Creating Animations on Blender then exporting to Daz3D

Viper141 · May 20

Hey,

I hope I won't be breaking any rules by writing here or saying what I used.

I've been trying to create animations on Blender and importing them to Daz, I have tried Rig-GNS Pro 4.3, it works in some cases, but when I create animation pushups like for pushups, it kind of breaks mainly the limbs, they do the oppsite thing. I also tried Differmorphic, mainly MHX (still new) I can't seem to get it to either export properly or if it even works.

So I've been doing it ona Genesis 8.1 Female Base, I can't seem to get it right, Ver, Daz3D 4.24, Blender 5.0. I can give a more detailed explnation tomorrow if needed.

I just hope this is possible at least, because I really like to create my own aniamtions and use them myself than pre-built animations.

Padone · May 20

To export an animation with diffeomorphic you first have to bake the control rig, then you can export a pose preset directly for daz studio. The figure in daz studio needs to be unlocked to follow the IK animation.

https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Posing

https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Pose_Tools

Viper141 · May 20

Padone said:

To export an animation with diffeomorphic you first have to bake the control rig, then you can export a pose preset directly for daz studio. The figure in daz studio needs to be unlocked to follow the IK animation.

https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Posing

https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Pose_Tools

Thank you for the reply, I will give this a go! I'll let you know if this solved it!

Viper141 · May 20

Padone said:

To export an animation with diffeomorphic you first have to bake the control rig, then you can export a pose preset directly for daz studio. The figure in daz studio needs to be unlocked to follow the IK animation.

https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Posing

https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Pose_Tools

Hey I gave it a shot, however I still can't find bake. I rigged it as MHX, not rigify.

Apolgise you gave me the wiki which is perfect but I still can't seem to find why I can't see it.

I also noticed you are part of the differmorphic team (unless I'm wrong) thanks again for the quick help!

Padone · May 21

steps:

convert to mhx
animate
mhx > animation > transfer ik to fk
runtime > export > save pose preset

If you used any ik stretching you need to unlock the figure in daz studio.

https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Posing_Save_Pose_Preset

Viper141 · May 21

Padone said:

steps:

convert to mhx

animate

mhx > animation > transfer ik to fk

runtime > export > save pose preset

If you used any ik stretching you need to unlock the figure in daz studio.

https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Posing_Save_Pose_Preset

I can't believe it this actually works and I tried doing the pushup animation as an exxperiment, feet and hands are in the right places, the feet are in place, I disable the limits on the genesis 8.1 female in daz btw.
Everything is good, hands are sliding slightly in daz, it's not sliding in blender but it's a looot better than the tool I used before, but finally there is a tool that I can use to create animations from. Thank you so much!!!!!

Viper141 · May 29

Padone said:

steps:

convert to mhx

animate

mhx > animation > transfer ik to fk

runtime > export > save pose preset

If you used any ik stretching you need to unlock the figure in daz studio.

https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Posing_Save_Pose_Preset

Hey Padone I have a follow up question if you don't mind, I can't find an effective way (unless I'm missing something)

To make it so that the legs or arms for example don't strectch but actually has limits and also is there a way where the model doesn't make blender lag a lot?

Edit: Figured out how to solve the strechness and also the blender lag

Viper141 · May 29

Another question, is it only posible to do animations with MHX? Or can it be done with Rigify?

And do you have any tips for feet not sliding?

Padone · May 30

IK stretch can be disabled and keyframed in the MHX panel. For best viewport performance enable the solid mode with matcap, also use simplify. Eventually use collections to hide complex geometry not needed for the specific animation, until rendering.

As for sliding feet, if you disable IK stretch there's no way to avoid it, as IK will try to stay as close as possible, but it could not depending how you manipulate the figure. The only way to always avoid sliding is to use IK stretch, thus also unlocking the figure in daz studio. Or you must be very careful, when animating, not to pull IK targets too much. This is the same with any IK rig, being it MHX or rigify or whatever, it is a IK inherent limitation.

For animation in blender you can use any rig you want. To load and save pose presets for daz studio MHX is better as more compatible with the daz rig.

Viper141 · May 30

Padone said:

IK stretch can be disabled and keyframed in the MHX panel. For best viewport performance enable the solid mode with matcap, also use simplify. Eventually use collections to hide complex geometry not needed for the specific animation, until rendering.

As for sliding feet, if you disable IK stretch there's no way to avoid it, as IK will try to stay as close as possible, but it could not depending how you manipulate the figure. The only way to always avoid sliding is to use IK stretch, thus also unlocking the figure in daz studio. Or you must be very careful, when animating, not to pull IK targets too much. This is the same with any IK rig, being it MHX or rigify or whatever, it is a IK inherent limitation.

For animation in blender you can use any rig you want. To load and save pose presets for daz studio MHX is better as more compatible with the daz rig.

Gotcha, I noticed the shin arrows need to be postioned properly so that FK chain doesn't slide, but I'm curious on the IK strech, was i the this?,

This is what I edited. I plan to use MHX since you said it's better.

Workflow for me is like this, pose the model. doing my best not to overdo it, I have strechness set to 0.
Bake it and see if the feet slide then try and fix it, Ik chain it doesn't slide, but as soon as I bake it I have to figure out why the model's feet's are sliding, from what I understand it's all because of the shins.
I bake it from FK to IK

But are you suggesting that IK strechiness would be better set to 1, because even then wit hit on after I "Transfer IK => FK" and it's baked, it still slides, I'm not pushing it to the extreme? I of course unlock bone limitations on daz always am when it comes to animations just so you know

This is the issue I'm currently facing, did a squat ish animation, but got problems As you can see in attached, IK is fine, but in FK I've got issues

IK:

https://gyazo.com/757c0d4f55d55ed39b8eb8f7584c4524

FK:

https://gyazo.com/cf06f0c8d5d937f364494e08564b6ba8

I understand there can be limitations, just wanna make sure this is one of them. At least it's better than the Daz Alternatives, has a such a great animation tool that I just want to only create animations there, then export to Daz.

I wanna say thanks again for helping out!

Edit: added links for FK and IK in Gyazo, GIF didn't work

Padone · May 30

In your video it is not clear how you animate the feet, as the ik controls don't move. If you animate mixing ik and fk controls then bake ik to fk I guess the addon is trying to preserve your fk animation, possibly altering the end result. This looks like a bug. If you can explain the steps to reproduce your animation I can try it myself and eventually prepare a bug report for Thomas.

However, if you use the IK controls to animate the feet, as it's usually done, then everything works fine here. I attached the videos for IK and baked FK, where you can see I use the IK controls to animate the feet. Just remove the zip extension to watch the mp4 videos, as the forum doesn't allow to upload mp4 directly.

note. important. If you imported the figure with locks and limits, then the daz FK limits may come in the way when switching IK or baking, as IK has different limits than FK. To prevent this it is best to import the figure without locks and limits, so just disable them in the global settings. May be this is what happens in your example if you didn't animate the feet on purpose.

https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Setup_Rigging

Viper141 · June 1

Padone said:

In your video it is not clear how you animate the feet, as the ik controls don't move. If you animate mixing ik and fk controls then bake ik to fk I guess the addon is trying to preserve your fk animation, possibly altering the end result. This looks like a bug. If you can explain the steps to reproduce your animation I can try it myself and eventually prepare a bug report for Thomas.

However, if you use the IK controls to animate the feet, as it's usually done, then everything works fine here. I attached the videos for IK and baked FK, where you can see I use the IK controls to animate the feet. Just remove the zip extension to watch the mp4 videos, as the forum doesn't allow to upload mp4 directly.

note. important. If you imported the figure with locks and limits, then the daz FK limits may come in the way when switching IK or baking, as IK has different limits than FK. To prevent this it is best to import the figure without locks and limits, so just disable them in the global settings. May be this is what happens in your example if you didn't animate the feet on purpose.

https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Setup_Rigging

Ty for the video example and explination, so far things are working fine atm, I have to pay attention to where the shins are postioned terms of rotation, if they aren't placed properly they will be gittery. Luckily after I figured that out the animations are not gittering and it's working really well especially after I export to daz, it's 1:1, previous tool i used looked like it worked properly but it didn't after daz export, great work you two! I intentionally have strechness to 0, because I want to have things exported to Daz, I haven't planned to move to Blender yet, from what I've seen however when I ported my models it worked quite flawlessly.

But my question is which might be difficult. What would you recommend that I do before importing my model and settings I should go for if I want to import back to Daz animations? Also if I pose in FK, I can't seem to find a bake option, at least with IK I can just do IK transfer to FK and it bakes, but there isn't one where FK just bakes unless I'm missing something. I've been trying to go through the wiki here but sadly no clue https://github.com/Diffeomorphic/mhx_rts/wiki/Animation

I'll try and recreate it again the issue for you today or tomorrow then share steps on how I did it!

Padone · June 1

To export back to daz you can't use tweak bones. You can use IK stretch only if you then unlock the figure in daz studio. For a clean daz export, without the need to unlock, the best choice is to only use some basic IK without stretching, of course this also limits the posing capabilities. Setting attached below.

As for FK, there's no need to bake, it will export fine as is.

Viper141 · June 1

Padone said:

To export back to daz you can't use tweak bones. You can use IK stretch only if you then unlock the figure in daz studio. For a clean daz export, without the need to unlock, the best choice is to only use some basic IK without stretching, of course this also limits the posing capabilities. Setting attached below.

As for FK, there's no need to bake, it will export fine as is.

Thanks a lot Padone! I'll use these settings, I noticed btw that if the limbs are too straight like going for a pushups, the feet will not look properly in place like other attempts, if they are too straight in daz they will not be in place but they will move a bit not a lot, but a bit that it's noticeable. I assume that limitation is if the legs are too straight it will not work properly so it has to have a bend, just like limbstick?

Now here is what I did terms of the thing you asked me for how I posed. Note I put the images in a zip file and each image has a number hence the "Image 1, Image 2" etc

1. Imported the model with then rigged it in MHX and also followed the options you sent me.
2. Figure is in T-Pose.
3. I keyed the feet and the hip box

Image 1

Image 2

Feet

Image 3

Frame 15
Image 4

4. After I posed and finished recording the things I posed, I transfered it from IK => FK
After this frame 15, the feet go below the ground like this
Image 5

Here is how I fixed it, before it looked like this

Image 6

Now, I straightned the feet so it's straight instead of on an angle, then I raised the heels now it's smoother

Image 7

I realised that this is kind of on me that I have to sort.

Anyways Idk how much help this is butI hope that's one less issue for a person in the future

Padone · 6:17AM

There's some quirks in your animation technique. You have to understand that IK goals aka IK controls are the only ones keeping things in place when you animate. That's what they are for. This means what you don't keyframe will interpolate, even if the pose is the same, eventually causing shiftings or what you perceive as little movements.

In animation there's master keyframes and inbetweens. The master keyframes you pose yourself, the inbetweens you leave to the interpolator posing them for you. For master keyframes you have to keyframe all the IK and FK controls for the figure, that is to avoid unwanted interpolation among master keyframes, that will change the master pose.

As for straight limbs this is where IK without stretching gets its limit, it's expected and what I defined as pose limitations.

my steps:

import and convert to MHX
set your first master pose and keyframe all the controls
set your second master pose and keyframe all the controls
etc.

p.s. To keyframe all it is enough to select all then keyframe, you don't have to go one by one.

p.s. FK animation will always interpolate, even if you set keyframes, so be careful when you switch to FK, this is the same in any animation package.

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