Animation gurus - Announcement
KenYano
Posts: 106
Has any of the Daz animation specialists seen this announcemnt from the blog:
https://blog.daz3d.com/collaboration-between-daz-3d-and-heat-to-reshape-the-future-of-3d-character-animation/
Anyone who can shed more light on this that would be great. I hope we can still animate from within Daz with a whole scene set up. Hope its comparable to Blender with it's performance, etc.
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Comments
There is a thread with some comments, but I can't find it.
Some thought it might just be full animations you could get (buy), like aniblocks, and not something you yourself can animate in.
Heat plug-in will have nothing to do with Daz timline functionality and performance at all. It's just like you play with Mixamo, actercore...
Except that it requires a freaking subscription.
I decided to sign up anyway just to have a look around. Great stuff, but a lot of it doesn't differ a lot from Mixamo and, after really digging into the library, there's no way that the current assortment would be worth the yearly cost for me. I'd far rather be funding Mocap Online, Havanalibere, Reisormocap, GoFigure, SKAmotion, BoneTech3D, ThreeDigital and the like.
My two cents.
It appears that it's just like Mixamo in that regard - you'll be downloading FBX files. However, they'll be making a Daz Studio plugin, which I believe will allow us to transfer directly to a selected character from HEAT. Pretty sure.
They already have the tools for Blender - supposedly with docs too. Not interested in Blender myself, but you could sign up and check it out. The free membership grants something like 25 motions if I remember correctly.
According to the Blog post, we'll be seeing Daz Studio in that section in the future.
Not really interested at this point. I contacted them with some questions way back when that post came out and still haven't heard back.
It's certainly not as nice as buying a complete pack of motions - in my opinion. An example, for the price of a year I can come here and buy almost everythign from Mocap Online's store and be happier for it. I can shop when I want - pay when I shop, instead of paying constantly whether they give me anything new or not.
@Dartanbeck
They say that you get access to “1000+” animations with your HEAT subscription
Here is a link to an offline archive of 2,475 animations from the mixamo library in FBX format:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G86S76VvvJMHTyAsQU8mzLt8QwtnH9st/view
Use this FREE utility
to review/compare those 2,475 FREE mixamo animations locally on your machine
https://www.autodesk.com/products/fbx/fbx-review
Decided for yourself if the “HEAT” sub price is a good value.
Remember Daz genesis 1-2 are compatible with Mixamo
and G1 saved animations work with G3 and G3 animation can be pushed up to G8.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/250726/so-if-an-animation-is-saved-using-genesis-it-works-on-genesis-3/p1
ALL inside Daz studio..FREE
Edit: I signed up to try the free 25 animations using their free Blender Add-on.
You literally have to install the Add-on and be connect to their web site
,via their web UI, to download the free animations from inside blender.
I did not bother as I have several ways to harvest
Mixamo and other FREE mocap resources to use on genesis figures in Blender with less complication.
@Wolf359 Yes. That's what I was saying.
So, for Mixamo I've come up with a wonderful solution:
Other conversion methods may work for you as well, but Bone Minion actually attempts to get the extra bone rotations right in the modern rigs. Does a really nice (noticeable difference) job!
Edit: Our difference being that I prefer to render in Studio
A video made using my new goods from the 2023 Daz + Anniversary Event
Outstanding! Very nicely done!
I still need to invest more time in Blender. I was able to bring a Genesis 8 characgter into Blender but still can't figure out the posing functinality even with tutorials. That interface is scary. I may look into Cascadeur since I have it downloaded. Your tutorial was very helpful too. Just need to watch it more to remember stuff. Thanks!
Thanks to both of you!
Yes, I can understand the notion of exporting to Blender. It's more of a 'professional animation workflow' type of environment - especially animating by hand.
I really liked both the DS Blender Bridge by Daz 3d as well as the Diffeomorphic. But once I got in there, I couldn't use my beloved dForce hair and the Blender hair I toiled over for a few days was looking worse than if I'd have asked a preschooler to paint it with steel wool. It was then when I asked myself - "Dart, why are you doing this to yourself?"
The thing is, I had a perfectly smooth workflow going in Carrara - all except the hair, which was getting closer, then further. Closer... then... Argh!
I saw that hair in the store. That's dForce hair? Hmmm... maybe it's high time I try animating in Daz Studio.
After the first try with that hair against a simple aniBlock Baked to the timeline (dForce won't 'see' the aniBlock data until baked) I was So Sold that I knew I had to unlock some creativity to be able to fluidly animate in Studio. I mean... it certainly doesn't make animation 'feel' friendly - if even possible. But I did it!!! Now I really enjoy my time animating in Studio! I'm actually quite addicted to it now! I can't Stop!!!
Personally, I think if I went the Blender route, I'd start from scratch - more like what Royal Skies does - and he's even just prepping for Unity or Unreal.
So I thought about going that route too. But the whole thing about why I love Daz 3d so much is that, the store is my conceptual design, costume creation, casting, set location, choreography, etc., teams all rolled into one! I just direct!
I just had another look at iClone and the whole Reallusion train. That looks like an incredible solution. I wonder if Daz Studio 5 will be more implemented like that? The animation tools they have directly within iClone look really wonderful. I still don't see a way to work it into what I do, so I leave it - and it's rather large expense (to get everything I'd need to 'try - without any promises' to get my work back into Studio - or to get a reasonable solution for Rosie's hair) alone.
Their version of ActorCore is quite similar to this HEAT idea but with the HUGE and Wonderful difference - No Freaking Subscriptions! Special thanks to TheYunababy77 for turning me onto that tip!
To get "Speed" out of my renders, I have this wonderful workflow that Iray Rocks at.
Now, Iray has the ability to render Canvasses. That's not what this is. I understand how that works, but this isn't it.
see description for render times
I've always wondered why they would not make it easier to use and retarget bvh/fbx animations (from say Mixamo or other free sources) - it would lower the bar for many users and might bring more into DAZ's camp.
V4 and M4 have always been my goto's for importing animation and now I have the Bone Minion for them for Genesis 9
Genesis 1 is OK but the legacy figures seem to work the best
Well that, I believe, is on Mixamo - not Daz 3d. Daz Studio ROCKS at BVH and FBX. I found that out when I tried it with the BVH that Reisormocap provides on a figure other than what the product was meant to be compatible with.
Like Wendy, I use Bone Minion. I ended up making a G2F FBX to upload to Mixamo and it works beautifully. I set Daz Studio as my default app for FBX files, so now I just double-click my Mixamo downloads (G2F FBX) and save the DUF animated pose to my library.
Having bought the full Bone Minion for Genesis 2 Poses, I can then use those animated DUF pose files on M4/V4, Genesis 1 through 8.1 and it works really well.
Daz Studio might not be the most friendly animation creation studio, but what it does do, it does Very Well. So I decided to use those tools to help it along in the animation department - and it Worked! It Freaking Worked!!!
Now I'm absolutely addicted to animating in Studio - and the process is So Simple!!!
So Happy!
BTW, good to se you again cain-x!!! :)
Mixamo is just a generic repository
of canned mocap.
it is up the each individual user to come up with a solution for retargeting mixamo to the rigs they are using
there are many intermediate solutions for such retargeting.
The reality is that the age of selling canned Mocap is likely at an end.
AI can now generate custom mocap with text prompts
I have tested this free one and it works
https://discord.com/channels/1080050008235188316/1145682996368769164
And I am on the beta wait list for similar text prompt to mocap system from Deepmotion
https://www.deepmotion.com/motiongpt?utm_source=Social+&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=MotionGPT+Beta+Sign+Up
The only thing needed is download presets for the major
character systems,Maya unreal, unity, Blender rigify etc
because retargeting is still a bit of a pain.
Right. What I meant is that Mixamo doesn't have retargeting definitions for the Genesis 3 or newer rigs, whereas Genesis 2 and earlier work just fine.
I do hope you're wrong, though. I, personally would enjoy the ability to purchase packs of retargeted motions - whether from AI or a motion capture team matter little to me, so long as the targeting and the motions are good.
I would Love the opportunity to get my hands on retargeted files from something like this!
@Dartenbeck
Mixamo was platform originally developed for game developers
whom they knew would be using Max or Maya for their animation retargeting to simple Game rigs.
It is up to Third parties to make their figures work with Mixamo or other external platforms
Just as Daz had to make bridges for sending Daz content OUT to Maya and C4D,Unreal Engine , Unity, Blender Not the other way around.
Just as I made this Mixamo Retarget Rig for Genesis 9
to spare people from having to pay for recycled mixamo motions that should be FREE
what is the advantage of buying canned mocap packs
that may only contain a few motions that you need right now
over literally telling an AI to create a specific, bespoke motion for your specific scenario in your specific film or game animation.
I told the AI over at "Mootion" to create a man swinging a lightsaber with two hands and got the exact FBX I ask for ready for download and retarget in Maya ,MOBU etc.
The new AI tool coming from TAFI/Daz will offer exactly this for bespoke Character design.
This is the future of Character Design & animation
@wolf Very Nice!
Perhaps I'll change my mind if I ever get an AI Mocap creator, but I really enjoy having a nice catalog of motion categories with well made animations.
Using the methods outlined in my course, I really enjoy making partial motions for use in aniMate and combining multiple possibilities in an artistic, creative flow.
Exactly... It's just an interface to use already made animations.
We need a true set of animating tools INSIDE DAZ Studio, tools that lets the users create their own animations, not just download them from some marketplace.
Agreed. My course shows how to create tools that make animating Amazingly different and much easier, but we still need better tools.
Richard pointed out to me that we can indeed edit the behavior of the TCB tweener, which is something I never knew. But it's just dumping numbers into fields - not at all organic for making good animations.
I really hope that HEAT isn't going to be some sort of scheme to do away with aniMate. aniMate 2 is by far the most impressive set of animation creation tools we have. And I'm not just talking about using aniBlocks that we've purchased. Making bits of animations and being able to fluidly add those to a collection of non-linear animation blocks (aniBlocks) is Incredibly Powerful for hand key framing.
We can make a portion of an animation and store it as an aniBlock. This aniBlock can now be swapped left to right, run in reverse, the motion path of any joint can be manipulated through time in several magical ways, and it can be used with any other non-linear animation block we might have made - even if we have to toss one together right here and now.
That all combined with the fact that aniMate 2 paid version allows us to interactively animate the parenting of items is really awesome!
Combine all of that with the tools we create quickly and easily in Studio and I actually enjoy this technique of animating over anything I've ever done with characters in Carrara - and that's saying something. I Loves Me My Carrara!
@Dartanbeck
Not likely , the aniblock system is part of the core of Daz studio.
Daz has no reason to remove core features just because some third party starting supporting the program with their paid mocap libraries
Right. I'm thinking about Daz Studio 5
Daz has already stated that you will still be able to have DS4x running after DS5x is installed
so AniMate 2 and other DS4x features will always be an option.