Congrats to Dart for Animation Tutorial!
Diomede
Posts: 15,083
Dart is sharing his cinematic expertise. Back in the store with a DAL / Studio tutorial. I have had a lot of positive experiences with DAL. I'm sure @Dartanbeck will not disappoint.
https://www.daz3d.com/the-complete-guide-to-animating-dynamic-characters-in-daz-studio
Post edited by Diomede on
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Yes, congrats to Dart!
Like several of you, I have been watching Dart's Art Studio thread. In it, he mentions that his techniques in this package can also be used in Carrara. Hoping he pops in and explains how it works.
If so, this is a definite buy for me, as animation in Carrara has really grabbed me recently.
Yes, one of the alltime best Carrara supporters.
Thanks! Wow!
What all of the magic is came from the fact that, as a Carrara user, I just knew that animation is not something that Daz Studio is very friendly about. I've tippy-toed into it a few times to see if updates improved it, and they did in strange little ways. I mean, they have incorporated GraphMate into it, but instead of the easy interface it looked like GraphMate had, it's got those tiny, unfriendly little key frames. Trying to work out an animation like I present in the course would be an absolute Nightmare!
Well, what have I (we) always used Daz Studio for? Carrara's plugin.
In that, I've grown quite familiar with the content creation tools. When Carrara 8.5 Pro was in beta, I was in the new Daz Studio 4.0 playing with all of these tools that used to either be expensive or one had to buy Daz Studio Pro to get. Daz bought all of the tools and included them in the Free DS 4, which was a game changer for me.
mmoir did a fun little hair creation experiment, just conforming a sort of sphere-like glob onto the head of a figure. It wasn't even hollowed out. It just worked.
Anyways, Linday came out with the freaking dForce hair that I can no longer live without. Since then I've bought several more and love them all.
In order to animate in Daz Studio, I really needed to find a way to get myself away from that horrible graph editor. I really tried to get used to it - and I did. It just took forever and a day to get anything done - one axis of a single joint at a time.
So I started making Animation Control Dials for Genesis 8. Worked great but my early attempts... I was trying too hard. So when I made them for Genesis 3 (for Rosie 7, my hero!) I kept it very simple. Bam! That was the ticket!
Yes, we still use the timeline, but with almost no deleting of keys. We're basically using that to work with our own edits using the new dials and MorphForms. The new dials are MorphForms, but with a more specific purpose (that's the simplicity that I added to Genesis 3).
So when we make these control dials and save them as morph assets, they remain with the figure in any software that keeps the rigging and dial intact... like Carrara.
Here's the intro video from the course:
This is a whacky promo I made - no, I don't use the announcer voice At All in the course! LOL
One of the bonus videos is this slightly revisited version of the Rosie 7 Demo 2023A in 1080p HD
Another bonus feature is a pretty cool Behind the Scenes look at the car chase from that video. There's over one hundred people walking that Cyber City! The city is Massive! And then there's Rosie's Hair to deal with through all of that. I tried leaving her out of the car, but that just wasn't working.
This isn't the bonus video, but just another promo for it.
Seriously though, when I first started trying to work with that amazing hair, all I ever felt like doing was to load an aniBlock and let it go however it turns out. That never really worked for any of my versions of Rosie. It's really hard to imagine how much I despised animating in Daz Studio, now that I'm having so much fun with it that I can't even break away to play Cyberpunk!!!
It really is that freaking fun!
Making these tools is fast and easy. Whenever I start using a new base figure, I quickly make the basics that I need in a single sitting - only a few minutes. Save as Morph Asset... good to go.
So now if I load that figure into Carrara, load in an aniBlock or build an animation from scratch, these tools are there to help perfect it into what I really want folks to see on the screen - which is pure magic!
In Part 1, the viewer just makes some tea and watches me work as I explain what I'm doing all the way through - even taking a little break here and there to show how to work in the timeline without pulling hair out.
I start with a T-pose and end in DaVinci Resolve's Fusion page, showing an very easy (and free) way to composite the character animation into the background or backplate (background in motion). In part 2 I show how I make my backplates to match the character's movements.
This is the end result from Part 1.
hope it sells well
Vyuser does the built in poses as does 3DUniverse with their figures, it's certainly handy sometimes
Predatron always has as well. Not quite as many as I make, but it was the Predatron Troglodytes, Goblins, Hero figures, LoRez folks, etc., etc., that gave me my first taste of these l o n g ago. I loved them then, I'm making them now - and specific to my needs!
I'm still not a PA, so I'll have to rely on Digital Art Live to let me know how we recieved it is. But if the fan mail I've been getting is any indication, it should be doing pretty well already. But these are folks who've been waiting for its release for some time now. Still, I'm very honored that they're loving it! :)
Rosie's car, "Nemesis", gets an upgrade!
In the recent massive deep sales that have been going on, along with July making me play drums Constantly, I've had some great hauls from the store. In this case, it was "Stealth", by DZ Fire!
Much larger than Nemesis, I had to scale it down to 75% (I think it was) in order to change it from a Monster to a car. The paint job was tough. I had to actively select polygons and create new material zones to make it happen. Then I cut chunks of it way and added a bunch of stuff - like a computer system from Command Post, Sci Fi hand gadgets, even a Sci Fi Air Scrubber!!!
Original Stealth and New Nemesis side by side
My favorite car in Cyberpunk 2077. I wasn't looking at it for reference, but this is what inspired this thing, and it's still just a WIP
Oh, and the Kanji Japanese Ideogram on the side says "Flower" (literal), but I think of it as "Rosie"
My version is also installed nicely onto Linday's Animation Four-Wheeler Template system - so it's truly ready to race!!!
I'll never stop loving Carrara - Ever.
But those images above... just buy something from Daz 3d, drop it in, and that's what comes out. Saves a lot of time when everything is made to work together.
I still pester the fine folks at Daz 3d that I'd like Carrara updated. Never know. And I am Mr. Optimism!
Go Dart !!!
The trailers look really great, but because I have Carrara and not Daz, are any aspects of the course relevant to just Carrara, even in a cut down capacity ? I saw there is a product called "Carrara aniBlock Importer Pro Bundle". Would buying that make some of the course doable in Carrara instead of Daz ?
That's exactly how I began my first Daz 3d experience.
I got Carrara, aniMate 2+ (full, paid version), and instead of getting that bundle, I got the importer and a few aniBlock packs and worked my way up from there.
So to answer your question, none of the course deals with Carrara at all. However, the entire process translates perfectly to Carrara.
Making the tools - we'd have to make those in Daz Studio, but when we're done they'd load right into Carrara.
Making Custom Wearable Presets - again, done in Studio, shows up in Carrara's Content Browser
Making a Base scene is a Daz Studio version of my Carrara Base scene, which has its Daz Studio differences:
But there's another Carrara benefit that I wasn't aware of until just these last few days - next post
When I work with Rosie 7, I'm now using soft-body physics under the requests and demands of others.
I use VWD Cloth and Hair for that, but this part of VWD doesn't work in Carrara with the VWD/Carrara bridge.
I was testing the Genesis 3 pose to Genesis 9 Bone Minion, by Riversoft Art, which I really like. In doing so, I wanted to see if I could get Rosie 7's Soft-Body to come through in an aniBlock. It does. We just have to put a check into the "Morphs" tab in the aniMate dialog when making the new aniBlock. With the Bone Minion, in order to get those morphs to come through, we'd need to use the special includede Heavyweight Bone Minion, which also translates special data like that.
I tried using Misy's Janette - G3F for Carrara to bring in these special aniBlocks into Carrara and it didn't work right, but I've never really had success with figures newer than Genesis 2 in Carrara, and only marginally for Genesis 2. For Carrara my preferred figures are Genesis 1 and earlier. I know opinions vary greatly in this respect, but I don't have enough time to try and figure out all of the compatibility issues, and Genesis 1 ia an amazing figure, so since it works, that's what I prefer.
I'm going to quickly pop into Studio and work up an animation with soft-body for Genesis 1 and see if it translates back into Carrara's aniBlock importer. Hold on a sec
Yeah, bummer. Unless I'm missing something, it doesn't work that way either.
Here we go!
This Saturday's Daz + Pro Artist Series Live Stream - Animation Tips with Dartanbeck
This is going to be FUN!!!
(must be a logged-in Daz + member to see it)
Wasn't able to join in, but have bookmarked the Youtube stream to watch later !!!
I watched it after it was done. Um... there are times in there when I'm talking and working at the same time and called key frames "aniBlocks" at least three times! I was amazed that I did that! LOL
It's weird when there's a whole discussion going on while you're trying to show something! LOL
So Fun, though. Jay and I hung out chatting about it for close to an hour after. We had a really good time preparing for and doing that stream! He and his team are really slick and wonderful to work with!
I made all of that stuff just for this, which I've only just known about for a few days now.
This is how I work:
Character Animation Rendered Sequence
Backdrop - longer render time, single frame
Composite without any further post editing - exception being the iReal animated clouds effects I made. First time I got to test my animated cloud FX test I did a couple weeks ago. Was fun to see how well they work! (you'll see them work in the video)
Because I only have a single monitor, I wasn't able to see the YouTube stream as we went. Just my screen on Zoom. But before we started, I saw Diomede on there so I gave a call out for Brash and Moxie! My Heroes!!!
You did a great job, Dart. I learned a lot. You and Jay work well together, and it comes across with your ease with each other during the livestream. Thanks for the Brash/Moxie reference.
What a great bunch! Unfortunately I couldn't view the YouTube stream once it went to my screen as I only have one monitor.
But Jay did a great job of cluing me in on questions. I ended up adding to the answer regarding legacy aniBlocks in the Daz + forum. Wow!!! Bone Minion Frenzy! So much more accurate and easy!
Here's a clip from one of the demos I put together in the two days I had to prepare. That part was tough since I didn't have anything ready to go before that.
Shrunk it way down and made a GIF out of it
!!!! --- But Wait, There is More --- !!!!
For details, see this link.
https://digitalartlive.com/event/daz-studio-the-power-of-animate-2/
And here is a promotion.
Are you coming? It's gonna be Fun!!!