Animation With Kids 4 - What School To Use?
Steve K
Posts: 3,235
I'm planning an animation with the Kids 4 at school. Should I use a Playschool or a Grade School? I have these nice scenes from McClean:
http://www.daz3d.com/interiors-the-playschool
http://www.daz3d.com/interiors-the-classroom
I don't deal with kids much, but to me the K4 kids look too old for Playschool and too young for the Classroom scene. :-S
I'm leaning toward the Classroom, maybe scaling down the desk sizes ... I recall K4's feet are off the ground in the student desk ...
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Use the desks from playschool set inside the classroom? :)
A good suggestion, thanks! Outside the box, as they say. It did make me think I need something in between, like this:
http://taraoblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/img_0880.jpg
This is a third grade class, they look about the same age/size as K4. The somewhat "open" layout fits my story better than rows of desks, also, making room for a performance.
No problems :)
Another suggestion is to use genesis instead of k4. Im not an expert on this subject, but if you dial genesis child morph it looks almost identical as k4 in my eyes. And by using genesis your life becomes easier. Much, much easier.
Genesis can also use K4 textures right out of the box. All that's needed is setting the UV to K4 in the Surfaces Tab with the Full Genesis selected.
Please expand on the easier life. I have been avoiding Genesis since I have LOT of Gen4 content (M4 V4 K4 etc.) and feel very comfortable using it. The Genesis content just seems like replacing all of it with "different" content, but I don't see it as "better". I reserve the right to be wrong here.
Also, I don't care for Daz Studio, using Carrara exclusively for character animation (and most other animation as well, except for some Vue Complete for content that requires it). I have read of problems with Genesis in Carrara, even C 8.5 (which I do not have, only 8.1). So does the "easier life" require Genesis in DS?
And really, thanks for the input, it has already helped me see a different path for my animation. Somebody said that good movies are made in the first decisions (the original script for the James Bond movie "Dr. No" called for the villain to be a super intelligent monkey. They changed that). I think the same applies to short animations.
I assumed you were in DS and not Carrara. Ignore the blue fella, his advice does not apply here.
OK, maybe I'm starting to see the plan. Starting ... but it still looks ... questionable. To repeat myself, I have a LOT of Gen4 content ... that all works very nicely in Carrara 8.1. AND is all paid for.
Doh! :P
I also assumed you were in DS. Sorry about that!
What i meant by easier was morphing. Genesis can be shaped to literally anything. And clothes will fit 200% better.
And for Ds there's Generation X. I think it works for k4 -> Genesis too.
OK, no problem. Its understandable, we Carrara guys are getting used to it. Reluctantly. :-S
No problem, as I told Jaderail. But while we're all here ... is DS finally getting its animation act together? That seemed to be a problem in the earlier versions, as opposed to still renders (which I myself have done with nice results for some DAZ content).
There is a fable about a cat who sits on a hot stove. That cat will never sit on a hot stove again. Or a cold stove. I tried an early version of DS and could not even load content. I only forced myself to use it later for particular content that I really wanted (still images, content for DS only). So are the animation features of DS ... maturing? (Keep in mind I consider Carrara with Poser content the ultimate animation program ... not modeling, which I don't do, but production of short animations).
I'm pretty "newborn" to 3d. So far my "animation" projects has ended with me banging my head against the monitor while cursing the day i was born.
I've seen some awesome animations on youtube. But as far as i understand Carrera is miles ahead regarding animations.
Here's a basic animation guide by Daz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0NCh4sNoRw
Its a nice video. But I think you are correct about Carrara. I love working with it, and all the DAZ Poser content that works seamlessly, and ... OK you get the idea.
P.S. DAZ still offers Carrara content (a little) ... PhilW, Howie, great stuff.
DAZ Studio has grown up some but not enough. I use Animate2, KeyMate and GraphMate in it and so Far I can get much farther than I did in my first little steps. I suggest Ivy's last animation for a FULL DS4.6 only example. It's good but does not show off some of the new tools as well as I had hoped. I will be going 100% DS animation as soon as my new PC arrives.
I see there is a topic in the Carrara forum: "Daz should immediately stop developing Studio! (and put all development focus on Carrara)" The discussion is fairly civil, but the opinions are pretty strong. You can guess my opinion, but it does remind me of a line from a movie that has stuck with me. The head of a successful company is explaining to one of his managers a plan to start a new low cost company that will compete with the existing company. The manager thinks for a second, then says, "Yeah, I've heard of that strategy. Its called 'pissing in the soup' ". I wish DS users all the best, but I do question DAZ' business model (as does the original poster of the Carrara Forum Topic).
I'm making progress on my K4 school animation. It is a Halloween story with an evil clown (clowns, evil or not, are one of the greatest fears of many, I've read).
Thanks for the complement. again on my new video Jeff.
I'm not sure what tools you were hoping to see in it?. I hope it wasn't genesis? because I'm pretty much like Steve. I use gen4 because I have thousands of dollars of it that stills works great with all my programs of choice. why bother invest in another gneration at this time. I. can work with gen4 with little to no effort in Poser, Daz and Maya . I can't really say I have the same luck using genesis with out a lot of tweaking or refitting etc etc in poser and FXB is about the only way to get genesis to work with Maya . which has me going back to import the UV and UVA and some textures maps when I can Bridge gen4 right through poser to Maya complete animation and all , I have bought a few genesis products none of which i was very happy with test animation renders. so I stopped using it. I am very sure someone that has better skills and are more disciplined in animation & maybe better at working with genesis than I am could make a great animation using gensis But so far all I see done with it is slide show animation and to me thats not animation thats just a bunch of pic put together.
i don't need autotfit tool for gen 4 or all those others things needed to get genesis to work with poser. or even daz older gen3 &4 character products.. I think thats just goofy when you make a program then abandon one of your most successful products. could you inmagen how fast people would stop using Photoshop if adobe did that..lol
Also, not to beat a dead horse. But i had mention back a year ago or so how Daz had seem to put a expiration date on its generation products and when they are done with that generation they are done supporting it as well...so that has soured me on buying new generation characters.
it wasn't very long that Victoria 5 was out and bang they had v6 .. And to me v4 still is my platform of choice. . so I quit complaining about genesis, and use & buy what I can use in all my programs of choice. I just picked up Mia by Silver -countess .. great character.
I did use the new daz SSS shader maps in some scenes I can't say it it made any difference or not. I didn't notice any
I did use Animate 2 and Key-mate but I found I didn't have any use for graph mate I wasn't using puppeteer either
in fact most of the animation was done completely on animate2 timeline.
Big plus for the new daz studio 4.6 is that Daz4.6 renders 2x faster than poser that is one of the reasons i made my film with daz.
I love the spot render tool for spot checking shadows this has greatly help me improve my skills in setting up the scenes lighting for animation renders
I also do not use any kind of light sets anymore. Mostly because when you start bashing kits together in Daz Studio to get large expansive environments, you'll find light sets and sky dome lights are useless if your kit bashing.. so I do my own custom lights most of the time. .
Also I can kit bash 100x better with daz4.6 than I can with Poser. I think it maybe because Daz was meant to use multiple sets where as poser seems to work better with smaller sets. though poser has some great environment sets.
I used all the fx tools that work in Daz4.6 mostly nerd3d stuff there are a lot of Daz3 fx tools that do not work in daz4.6. But do still work in Poser 2014 .. weird huh?
I found using Atmosphere cameras in Large HD scenes tend to get very pixalated so I stop using them and tend to use video layering for atmosphere effects
so Im not sure what you were hoping to seeing done in my animations.? I don't create animations to use a certain program or product.or tool I just bought. I buy tool or product & etc because i am working on a project and have a need for the item i purchase. only because I'm not any good at making models because if i was i would never buy anything..lol
If you notice all my animations have the PA's and venders listed in the film credits and I know for a fact that has helps some venders sales when other people see it in animation because they have told me so. some venders have even gifted me products to use for my animations. and lately I have been getting more people to volunteers for voices. which to me is what really makes a animation.
:)
I can't wait to see what you come up with your new computer once you get it set up they way you want it.. good luck :)
UMM... I meant NO disrespect. I only meant for you it was semi Light on the Effect Tools you mention. All of which I have installed due to your use of them. Your Animation is HUGE and I'm very happy to know it was all DS4.6. That really inspired me. I just expected more effects than were used. I expect those will come as her training progresses. And I wanted to see them used by a pro, instead of my fails to master them. :red:
[quote author="Ivy " date="1379554383"I think thats just goofy when you make a program then abandon one of your most successful products. could you imagine how fast people would stop using Photoshop if adobe did that..lol
Well said, Ivy.
When I had to decide about renewing my Platinum Club membership a few months back, I checked on how many Gen4 products were left that I wanted, but did not already own. Not a lot, but just enough for another year, hopefully. Then I started remembering about other sites with Gen4 products, like RuntimeDNA. That's where I got the Evil Clown in my last post. A great product for M4, with many more variations available.
i didn't take any offense sweetie..
I was just stating what I felt in my opinion what some pros & cons are with Daz4.6 so when you get your new PC you will have a little head start.
one of the biggest thing i have found is the file management of creating your animation is what keep you organized and helps in asset gathering. and avi management when you go to edit your film.
I used the nerd fire and smoke tool in my last animation.Like I said about the atmosphere cameras in animation it tend to make the animated scene pixalated when you render for HD. I tried to use the fog cam in a couple of scenes but its was way to pixally
I also used the nerd3d wave tool & water disk for the mote & nerds fog tools deluxe in the headless horsemen scene .
I could not use Particle FX which is my FX tool of choice but sorry to say it does not work in Daz4.6. Lets face it Jeff there is not many FX tools for Daz4.6 though I do have after effects so I think I may start applying it to some of my animations in the future.
I had to smile at this, Ivy. I also have a favorite FX tool, Particle Illusion, but its a post rendered 2D FX program that works with ANY still or video. And my video editing program has some "After Effects" type features. But my smile was due to your ownership of After Effects. The saying is "if you can't fix it with duct tape, you can't fix it." I say "if you can't get the effect you want with After Effects, you can't get it." On the downside, it may take some reading and some time (always a concern for me in the 48 Hour Film contest). But on the upside, AE (being an industry standard) has some truly great books for guidance, like:
http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Motion-Graphics-Effects-ebook/dp/B00BEGBYW2/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379707990&sr=1-6&keywords=after+effects
Published this year, 4.5 stars out of 5 at Amazon. I own a fairly recent version of AE, and have some earlier books by the same authors, very good.