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DAZ and Blender Animating.

csteell_c2893e4ab6csteell_c2893e4ab6 Posts: 476
in Daz Studio Discussion

I have read in various threads that some users say that they animate in Blender! Can anyone tell me how this works? I have a DAZ Genesis 9 figure that I have animated in DAZ Studio. Do I send that to Blender if so what do I do with it there? I have Blender 3.6 but I know very little about how to use it! Any help would be appreciated. Cheers

Comments

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,056

    If you've already animated it in DS, what are you hoping you can do with it in Blender? Blender, like all other major 3DCCs (Maya, Houdini, C4D etc) has more advanced animation tools so that it's much easier to take a static figure and animate it from the ground up; the whole point of animating in a different program is to bypass DS's underdeveloped animation tools and sluggish performance.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,569

    There's a really nice workflow created for Daz Studio-to-Blender called Diffeomorphic.

    Genius work, constantly being improved, if I'm not mistaken. 

    Here's a great page to start with for Diffeomorphic

    Next, 

    Okay, it's been a while since I tried doing what you're doing: Animating in Blender. But when I wanted to give it a start, I created this fun page to help myself get started animating in Blender period, then use the Diffeomorphic stuff to bring the Daz 3D element into it - which is actually a very fun ride - if you're not using something that truly just works better in Studio with its tools - which is my thing - I do all of my animating in Studio.

    Here's that page where I Learn from Royal Skies LLC - very cool short, but powerful lessons on Animating in Blender

    Speaking of my pages, here's the one that I made to help me wrap my head around Diffeomorphic DAZ Importer

     

    Now, just to throw it out there, I have a LOT of fun making use of the fact that: Daz 3D content works Beautifully within Daz Studio. So I am animating in Daz Studio using a simple system that I utilize - adding my own pose dials to the base figure that helps turn any animation into something entirely different - using Dials on the figure instead of the graph editor in most (and sometimes All) situations. It's pretty rarae for me to open the graph editor. But the latest improvements to the whole Daz Studio Timeline System have really made it a lot easier to manage and control.

     

    Here are some of my pages on that front - just in case you might be interested in that sort of workflow:

    The Power of aniMate 2 - keep scrolling down on this page - soak in what you like, but make sure to check out some of the cool videos waaaaay down on the page, followed by a pdf of the aniMate 2 User's Guide. There are also links to Daz Studio Forum topics, in case you have questions. Ask in one of those and it'll pop that conversation to the foreground so you can get answers or comments or however you want to share.

     

     

    This one is my main course that shows how I build my magic dials, with a complete workflow on how I use them for my animations. This is the process that made animating in Daz Studio a real game-changer for me. Making the dials is quick and easy and then we have them one the base figure, so we can use them on anything that uses that base - and they're super easy to add to Any of the base figures, so every time I use a new generation of figure, one of the first things I do is to make an essential set of these dials - takes just a few minutes - save - done. Start animating.

    Dynamic Character Animation in Daz Studio

    (I do NOT use my radio announcer voice during the course! LOL)

    This is the first video I made to illustrate that the system really works - nobody seemed to believe me that I could animate in Daz Studio - when, in fact, this workflow made Daz Studio my favorite animation platform!

    Nowadays I keep working on new workflow demonstrations and have a free monthly webinar: The Creative Cart, and I always have tips and tricks for animating in Daz Studio in these fun shows:

     

    Anyway, I hope some of this gives you a nudge in the direction you're looking to go. The main thing is to do what You feel make You feel the most comfy when animting!!! :)

    Cheers!

  • csteell_c2893e4ab6csteell_c2893e4ab6 Posts: 476

    Many thanks for all your replies.I do not have any trouble animating with either Animate 2 or the DAZ Timeline.I was asking what was the advantage of animating in Blender? It seems to me I would be better off sticking with DAZ rather than trying to learn a new program even though Blender may have better animating capabilities! Cheers

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,569

    Well, there are a LOT of advantages to learning the Blender way - especially if one is looking to work animations for other people - like a studio.

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,056
    edited November 1

    csteell_c2893e4ab6 said:

    Many thanks for all your replies.I do not have any trouble animating with either Animate 2 or the DAZ Timeline.I was asking what was the advantage of animating in Blender? It seems to me I would be better off sticking with DAZ rather than trying to learn a new program even though Blender may have better animating capabilities! Cheers

     I'd recommend animating in nearly any program over DS. It's just not well set up for it. Even with all of the utilities people have realeased, there's still some pretty basic functionality missing. 

    Post edited by Gordig on
  • lilweeplilweep Posts: 2,487
    edited November 1

    I will hijack this thread for my own questions:

    1. If you do diffeomorphic transfer and get rigged character into Blender, then animate in Blender using the default rig, is that animation transferable back to Daz? E.g., by fbx export?
    2. Are JCMs maintained through transfer to diffeomorphic so that the animated figure in Blender will roughly match the figure in Daz Studio when applying the animation in Daz?

     

    Post edited by lilweep on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,569

    Something that Blows away Blender and everything else for making chatacter animations from  scratch is already set up to take Genesis 8 and 9, but to get animations back to Daz Studio you need the Pro tier. However, once a full year is paid for (either monthly or in one shot) you own a perpetual license, so you Always have it from there - it just takes the subscription to keep getting the constant updates to this growing wonder:

    Cascadeur

    That's just a nice little promo. When he says "Just set up your figure", they've already done that for Genesis 8 and 9 so it recognizes them already - so they're already set up - liike they've done with the Mixamo characters and most other popular FBX rigs. All we have to do is watch their video on how they need the Genesis 8 or 9 exported to FBX and we're good to go.

  • lilweeplilweep Posts: 2,487
    edited November 1

    Im not familair with this program.  Why do you need pro tier to get animations back?

    Post edited by lilweep on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,569

    lilweep said:

    Im not familair with this program.  Why do you need pro tier to get animations back?

    It allows them to pay their hard-working employees. 

    The Free tier allows us to play around with a Lot of the software's functionality, but with the more advanced features unavailable. This is a great way to learn the Amazing Auto-Posing (AI-assisted posing!!!) and physics tools, etc., and how easy it is to key frame animations using the software.

    The Indie tier opens up a Lot more of the functions seen in the new developments videos - bar the top-tier tools.

    Pro is what grants the almighty Command > Export to DAZ feature, which sends the animation into Daz Studio, where we can save it as an animated pose file and/or aniBlock.

     

    An example, this crazy-awesome new feature is only available in the Pro tier, I believe. But with these sorts of amazing features, the Pro tier is well worth its weight and is priced quite reasonably!

    This next one was made before the release of Genesis 9 - or thereabouts, but Genesis 9 was quickly added as well. Here's the workflow from Daz Studio to Cascadeur and back. Pretty elegant!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,569
    edited November 1

    I find that most of my animation needs can be realized really well using the animation and aniBlock collections found here at Daz 3D (I just keep collecting more and more whenever I can) - then I simply edit them as I describe in my Dynamic Character Animation course mentioned earlier. Why a course? Well I was starting to try and type it all out with illustrations, images, circles and arrows... it was going to take forever and still likely be confusing to many people. I got in touch with Digital Art Live and they helped me bring the whole thing into the light - something I am forever grateful for.

     

    This form of animation that I'm doing is more akin to being an animator in a movie VFX studio - they give me the motion data, and I tweak it to realize the actual needs of the director - and I really enjoy working in this way.

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,569

    I should add that I also really like many of the legacy animation pack - most often available as aniBlocks for V4, M4, and then Genesis and Genesis 2, etc.,

    Then I retarget them to my Genesis 3, 8, and 9 heroes using Bone Minion.

     

    I have a Ton of notes about that Here

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,569

    ...and then doing stuff like this is a real Blast! I Just Love It!!!

  • brainmuffinbrainmuffin Posts: 1,205

    Dartanbeck said:

    There's a really nice workflow created for Daz Studio-to-Blender called Diffeomorphic.

    Genius work, constantly being improved, if I'm not mistaken. 

    Diffeomorphic is what I use to export from Studio to Blender. Then I apply HEAT animations.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,569

    brainmuffin said:

    Dartanbeck said:

    There's a really nice workflow created for Daz Studio-to-Blender called Diffeomorphic.

    Genius work, constantly being improved, if I'm not mistaken. 

    Diffeomorphic is what I use to export from Studio to Blender. Then I apply HEAT animations.

    yes

  • benniewoodellbenniewoodell Posts: 1,969

    lilweep said:

    I will hijack this thread for my own questions:

    1. If you do diffeomorphic transfer and get rigged character into Blender, then animate in Blender using the default rig, is that animation transferable back to Daz? E.g., by fbx export?
    2. Are JCMs maintained through transfer to diffeomorphic so that the animated figure in Blender will roughly match the figure in Daz Studio when applying the animation in Daz?

    1. There is a save pose button in diffeo that you can use that will make a pose preset, same as if you did save pose preset in Daz. In Daz, click your character, file/merge and apply the saved file and it'll transfer. You can use the regular skeleton or Simple IK (Which is what I do all my animations with since it has proper IK setup and easily transfers back to Daz). I think you can do it with MHX or Rigify, but there's an extra step that I just don't care to figure out since Simple IK can do everything I need, plus I can hand animate lip sync and such and the keys will transfer back to Daz as well. 

    2. I think everything gets transferred over for JCMs, there's a checkbox when you import a character for JCMs. 

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