►►► aniMate 2 - Real aniMating Power for Daz Studio!

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• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  aniMate 2 Timeline Guides

  A useful little feature that can help us to visually line things up in the aniMate 2 timeline and can also give us the power to align multiple aniBlocks to the nearest guide.

  This can be very handy - especially if we really need to line things up precisely!

  

  aniMate 2 Trim and Blend aniBlocks

  Joining motion capture data without having to painstakingly rework positioning and rotation in a graph editor between the subsequent data is Truly Magical!!!

  

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  Multiple Start Circles

  Being able to actually manipulate where the whole animation begins in 3D space is an excellent feature to have.

   

  Did you know that we can add new Start Circles for any given aniBlock? Check this out!

  

   

  A word from our Sponsor

  

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  Pose Splines

  In my course, we'll be making wonderful Control Dials that allow us to manipulate the outcome of Any joint rotation, shape, or morph. 

  GoFigure has added Amazing functionality to aniMate 2+ that actaully allows us to manipulate the path of motion of the major joints of our figures - visually, directly in our viewport!

  

  I agree with him: That IS Magic! :)

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  Parent Constraints

  Speaking of Magic:

  Did you know that we can actually control whether a prop is parented or not throughout time? Like in this example - pick up a phone, talk on it for a while, and slam it back down!

  

  Since I've discovered this feature (Parent Constraints) I use it a lot. It can really add a whole extra level of 'Awesome' to an animation! :)

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  Working with Subtracks

  Subtracks are what allow us to stack motions over one another. Some of the features of this tool are not supported on generations newer than Genesis 2, so for that to work smoothly, we'll need to make our own Partial aniBlocks. You'll see what I mean.

  

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  Splitting Cropping and Mirroring

  I prefer to work in a more "Hollywood Studio" sort of fashion, so I tend to keep my animations short. It makes for a more efficient workflow and we just stitch the various animation renders together later in a movie editor. So I only make each animated scene as long as it needs to be to get the point across and, even then, I may use more than one saved animation scene to convey a single point.

  We probably already know how to edit when an aniBlock starts and ends, but I see that many folks are unfamiliar with Cropping them - which, as you'll see has more power to it than one might expect

  

  Likewise, I'm sure we all know how to mirror our motion capture data. But just in case...

  

   

  This is how I work with the limitations I have with having a low VRAM on my GPU - creating multiple renders to be layered in Fusion or HitFilm, PD Howler... whatever compositing tool you use

  

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  Speed, Direction and Positioning

  Some of this may seem trivial at first. But to me, especially using the Split/Crop functions, being able to edit the speed, direction and positioning of the motion capture data Before I send it to Studio's timeline can have Profound effects on the entire outcome of the animation

  Speed

  

  Reverse

  

  Position and Direction

  

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  High Heel Offset

  The title says it all. This feature allows us to shift the height of the character by lifting or lowering the heels while keeping the ball of the foot in the original position, automatically bending the toes at the same time. This feature applies to the entire aniMate 2 timeline - not just individual aniBlocks

  

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited December 2023

  Editing Keyframes

  Now this is cool and very powerful. Not only that, it's easier than what the title may suggest in your mind! ;)

  

   

  aniMate 2's wonderful "Cubic Interpolation" tweener!

  

   

  

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on December 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  Editing Splines

  More on editing the motion paths of aniBlock data

  Foot/Leg

  

  Hip - This one shows the cool trick of "pinning" the feet while altering the position the hip

  

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023

  Preferences

  Working with some of the behaviors of aniMate 2

  
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023

  Import BVH

  Cool little demo includes correcting the messed up first frame

  
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  Export Options

  

   

  

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• TheKD Posts: 2,691

  November 2023

  Nice man, looks like a comprehensive course.
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited December 2023

  Thanks! I certainly put heart and soul into it :)

  Rather than join in the moan and groan that animation is troublesome at best in Studio, I put my thinking cap on and found a way to make it work. Using these methods it not only works, but it's fun and very efficient! I'm anticipating that I'll never go back to my old ways! 

   

  Special thanks to all of the Daz 3d devs that put their heart and soul into making Studio what it is today! Love It!!! 

  And a Special Thanks also to GoFigure for creating aniMate 2+ and all of the amazing motions you've captured in your studio for us to apply to our cool characters!!! 

   

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  Post edited by Dartanbeck on December 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023

  The aniMate 2+ videos shown above were made a  l o n g  time ago. 13 years. So some of the ways to get around Studio have changed since then. Namely, instead of using the Tabs menu, which no longer exists, we'd use Window > Panes, for example.

  But it's the information about aniMate that's special to note!
• wolf359 Posts: 3,828

  November 2023

  IIRC the partial limb filtering feature was not supported by G3 & above has that changed?
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023

  wolf359 said:

  IIRC the partial limb filtering feature was not supported by G3 & above has that changed?

   

  Nope, and I mention that above. However, a great workaround is to make Partial aniBlocks. I have a full video dedicated to making those in my course.
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited December 2023

  Creating a Partial aniBlock:

  1. Load an aniBlock
  2. Bake to Studio Timeline
  3. Select the parts of the figure you'd like to keep from the animation as a "Partial" - Left and Right Arms, for example
  4. In the Timeline, make sure that the selected parts are collapsed in the timeline, and that the playhead is returned to frame 0, the very beginning
  5. Select all of the collapsed keys for the parts you want, and use the button at the bottom center of the timeline: Copy Selected Keys
  6. Right-Click the Timeline Pane tab > Clear Animation > Clear Figure Pose
  7. With the figure still selected, tap the Paste Keys button, just to the right of the Copy button
  8. Go back to aniMate and Create a New aniBlock
  9. Save to your aniBlock library

   and you have a nice Partial.

  Now you can use that new aniBlock in a Subframe without the parts you didn't want. 

   

  It's all very quick and easy to do, and makes for a powerful catalog of partials as you save more and more of them. Trust me. It's worth the tiny bit of extra effort. 

   

  To me, just because that minor inconvenience hasn't been fixed in aniMate doesn't in any way diminish it's incredible aniMation power!

  Hope that helps, my friend!

   

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  Post edited by Dartanbeck on December 2023
• Saxa -- SD Posts: 872

  November 2023

  Dartanbeck said:

  Rather than join in the moan and groan that animation is troublesome at best in Studio, I put my thnking cap on and found a way to make it work.

  You rock ! 
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  In some of the generation 4 aniBlock packs I have, there are motions for touching the face, stretching arms, rubbing the head, etc.,

  I made partial aniBlocks of just the arms, sometimes just one of the arms, sometimes the arms and the neck and head, etc.,

   

  It was one of those that I chose to use to get Rosie 7 to put her hair back behind her ear in the course.

  

  These partials get me close, then the added Control Dials I made help me finish it all off in the timeline easily without having to hunt down keys to edit in the graph editor. Nothing against the graph editor, I just don't really need it with these dials, and the dials have the added benefit of being adjustable anywhere along the timeline with a selection of tweeners for the transitions.

   

  It's a very elegant way to work. I love it!!!

   

  You can see some ofd the dials in action in this promo - taken from the course but, for the promo it's playing at a Very High Speed.

  

  Funny bit of trivia:

  Nobody that I know - even my Bass Guitar-playing brother - caught the fact that, when I mention Rosie's Base Scene that she comes out playing a five-string bass! LOL

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  Saxa -- SD said:

  Dartanbeck said:

  Rather than join in the moan and groan that animation is troublesome at best in Studio, I put my thinking cap on and found a way to make it work.

  You rock ! 

  You ROCK!!! 

   Thanks Saxa--SD!!! 

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Saxa -- SD Posts: 872

  November 2023

  Just a small tokken of appreciation for someone who makes things happen! ;)
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023

  Thanks again, Saxa -- SD. I really appreciate it :)
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited December 2023

  A fun little behind-the-scenes look at GoFigure recording the motion capture for Martial Arts packs

  

   

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  Post edited by Dartanbeck on December 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited December 2023

  Nostalgic Fun!

  This is a wonderful little promo that JonnyBravo created for the aniBlock Importer for Carrara

  

  And this is JonnyBravo's aniBlock Importer for Carrara tutorial

  

  As a total newb back then, I contacted JonnyBravo and started a conversation with him regarding which movie editor I should buy. Going from WinXP Pro to Windows 7 was a nice move, except that the free MovieMaker in XP was replaced with MovieMaker Live, which I never got used to.

  I ended up getting the 30 day trial of Sony Vegas 9 and made this video with a pile of test renders that were on their way to the Recycle Bin. By the time I finished uploading it to YouTube, Sony had my money and Vegas was mine! Vegas is now developed by Magix and is a very powerful, yet easy to learn movie maker solution, though I've now switch to DaVinci Resolve.

  Ladies and Gentlemen, test clips of a newbie - Just for Fun, by a very green Dartanbeck

  

  As a complete newbie to movie editing, Vegas Movie Studio was Fantastic! I'm sure they still have these features, but back then the button was called "Show Me How". Clicking on that brought up a drop down and we could pick a topic we needed to learn about, and a really nice tutorial would start presenting itself directly within the working space - and even if we have changed our interface around, the tutorial was smart enough to know where everything is anyway, so it always just worked. 

  I was amazed with how easy it was to learn how to do techniques that I've never even knew to exist. 

  DaVinci Resolve's Free version is incredibly complete for a home filmmaker solution and has extensive training freely available as well. 

   

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  Post edited by Dartanbeck on December 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  I like to make time for "Partial Creation Sessions", where I browse through my aniBlock collection looking for things like:

  • Interesting arm movements that would look good in other situations - always keeping an eye out for arm movements to add to walks, for example. But adding them to idles and nearly any other type of full motion is equally beneficial.

   

  • Hip, Leg and Foot motions that might go with other animations. It's more rare, but sometimes I like being able to override the hip legs and feet, rather than just using that whole motion and overriding the arms, neck and head. Like I said, it's rare, but when I see one I grab it.

   

  • Full Torso with arms, hands, neck and head included. Basically the opposite of the above search and is much more common for me to grab these than the other.

   

  • Head and neck movements.

   

  When I'm on these creation sessions, I categorize the partials into folders that match which limbs are used, like Head_Neck, Arms_Only, Arms_Head_Neck... that sort of thing - all within a single folder that I call "Partials".

   

  I capture the entire motion capture for these partials, even when my initial intent might only be to use part of it. 

   

  So when I have a bunch of these, the fact that I have them sticks in my head, much like they way my purchased aniBlock packs do. This makes it easy for me to quickly decide to do a particular action for the story. My first thought is always the main motion that the character has to partake in. Is the character moving to or away from something? Backward, Forward, to one side or the other? Jumping, standing still... etc.,

   

  As soon as I know that, I almost always know the rest. And I almost always think of several base motions that would get me there, which in turn tells me exactly what sort of Partials I want to try.

   

  To get this job done, I collect as many aniBlock packs as I can get my hands on - whatever the subject matter of the pack. For example, I am entirely tired of seeing freaking zombies everywhere. I mean... I don't mind them, but the last thing I want to render... yeah... Zombies.

   

  So for the longest time I didn't collect any of the many various Zombie packs. But I did have some packs that had Zombie motions. When I tried them out, huh... I can use these!!! And not for Zombies, but for my characters when they're injured or trying to pass through a force field, or...

   

  As I started collecting the Zombie packs I was previously ignoring, I started to realize how valuable the motions are for characters that are nothing similar to a Zombie. Even regular people can benifit from these motions in part or even in whole. Our Control Dials can do wonders for changing up and entire motion's behavior and effect - story wise...  as can Partials!!!

   

  I'm also not really wanting to make a presentation on dancing. But dance moves of all types are really handy to have. Sometimes a bit of dancing is exactly what the scene needs. Other times just a bit of dance motion combined with an entirely different torso, arm, head and neck partial won't turn out to be dancing at all, but a really cool action that has some real attitude about it - something that's also quite unique and looks really good.

   

   

  Office actions are captured office moves. Plain and simple. But they don't have to end up as the character being in the office. Sometimes a typewriter motion on the arms, head and neck can work really great for something entirely different, like playing a guitar (using dials to rotate the arm sections around correctly according to the instrument model) or standing at star ship controls. 

   

  The point I'm trying to convey here is that we shouldn't think about the action that aniBlocks are captured from, but rather, what motion they 're making and what else we can do with it.

   

  One aniBlock I have is for chugging down a drink, cocking the head back.

   

  I made a partial of just the arms through the fingers. So this patial has one hand by the side, moving but only enough to look "alive" and the other hand just goes up to the face. Into it actually.

   

  This is one of my main partials for tucking the hair back behind the ear - one of them.

   

  This was taken using GoFigure's "Calling a Pet" for V4/M4. After the hands get to the knees, I delete all the rest of the key frames for both collars when they're collapsed, which also deletes the keys for the entire limb and all fingers. Keeping that set of key frames when the hands reach the knees, I delete all the rest of those collasped collar keys between that and the first frame of animation. 

   

  Then I go to the point in time where I kept the keys - the point where her hands touch her knees, and I adjust the various joints to place the closed fists aggressively on the table. While on that frame, I Crtl+Select each hand and then the table top and run LimbStick - setting it to run from that frame to the point where she stands back up. Worked perfectly the third try.

   

  Finally I work out the final resting place for the limbs and work out the beginning and end transitions to and from the LimbStick work. 

   

  The whole process didn't take long at all.

  

   

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  I'm all fired up because I just got the Zombie pack that I really wanted by Mocap Online. 

  Rosie wanted me to buy something small to test out a new credit card - make sure it works before we need it tomorrow. 

   

  When not on sale, this pack is over $40 and worth every penny. But with the Wishlist sale, I got a Massive discount! 

   

  I couldn't take it anymore. I paused the animation I was rendering, cleared the scene and built a really cool animation. It's nothing like the actual motion anymore but it looks Fantastic so far. Simulating the hair as I type this. 

   

  Seriously, after reading through the above post, check out the SketchFab preview of this pack. While you're in 3D mode watching these motions, try thinking outside the box. Imagine that it's not a Zombie, but one of your favorite characters. Now what could you do differently to the motion (if anything at all) to make it work on that character? Thinking along these lines... you'll start to see something. The more you start putting these techniques to use, the more your mind will open up as you look at motions. 

   

  You'll start seeing partials in the motions that could really benefit you - so you'll take a break from what you were doing, save your work, load in a base figure and start applying the aniBlocks, Bake to the Timeline, select all of the keys for the partial you want to make and copy them. Clear the figure - Paste. Go back to aniMate 2 and Create New aniBlock from Timeline. Get rid of the original aniBlock, re-enable the aniMate timeline, right-click > Save As New, and put it in your Partials folder! Harder to type and/or read than it is to do!

   

  You don't have to be working on a superhero movie to find good use from a superhero pack. Just saying! ;)

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited December 2023

  Using aniBlocks for Entirely Different Motions

  I'll show it once I get it rendered, but I just used one of the Zombie Walks (Walk In Place - no forward movement) from my new pack, and made a "Rough Ride" on a motorcylce animation out of it.

  1. Removed all key frames for the arms, head/neck, and legs
  2. Loaded my new Cyberpunk Motorcycle by Charlie
  3. Removed all key frames from Rosie > Properties (before the hip, the overall figure translation, which didn't contain any useful data as it's all in the hip)
  4. Repositioned Rosie to the seat of the motorcycle
  5. Posed the arms, legs hands, neck and head
  6. Parent the motorcycle to Rosie's hip
  7. Scroll along the Timeline and re-orient Rosie (watching the motorcycle) to counter the hip motions in order to keep the motorcycle traveling in the correct direction
  8. With the hands firmly on the handlebars, Ctrl+Select each hand, then the motorcycle and ran LimbStick
  9. Selected Rosie (motorcycle parented to her hip) and Created a New Group, parenting her inside of it
  10. Moved the group and set the wheel-spin to the appropriate speed to get the proper motion through 3D space
  11. Simulated the hair
  12. Loaded my new M.O.A.B Missile Silo, positioned it to fit the animation
  13. Create Camera > Set DoF throughout the animation
  14. Save (third time by this point)

  Watching this animation both through the render camera and from a distance through Perspective view, it looks Fantastic!!!

   

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  Post edited by Dartanbeck on December 2023
• Dartanbeck Posts: 21,569

  November 2023 edited November 2023

  I chose the Missile Silo because

  • I've been wanting to render this thing since the day it hit the store
  • For this motorcycle, I wanted a rough ride, and the Missile Silo has just the terrain for that

  By happy accident, I was able to line up the perfect situation for the bumpiest part of the ride - how it turned out after manipulating Rosie with the bike parented to her. She bumps into the air and lands. Following the speed of the bike and where I began in the Silo, she hits a big mass of giant wires which knocks her off the track she was on into the concrete channel that surround the water. Turned out really cool!

   

  So that's also where I got the idea to use the Zombie Walk for this. That cool Aldecaldo-style Cyberpunk motorcycle - another asset I've been dying to get my hands on. It has "Run me on rough terrain" written all over it.

   

  Previewing those cool new Zombie animations, I immediately has ideas for using them as "Rosie is beaten and exhausted" starter motions and other action hero style animations. The idea of using them to make a bike ride never entered my mind - until I decided that I wanted to see this cool bike in my Studio for the first time.

   

  So before I even loaded the motorcycle, I ran Rosie through all of the "In Place" walk cycles in the pack. There were quite a few good ones - and the one I chose works absolutely perfect!!!

   

  Wait till you see this!!! :)

  

  Post edited by Dartanbeck on November 2023