Animating woes

jamesmuia3

I'm having some issues animating, perhaps someone can help with.

I've got DAZ 2 horse. I've recently purchased Walking, Trotting, Cantering, Galloping, and Jumping poses from the store. I used puppeteer to create a walking motion for the horse, and saved the walking motion as an aniblock.

Now I've got my scene ready to go, and I'm trying to animate the horse (I have a character riding the horse, which is parented to the pelvis).

To try and animate the horse, I've added the walking aniblock I created about 10 times, for the length that I need. For some reason I am unable to animate the horse from point A to point B. Keep in mind I'm not going for 100% realism, so I'm just working with a Point A to B translation path.

I was able to get the horse to animate by create a sub line and animating the horse's pelvis at which point the horse was moving forward from point A to B. However, when I try to add an additional aniblock at the end of the walking aniblocks (for instance the horse laying down) the entire animation breaks, and then I can no longer animate from Point A to point B anymore. I can see the keyframe being created on say frame 240, but then when I move the slider back to the beginning, the keyframe on 240 disappears and the horse is just walking in place not moving forward.

Any help is appreciated, this is driving me bonkers :)

Thanks,
James

Tjeb

Don't know if I fully understand your question.

I created an aniblock (one walkcycle) and enlarged it.
I couldn't keyframe Mil Big Cat's base at both the beginning and the end, but I then keyframed the Mil BigCat's hip in stead.

jamesmuia3

I am not able to move the horse from Point A to Point B when aniblocks are involved. I can animate the pelvis from point A to point B but when I introduce additional aniblocks, it doesn't seem to add keyframes anymore.

My aniblocks were created based on horse poses and the entire motion is stationary. Is there an easier way to create a walking forward motion from poses?

Tjeb

I forgot to mention that I did the keyframing in the normal (DAZ) Timeline.

Jaderail

Your trying to use two types of animation at one time, That does not work for this, first do this, One the Walk needs to be redone as a NEW AniBlock with the FULL horse selected, that one will not be a SUB Track. If created with a PART (hip) selected it is a SUB track. Then use the NEW walking aniblock and the second aniblock both on the figures MAIN Animate timeline, not as a sub track. OR you can add the Lay down sub track AS a add on TO the subtrack you now have, just not above or below it.

Tjeb

I did not have a horse walk cycle, hence the Mil Big Cat.
But just found one after searching for 20 seconds.
Nothing to do with Aniblocks.
Two keyframes: one at the beginning, one at the end. (obviously)
... and that's it.

jamesmuia3

I am having trouble just really animating anything. Any time I add an aniblock with a cycle of motion (such as a horse walking in place), I can't get the horse to actually move forward along a translation path. Is there any strategy to this or a guide on the basics of animating?

Where did you find the horse animation, perhaps that will give me a hint as to how it was created.

Jaderail

If you Start with a Walk in Place animation you should ADD the Z translate to the motion on the DAZ Studio Timeline BEFORE you convert the animation to a AniBlock. You do that with Key Framing on the Timeline. Only the DAZ Studio Timeline can be used to do that until you learn how to EDIT the AniBlocks in AniMate2 with its Graph editor. In it You would add the Z Translate to the HIP of the figure. The total distance to move is the PITA to work out. That is Why I add it on the DS timeline. I can add a Measuring wall to my Set up and have the figure move JUST as far as needed by moving across the measuring wall.

Tjeb

Here's the link:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=493921

Mind you, it is not an Aniblock.
On the Timeline, put a keyframe at frame 0, move the horse over your translation axis
and put another keyframe at the end of the Timeline. (Frame 128)

Tjeb

Try the other one. The one that says Z-axis and you don't even have to keyframe.
It doesn't come easier...

Jaderail

And remember ANY animation you can run in DAZ Studio can be converted to a AniBlock for use with other Aniblocks. I often convert Pz and BVH files for such use. Or I use AniMate for some things then SEND it to the DS Timeline and ADD other animation to it as needed.

jamesmuia3

I appreciate the responses but I'm still not understanding how to animate this horse.

If I open up Horse 2, position it at point A frame 0, then move to point B frame 300, I get it to move across a path just fine. All I want to do is add the aniblock of it "walking in place" on top of that.

However, any time I add the aniblock of it walking in place, I can't get the horse to animate walking forward. That part breaks. No matter what I do, select the horse, the pelvis, or whatever, the horse does not follow the path. It either jumps from point A to point B instantly, or just starts at point B.

Perhaps it is easier to edit the aniblocks themselves, but if I go into hip and look at the Z translation, I have no idea what to do.

Tjeb

Have you tried this:....?

(I created an Aniblock from the walkcycle you see in my previous posts.)

after double-clicking on the Aniblock:
- 1: set the slider at frame 0, click the key icon with the + sign. (I forgot to mark that)
- 2: set the slider at the end, translate the horse on the axis, click again on the +key icon.
- and click play. That's all I did.

Jaderail

And That is a cool tip. I always added the Z translate to a Sublevel of the Aniblock on the HIP. but this is so much faster. TY.

EDIT: See where it SAYS Base? You have several SUB levels to ADD tweeks to. That is how I edit hands and Arms in AinBlocks. On the Sub levels.

Tjeb

I gave this animated gif the title:
"The One That Had Enough"