Problems animating using the timeline.

animation101us_84e135afbe

There is not much info that I can find on how to animate using keyframes on the timeline.

I was trying to make a simple pose-2-pose test animation when I encountered a problem.

I started with a pose (automatically keyframed at frame 1) I wanted to hold that pose for 20 frames so I moved to that frame in the timeline and keyframed the figure. I then moved to frame 30 and changed the figure pose and keyframed it there. Again I wanted to hold the pose for a few frames so I went to frame 45 and re keyframed the figure there . I then went to frame 60 on the timeline changed to pose 3 and keyframed it.

I wanted to test how the animation worked/looked so far so I scrubbed through it and to my surprise the holds I put in for pose 1 and 2 were not there. The figure animated from pose to pose without any pauses.

Does DazStudio "average" the poses out? Does it use a spline curve? Is ther a technique to use to put in real holds using the timeline?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Richard Haseltine

DS, by default, uses smooth interpolation - so you can think about it as drawing a curve through the keyframes, which means it is going to overshoot and then rebound between the two identical frames. One option is to apply the same pose in two successive frames each time, another is to use the non-free Keymate/Graphmate plug-ins or Casual's script in the Freebies forum to switch to a non-smoothed interpolation for those keys.

mikael-aronsson

You will find a little help here:

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/tutorials/dazstudio/studio-animation00

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/tutorials/dazstudio/studio-animation04

I don't use DS for animation so I am not of much help there, but if you have identical keyframes at an interval (I think that is what you mean you did) you will keep the pose (splines are used so it will smooth them out), the timeline in DS is not that good so don't expect miracles from it.

As I said I don't use DS for animation so I can't help you much, but I assume you can change from splines to linear at least, a spline will cause problems to hold a pose as it will move away from the fixed pose you want to smooth out the curve, normally you can control this with the type of interpolation to use and/or change tension on the curve, maybe someone with experience from animation in DS can fill in on that.

 

 

animation101us_84e135afbe

Thanks Richard and Mikael.

I will check out your recommendations. The double keyframing sounds the quickest. Are there any other plug-ins or programs out there for animation in DS?

emms54

animation101us_84e135afbe said:

Thanks Richard and Mikael.

I will check out your recommendations. The double keyframing sounds the quickest. Are there any other plug-ins or programs out there for animation in DS?

Hi,

 

You have the set of programs from Gofigure, with KeyMate in special.This is a must have for animations, although still quite limited and scarcely documented.

jodycour

I've been doing some animations lately with the keyframing technique. I've been having trouble with a particular scene. I have a figure being shot. I parented a splash of blood on his forehead. The problem comes when the figure moves to the next key frame in a different position the splash of blood moves differently in different timing and does not land in the same position on his head! What can I do to control these objects to flow together in the animation?

Also during this animation sequence if I delete the splash of blood in a different key frame it dissapears from all of the previous keyframes also!

HabitualGypsy

jodycour said:

I've been doing some animations lately with the keyframing technique. I've been having trouble with a particular scene. I have a figure being shot. I parented a splash of blood on his forehead. The problem comes when the figure moves to the next key frame in a different position the splash of blood moves differently in different timing and does not land in the same position on his head! What can I do to control these objects to flow together in the animation?

Also during this animation sequence if I delete the splash of blood in a different key frame it dissapears from all of the previous keyframes also!

Sounds like parenting the blood to the figure might solve your problem. Although, without more info I couldn't say for sure. And as far as deleting the splash of blood, literally deleting a figure isn't "animatable" - an item is either globally in a scene or isn't. However, you should be able to achieve the same effect by setting the opacity to 0% on its surface(s) at the relevant keyframe. Keep in mind, though, that the opacity level will interpolate with the the previous keyframe.

For instance, if an object is at 100% opacity at frame 0 but you want it to be invisible at frame 12, you change the opacity to 0% at frame 12. So you now have 2 keyframes: 0 & 12. However, the object will now "fade out" between the two keyframes. If, instead, you want the object to be visible then suddenly "wink out" at frame 12, then you simply add another keyframe at frame 11 that has the opacity set at 100%. That way your opacity remains at 100% for frames 0-11 but immediately drops to 0% at frame 12, effectively becoming invisible suddenly.

Hope this helps!