Using Animate Blocks
kirascurro
Posts: 37
i've been trying to use Animate blocks on a character's timeline that already has animations/keyframes set up. is this even possible? every time i move to the Animate tab, all the keyframes already on the timeline for the character disappear. i've been working for weeks to get a character to do a simple 180 degree turn in place and then walk away. Daz doesn't seem to have this simple turn animation installed, unless it's in one of the earlier Genesis packages. i think I have 3 and 8 downloaded. i've managed to get the turn working (somewhat) with poses and the pose tool, but when i try to use Animate for the walk, i lose all my prior work. luckily it's saved. the only walk cycle i can find in Animations is for a G8 woman, which does not fit my male character. Can anyone help me with this, please? i thought Daz was going to be easy for animations, but so far it's been a nightmare. the only thing that has worked for me is using animations from Mixamo and merging, but it seems that doesn't work anymore for 8.1 characters. so i've had to work out this turn directly on the timeline. now if i could just get the walk with hand raised for a few steps (he's waving) i'd be done.
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wow, cridgit! that's fabulous info. thank you soo much! now i've never "create aniblock from keyframes", so is there any particular way to do that? i think i did see that in one of the tutorials, but which one? there's so many. that's such a perfect solution i'll try it if i don't here back from you, and i'll also let you know how it all turns out. i do love aniblocks. i'm even considering spending that $60 to buy Animate2. thanx, again!
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hi cridgit, so i was able to transform my keyframes to aniblocks. thank you for that. but i ran into a problem with scale. even though i checked the scale and morph boxes when making the change, the new aniblocks that i'm trying to add are not reflecting the character's scale. he's a little bigger by 107.6%, but the aniblocks still show him as 100%, so he gets smaller as soon as the added start walk block begins. i have tried to change the scale in transforms a keyframe at a time, but they won't stay at the changed numbers. they just go back to the numbers he's diminishing to, to get down to 100%. i thought i could transform, rotate, change, whatever, in the aniblocks, but it's not working for me. do you have any suggestion for this? thanx again for your help.
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thank you, cridgit. i will try that.
@kirascurro Is it also possible to Lock the Figure's Scale in the Parameters Tab to override the Aniblock's attempt to affect it at all?
In case you weren't familiar with locking parameters, with the Figure selected in the Scene Tab and the Parameters Tab, focus the mouse over the Figure's Scale Slider area and the Lock Icon shows up in it's upper right next to the Settings Cog.
Because they're in the program now ;-)
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thanx, that seemed to work. now i'm working on a problem with the animate block, all by itself, changing the direction of the character's walk from it's last position. i'm hoping using a sub track will solve that.
sorry, guys, i'm still having problems with this animation. when i add an animate block to a block that has a z translate of .16 the new animate block has a z translate of 80 and it makes the walk change direction. i've tried changing the first frame of the new block back to .16 but that then changes his position in the first block. why doesn't the new animate block keep the same translation as the first one? i've tried a subtrack, but for some reason that entirely deforms the position of the character on the main block. what am i doing wrong?
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you can delete it? i didn't know that. thanx for that info, cridget. i'll try that.
gee, nothing about this is intuitive. i suppose i should have asked you HOW you delete the z-translate property, cridgit. i though it would be obvious, but it doesn't seem to be. i don't see a delete option for translate properties anywhere. oh, and is there a user guide anywhere, besides what's minimally on Daz?
Might be something in here that's helpful.
thank you, Catherine. yes, that was helpful. ALL tutorials are helpful. i can't use enough of them. i've seen some of his, too. i like them. i appreciate you finding that one for me. i never thought to look in the timeline to delete. now i have to check to see if that works on an animate block, too.
unfortunately, there's not a General Transform Translate on the animate blocks, only on the timeline. and now that the timeline is related to the animate blocks i'm only seeing start and end keyframes on the timeline. there are none for whatever happens between them. so, i guess i have to ask Cridget again how to delete the z-translate property from the second animate block.
Did you try baking the aniblock to the timeline?
no, Catherine, i didn't think to try that. i will do so and let all you guys who have tried to help me know if i actually get this oh-so-simple walk to work. thank you again for your help.
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great, cridget! i've had to take a brief break from working on this and haven't had a chance to try Catherine's suggestion to bake to timeline, but i've wondered what it meant, and/or could be done, when the animate block changes after clicking on it. this is good info that i will also try. thank you.