Animate2: Baking timeline to aniblock gone wrong
James
Posts: 1,025
I bought animate2.
My animation starts from frame 35 to 55. There are keyframes before the frame 35, which I don't use.
I want to create an aniblock.
But when I baked it, why the animation got broken.
The position of the character flew away to somewhere else and most movement just wrong.
The aniblock became unusable.
I tried a fresh new scene, one character, still the aniblock animation get messed up.
Wait... is animate2 only works for old generation genesis?
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1st, aniMate2 works for all Genesis Gen. 2nd, it creates aniBlock from DS timeline with all keyframes. So you need to well prepare your keyframes on DS timeline before creating aniBlock(s)
aniMate 2 works on V4 and earlier even.
Something to know:
When "Create New aniBlocks from Studio's Timeline", it HAS to start at frame 0 no matter what you want. It has to. It's taking everything you have key framed for that figure's joint rotations on the timeline, and packages them up into a non-linear animation block - an aniBlock.
I always animate starting from frame 30. So when I create a new aniBlock from my animation, it also grabs those first 30 frames. So I move the aniMate time scrubber to the one second mark, cut the new aniBlock and delete the first 30 frame using the garbage can icon. That information (the first 30 frames) is still within the clip - I just clipped it off is all. To remove those, I select the clip so it's no longer blue and click the Crop icon. Now if we save the aniBlock, those first 30 frames won't be there.
If we also want to collect Morph information, like Arms Up/Down, Torso Twist, Hand Fist, Expressions, etc., we need to check the little radio button that says to include Morphs, etc.,
That pops up after Right-click > Create new aniBlock from Studio's Timeline.
If you have an animation on the timeline and then you go into aniMate > Right-Click > Bake to Studio's timeline instead of Create aniBlock, yeah... it'll mess things up and we have to start again.
If you really want to safeguard your animation befpore making an aniBlock, save it as a Pose file somewhere first and check the All Frames option.
Oh... I read that wrong. No... aniMate works with any figure. I have used it on Genesis 9 too.
Yes, master.
@Dartanbeck
Why do you start from frame 30?
It seems like an extra work.
https://prnt.sc/PtnO5oSDEEx8
This is an example of mess up animation I mentioned.
All I did was rotate the thigh to its limit, one to front, the other to back. But when it becomes aniblok they rotated like that.
What did I do wrong?
Dunno... or you attach the scene file if you'd like.
When baking an aniblok, there are two types:
1. Direct copy
2. Transform to object POV's
https://prnt.sc/FZEHSiZsyfr8
Direct copy seems to result as expected.
Transform to object create the unexpected results.
Though, number 2 is what DAZ3d youtube chanel teaches to use.
What's the different between the two?
I just don't know as there's no document for it but seems the first one is used for imported BVH animation to the timeline... The 2nd is a 'bake' from timeline. I always try with the first option, it always seems correct....
Same here. Sometimes it switched to the other without my knowing - and those have all worked to. I don't understand where the difficulty lies. For me, it just works.
Something isn't obeying the limits.
EDIT: I have a feeling that, if you applied that resulting aniBlock to a figure and used a script to turn all of your limits on, it would be the same as the animation you sent to the aniBlock in the first place.
The only time that has happened was when I first bake aniBlock information to the Studio Timeline and then create a new aniBlock from the timeline again. Not sure why there's even a difference - actual keys or the object's point of view... to me it just seems like they should be the same.
So after I noticed this 'switching', if I notice it I switch it back to the BVH method and that always works.
Something to be aware of:
Using things like cross-figure conversion from one generation to another, using either script or Bone Minion, we want to be careful not to hover the mouse over anything that will give us a preview of the resulting pose during the conversion process - or we'll muck it up and have to start over again.
Also, after "Baking to the Studio Timeline" the first key for Everything changes into a "Constant" tweener. Must be a bug that's been lingering since the dawn of time. Easy fix. Select all keys at frame zero and set the interpolation type to Linear. Then, if you want TCB, change it to TCB.
After copy/paste of a key - the interpolation will be all messed up for the pasted key(s). So EVERY TIME WE PASTE, we must also select those pasted keys IMMEDIATELY and set the interpolation to something other than TCB and then back to TCB if that's what we want.
I gave up animate2.
Things just doesn't happen as expected.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes not.
The result is not predictable.
It just make my work longer. :(
I'm really sorry to have suggested it - other than the fact that it has an absolute opposite effect on my workflow... makes it much faster, more streamlined and Multitudes more flexible.
Seeing the few examples you've shown, I truly have no clue what you're trying to do with it.
One thing that concerned me, and I brought this up before, is that you say "Baking" at times when you really shouldn't be baking. Baking is going from aniMate 2 timeline to the Studio timeline.
If you do that when all of your actual animation is on the Studio timeline it will totally wreck stuff. To get from the timeline to aniMate 2, you need to Create aniBlock from Studio's timeline.
aniMate 2 add a whole lot of dimension to the animation possibilities in Daz Studio. Without it, I likely wouldn't be animating in Studio at all.
It's okay, I appreciate the suggestion.
Baking - I mean making an aniblock.
In my experience when I create a new scene, only one character, the aniblok works as expected.
But everytime I want to animate a character from my old scene, make the aniblok, the character movement just mess up.
like suddenly the character started from the center of the world, and the hands and arms were all over the place.
It just not the same as I have set it up.
I loaded it again (watching youtube while loading), tried again, the same thing.
Maybe it doesn't work well with graft maybe, I don't know.
I wonder... if these are animations that you've set up previously, assuming you still have it installed, try creating an aniBlock, but this time check the "Morphs" box (unchecked by default) in the Create aniBlock dialog.
If you're using pose dials to get some of the motions (I do all the time) then you'll need that to be chancked for those controls to come through.
Another consideration is that Daz Studio (and a lot of other 3D apps that are not games) prefer figure translation to be done using the hip rather than the figure itself. Mixamo animations come over using Body translation, so if we make aniBlocks directly from them, they're completely messed up.
Just in the previous Summer PA Sale I found 3D Universe's Animation Tools Set 1, which includes a script called Body2Hip. Works like a charm for correcting those sorts of issues. I mean... certainly when animating by hand, it can be really easy to move and rotate the figure around using the whole figure rather than the hip. Now we can still do that all we weant, and then run this script and it sends all translations and rotations from the Body to the Hip!
mCasual also has some fun animation-related (and otherwise) scripts for free/donation