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Zombie Animation How-To?

vonHobovonHobo Posts: 1,682
in The Commons

I was considering this product to try my first animation:

Zombie Move Set Vol.1 for Genesis 9 Feminine and Masculine | Daz 3D

But I have never tried an animation before in DAZ Studio or with any other software.

1. Is there a good how-to guide on animation for DAZ Studio?

2. I have a new desktop now with a 4060 Ti Nvidia GeForce. Very fast compared to my last desktop PC. This is good for renders, lightning fast, but how long does it take to create animations even with a state-of-the-art setup?

3. Is DAZ Studio good for animations, or do most people go with another software product if they are serious about animation?

 

 

 

Comments

  • benniewoodellbenniewoodell Posts: 1,969

    You can definitely animate in Daz, I've done it for both work and personal projects for years, but it has its major drawbacks if you are hand keying your animation. If you use a lot of premade stuff like the pack you mentioned, it'll be just fine. But if you enjoy it and decide you want to animate everything yourself, then I'd recommend switching to blender or Maya as the rigs they have are far more animation friendly with proper IK and a graph editor that is far more intuitive than Daz's. It wasn't until I started taking classes at animation mentor that I realized it's incredibly difficult to properly animate in Daz if you do all the keyframes by hand. But again, if things don't have to be perfect, like a little foot sliding and such, Daz is a great program to use. 

    There is a tutorial series for animating in daz with animate2 from Dartanbeck (I hope I spelled his name right) that's sold here and he's figured out animate2 very well. You can find his aniblocks thread in the daz studio section of the forums too. Might be something you'd want to look into. 

    As for rendering, the key to quick rendering is to do it in layers. Render the character separately from the environment and it'll blaze through and comp it together in Davinci or after effects if you have Adobe. 

    Good luck! 

  • vonHobovonHobo Posts: 1,682

    benniewoodell said:

    You can definitely animate in Daz, I've done it for both work and personal projects for years, but it has its major drawbacks if you are hand keying your animation. If you use a lot of premade stuff like the pack you mentioned, it'll be just fine. But if you enjoy it and decide you want to animate everything yourself, then I'd recommend switching to blender or Maya as the rigs they have are far more animation friendly with proper IK and a graph editor that is far more intuitive than Daz's. It wasn't until I started taking classes at animation mentor that I realized it's incredibly difficult to properly animate in Daz if you do all the keyframes by hand. But again, if things don't have to be perfect, like a little foot sliding and such, Daz is a great program to use. 

    There is a tutorial series for animating in daz with animate2 from Dartanbeck (I hope I spelled his name right) that's sold here and he's figured out animate2 very well. You can find his aniblocks thread in the daz studio section of the forums too. Might be something you'd want to look into. 

    As for rendering, the key to quick rendering is to do it in layers. Render the character separately from the environment and it'll blaze through and comp it together in Davinci or after effects if you have Adobe. 

    Good luck! 

    Thank you for the great information. I have a lot to learn. 

  • benniewoodellbenniewoodell Posts: 1,969
    edited December 2023

    von Hobo said:

    benniewoodell said:

    You can definitely animate in Daz, I've done it for both work and personal projects for years, but it has its major drawbacks if you are hand keying your animation. If you use a lot of premade stuff like the pack you mentioned, it'll be just fine. But if you enjoy it and decide you want to animate everything yourself, then I'd recommend switching to blender or Maya as the rigs they have are far more animation friendly with proper IK and a graph editor that is far more intuitive than Daz's. It wasn't until I started taking classes at animation mentor that I realized it's incredibly difficult to properly animate in Daz if you do all the keyframes by hand. But again, if things don't have to be perfect, like a little foot sliding and such, Daz is a great program to use. 

    There is a tutorial series for animating in daz with animate2 from Dartanbeck (I hope I spelled his name right) that's sold here and he's figured out animate2 very well. You can find his aniblocks thread in the daz studio section of the forums too. Might be something you'd want to look into. 

    As for rendering, the key to quick rendering is to do it in layers. Render the character separately from the environment and it'll blaze through and comp it together in Davinci or after effects if you have Adobe. 

    Good luck! 

    Thank you for the great information. I have a lot to learn. 

    Sure thing, anytime! If you decide at any time that you'd like to learn how to animate by hand keying everything, let me know and I would be more than happy give you some wonderful youtube channels to watch where they teach you how to do everything by hand, but then you would have to go into blender through diffeomorphic or something to do that, but you'll pick it up super fast.  

    Post edited by benniewoodell on
  • FirstBastionFirstBastion Posts: 7,762
    edited December 2023

    von Hobo said:

    I was considering this product to try my first animation:

    Zombie Move Set Vol.1 for Genesis 9 Feminine and Masculine | Daz 3D

    But I have never tried an animation before in DAZ Studio or with any other software.

    1. Is there a good how-to guide on animation for DAZ Studio?

    2. I have a new desktop now with a 4060 Ti Nvidia GeForce. Very fast compared to my last desktop PC. This is good for renders, lightning fast, but how long does it take to create animations even with a state-of-the-art setup?

    3. Is DAZ Studio good for animations, or do most people go with another software product if they are serious about animation?

     Generally it is pretty straight forward if you are buying a animation product from a daz PA like HavanaLibre. 

    Start with the base Genesis 9 loaded and have it selected. 

    Double click on the animation product thumbnail. for the animation.  It usually gives a pop up that says the animation is longer than the standard 30 frames that is default in Daz Studio.  Click ok. 

    That's it !   hit the play button in the timeline and your figure should play the animation.  

    If these starting steps work,  then add clothing or textures that you want to add to the visual appeal. 

    Add props and a background. Add a relatively flat ground or floor. You can use a HDRI.  

    At each of these steps run the animation again,  to see that the animation is still running smoothly as the complexity increases.. 

    Then add a camera to capture the animation.  You can save it as a movie or an image sequence (useful for PNG compositing)

    You need 30 frames for every second, so do the math on how long it takes to render.  30 frames x 10 seconds x 2 minutes (rendering per frame) = 600 mins = 10 hours

    If your computer can render an acceptable frame in 25-30 second that number will be much lower.

    As you get more comfortable you might add dforce clothing or hair into the mix,  you have to run the drape simulation for the entire length of the animation prior to doing the rendering.  

     

    Post edited by FirstBastion on
  • wolf359wolf359 Posts: 3,828
    edited December 2023

    comp it together in Davinci or after effects if you have Adobe. 

     

    Davinci Resolve has a free version of their compositing app
    After effects is subscription  only
    Also There are several FREE zombie animations on Mixamo that you can use with Genesis 9
    https://www.mixamo.com/#/?page=1&query=zombie
     

    Post edited by wolf359 on
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