How Do You Pick Up an Object?
danketchum32
Posts: 0
OK, I undertsand about parenting a prop to the hand of a figure to get it to move with the hand. But what if you want the figure to walk into the scene and pick up the object? Adding a keyframe at a later point in the timeline and parenting seems to affect the object all the way back to the first keyframe at 0. In other words, the object that was suppposed to be sitting there until until it's "picked up" moves anyway. How do I fix this?
Post edited by danketchum32 on
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I can't answer but would be interested in the answer. However, to make your question clearer, you might change the title of the thread to "pick up an object" so it doesn't sound like a protest. :)
I would use Iclone for this or Blender or Carrara. Daz is not really an Animation program it is more geared to stills. You are talking about complex animation tools some of this has been tackled by Daz user mcasual who has written scripts but I don't think we have strong enough tools in Daz for complex animation. I could be wrong.
Here are some links
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/60291/animate-daz-with-iclone-6-reference-guide#latest
https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts8/home
at best you can render two takes, stopping and unparenting the object at the first frame of the second take.
Someone must know the answer to this.
Oh well. Thanks guys. I think I'll go with the idea of unparenting the prop and rendering to the point where she touches it. Then I'll parent it and render from the point where she touches it.
If you turn it as aniblock , I think you can use constrain. (but I do not clear remember, it still work for current genesis figures)
and mcasuall have made script for such purpose. (if you hope to make animation with daz timeline, his script help a lot I think)
https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjautolimb
But,, I actually not make such animation with daz timeline,, then just test before about genesis only.
blender can easy manage it,, (because it can set keys for constrain)
Old 3D animation trick I heard about years ago...
You have two copies of the item in the scene, one is stationary and the other is already parented to the hand
The one that is stationary is visable until the very moment the character goes to "pick it up". THe one in the hand is turned off so its not visable
When you get to that frame, the stationary one and the one parented to the hand should be in teh exact same position. Then, in that frame when its picked up, the stationary one is turned off and the parented one turned on.
Then you can have the person do whatever with the item
look at mcasuals scripts
hes king for this kind of stuff
still need Casuals Matanim script for visibility
still curious why mcasual can and daz cannot (material animation)
Both Daz and casual have limited resources and have to decide where to apply them.
for some reason the materials are not keyframable in DAZ studio
be it actual map changes, values, dffuse etc and visibility, his script adds that function
Why??? No where in the OP did he mention needing to animate materials. The instructions are not program specific.
I understand, what Mattymanx adviced, but I think DS can not set key for node visiblity too. (if I hide, without material setting)
then to work, May need render each frame, with visiblity on, and off manually setting then render,, I thought (just plan without testing)
Then I think, how to manage it if I try mantimanx way in daz timeline, to see it as actuall animation (withotu manuall on and off)
I may use scale, then set key for node, as zero (to hide), scale 100, (show) as constant interporation. on daz timeline .
(But I just play in my brain only,, feel interesting to learn technic,,, then I can not say, it should work
)
visibility is one of the animatable parameters in the matanim script dialogue
unless its been added since (not tried truth be told) it was not keyframeable in D|S 4.7 at least, prob last time I tried it.
I do not think it is practially useful,, but I test just from quriosity more, then if I make new controller (ERC) for node visiblity, (I set as pose controller)
it can set key for visiblity,,, .^^; actually it hide, and show,,, with controller key value.
(I did not expect it work,, because node visiblity could not set key,, but about new parameter can work, and animatable),, so someone use it?
(I do not know,, why new controller can set key, but default visiblity parameter can not set key,, ds is strange enough)