Lock Camera to Animation?
Is there a way to lock a camera movement to an animation? I want the camera to move backwards at the same speed as my Genesis figures walk forwards so that the camera is always at the same distance from the Genesis figures. I'm trying to create the effect of a couple walking through a crowd with the camera filming them from the front always at the same distance away as it follows them through the crowd. It's a pretty standard filming technique used in many movies but I wondered if it's possible to recreate this in DAZ?
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That sounds interesting.
Is possible using another figure file and parenting the camera to it so it can be animated as well.
Edited to make correction. Apparently nulls cannot be animated. .cr2 files can be.
The most base method is to simply parent the camera to Genesis. It will move with the characters perfectly.
Or you could just try to parent the camera to the Genesis figure.
You could parent the camera to one of the figures, if you handle horizontal movement with the root and any vertical movement with the hip. If not it may be better to use the Property Editor to link the camera's x and z translations to those of one of the figures, so the y value isn't used to make it bounce.
Thanks for the replies. I'm glad there's a way to do this. I'll give your suggestions a try over the weekend and see how it goes.
I've tried to parent the camera to the Genesis figure but the camera doesn't move with the figure when I parent it to 'Genesis' in the Scene. When I parent the camera to the Genesis 'hip' or 'head' it moves along with Genesis but it wobbles. If I could only get it to move without wobbling then that would be great.
It is possible to parent a camera to another figure [I tested with the krill] and used the top view to place the camera for start.
Animated Genesis ... took note of the end position.
Then at the end, position the {krill} where it would be if it had followed Genesis step by step.
Then return to the start, click to the camera view and see what happens. In my test, the camera stayed ahead of Genesis as it walked toward the camera.
If the camera isn't moving when parented to Genesis then you handled the horizontal movement with the hip, which is also moving up and down - hence the wobbling. That leaves the other option, try using Property Editor to link the x and z translation on the camera to those of the hip.
I'm not sure how to do this. Is this possible?
I might be able to work out how to do this but it would be much better if I could figure out how to link the camera to Genesis or any figure without needing a workaround.
This is going from bad to worse. I opened the properties editor and added it as a tab. Now every time I open DAZ it hangs. I can't use it! Is there a way to open DAZ in safe mode so that I can close the property editor tab?
UPDATE: I deleted the dzpropertyeditor.dll from the DAZ installation folder and then opened DAZ. I was then able to delete any tabs and then move dzpropertyeditor.dll back to the installation folder. DAZ now opens correctly again. This bug occurs if DAZ opens with a Genesis figure and the Property Editor is open as a tab.
If you get your DS working again I have something for you to try in Animate.
Step one check the Z Translate on your Genesis at the Start of the Animation.
Step two Stop at the end of the walk and Check the Z translate again. Those are the numbers giving start and End of the Forward walk.
If your moving Left to right it will be the Y translate.
You then position your camera and Calculate the Difference of the Translates That is the END pose for your camera in just that ONE translate.
I tested it and it's a smooth effect for me.
How do I check the Z translate? I have the parameters tab open but the zTranslate doesn't change numerically when I get to the end of the animation
It will not till you send it to the Timelime. Then one of the Translates will. Just do not SAVE when you Send to timeline and you can keep working with Animate with a close and reopen of DS to clear the temp history. Also close the Timeline before you close DS.
DS wasn't actually locked, it would eventually have finished populating the Property Editor - but it is a good idea not to leave it open. I dock mine in a group with Figure Setup and Tool Settings, and make sure one of the others is active when I leave DS (actually, I have it in a Setup tab which is just for figure editing and creation, but the same principle applies - don't leave PE active).
I'm using a walk aniblock in Animate 2. How do I send it to the timeline? I'm using DAZ Studio 4.5.
Ok, thanks. I'm still trying to work out what you mean by linking translate in the property editor? I opened the editor and couldn't find a way to link anything to anything.
Thank you all for trying to help but I'm unable to fully understand any of the instructions I'm receiving. Although I have quite a bit of experience with Sony Vegas and After Effects I'm a new DAZ user so if you suggest something please explain how to do it. Maybe go through the steps and explain where to find the recommended settings? I would find this really helpful.
I've read the Animate 2 manual and done many searches trying to find out how to link x/y/ztranslates & how to send them to the timeline so that I can view parameter changes but there seems to be no information about this that I can find.
If there is a manual that explains how to animate cameras and make them follow an animated figure I will gladly read it and put theory into practice. I just can't believe that such a basic thing as having a camera follow a figure is so convoluted and incredibly difficult to understand and implement.
Ok, thanks. I've baked the walk aniblock to the timeline but when I playback the animation the translate parameters still don't change in the 'parameters' tab.
I'll be Darned Your right. I did the Camera in Animate as a SUB now I'm lost as to how I did it.
Its the AniBlock I used on the Camera. Sorry. It was made for this, I'm not sure WHICH AniBlock set it came with.
I'm sorry for my miss information. Was not meant to be. I'll see if I can figure something out that will work easy.
I've worked out that I need to view the translate information of the Genesis 'hip' to see the values change of the ztranslate parameter.
The problem is that even after baking the animation to the timeline and then adding the distance that Genesis travels to the Camera's final ztranslate value the resulting camera pan still isn't in sync with Genesis. It almost works but not quite because Genesis moves slightly closer to and away from the camera as it moves through the animation walk cycle.
I just can't believe that there isn't an easier way to make a camera stay in sync with an animated object or figure. It's such an easy thing to do when filming people walking towards the camera I assumed that it could be automated in a 3D program like DAZ Studio.
No problem, thanks for trying to help. If you figure some other workaround let me know.
Well there is ... IMHO. Somehow I didn't think of it as a work a-round, but rather "something that works".
Genesis on Point A ... walking to Point Z
Camera parented to .cr2 camera box [anything] ... placed in relation to where you want it from Genesis. [position the camera box, camera will be there].
Animate line.
on one of the tracks Animate Genesis for that walk. From Point A to Point Z. [straight line]
on another track then at Point A, the camera box is positioned exactly where you want it. Pointed at a relatively non-moving part like the head or neck ... there will be a little motion and yes there is a way to do this with 'no motion' but ... that would come under a 'fix' which golly gee. Ain't much work at all. Select another .cr2 box. Position it at Point A. Point the camera at it. Be sure 'it' is at the correct height.
Okay.
Then on that second track with the camera box, at Point Z, position that camera box exactly where you want it, exactly the same distance from Genesis.
Then on the 3rd track [okay I haven't done this, I'm assuming one can make 3 tracks] ... at Point A, position that lone .cr2 box or whatever [obviously it would be made invisible for rendering okay] over Genesis or wherever it is you want the camera to be aimed. Then go to the Point Z and position it exactly over Genesis [or wherever you've put it before. Straight line move.]
Go to Point A and "play".
I did not change any figure's joints.
I did not bork D/S.
And I will be removing that camera test video soon.
I find the 'top view' helpful for these types of animations. [I usually use planets]
Cheers.
Your wanting a smooth Dolly on your Camera. And I'm not sure that can be done 100% in DS with AniMate. This is my reason why.
AniMate use's a TWEEN feature (blending, from one AniBlock to the next) that causes the Figure to slightly slow down and then pick back up. As you have noticed that causes a Forward Backward look when the camera Dollies is a smooth motion. You would need to match the Slow down Speed up parts of the Tweener to get a 100% smooth dolly on the camera in it's translate. I have never bothered to get that detailed yet. And Have no idea how to match the Blend mode from AniBlock to AniBlock in a smooth fashion.
Oh is that what causes that? I was wondering ... thought of the stabilizers that keep some RL cameras steady.
If one were going to be doing a lot of these, possibly making the camera support to have its own aniblocks would help so everything can slow down together that way?
Interesting project "one of these days".
Oh is that what causes that? I was wondering ... thought of the stabilizers that keep some RL cameras steady.
If one were going to be doing a lot of these, possibly making the camera support to have its own aniblocks would help so everything can slow down together that way?
Interesting project "one of these days".
I think this explains the problem with trying to link the camera to Genesis in the different methods you and Patience describe. That fwd/bwd movement of the camera isn't what I was hoping for.
Originally I had parented the camera with the millennium cat using a cat walking aniblock from renderosity. Everything worked perfectly by just parenting the camera to the millennium cat and not just its 'hip'. The camera moved with the cat smoothly and at exactly the same speed. But for some reason parenting a camera to 'Genesis' doesn't work at all. The camera just stays in the original position.
It would be great to figure this out because my plan is to render short animations of a figure walking and then loop this in Vegas Pro 12. That way I won't need to wait hours for long animations to render. It might also be possible to render out short animations of other movements and then composite them in Vegas without huge render times in DAZ. By setting the background in DAZ to Green screen green I hoped to render out short high resolution clips this way. But if I can't set the camera to precisely follow the animation it won't work.