Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
For me the dream team is DAZ 3.1, Blender (Cycles) and Teleblender with MDD,
Mdd is very good exchange animations.
To correct the wrinkles in figures Blender is very simple with smoth vertex.
And Integrate mode for mesh cache.
Carrara can import/export .MDD thanks the Fenric's plugin : http://www.daz3d.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=fenric
Here two tests with Marvellous Designer into Carrara :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uudc30a0lec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVHGjemsaOc
I wanted to make 3d comics too, then I decided I want to tell stories via animations. I also spent some time in DS. I can relate. As ref: I have DS Animate2, Keymate, also Carrara, Mimic pro, GoZ, and a ZBrush modeler.
Daz Studio is not too bad as a animation + render solution. But without physics, collision, to match the demand of the high res character, clothing and hair, it is just too much work and wasted time working around pokethroughs and object snapping every freaking frame. Perhaps DS5.
Taking all your keywords into account - and keeping it concise: you will need an all-in-one modeling-rigging-animation-render suite.
DS users should have some ideas on modeling, riggging, render and the importance of collision, physics and cloth/hair dynamics so cheap animation tools like Muvizus and Moviestorm are out.
Your choices:
Carrara, IClone+3DXChange, Cinema4D. Pros and Cons not universal but based on your perspective.
Won't recommend LightWave, Blender, Modo, which are also wonderful all-in-one suites. Their UI, feature bloatedness and learning curve demand deters even self-taught Daz Studio and ZBrush users like myself. I will recommend them to the programming-inclined types. Ignore Maya and 3dsMax, CG gamedev job seeker apps.
IClone+3DXChange can do SOME of the things you ask for.
Pros: easiest responsive character animation. Easy Apex dynamic clothing. Collision & Terrain. Basic, intuitive physics. Viewport has instant visual feedback. Cons: no modeling or deforming capability = Need external modeller. Cumbersome import export workflow = 3DXchange is a pain. Poly limits = Compromised Genesis at game resolution. Only one external renderer with poor slow integration so stuck with game res video. Slow Daz3D style update cycle.
Conclusion: good enough for fast game resolution videos. Better than Muvizu, but no Pixar toons. Caveat: IC6 is useless for custom character anim until 3DX6 is released. 3DX5 is a soon-to-expire app.
Carrara can do eveything you ask for.
Pros: Daz Studio character integration; Daz Studio library and assets direct loading. Physics. Dynamic hair. Particle effects. Solid renderer options, in-house or external. Easy learning curve, many $1000-$3000 all-in-one suite features at under $200. Old video tuts still apply. Helpful community. Cons: limited UI GUI customization; no IPR or AuxVeiwport, main viewport no image background. Daz3D pace update cycle.
Conclusion: an easy to learn all-in-one suite in a low-clutter environment. Easy to get into after Daz Studio clutter and content management torture "training".
Cinema4D will do EVERYTHING and more that you ask for.
Maya and 3dsMax power, but still fun to learn. Carrara UberPro, LightWave's modernized big sister. Con: $3500-$5000 depending on which continent you're on. Evil local distributors jacking up upgrade prices.
Conclusion: go for it if money is no issue. Probably an overkill for hobbyists.
There is also Messiah Studio, quite complete, with a capable native renderer. But I haven't used it.
Hope this helps. :)
I can't understand how DXchange would be a pain. It allows you to import or export figures with a number of awesome tools found nowhere else. I just don't understand. For me, DXchange is a salvation.
DAZ Studio and Animate 2 tools can create some excellent and very realistic animation BUT you need to spend time editing your work. Fine tuning is the key here and it is possible to do this in DS. Most people give up because they don't want to spend the time learning the software but the same applies to the really expensive applications too. Creating great and inventive work means blood, sweat and tears just like any creative endeavour.
A compositor like After Effects or Hitfilm and an NLE like Premire and Vegas are your friends! This is where the magic happens because most of us don't have render farms so we have to render out parts of scenes and create composites. Please don't think you need Cinema4D or Lightwave to create great animation. Just like you don't need ProTools to create great music - use Reaper instead! There are plenty of very poor animations made in Cinema 4D just as there is plenty of rubbish music made in ProTools.
DS could really do with dynamic clothing and other features mentioned in this thread but you can compensate for that through editing, editing, editing! The whole history of cinema has been about overcoming adversity. Of course, if you can afford the latest and greatest then go for it but you'll still need to learn how to use it. Just download the demo of Lightwave to find out what that's like. There's no one button solution to creativity no matter what the advertising leads us to believe.
Now that DS has an unbiased renderer (for FREE!) I defy anyone to create badly lit scenes. The realism level just got a shot in the arm and so did animation too. Just don't stick an aniblock on a track and expect miracles because that's like sticking a drum loop on a Reaper track and expecting a hit song.
I know people with C4D, Lightwave, MODO who sit around and do nothing with it. 90% of animation is motivation and without the daily editing grind (even when you're sick to death of looking at the least project) you are nothing! In the art world you are only an artist if you create art works. The same applies in every other creative field. There are millions of people who talk about animation, know all the best tools, keep up to date with the latest innovations but they never complete anything tangible. The true animators are the people who completely mess up but go back to it time and time again until they get it right. True animators don't blame the software and keep switching applications hoping that some technical innovation will do it for them rather than having to learn the software inside out.
I may sound like an evangelist for self motivation but without that dogged attitude to creativity all these lovely tools are never used to their full potential and end up gathering dust in some forgotten folder on a HDD. No one cares about what you create except you so part of creating successful animations is cultivating self-belief and that means not giving up even if the results at first (or for several years) don't live up to what others create. Obviously there needs to be some visible progress to maintain motivation but that accumulates through skill not through software IMO.
I'm not a DS user (as you say it, I am those which do not take the trouble to learn it %-P), but I'm completely of agreement with you !
I agree. You have written a very eloquent and convincing post, Superdog. You're the Man... I mean you're Superdog!
I would like to point out Modo 801, which as of this post, now has an Indie Version you can purchase for $299.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/321540/
I don't want to say this is a game changer, but it certainly piqued my curiosity. This is the first time that they've done something like this. Modo used to be the lowest cost of the big name animation programs (No offense to Carrara or Iclone --I own both myself.)This news really has made me re-evaluate my pipeline going forward. It's built in features are easily some of the most robust available for the hobbyist, but it does have a learning curve, I think. Modo by itself is a formidable package, but plugins really make me want to look it over seriously. The Octane plugin for Modo is easily one of my favorites, but the things that make me really look at it closely is the plugins like Meshfusion, Modo Auto Character Setup(ACS), MArch Architectural Tools, and now Substance Designer.I think Modo's rigging toolset alone is reason enough to consider it. It was a large cash outlay, but I didn't do it all at once and the tools were important to me.
I have yet to start working with hair, but having it is a great reason to start learning. I wanted to concentrate on learning the modeling tool set, which I'm working on now, but the capabilities are pretty sweet. I have to confess, that there are times that I feel overwhelmed about working in Modo, but I find the animation tools to my liking. I had to let go of a lot of ways of thinking because I want to try to narrow down what I work with to the barest minimum of tools, but Substance designer is pretty powerful when it comes to setting up materials and being able to use Substance in Modo means that I can texture something and have it immediately available to me. Substance Painter, Designer, and Bitmap 2 Materials means that I can pretty much stay in one or two applications with some occasional work in Zbrush.
I do own Iclone 6. I purchased it with the Substance Power Pack. I purchased it for one reason alone --Perception Legacy MOCap. Noitom makes a 32 sensor Motion capture rig for 1500 dollars.
https://neuronmocap.com/products/perception_neuron
The best part of it is that you don't need cameras or the space that cameras require in order to get accurate motion capture information. I am a one man studio, and being able to sit in my living room and literally motion capture an entire scene is gravy for me. What makes it even more attractive is that Perception has gloves so that you can capture finger and hand motion capture at the same time! No more lead hands!
I'm saving my pennies up for it. I'll let everyone know how it goes once I have it, but this is the best news since I started working in 3D. The only other tool I'm looking at possibly working into my workflow is something like Faceshift, but I'm looking for something I can use in Modo, so I may have to wait. Still, Modo indie warrants a serious look. What I am looking at doing is setting the character up in iclone, acting out the scene, then bringing it back into DAZ as BVH and doing allembic to Modo where the Model will be textured, hair and clothing added and then rendered out via Octane or Modo's Native render.
You don't need iClone's 6 Perception Neuron plugin if in the end you're going to use the mocaps in another program. Perception Neuron exports as BVH, that you can use in any app. I mean, I use Ipisoft with two Kinect cameras all the time. I don't need iClone's Kinect plugin. I import the BVHs directly in Daz Studio... is all.
But I'm in a quandary. I'm ready now to shell out the $1500, no question. But my double, who guards my bank account, has a different opinion. When I ask him if I can withdraw money, the answer is invariably NO. NO. NO. NO.
AND NO!
I try to reason with him. No dice. I even tried to withdraw money at night, thinking he will be off duty. But he's still there, standing in front of the ATM machine..
What I'm thinking to do next is put a powerful sedative in his drink. Yeah, the SOB is an alcoholic. It's okay for him to spend MY money on drinks, but not for me to withdraw $1500 to further my artistic ambitions. Go figure!
It's worth giving it a try though, but there's no guaranty of success.
I think the best software for animation is Maya, but I like the way you can have a large animation library within Daz. and integrate them with just with one click
Free Sexy Female Walk @ http://www.flipbookmarket.com/TC-Runway-Modeling-00-DazPoser
You don't need iClone's 6 Perception Neuron plugin if in the end you're going to use the mocaps in another program. Perception Neuron exports as BVH, that you can use in any app. I mean, I use Ipisoft with two Kinect cameras all the time. I don't need iClone's Kinect plugin. I import the BVHs directly in Daz Studio... is all.
But I'm in a quandary. I'm ready now to shell out the $1500, no question. But my double, who guards my bank account, has a different opinion. When I ask him if I can withdraw money, the answer is invariably NO. NO. NO. NO.
AND NO!
I try to reason with him. No dice. I even tried to withdraw money at night, thinking he will be off duty. But he's still there, standing in front of the ATM machine..
What I'm thinking to do next is put a powerful sedative in his drink. Yeah, the SOB is an alcoholic. It's okay for him to spend MY money on drinks, but not for me to withdraw $1500 to further my artistic ambitions. Go figure!
It's worth giving it a try though, but there's no guaranty of success.
Well I resolved it by finding out what the guy in charge of my wallet does in his off time, developing a complicated blackmail scheme, and leveraging that against what I wanted. Seriously, though --this was something that I knew I was going to purchase the moment that I found out about the kickstarter campaign for it. I've got one more big purchase before that --I'm getting myself a 32 inch monitor and a pair of gtx 980s, but then I'm setting my sights on that expense.
You know, a lot of people were complaining about the price, but I looked at what I spend at DAZ and Renderosity, and I spent a lot more on the models and stuff that I like and use, when you count them all up. The only difference is that they were purchased over time. Even in just a year, I've easily spent that much. So saving up for something like this is something I knew I was going to do. Hell, I spent more on my computer setup than this --so I can rationalize it without feeling guilty seeing as how this was the reason I got into 3d in the first place.
This *BIGGEST* limitation I've found with DazStudio is the poor joint chains for skeletons. For example, you have both a hip and a pelvis joint. You only need one. The abdomen2 joint is below the hip/pelvis joints, which causes problems. I own both Michael and Victoria 4. Genesis comes with the new version of Daz. As I was sorely unhappy with the choices of aniBlocks you can use, I was going to build a rig in Maya, so people like myself, who want quick and dirty animations (for sprites and what have you), could jump into Daz, load up specific aniBlocks and render them. Daz comes with a quality render system, while not on par with Mental Ray or Renderman, it's still undeniably good.
The problem I face, though, are the skeletons. On a "standard" rig, which basically follows just about any animation/game studio out there, I can create a custom rig in a matter of hours. Daz models, unfortunately, use non-standard rigs. I end up with gimbal lock on the abdomen2 joint, no matter how I rig it to control curves. While the movement is minimal, as an animator, I still see the "jump" in the mesh when I move the CCs. Now, I could create a completely custom skeleton, but then it's not compatible with DazStudio, making it harder for people who use Daz exclusively, to use my animation and requires me to paint weights all over again, which is just more work and less compatibility with Daz. It's a catch-22.
If you're serious about learning animation, as of now, Daz is *NOT* the way to go. Without physics, IK/FK, dynamic hair, particles, etc., it's too much work, for little return. Jump on Gnomon's website or Digital Tutors. Find a software package you like and stick with it. Most animators only cross train in no more than two modeling applications. (Maya and ZBrush, ZBrush and 3DMax, Lightwave and Mudbox, etc.)
Cross your fingers and hope that I can eventually figure out the gimbal lock problem, so you can use Daz in the future, but in the meantime, focus your energies on LEARNING animation, using other applications.
Just my 2p..
You forgot "DAZ CARRARA" wich can do everything you want, and for a very low price !
Are you using HumanIK in Maya? I have had success in Motionbuilder Mapping the Genesis 3 skeleton to the HumanIK rig. The thing I learned while doing it was that the Hip is what you'd consider the root bone and The Genesis 3 Female root is completely unnecessary. I map the Hip to the Root and match the pelvis to the hip bone in HumanIK and then Abdomen bones and the chest bones to the spine and that seems to work just fine. HumanIK even has provisions for the twist bones in the thigh shoulders and forearms. Once I worked out the mappings the rest worked out. I got a warning about the arms not being level when I finalized everything, but it didn't seem to stop me from applying the rig and working with it. Since you have the HumanIK in Maya, that might help you solve a few of your headaches. I haven't worked with Genesis 2 or Genesis but I imagine the issue might be similar.
someone else working with mcasuals scripts ?
they are very helpful for animation in studio
For a hobby I just started with animation in Daz two months ago . I had no previous knowledge about it are animation . To me its accessable and not to difficult to create stuff be it good are bad . I made the below 4 min animation in a week .Consider exporting the animations and render them in a differnt programe for faster results .I think its a great tool with a ton of cheap content to mess around with . Plenty youtube Tuts out there .
Midyin: I think you've received some great technical advice on software and skills. But I have a few questions for you, and one bit of advice.
QUESTIONS: Do you want to "make movies?" As in a career? Or do you want to make a specific movie? In other words, do you have a specific idea you want to create?
If it's a career you want, then (if you're not too old), I think you need to find a school and attend some classes. You probably need to dive into formal education and get cracking at it.
If you just want to make a movie for the heck of it -- or to bring one of your ideas to life -- then my suggestion is very simple: Just go make a movie. Now.
Pick one idea, script it out and dive in. Grab whatever software you have available (or think you might want to use in the future) and start using it. Your first efforts will be either bad or mediocre, but you will learn valuable skills and get feedback from others that will help you grow.
This is a short movie I made with Poser about 11 years ago: Sir Guy and the Beast. I used the first version of Mimic to sync the audio I recorded at my desk. The clanking of his armor is a fork tapping on the desk (and then timed to his falling boots), and so on. And yeah, it's not that good (and yes, I used the Toon render style because it was all my computer could handle at the time). But you know what? I learned a LOT about pacing, editing, and using voice with a bit of physical humor (using the wrong number of fingers when bragging about his accomplishments) to create a character in a very short amount of time. This is only 1 minute long, and it took me two weeks to make. And you know what? It usually still gets a mild chuckle from people who see it.
So, my suggestion is simple: Go make a movie. Now. Just dive in. Your first work might make you cringe later, but you've gotta start learning the skills you'll need for when it's time to bring to life The Big Idea that's forming inside your mind. Good luck.
I haven't used IClone in awhile (my old computer can't run the full version of IClone6) but I enjoyed the animation tools in the earlier versions. I wouldn't start of the bat with converting DAZ content via xchange even though I have tons of great DAZ content too. I would start with using the native IClone characters and practice using the animation tools with them.... mostly because they are realtime, easy to learn, and alot of fun to play with.
I build my rigs from scratch. I've done it for years and it's my job. :P That being said, I don't use Human IK. I like having full control over how I build my rigs, you know? The gimbal lock was due to my creating a driver Joint chain (something I typically do with all of my rigs for better torso bending), to keep from having to mess with the paint weights (Maya and Triax don't play nice together...... yet). I got the gimbal lock problem solved. Now, my headache is importing the bvh animations in Studio. They're not on the ground plane, but elevated in the Y-Axis and the eyes and teeth or shifted out of alignment. If it's not one thing, it's something else. -_-
My original post still stands. Daz Studio is *NOT* an "animation tool." Well, not a good one. It's amazing for single shot renders and simple animations, but complex ones, no, not at all.
No, I didn't. I don't use it. I *OWN* the Maya and 3DMax Suites. I've used Lightwave on a regular basis. If you want to get technical, I didn't mention Real3D, Cinema4D, Milkshape 3D, Blender and quite a few others, either. If he's serious about wanting to learn animation, he needs to pick one of the "big three" and stick with it, so he has an actual skillset to use in the real world. I don't know a single studio, game developer or CGI animation, that uses Carrara.
[NOTE] - My usuage of "he" is for simplicity. No chauvinists we!
I use Mobu and Maya exclusively for animating Daz characters, importing into Unreal, maya VP2.0 rendering and such. I'm surprised to find out you're able to import BVH files out of Mobu into Daz for G3 characters. I haven't been able to do that for some reason no matter how I do the mapping upon import. For your issue, hitting 'cntrl-d' places figures back on the ground after import and unchecking the leye, reye in the mapping leaves the eyes alone, no shifting or dropping out of the skull for G2 figures anyway. I'll try your mapping scheme you mention for mobu and give it another go. thanks! Oops, I meant for this reply to be attached to Will2Power above.
Methuselas I am assuming the OP wants to use DAZ and Poser content, with all respect while Autodesk and other software suites of a pro nature are more suited to high end work rigging and animationg your own models etc, for easily using DAZ 3D content all rigging and morphs in place with the exception of Genesis 3 and DAZconnnect items, Carrara works very well right out the box.
Midyin, I'm going to go back to what you originally said.
"is there any really good 3D Animation software out there that's a bit more streamlined to animation? can i load my existing scenes and models from DAZ into this possibly mythical unicorn of a program?"
If you're looking for something that's not intimidating to use for doing animation, then I'm going to make the suggestion that you stick with Iclone 6 and perhaps 3DXchange OR their Character Creator. I say this because of what you asked about being something for a NOOB. What you need is a tool that's going to be forgiving and allow you to get some little victories under your belt as you learn more about animation. I think the key is that when you're starting out, it's those little victories that give you the confidence to try bigger and better things. Iclone probably has the best range of tools for a beginner of most of what we've mentioned. I'm also going to go on record and say that the probably have the best free training on how to use said software of all of the others, plus --like DAZ they allow you to easily use custom content, but unlike DAZ, they actually seem to be very agressive about teaching people what's possible with their software.
The thing that I really like about the Reallusion Iclone offering is that they go CRAZY out of their way to provide good training for their users. The Iclone manual itself is 891 pages long --with pictures! It's not something that someone just threw together either. In addition, they have a very comprensive library of free training on Youtube that put DAZ Studio/Carrara to shame. I like that they don't treat training like an afterthought --and I think that for someone who's new to animating --this is a crucial element. You can purchase whatever tool you think you need, but it's not very handy if there's no training on how to use it. I also point out that Iclone has built in Kinect Mocap. When I say built in, I don't mean that it comes with Iclone --you have to purchase the plug in. What I mean to say is that you can record your motion directly into Iclone as a motion clip. That makes blocking out animations easier to do for a beginner. I also point out that Lyp Sync is built in as well, so you're not having to jump from application to application in order to get what you want accomplished. Then they have Speed Trees where all you have to do is set the wind speed, direction and gust parameters and all the Speed Trees in the scene respond to it. Then there's also the Physics Toolbox that's pretty easy to use and the Weather effects and special effects that are available. They even have a tool that allows you to take any car/truck mesh and turn it into an animatable vehicle (google Icar Body Shop). It isn't the greatest when it comes to rendering, but that's changing this year as they introduce Physically Based Rendering in Iclone To top it all off, you have Weather systems available and Dynamic Sky. For someone starting out, these are key elements you want to consider. Reallusion, in my opinion, provides the widest array of easy to use tools in order to get your animations in front of the camera. That's why I would recommend it for anyone who's starting out and wants to try animating. I'm not saying that you should never consider anything else --I'm sure after a year or two, you may find yourself stepping into Carrara, Modo or Maya or another more robust animation program. I think Iclone will give you quite a lot to digest as you get more and more into it.
Iclone takes a lot of the guesswork out of how to do things for someone who's very new to animating and provide a lot of easy to use tools that are going to make it possible for you to experience those little victories that make you want to keep pushing forward. I don't suggest other systems for that reason alone. Animating is a daunting task because there are so many ways to get this or that that it's easy to get caught up and subsequently confused in how to accomplish what you want. I think for starting out, the more you can stay in one application and accomplish these small feats, the more you are going to learn and the happier you're going to be.
( warning LONG post)
Hi I am 24 minutes into a feature length animated
film based in the marvel comics universe Called "Galactus Rising"
Most major motions are created in Iclone 5.5
and retargeted to GENESIS 2 figures in Daz studio via 3D Xchange
(Genesis 3 is useless to me for animation for reasons
previously posted in other threads),
Add lipsinc in DS and
Tweak animation as needed/desired using
Graphmate/Keymate & MCj scripts
(His key frame culling script is vital)
Use the DAZ Decimator plugin in DS for
making any desired uber low res Background extras
(works on imported poser figures wearing multiple clothing peices as well)
make OGL previs test renders.
Export Figure as .obj file with collect textures option.
Export MDD File containing all animation data.
All from windows 7 PC
On Mac machine, import obj file into Maxon Cinema4D using
the feature rich third party "Riptide Pro" obj/MDD handler.
Riptide pro can switch between MDD files as directed by
a key frame. Also MDD animated meshes can be subdived
in C4D under a hypernurbs object so I only work with base
resolution Genesis figure in DS and make them hi-res for rendering in C4D.
Light scene and render the shots to uncompressed targas.
add any post effects in Adobe After Effects CS3.
Now.. why such complicated pipeline
if you own a Pro app like C4D???
I am still running a very old version of C4D ( R11.5 studio)
But here in 2016 and version 17 or something, C4D Cannot do
lipsinc auto driven by a sound file
and CANNOT autoretarget motion from a BVH files without manually
renaming/remapping bones for each rig.
and changing clothes/space suites etc requires re- rigging
and the cloth system is not useable on moving figures
only draperies/bedsheets & tablecloths.
I can export my DAZ& poser cloth sims baked into the MDD files
But C4D's world class Camera system& unparalelled Scene Management
/navigation tools and its general animation editing system and
Direct connection to After Effects for compositing,
makes it my only choice for finished renders.
For Character animation it may be suited for large teams.. but not single operators
working alone.
oh BTW here is genesis as "Thanos of Titan" rendered in C4D.
happy animating
This is a large question having everything to do with what you want to accomplish. If you want to work for Pixar...spending your entire life of learning 3D animation is probably not best spent inside of DAZ Studio. There are much better programs like Blender, Maya, et al. With that out of the way, I can reframe from your question into a Yes by asking, "Is Daz the best for low budget, indie animation being created by a single animator?"
That would receive almost an unequivocable yes from me, personally. But your best bet is to use these programs in tandem -- Poser, DAZ, Carrara, iClone, etc. What the indie animator needs is FAST, CHEAP and WATCHABLE. That's it. In art you get to pick three items from the triangle. Fast, Cheap, Good. You can have Good and Fast, Cheap and Good, Cheap and Fast, but you can never have all three. What Daz gives us is Fast, Cheap and...serviceable.
Are you going to win any awards for sculpture originality? Probably not. Will you be able to get a story told whose graphics don't *distract* and do it in a timely fashion (as timely as any animation can be)? Yes.
I use a DAZ system in pretty much all of my animations. As an indie, you have to be realistic with what the outcome of any production will be. When Kevin Smith set out to make Clerks he didn't set out to make Michael Bay's Transformers, ya know? Really consider your limitations, and then *invent* from there. What can *you* as a sole animator accomplish?
There are very few people out here who want to be independent animators. I'm one of the people who want to do (or, is doing?) just that, as an aspect of a greater multi-media project -- comics, live action, etc.
Know the story you want to tell, and then use your limitations to your advantage. There is a whole lot of amazing good using a DAZ system for the indie animator. Use your time as wisely as possible, take care with your shots. A site I would suggest checking out is Star Trek: Aurora. I'm rarely inspired by any artists, but Tim Vining was really instrumental in providing me with the inspiration and knowing that an indie really can do this on their own (with the help of some talented voice actors, of course!) ;) Might want to check out his stuff.
http://auroratrek.com/
One of the things I had forgotten about Animation:Master is its ability to build and save a library of actions you can use over and over again. That was a big selling point to me in 1994. You can do that in DAZ Studio with aniMate 2 as I saw in a recent YouTube video by a European animator (which brought it all back to me) and load the actions stacking them and using them as you need them. Similar to stacking loops in a music program. A huge time saver. Build your library of actions for your character and start putting everything together. There are lots of advantages in DAZ Studio, but because it doesn't work as some expect or want it to, they will whine and complain and keep on trying other programs. And it has been said many times elsewhere, if you want to work at Pixar, if you have the timing and animation skills, they will train you on their system. Still, you can try animation in DAZ Studio like BC Rice and many of us and maybe create another "Rosa."
I'll make this short because you want to learn the fundamentals of animating cheap I recommend you head over to cgcookie.com and sign up for a One Month Citizen membership at a cost of less that $25 and download their Fundamentals of Animation course files to work through a couple of times offline. While you're there you'll want to do the Fundamentals of Blender beforehand to learn how to use their UI and at least one of the other shorter Animation tutorials they have there before you do the big Fundamentals of Animation course (with comes with morphable blender characters - but cartoonish like - not Genesis style)
If you enjoy it and are good at it then it reasonablt to buy iClone or Carrara or another animation SW depending on your budget. You might light to stick with Blender too if you want to make models that are uniquely yours.
However, if you are wanting to use DAZ characters and learn to animate them cheaply then the the other posters have convinced me Carrera at $65 with Platinum Club membership is the way to go. I will tell you the Carerra UI is old and outdated and when you open the Carrera 8.5 Help file you get a Carerra 7 PDF. It's sort of the same situation that Bryce and Hexagon are in. I can't tell you DAZ's plans for any of their antiquated SW but it makes sense to eventually integrate their old functionaily into DAZ and make money selling content I'd think but I don't have their book keeping numbers to guess.
Noup. Animations you can create are VERY limited. Please be honest. Daz3d seems to be good for marketing(for people selling models) as it is a nightmare to do aniamtions
Haha, I bought the Carrara at $65 because many good things I read in the forums and this thread and I am looking at a blank Carrara 8.5 page with a documentation for it that says it is for Carrara 7. I think DAZ should merge Carrara, Bryce, Hexagon into DAZ Studio and EOL Carrara, Bryce, Hexagon.
For the OP I think and for any noob that wants to get his feet wet I think the CG Cookie and Fundamentals of Animation tutorials for $23 is best and you'll have to forget DAZ content long enough to learn animation. The course has everything you need and they made it easy to download too though not as easy as DIM.
Nightmare in what way? Ive been making animated shorts with Daz studio and poser for the last 6 years and it has not gave me any nightmares. there is a learning curve to learning Daz and if you think daz is hard to work with , you should give Maya,3ds or lightwave a try :). I always have believed if you had a team of people all working on the same animation using daz you could get a pixar quaility film, remember dreamworks and pixar films have 100s if nt 1000's of people working on them . where daz allows just one person to make a fairly decent animated film but that is just my 2 cents.