Animate2
succubusluve
Posts: 6
I'm very new to using any kind of 3d software so please forgive me if my question is stupid.Is it possible to animate your created figure without having to use preset animations.?What i mean is is it possible to do it frame by frame manually?
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Yes, use the Timeline pane to move between frames, any property you change autonmatically generates a keyframe (though you can manually add and remove keyframes too).
Actually for a beginner it is better that you learn
manual key frame animation without preset motions
and if you plan to use the Genesis 3 models you will have to manually animate them by hand anyway as they dont work with any of the automated solutions in Daz studio
In Daz studio however the default animation timeline& graph is extremely primitive and will hold you back fromlearning the basics.
I highly suggest that you at least invest in the optional "keyMate & "GraphMate" plugins for DS
Thamks for the answers guys.So which one would be better (to no one in particular) to get?And what other plugin-ins or products would be recommended for a new user to invest in as well?
It's very smart of you to ask first jump in later, and you are asking the right questions too.
To say Daz Timeline is primitive is an understatement, as it can't even copy paste selected key, nor pick and slide key. Daz also forces interpolation (key transitions) to one single mode (spline) which causes problem for figure animators.
Keep in mind that Daz Studio is foremost a frozen pose studio, and just because its YouTube page in the last 6 months advertised 80% figure-animation doesn't mean it has recently been refurbished or constantly being updated for basic figure animation. Most tools are at least 3.4 years old.
Yes as Wolf said, you need plugins even just to start learning. I will narrow it to figure animation as that's what you asked.
There 3 major paid plugins: Keymate, Graphmate, AniMate2 full.
Keymate allows you to copy paste, pick single/ multiple keys, slide keys around. Access to 3 interpolation. But it's not suitable for figures with deep hierarchy. Keymate is deaf to scene manager selection or actions, so doesn't auto-expand selected bone - a simple select body part or expand children which takes 1 click elsewhere will take 4 clicks to 15 clicks. This means reposing that typically takes 12 clicks/ 2 minutes will take you 50-100 clicks or 15 minutes. It gets worse if you use Genesis 3, with extra bones everywhere that matters. I will not recommend keymate for figure animators. It's good for camera or simple props.
GraphMate works with figures or objects. Copy/paste/add/slide/delete keys and specify interpolation. But it has its issues. Scrubber is so thin it takes a few clicks to grab. No next/previous keyframe options. Very very basic but usable for basic key editing and tuning. I use it as the actual timeline for Daz Studio.
AniMate2 is made specifically for figure animation. Also come with internal "mini" key mode and graph mode. Pretty cool design overall. You can use it for mixing/improving on preset motion. However Genesis 3 is not supported. Its graph mode is also unresponsive to scene or viewport bone selection and needs manual click, drill down, expand children, the same "disconnection with Daz subnode selection" problem suffered by Keymate.
The GoFigure plugins haven't been updated for years and the issues above have been complained about since their launch in 2011? -2012. So if you choose to jump in do keep that in mind...
Generally, figure animation in Studio is an afterthought in spite of the vast, wasted potential.
Check out MCasual's awesome collection of animation scripts for Daz Studio, which will also provide an overview of Daz's character animation capability and (how ancient are the) shortcomings.
If you plan to animate material or blinking lights, it is not possible by default, so be prepared to use very labor intensive workarounds.
Hope that give you a direction to research further.
Cheers
Hmmmm............Guess i'm just gonna have to invest in all of them to see which one suits me best.Thanks for your detailed answer.
If you need to prioritize; start with KeyMate, this is the primary tool you will need for keyframe animation. It adds a lot of standard animation features needed for keyframe animation. Animate2 would be next. It's good for certain type of animation movement scenes such as walking, running, etc. I find GraphMate buggy, it has the feel of an unfinished product. It has some nice features, but I hardly use it anymore because of its quirks.... but if money is not an object...
Do get all, esp during sales. All 3 GoFigure products are quite intuitive overall and work well together. Regardless of their incomplete integration with Daz Studio, they're excellent value for money as learning tools.
I hope with more users, there will be a GraphMate KeyMate 2.0 and AniMate3...or update patch to all goFigure tools.
With more animators, Daz3D dev will give some love to their animation toolset. Puppeteer was way ahead of its time but it needs 2016 treatment. Material anim in the time of iRay hello!
Think of KeyMate, GraphMate, and AniMate2 as complimentary products, not competing products. If possible, wait for a sale and pick up all 3.