Drifting During Static Poses

Lord_Ashes

I am doing some basic animation in Daz using Animate. I have created a walking up the stairs aniBlock and was testing it out.

First I added a blank aniBlock to my Animate timeline and set the start and end frames as key frames to the same pose.

Second I added my aniBlock for walking up the stairs.

Lastly I added another empty aniBlock to my Animate timeline and set the start and end frames to the same pose.

What I expected to see is the starting pose, a walk up the stairs, and an ending pose at the top of the stairs.

What I got was a starting pose, a walk up the stairs and then the ending pose but as the ending pose was struck the figure slowly drifted back to the ground.

When I looked at the key frames, they indeed did show that the starting key frame of the end pose was at the level of the stairs (as expected) but the end frame of the pose was at ground level.

When I manually adjusted the end frame of the end pose, it did not seem to take. For example, I moved the figure up a bit, moved to the starting frame, moved back to the end frame (which is a key frame) and the figure seems to have moved back.

If I remove the ending key frame altogether, the ending of the end pose sequence seem to jump to zero position (even though I never added a zero position frame). I would expect (with no other key frames in the sequence) that it would remain the same of the first key frame in the sequence.

I am totally confused.

Lord_Ashes

I get the same problem if I do two of my aniBlocks back to back. The first set up is done correctly but then there is a drift down as the second step occurs.

I am happy to post the aniBlock but it seems that the forum attachment system does not allow aniBlock files or ZIP files.

This is really driving me crazy because it is preventing me from doing my stair walk animation.

Can someone please let me know what I am doing wrong.

Lord_Ashes

Okay I think I may know partially what is happening...

As per instructions I have made my aniBlocks translations using the hip (as opposed to the figure) so that the aniBlocks can be reused at any position.

When I run through the aniBlock, I see that the figure's Y position is not changed although the figure definitely moves in the Y direction (as the figure steps up the stair). So that leads me to believe that the figure's position is, indeed, not changing but the figures parts within the figure are changing. If this is the case then when the aniBlock is followed by anything (static pose, another aniBlock, etc) that anything has settings for the figures parts which are all based on a 0 reference. Thus the translation that my aniBlock does within the figure is reset by the next pose, aniBlock or whatever. However, if this is the case why does it reset the Y translation but not the X translation? The following pose or aniBlock seems to cause the Y translation to be reset back to 0 but the X translation (i.e. the fact that the figure moved forward when stepping up the steps) seems to remain in the next pose or aniBlock.

If this is what is happening, how do I get around it to be able to use the Stepping Up aniBlock? Do I need to insert a key frame between the end of the aniBlock and then next aniBlock which translates the figure in the Y direction so that when the Y translation within the figure is removed, the figure translation compensates for it? That seems like a complicated way to do it since it requires knowing how much the aniBlock translates in the Y direction.

Is there some easier way to doing this that I am missing? It shouldn't be this hard to animate a simple walk up a set of stairs.

Jaderail

If you take a look at Pro AniBlock most follow this. Start Walk, Walk 1step, Walk 2steps, Walk Stop. So to get what your after you may need a End Up steps or End Down steps AniBlock so the next AniBlock TWEENS (thats what its called) smoothly. I'm jealous as it is, I've never made a stairs walk I liked enough to burn to AniBlock. I wish you much luck in your work.

Lord_Ashes

Well I think the tween is the problem...It seems to be tweening from my upper position (up the steps), i.e. the last key frame in my aniBlock, to the 0 position (at least 0 Y translation) of the following pose or aniBlocks.

I will try to put a frame in between which adjusts the figure Y translation after each step aniBlock to see if I can get it to work...but that seems like a round about way to do it.