How to continue with interupted dForce simulation?

Michal P.

Is there any way how to continue with interupted dForce simulation?

I am using timeline for the dForce simulation results (Simulation Settings: Frames To Simulate: Animated (Custom)). I need to change shader properties in the middle of the simuation (Surfaces: Shader: Simulation: Contraction-Expansion Ratio). For example I want to run dForce simulation with Contraction-Expansion Ratio=80 for frames 0-15. Then I need to change Contraction-Expansion Ratio=100 and continue with the simulation for frames 16-30.

I tried all possibilities for "Parameters: General/Simulation: Simulation Base Shape" but when I run simulation using the button Simulate for frames 16-30 it deletes simation for previous frames.

Any advice?

Richard Haseltine

I'm afraid this isn't possible - just storing the vertex movements is already adding a lot of data to the scene file, storing the energy and momentum needed to resume a simulation (if that is actually possible) would add far more data.

Michal P.

Well, that's what I was afraid of. It makes sense.

It is possible to animate some shader properties using scripts like MatAnim from mCasual. The problem is that the Shader/Simulation properties are not listed. Do you think that when we animate the Shader/Simulation properties, the dForce engine will take that into account?

cridgit

I haven't tried this, but just thinking of ideas: you could simulate up to frame X then apply the dForce2Morph product (https://www.daz3d.com/dforce2morph). Make your changes then simulate from frame X+1 onwards.

Hope it works.

Michal P.

Thank you for the avice. I do not have that product. I think it will not work nicely. As you mentioned, the information about energy and momentum needed to resume a simulation will be missing.

Michal P.

So I created script which can animate Simulation property. I found what I was worried about. The dForce engine ignores animated Simulation properties. It take values from the active frame and it uses these values for whole simulation. Do you think I should report this as bug?

Catherine3678ab

I think if you give morphs a try, you will find they can work nicely. {remember to reverse deformations} One can start a new dforce simulation from the morphed position.

Richard Haseltine

cridgit said:

I haven't tried this, but just thinking of ideas: you could simulate up to frame X then apply the dForce2Morph product (https://www.daz3d.com/dforce2morph). Make your changes then simulate from frame X+1 onwards.

Hope it works.

It would be a new simulation from that shape, not a continuation of the precvious simulation. It would not be seamless, and might be very obvious.

Richard Haseltine

m_pohanka_6db953ed73 said:

So I created script which can animate Simulation property. I found what I was worried about. The dForce engine ignores animated Simulation properties. It take values from the active frame and it uses these values for whole simulation. Do you think I should report this as bug?

It is not a bug, we are told. You might make a feature request to be able to save the state of a simualtion, but as discussed above I suspect the overhead would be unacceptable for most users.

Ivy

m_pohanka_6db953ed73 said:

Is there any way how to continue with interupted dForce simulation?

I am using timeline for the dForce simulation results (Simulation Settings: Frames To Simulate: Animated (Custom)). I need to change shader properties in the middle of the simuation (Surfaces: Shader: Simulation: Contraction-Expansion Ratio). For example I want to run dForce simulation with Contraction-Expansion Ratio=80 for frames 0-15. Then I need to change Contraction-Expansion Ratio=100 and continue with the simulation for frames 16-30.

I tried all possibilities for "Parameters: General/Simulation: Simulation Base Shape" but when I run simulation using the button Simulate for frames 16-30 it deletes simation for previous frames.

Any advice?

you can't change shaders in hair or characters or HDRi during th animation cycle which is a bummer.  But you can cheat and do cuts scenes to make the transitions of color seamless by making a number shorter animated scenes and then edit and put them to gather in a flim editor to make the animation appear as one seamless scene.

I have done this trick a number of times for morphing characters and changing textures or color during the animation sequences  to make it appear one seemly scene

example

 

crosswind

Ivy said:

m_pohanka_6db953ed73 said:

Is there any way how to continue with interupted dForce simulation?

I am using timeline for the dForce simulation results (Simulation Settings: Frames To Simulate: Animated (Custom)). I need to change shader properties in the middle of the simuation (Surfaces: Shader: Simulation: Contraction-Expansion Ratio). For example I want to run dForce simulation with Contraction-Expansion Ratio=80 for frames 0-15. Then I need to change Contraction-Expansion Ratio=100 and continue with the simulation for frames 16-30.

I tried all possibilities for "Parameters: General/Simulation: Simulation Base Shape" but when I run simulation using the button Simulate for frames 16-30 it deletes simation for previous frames.

Any advice?

you can't change shaders in hair or characters or HDRi during th animation cycle which is a bummer.  But you can cheat and do cuts scenes to make the transitions of color seamless by making a number shorter animated scenes and then edit and put them to gather in a flim editor to make the animation appear as one seamless scene.

I have done this trick a number of times for morphing characters and changing textures or color during the animation sequences  to make it appear one seemly scene

example

 

Very interesting! I'm gonna learn these tricks 

Ivy

crosswind said:

Ivy said:

m_pohanka_6db953ed73 said:

Is there any way how to continue with interupted dForce simulation?

I am using timeline for the dForce simulation results (Simulation Settings: Frames To Simulate: Animated (Custom)). I need to change shader properties in the middle of the simuation (Surfaces: Shader: Simulation: Contraction-Expansion Ratio). For example I want to run dForce simulation with Contraction-Expansion Ratio=80 for frames 0-15. Then I need to change Contraction-Expansion Ratio=100 and continue with the simulation for frames 16-30.

I tried all possibilities for "Parameters: General/Simulation: Simulation Base Shape" but when I run simulation using the button Simulate for frames 16-30 it deletes simation for previous frames.

Any advice?

you can't change shaders in hair or characters or HDRi during th animation cycle which is a bummer.  But you can cheat and do cuts scenes to make the transitions of color seamless by making a number shorter animated scenes and then edit and put them to gather in a flim editor to make the animation appear as one seamless scene.

I have done this trick a number of times for morphing characters and changing textures or color during the animation sequences  to make it appear one seemly scene

example

 

Very interesting! I'm gonna learn these tricks 

I learned over the years when you animate with daz studio . The best solution is to really create your daz animation old school and render in image series and then you have the options for doing a lot of creative film editing.

Film making cheat 101, If you can't make it with 3d, film it or render it, then fake it with creative film editing.  :)

Also I found a good solution for soft body physics by using  3DU's spring dynamics plugin script works wonderful for soft body physic within daz studio as well which I use a lot on my adult films unfortunate i can not show those here in the forums but you can see them on my website mature art section if you have parent controls turned off  http://www.ivysdomain.com/

I use Adobe Premiere pro for my film editor   But hifilm express is as good & for free.  https://fxhome.com/product/hitfilm

a short wizard / dragon  animation I just did a couple of days ago for my website using cut scenes to blend in studio fx and volumetrics

http://www.ivysdomain.com/video/Banish-the-curse%20of-a-soul.mp4

Michal P.

you can't change shaders in hair or characters or HDRi during th animation cycle which is a bummer.  But you can cheat and do cuts scenes to make the transitions of color seamless by making a number shorter animated scenes and then edit and put them to gather in a flim editor to make the animation appear as one seamless scene. 

I'm not sure if I understand you correctly. But if I do, you're wrong. You can create keyframes for shader properties as well as for HDRI. You can use matanim, texanim20220414, and mcJReAnimateTotal from mcasual. Here is an example where shader color was animated as well as HDRI property (rotation).

Torus.mp4 

BTW my question was not about animation but about simulation.

cridgit

m_pohanka_6db953ed73 said:

Thank you for the avice. I do not have that product. I think it will not work nicely. As you mentioned, the information about energy and momentum needed to resume a simulation will be missing.

 If I really wanted to do this and was desperately looking for a solution, here is what I would try:

After following the suggested steps above, if the animation appears to jump from frame X to frame X+1 because they were run as two different simulations, I would delete all keyframes from frame X-10 to frame X+10 and let the animation tween to create a smooth transition. 

Michal P.

cridgit said:

m_pohanka_6db953ed73 said:

Thank you for the avice. I do not have that product. I think it will not work nicely. As you mentioned, the information about energy and momentum needed to resume a simulation will be missing.

 If I really wanted to do this and was desperately looking for a solution, here is what I would try:

After following the suggested steps above, if the animation appears to jump from frame X to frame X+1 because they were run as two different simulations, I would delete all keyframes from frame X-10 to frame X+10 and let the animation tween to create a smooth transition. 

This sounds good. Like to create morph from the first simulation at frame X-10 and to create morph from the second simulation at frame X+10. Then to render from X-10 to X+10 and changing from morph 1 to morph 2. 

cridgit

You'll have to create morphs for every frame not only frame X-10, otherwise dForce resets the simulation at the earlier frames. Do note this will create a huge save file as it saves the morph on each frame, but it should give you the results you want.  

Ivy

m_pohanka_6db953ed73 said:

you can't change shaders in hair or characters or HDRi during th animation cycle which is a bummer.  But you can cheat and do cuts scenes to make the transitions of color seamless by making a number shorter animated scenes and then edit and put them to gather in a flim editor to make the animation appear as one seamless scene. 

I'm not sure if I understand you correctly. But if you do, you're wrong. You can create keyframes for shader properties as well as for HDRI. You can use matanim, texanim20220414, and mcJReAnimateTotal from mcasual. Here is an example where shader color was animated as well as HDRI property (rotation).

Torus.mp4 

BTW my question was not about animation but about simulation.

did you not ask this question? "  there any way how to continue with interupted dForce simulation? I am using timeline for the dForce simulation results (Simulation Settings: Frames To Simulate: Animated (Custom)). I need to change shader properties in the middle of the simuation".

 

I stand my my statement  It can't be done within daz studio it will require a 3rd party script or done in post work

Ivy

well I tried Texture animator and you can check off as no go option https://www.daz3d.com/animated-textures-script-pro-for-daz-studio-3-4

it won't work in daz studio 4.21 when running the script it does not create & read the texture files the folder needed for the textures,  I put in a report on it

if you have a older version of daz studio like 4.10 or 4.12 the script might still work I think 4.12 is when deforce was intorduced . 4.10 didn;t have deforce

Ivy

I want to come back  to report that after reinstalling the texture script pro it does work in 4.21 & it did change the color of the tex maps for the hair using tex maps per- keyframe.  but not from the color color picker for some reason.

But I was able to change the color of the hair in the simulation/animation keyframes using texture maps from red to blonde. I didn't simulate the hair. But you can simulate the hair first to get the number of keyframes you need. and then run the Animated texture sript to make the keyframe color changes I just did this to test using just 5 keyframes it to see if it would work .

so you can properly use that script to make your color changes on your keyframes if your using texture maps and not the color picker.

crosswind

Ivy said:

I want to come back  to report that after reinstalling the texture script pro it does work in 4.21 & it did change the color of the tex maps for the hair using tex maps per- keyframe.  but not from the color color picker for some reason.

But I was able to change the color of the hair in the simulation/animation keyframes using texture maps from red to blonde. I didn't simulate the hair. But you can simulate the hair first to get the number of keyframes you need. and then run the Animated texture sript to make the keyframe color changes I just did this to test using just 5 keyframes it to see if it would work .

so you can properly use that script to make your color changes on your keyframes if your using texture maps and not the color picker.

Many thanks for the info. Will try it!

Dartanbeck

I wonder if ABAS can change Simulation settings over an animation, and if so, would dForce use the settings changes or stick with what it started with.

It can certainly be used to animate texture maps and any of the material sliders and setting, colors and such. And now can be used to animate volume VDB MDL volume shader files. Really handy tool.

Michal P.

Dartanbeck said:

I wonder if ABAS can change Simulation settings over an animation, and if so, would dForce use the settings changes or stick with what it started with.

It can certainly be used to animate texture maps and any of the material sliders and setting, colors and such. And now can be used to animate volume VDB MDL volume shader files. Really handy tool.

 

I do not have ABAS, but I know ABAS from tutorials. ABAS will not work. As I already posted: 

I created script which can animate Simulation property. BUT the dForce engine ignores animated Simulation properties. It take values from the active frame (frame when you started the simulation) and it uses these values for whole simulation.