Quirky animation bugs

Herald of Fire

I'm sure I can't be the only one experiencing some bizarre issues when using the Timeline in Daz Studio. Sometimes, translations or rotations persist even after the frame which they last moved where in other animation programs, the movement would cease if there was no keyframe afterwards to 'tween' into.

Recently though, I discovered another unusual issue. Materials. My ambient and diffuse settings dropped to 50% over the course of the animation. Not once did I actually apply different ambient or diffuse settings to the figure, instead using a default skin preset, yet here it is changing those settings over the course of the animation. Re-applying the material at key points was the remedy, but I'm baffled as to why this occurred in the first place.

Has anyone else noticed these little quirks, and if so is there a pattern to it or just an oddity we have to live with?

Richard Haseltine

I'm not sure what you can do about the materials, but the problem with interpolation can be fixed using AniMate to change the key type, or better using KeyMate. I think Casual has a script for this too.

mark128

I have noticed the overshooting problem. You can see the overshoot clearly in the graphmate plugin.

What I do to fix this is to double key the end of the movement when this happens. Insert a key where you want the motion to stop and then another key at the next frame with the same value. You can do this without having graphmate and keymate, but I find those plugins very useful for animations.

I have not seen diffusion strength or any surface properties changing. In fact I thought that surface properties could not be animated. I do not see them on the list of values in keymate.

Herald of Fire

I don't have KeyMate, so I'm using the built-in tools. I don't really do animations as such, but I'm occasionally using animated drapes on dynamic clothing, which involves moving the figure. Occasionally reposing the figure causes them to continue moving a limb or two in the same direction as the 'tween' which can be frustrating to say the least.

I guess Daz have a few bugs left to iron out.

Richard Haseltine

It's not a bug, it's the default interpolation type - like Bezier handles in a drawing application it is set to give a smooth transition (equal handles on both sides of the point), butt hat isn't always what you want.

Herald of Fire

Ahh, I see. Well, that explanation makes a lot more sense, and also gives me something to work with. Thanks Richard, I'll give it a second go armed with this new knowledge.