFace_TX-Red

Now click Add -> go down to Color -> and select MixRGB

And connect as shown below:

To animate the change go into the Animation Tab and set the timeline scrubber back to the beginning

In the Surface area of the Material Panel click the drop down arrow to the left of Base Color  Mix

Make sure that the Fac setting is set to 0.000

Click the little dot to the right of FAC to Animate Property

Scrub the Animation timeline up to 120 (or, again, what you set before)

Change the Fac amount to 1

Click the little diamond to the right to set this Keyframe amount

Set up all the other materials and their keyframes the same way.

Edit Note: Because Daz uses the same texture for multiple materials and material slots like Face, Lips, Ears, and Eye Sockets you can either set up each one seperatly or use my Daz Material Slot Combiner Script to remove all the extra slots.

https://github.com/GNVR-Dev/BlenderScripts-Daz-Material-Slot-Combiner

Documentation how to use it is included in the README file

Scrubbing the timeline will transition the character, shapekeys, and material texures at the same time

 

UpL8Rendering

Just in case post

mindsong

Very cool how-to, much appreciated for your efforts there! (pdf-d)

Bravo,

--ms

UpL8Rendering

Thank you.  There might not be a lot of people looking to do this kind of animation but if it helps a couple of people I think it is worth while.

I also have to admit I am a bit behind on the different importers and bridges. If they offer an easier way to achieve this please let me know.

If anyone uses this to make an animation I would love to see how it came out.

brainmuffin

Wow!!!