Very new to animatio with some very basic questions:

areg5

I have been using Daz studio latest version 64 bit and I have been toying around with animation. I have a few basic questions:

1. What can you do with animate 2 as opposed to the included animate lite?

2. Can you clear the timeline in animate in a way that retains the morphs at the end of the timeline? Seems like as soon as you start the timeline you can't turn it off.

3. iclone looks interesting but expensive, and it's unclear to me how easy or difficult it would be to use my daz material with it. I can't say I've been impressed with the videos I've seen, doesn't look like the artwork or lighting is as good as daz.. Can you seamlessly use sets, props, poses from daz with minimum hassle?

4. I get the impression that Carrara can in fact use all daz materials seamlessly, but is also a little pricey. Does it have built in animation, or do you have to use mimic?

I realize that these are really basic questions for most of you, and I thank you in advance for your patience.

jaebea

3. iClone - I bought iClone 5.5 and 3dxchange. I love the animations and they can be imported right into Daz and made into aniblocks for tweeking. iClone has soooo many wonderful features, especially dynamic plants and trees, however, I am a stickler when it comes to the render. iClone's lighting sucks big time. Even though it has ao now, it still, in no way, comes close to a Daz render.
4. Carrara - Many will sing its praises, but I had so much trouble working with content that I decided not to upgrade. I also find animation too cumbersome to work with. Thats just a personal opinion.

areg5

jaebea said:

3. iClone - I bought iClone 5.5 and 3dxchange. I love the animations and they can be imported right into Daz and made into aniblocks for tweeking. iClone has soooo many wonderful features, especially dynamic plants and trees, however, I am a stickler when it comes to the render. iClone's lighting sucks big time. Even though it has ao now, it still, in no way, comes close to a Daz render.
4. Carrara - Many will sing its praises, but I had so much trouble working with content that I decided not to upgrade. I also find animation too cumbersome to work with. Thats just a personal opinion.

So are you using Daz content in iclone, doing the animation, then importing it back to daz for the lighting? Do you then do the final render in Daz? One of the things that's cumbersome about animation in Daz is that it takes forever. A 10 second animation took me about 4 hrs.

tsarist

areg5 said:

4. I get the impression that Carrara can in fact use all daz materials seamlessly, but is also a little pricey. Does it have built in animation, or do you have to use mimic?
.

I use Carrara exclusively. It is very powerful software.
It's on sale right now and if you're a PC Club member the price is even less.

Carrara DOES have it's own animation system, BUT it also accepts aniBlock's (through the aniBlock importer) and bvh's.
http://www.daz3d.com/animate-aniblock-importer-for-carrara

Plus Carrara 8 and above have Puppeteer built-in.

You don't need to use Mimic, but you can if you'd like.
http://www.daz3d.com/mimic-pro-for-carrara

Carrara's rendering engine is faster than Daz's.
Also, Carrara's rendering room has a batch render option, which is extremely helpful when you have larger scale animations.

I used to use Daz daily, but once I learned Carrara, I rarely even open Daz up.

That's my view on things.

Best of luck!

jaebea

I bring a Daz character into 3dxchange, make her skeleton compatible with iClone (Genesis is just a one click deal) then she goes into iclone to work with the animations. Then animations can be exported back through 3dxchange as a bvh into Daz. Doesn't work so good with Gen 4 characters, though. The animation I am working on now is with V4 and M4 so I will just work through them. Will probably have to use Genesis after this one.

Steve K

tsarist said:

areg5 said:

4. I get the impression that Carrara can in fact use all daz materials seamlessly, but is also a little pricey. Does it have built in animation, or do you have to use mimic?
.

I use Carrara exclusively. It is very powerful software ...

I agree with Tsarist. I have been using Carrara for many years and have produced dozens of short animations. I have over a thousand Poser type items, most from DAZ, and they all work seamlessly in Carrara. There is no "import" required, they load directly from Carrara's browser which can link to any Poser Runtime. I also use Mimic for Carrara, it works as well as it does in Poser, meaning pretty good. I do not use Genesis content, since I have so much Gen4 content and am happy with it.

If you're interested, you can see many of the animations here (also a few live action shorts, but mostly animations):
http://www.youtube.com/user/SteveK77536/videos

areg5

Steve K said:

tsarist said:

areg5 said:

4. I get the impression that Carrara can in fact use all daz materials seamlessly, but is also a little pricey. Does it have built in animation, or do you have to use mimic?
.

I use Carrara exclusively. It is very powerful software ...

I agree with Tsarist. I have been using Carrara for many years and have produced dozens of short animations. I have over a thousand Poser type items, most from DAZ, and they all work seamlessly in Carrara. There is no "import" required, they load directly from Carrara's browser which can link to any Poser Runtime. I also use Mimic for Carrara, it works as well as it does in Poser, meaning pretty good. I do not use Genesis content, since I have so much Gen4 content and am happy with it.

If you're interested, you can see many of the animations here (also a few live action shorts, but mostly animations):
http://www.youtube.com/user/SteveK77536/videos

Impressive. So, what does mimic give you that the built in animation does not?

FirstBastion

Mimic generates facial animation that follow a specific dialogue, so it looks like the character figures are speaking the words. It can also add additional micro expressions to add to the realism. Its a useful add on.

areg5

FirstBastion said:

Mimic generates facial animation that follow a specific dialogue, so it looks like the character figures are speaking the words. It can also add additional micro expressions to add to the realism. Its a useful add on.

Good to know. Now, I've been using Daz studio 4.6 64 bit. Can scenes from studio be directly opened and used in Carrara, or does each scene have to be rebuilt ?

Steve K

areg5 said:

So, what does mimic give you that the built in animation does not?

As First Bastion explained, Mimic is for lip syncing to recorded dialogue, together with some minor related head movement. I'm not sure what you mean by "built in" animation in Carrara, maybe the "Puppeteer" feature? Tutorial here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QtFnC1a-pPY

I don't use that feature much, preferring "Motion Capture" files (mocap) from vendors like these:

http://www.posermocap.com/

http://www.es3d.com/index2.html

These mocap files are specifically for Poser type figures, and generally have been tested and work without glitches. A more generic mocap file type is *.bvh, which is not Poser specific and may take some tweaking (but there are more freebies around).

For non-figure animation (cars, planes, doors, space ships), I just set key frames in the Carrara sequencer and fiddle til it looks right.

HTH

- Steve K.

Ivy

I use Daz & Poser for all my animations ,
I couldn't tell you anything about Iclone or Carrera because it was hard enough just for me to learn Daz for use in animation. & I am also still learning new tricks and Techniques to improve my animation,

I use Animate2 and Key-mate & mimic pro. in Daz Studio and Animator for poser. Animate lite does not allow you to have all the function capabilities offered by animate2 which you really need for more realistic animations in daz.

if you like to see what you can do with Daz Studio you can view some of my animations there not the best but you'll get the idea. .. https://www.youtube.com/user/IvySummers1

to help others learning or interest in daz for animation. I have the items used in the flims listed in my end credits .
Also the biggest hurdle i found in animation is "Organization" and "Asset" gathering

My suggestion would be think small at first with short 2 or 3 seconds scenes using Daz Studio
and see how things move and how the lighting and shadows work. I'll think you'll find once you start working with daz thats it is rather easy to use.
I would also think of how you want to set up your animation files system so when time comes to edit and put your animation to together you will know what order things go in

Good Luck and please post & share what you get finished

areg5

Ivy said:

I use Daz & Poser for all my animations ,
I couldn't tell you anything about Iclone or Carrera because it was hard enough just for me to learn Daz for use in animation. & I am also still learning new tricks and Techniques to improve my animation,

I use Animate2 and Key-mate & mimic pro. in Daz Studio and Animator for poser. Animate lite does not allow you to have all the function capabilities offered by animate2 which you really need for more realistic animations in daz.

if you like to see what you can do with Daz Studio you can view some of my animations there not the best but you'll get the idea. .. https://www.youtube.com/user/IvySummers1

to help others learning or interest in daz for animation. I have the items used in the flims listed in my end credits .
Also the biggest hurdle i found in animation is "Organization" and "Asset" gathering

My suggestion would be think small at first with short 2 or 3 seconds scenes using Daz Studio
and see how things move and how the lighting and shadows work. I'll think you'll find once you start working with daz thats it is rather easy to use.
I would also think of how you want to set up your animation files system so when time comes to edit and put your animation to together you will know what order things go in

Good Luck and please post & share what you get finished

I was thinking along those lines. Your animations are great! If that is possible with Studio, I'm hard pressed to find a reason to use anything else. Can you be more specific as to what animate2 allows you to do that cannot be done with the included animate lite? I am not familiar with key-mate. What is that?

Ivy

areg5 said:

Ivy said:

I use Daz & Poser for all my animations ,
I couldn't tell you anything about Iclone or Carrera because it was hard enough just for me to learn Daz for use in animation. & I am also still learning new tricks and Techniques to improve my animation,

I use Animate2 and Key-mate & mimic pro. in Daz Studio and Animator for poser. Animate lite does not allow you to have all the function capabilities offered by animate2 which you really need for more realistic animations in daz.

if you like to see what you can do with Daz Studio you can view some of my animations there not the best but you'll get the idea. .. https://www.youtube.com/user/IvySummers1

to help others learning or interest in daz for animation. I have the items used in the flims listed in my end credits .
Also the biggest hurdle i found in animation is "Organization" and "Asset" gathering

My suggestion would be think small at first with short 2 or 3 seconds scenes using Daz Studio
and see how things move and how the lighting and shadows work. I'll think you'll find once you start working with daz thats it is rather easy to use.
I would also think of how you want to set up your animation files system so when time comes to edit and put your animation to together you will know what order things go in

Good Luck and please post & share what you get finished

I was thinking along those lines. Your animations are great! If that is possible with Studio, I'm hard pressed to find a reason to use anything else. Can you be more specific as to what animate2 allows you to do that cannot be done with the included animate lite? I am not familiar with key-mate. What is that?

Animate Lite is a demo version of Animate II . Animate lite does not allow you to add multiple tracks for a single character, or allow for Individual Key frame controls.. its basically a free demo version added to Daz Studio to get a new person learning the basics with out having invest alot. when you get more serious you will want to up grade. As with any 3d program on the market you want to invest more as you learn.more And at least with daz studio .. they give you the basic tools to learn before you invest , this helps get you started ..
Now to learn about animate II. I would go to http://www.gofigure3d.com/site/ web site and read their product support pages to learn how to use it :)
Key-mate & Mimic pro are Plugins you can add to Daz Sudio to increase your tool options. which both can be purchased from Daz web site :) Key-mate give you added control over individual Key frames along the time line ' Its good for ani blocks that don't match up well when you join them together.

areg5

Ivy said:

areg5 said:

Ivy said:

I use Daz & Poser for all my animations ,
I couldn't tell you anything about Iclone or Carrera because it was hard enough just for me to learn Daz for use in animation. & I am also still learning new tricks and Techniques to improve my animation,

I use Animate2 and Key-mate & mimic pro. in Daz Studio and Animator for poser. Animate lite does not allow you to have all the function capabilities offered by animate2 which you really need for more realistic animations in daz.

if you like to see what you can do with Daz Studio you can view some of my animations there not the best but you'll get the idea. .. https://www.youtube.com/user/IvySummers1

to help others learning or interest in daz for animation. I have the items used in the flims listed in my end credits .
Also the biggest hurdle i found in animation is "Organization" and "Asset" gathering

My suggestion would be think small at first with short 2 or 3 seconds scenes using Daz Studio
and see how things move and how the lighting and shadows work. I'll think you'll find once you start working with daz thats it is rather easy to use.
I would also think of how you want to set up your animation files system so when time comes to edit and put your animation to together you will know what order things go in

Good Luck and please post & share what you get finished

I was thinking along those lines. Your animations are great! If that is possible with Studio, I'm hard pressed to find a reason to use anything else. Can you be more specific as to what animate2 allows you to do that cannot be done with the included animate lite? I am not familiar with key-mate. What is that?

Animate Lite is a demo version of Animate II . Animate lite does not allow you to add multiple tracks for a single character, or allow for Individual Key frame controls.. its basically a free demo version added to Daz Studio to get a new person learning the basics with out having invest alot. when you get more serious you will want to up grade. As with any 3d program on the market you want to invest more as you learn.more And at least with daz studio .. they give you the basic tools to learn before you invest , this helps get you started ..
Now to learn about animate II. I would go to http://www.gofigure3d.com/site/ web site and read their product support pages to learn how to use it :)
Key-mate & Mimic pro are Plugins you can add to Daz Sudio to increase your tool options. which both can be purchased from Daz web site :) Key-mate give you added control over individual Key frames along the time line ' Its good for ani blocks that don't match up well when you join them together.

And now to sound like a real moron: I see that term a lot. What are aniblocks?

Ivy

areg5 said:

Ivy said:

areg5 said:

Ivy said:

I use Daz & Poser for all my animations ,
I couldn't tell you anything about Iclone or Carrera because it was hard enough just for me to learn Daz for use in animation. & I am also still learning new tricks and Techniques to improve my animation,

I use Animate2 and Key-mate & mimic pro. in Daz Studio and Animator for poser. Animate lite does not allow you to have all the function capabilities offered by animate2 which you really need for more realistic animations in daz.

if you like to see what you can do with Daz Studio you can view some of my animations there not the best but you'll get the idea. .. https://www.youtube.com/user/IvySummers1

to help others learning or interest in daz for animation. I have the items used in the flims listed in my end credits .
Also the biggest hurdle i found in animation is "Organization" and "Asset" gathering

My suggestion would be think small at first with short 2 or 3 seconds scenes using Daz Studio
and see how things move and how the lighting and shadows work. I'll think you'll find once you start working with daz thats it is rather easy to use.
I would also think of how you want to set up your animation files system so when time comes to edit and put your animation to together you will know what order things go in

Good Luck and please post & share what you get finished

I was thinking along those lines. Your animations are great! If that is possible with Studio, I'm hard pressed to find a reason to use anything else. Can you be more specific as to what animate2 allows you to do that cannot be done with the included animate lite? I am not familiar with key-mate. What is that?

Animate Lite is a demo version of Animate II . Animate lite does not allow you to add multiple tracks for a single character, or allow for Individual Key frame controls.. its basically a free demo version added to Daz Studio to get a new person learning the basics with out having invest alot. when you get more serious you will want to up grade. As with any 3d program on the market you want to invest more as you learn.more And at least with daz studio .. they give you the basic tools to learn before you invest , this helps get you started ..
Now to learn about animate II. I would go to http://www.gofigure3d.com/site/ web site and read their product support pages to learn how to use it :)
Key-mate & Mimic pro are Plugins you can add to Daz Sudio to increase your tool options. which both can be purchased from Daz web site :) Key-mate give you added control over individual Key frames along the time line ' Its good for ani blocks that don't match up well when you join them together.

And now to sound like a real moron: I see that term a lot. What are aniblocks?

Aniblocks are Motion Capture files that have been converted to GFA script blocks you can drag onto or loaded on the animate2 time line .. the ani blocks allows you to created animation to your figure quickly with a preset motion. like walking or running cycles. Also with animate II if you create by hand a specific motion you can save it as a GFA scipt block or aniblock for future use ..

how this different than professional 3d programs?
Well Un-like maya which if you want to use motion capture scripts you need to import them directly as BVH script files. to the timeline . Or if you have Pixar-renderman render engine you can drag and drop BVH scipts to Maya. directly kind of like daz. Just keep in mind the Autodesk design suite for students cost about $2500 and the pro version is about $6000 and you still hav to purchase a good render engine and effects tool compared to Daz which is free. and the tools are much cheaper. :|)

But for affordable 3d program Daz is definitely is a simpler learning curve. which is great for some who want to learn about 3d with out investing 2 or 3 years of school in order to learn it. or having to drop $6000 for a program

Sempie

areg5 said:

So are you using Daz content in iclone, doing the animation, then importing it back to daz for the lighting? Do you then do the final render in Daz? One of the things that's cumbersome about animation in Daz is that it takes forever. A 10 second animation took me about 4 hrs.

Just to put things in perspective - a 10 second animation will take the average Pixar or WETA animator about 4 WEEKS..
And then there's other guys doing the shading, lighting, cloth simulation, rendering and compositing for you, you ONLY do the
movements (Blocking, polishing, tweaking in the graph editor until the last glitch is gone).

Anything that is not based on gluing existing prefab animations together is bound to take a lot of time, be it in DAZ Studio,
Maya, or no matter what program.