Inspired Animations - Rosie 8.25 - Dreadstone Chasm - Stonemason
Inspired Animations - Rosie 8.25 - Dreadstone Chasm - Stonemason
Embedded Files
This is a short series of animations strung together into a bit of a show reel.
All of the animations for this have been created, simulated, lit and rendered in Dreadstone Chasm, with many parts of it animated as well - all within the span of five days - exception being the second to the last clip where she's hanging on over the chasm looking straight down on her. That was made a week or so earlier, but redone with her new Adventuress costume and matching lighting for the scene.
Getting Stonemason's Dreadstone Chasm into my library was a massive inspiration even before clicking the Checkout button at Daz 3d!
I had been longing for a cool subterranean environment like this for quite some time. I've collected a few similar styled scenes, and they're cool, but this just has that Stonemason touch - highly efficient yet incredibly detailed, great lighting and atmosphere presets and, even though I didn't use them here - a set of really nice cameras.
Just after getting this scene, I sought out and watched the latest of the Tomb Raider films with Alicia Vikander starring as Lara Croft. I only really say it like that to help identify which of the films I meant - I like all of them. Alicia's version of Lara, however, is a wonderful origin story that reveals her as being more vulnerable in her youthful inexperience, yet with all of the potential to become the hero we see in the other two films and the games.
So, Inspired by the chasm, I sought out a film for animation inspiration and ended up getting exactly what I wanted out of it - plus a need to go back and watch the film a few more times - and more times yet to come! LOL
As with Rosie 8.25's facial musculature motions, I'm trying new things for the rest of the animation process as well - not just how she's animated, but also more techniques with simulating the hair, animating the camera, animating the scenery around her, and just experimenting with more pulse-pounding action ideas.
The full extent of these endeavors is not yet revealed in the above video because it simply isn't finished yet. The above short is simply a premature look at some of the animations I've been working on - and I did that simply because I was amazed that so many frames were completed in such a short period of time.
I'm really loving working in Daz Studio.
Going from the idea that we simply cannot animate in Daz Studio to what I'm finding myself doing with it is just astounding me on a daily basis! I have to say that this impressive studio is a great way to launch ourselves into making our own, homemade CG movies!
The Evolution of Rosie : Early 2000s - 2025
The Evolution of Rosie : Early 2000s - 2025
From her early persona as a rogue Neverwinter Nights avatar through to today's ongoing development towards more believable performances delivered via carefully designed and executed facial musculature movements known as FACS (Facial Action Coding System) and the tools I teach to create and use in my Dynamic Character Animation in Daz Studio course to facilitate specialized controls that maintain Rosie's signature nuances and vitality.
Spending my first ten years in Carrara to learn new concepts and develop my own techniques to make them happen has eased my workflow into Daz Studio.
By the time Rosie had been developed to version 7 (Genesis 3 Female) I had decided to come up with a much better answer to the question: "Can we animate in Daz Studio"
Setting myself upon that course opened new doors that propelled Rosie's development and animated render output far beyond anything I had been able to accomplish previously with special thanks to Philip Staiger of Project Dogwaffle, Paul Bussey of Digital Art Live, and Jack Tomalin of Daz 3D. So to them I express my utmost gratitude!
Hellfire got me into the whole 3D side of things back in those early days at Neverwinter Nights, and even found himself among the credits of Neverwinter Nights 2! Bravo, kudos, and Thanks, man!!!
The entire Carrara community, the Daz Studio community, and all of the supporters of encouragement over the years - I give you my Special Thanks as well!!!
Tugpsx continues as part of my team, helping me delve into topics that otherwise put me in fear! LOL
Most recently, comments that turned into a wonderful voyage through the history of my YouTube channel, I'd like to call out a special Thank You to @うた-w2s for taking me on a journey of my own work, from oldest to newest. We're still in the middle of it and this enjoyable ride is truly what urged me to create this Epic video - an hour and a quarter of the Evolution of my Rosie!
So:
@うた-w2s, 良いことも悪いことも含め、私の仕事の歴史を辿るこの素晴らしい旅に私をお連れくださり、本当にありがとうございます！
あなたと共にこの探求の旅に出られることは、私にとって本当に光栄であり、心から感謝しています！
親愛なる友よ、ありがとう！
Thank You All for watching and encouraging my growth in all of this!
I Love You All!!!
Dartanbeck
At the beginning of my Evolution of Rosie video above, we can see a glimpse of how I animate Rosie's facial musculature Today - a process whose current identifier is "Rosie 8.25".
Rosie 8.24 and 8.25 are actually the same in visual appearance, and loading a Rosie 8.24 character will be the same as loading a Rosie 8.25 character, but loading a Rosie 8.24 (2024 process technology) saved animated file will be very different from a Rosie 8.25 save.
In 2024 I began implementing my own custom dials to Genesis 8 around the procedures that a Hollywood studio might use for implementing the FACS workflow for a specific, performance captured actor/character.
FACS (Facial Action Coding System - by Dr. Paul Ekman) was not actually intended to be used as a means for the government to be able to identify specific individuals from one another simply by facial motions - but it was discovered that it can help in such regards because of how unique each person's individual facial muscles "Fire: throughout their everyday life.
Yes, it's taught as a means of properly conveying Expressions upon a face, but as Richie Banham (WETA Digital) and his team utilize the system, we can animate how each person has their own true identity through their unique use of their facial musculature on a subconscious level, to develop cohesive actors that begin to remove the un-believe-ability of them due to their 3D model, stagnant and often too static (unused) facial control dials.
What I'm referring to at the end of that sentence is very evident in the base results from things like Mimic, Anilip, etc., that auto-generate lip sync. Performance capture is different in that it can automate a lot more of the actor's portrayal of the character. But it's still highly beneficial to edit these automated results to help finalize what we see on screen.
While automation tools can be a real blessing of an advantage as a starting point, it's also quite common for a "Home Animator", like myself, to stop there and call it a day. The result is an obvious 3D figure with generic, even if excellent, lip sync applied.
In his "Animation in Carrara" video course my dear friend and mentor, Mr. Phil Wilkes, demonstrates how much fun it can be to animate lip sync by hand key frame methods.
At the time of release and upon first viewing (same day! LOL) I thought he was Nuts for saying that.
I mean... we both (as well as many others) have an extraordinarily powerful version of Mimic Lip Sync - Mimic Pro for Carrara, which allows us the opportunity to create custom, individualized Mimic sessions for individual characters - which is really cool!
Well, nowadays, I can Completely see where he was coming from. Animating speech by hand key framing can be incredibly rewarding and personal for each individual character.
Then there are people like Wolf359 who can personalize characteristics of the face using Puppeteer and other methods - it's all a real treat that we can find so many different workflows to accomplish these goals of Humanizing our digital actors!
I use things like (right) this to help drive my inspiration for pushing myself forward.
Of course, these techniques and technologies are done with teams of people. My main Team is the evolution of Daz Studio software and the content creators making cool tools that help, like this Walk Designer. So... Daz 3D is my team!
As for the character of Rosie, I push that development further on my own, using my own videos and animations to help guide where to go next. Everything I learn while moving forward with her increases my skills for everyone else in the cast along the way. Since I work so hard to push Rosie's development for better animation forward, many of the techniques I train myself to use get more fluid and second-nature the more I perform the tasks - and the whole thing just keeps getting more fun - even if the results meant for a bit of a lapse in quality... I get to 'see' that on screen in my videos, pick myself up off the embarrassment floor, and move on, without removing these catastrophes from my channel. It's all just part of the whole experience.
Gallery > Inspiration is a place on my website that I use to collect and display videos like that, which is located in Gallery > Inspiration > Alita Battle Angel, and there are many more, and more will be added in time down the road.
I originally made that spot as a place for myself to go and relax and learn and get more and more inspired. Tutorials are great for learning the software and specific techniques, but these are excellent demonstrations that guide how I will use my growing knowledge to further my animation techniques, how I render them, how I portray them on screen, etc., So I find this Inspiration sections to be, to me, one of the most important - and I'm grateful that these top-of-the-class professionals are so willing and eager to share!
Like my Evolution of Rosie movie explains at the beginning, Rosie 8.25 is a brand new push forward for me and it's starting to take my animation skills to a whole new level of quality.
Most of the time when I mention the Rosie 8.25 advancements, I'm referring to my facial musculature system, which is still just pushing what I teach in my Dynamic Character Animation for Daz Studio course into deeper philosophies of how these custom controls make Daz Studio such a blast to animate in.
However, she's also seeing completely redesigned outfit changes and/or alterations and additions, newly sculpted shaping of her incredible dForce-simulated hair, by Linday, new makeup options and other detail enhancements that can be changed on the fly - specifically now because I'm also creating a whole new Content Library area specifically for the Rosie character - both 8.25 (and beyond) as well as Rosie 9, who still hasn't even found her way to an Alpha version yet.
No hurry on that front since, working with Rosie 8 is such a privilege. She's fun and exciting to animate and has access to a really good variety of tools that just are not available yet to Genesis 9 - at least not with as predictable results or ease of use. One day I'll get there, but until then, Rosie 8 Rocks!!!
A Whole Lotta Rosie!!!
A Whole Lotta Rosie!!!
The Digital Art Live courses that I've made, and now this persistent Creative Cart... I am Constantly - All day, Every day making scenes, animations, and recording imaginative workflow techniques to share with anyone and everyone. I love this!
Along the way, I always rely on Rosie to help me figure out how to conduct what's going on - whether it's a course, a Creative Cart, or a Community Workshop... Animating Rosie is my driving force for understanding what I need next.
Within that endeavor a Lot of little mini-stories are underway, but never actually started or finished. Just a glimpse into the middle of everything.
So I wanted to revisit all of the promo videos and community share videos and illustrations, to look into expanding upon these various tales and see what unfolds.
These creative juices are what fuels better workflows, new tools, updates to software, more and more fun purchases from the store and, probably most importantly, more time talking with Slater and Paul and all of you - reading your (even the really short) comments, questions, ideas, news... any conversation - any interaction, even online, with other people Always inspires new art to create in my mind. Then Daz Studio, Carrara, or Project Dogwaffle Pro - Howler (now just called PD Howler) allows me to just pour my imagination out into something that I can show to the world - completing the journey of that particular thought, or line on thinking.
Dart, you're babbling again!
Oh... okay... what did I come here to say? Oh... Right... Rosie!
Along with the animations, which I make to support each episode, I also create the music for these promos - each episode (so far) has it's own score - specifically made (by me) from the feelings that I'm having as I create the episode, which is also incredibly fun!
Time consuming? Well... Yes. But to me, it's all Very Worth It!
Using many of the animations and some of the music, I've combined some new and not-so-new, never before seen animations and let the music guide which animations come next - let the animations guide which animations come next, and let the series of animations and music guide which music to blend in next, so that I can decide upon which animation comes ne..... you get the idea.
I found it to be truly invigorating to discover how well music that was made for certain animations, certain stories and a specific flow, worked very well with animations that were running to a completely different tune!
The work of original Art and Music all created within the span of just over one year.
So here's the result of this incredibly fun project. I'm incredibly busy working on the next Creative Cart, so I worked very quickly putting this together after I was done for the day over two days, then spent another two days shuffling things around, blending, color grading, working with the music, the pacing... it was all done very quickly but I really enjoy the results - music and art - driven by the one who glue the Cat together - My Beloved, Beautiful, Wonderful Rosie! :)
Enjoy! A Whole Lot More Coming Soon!!!
Enjoy! A Whole Lot More Coming Soon!!!
Rosie 8.25 Rocks!!!
Rosie 8.25 Rocks!!!
Continuing on the path that began with Rosie 8.24, she now has a larger assortment of Rosie-specific facial musculature control dials and I will also be enhancing her with more pose controls to handle more situations with the flick of a dial.
Like Rosie 7 in the Dynamic Character Animation Course, Rosie 8.25 now has a lot more posture and movements controls making more and more motion capture data easily editable into a more "Rosie" style. For example using Zombie animations for when she's injured or just plain exhausted. These new controls remove the Zombie aspect while keeping the motions intact - which is incredibly valuable!
Rosie 8.25 also has a whole new sculpt on the hairline of her Classic Long Curly Hair with dForce, by Linday.
Previously, Rosie's stylized shapes kept the hairline really high on her forehead, hence my always using a headband. I really like the headband, but as we move ever forward with her, I wanted the option to go without the band.
Since I used Studio Premier's Geometry Sculptor (Thank You So Much, ManFriday!!!) to perform the sculpting, the new shape is held in a convenient shaping dial on the hair, so it's super easy to still wear the headband.
As I've hinted to above, The Creative Cart is ever pushing me to learn more, insisting that I create more animations and redress animations that I've already saved with new lighting, changes in facial expressions, maybe changing up the hair...
...all of this pushes her technology forward - sometimes in very big ways and other times a lot more subtle, but just as important.
I think that, as these facial animations continue, it's not a really Noticeable improvement up front, but it truly does make a difference in the end, and will continue to make her motions more and more believable - whether we can actually Notice why or not.
All new Rosie 8.25 Library Listing
All new Rosie 8.25 Library Listing
To continue to make everything Rosie more efficient, I'm creating a whole new listing in My Daz 3D Library just for her:
Rosie 8.25 Character, Shape, and Material Presets main heading: Rosie 8.25
Attire - Custom Wearables created especially for, and only for Rosie - and this has a sub-category for Material options for the clothing that I need Material changes for. Handy. Convenient. Efficient.
Details - Aeon Soul's Adventurer Skins, Various Wetness GeoShells, etc., including a repainting of Aeon Soul's Special Edition Alice - Onslaught Sisterhood cuts and bruises for V4 (brought into Affinity Photo and painstakingly refit color, spec, and bump maps to fit Genesis 8 Female UVs. I actually find this sort of work relaxing when I get the opportunity to actually do it - it does take time and focus after all!
Makeup - for Rosie 8.24 I started making Personas that applied various face paint for her Kadis Warrior, Aery Mage, and Vampi as the wearables were applied. Now I have them all saved as presets as well as one that removes everything.
aniBlocks - A special section of aniBlocks that work with Genesis 8 Female along with my own custom setups - like partials and facial controls. I still have my main aniBlocks section in the library, but this one Only deals with what can be applied to her.
As all of this progresses, I find it a much more efficient working environment across the board.
In The Creative Cart Special Edition - Episode 012, I demonstrated how I make these special library additions. The "Dartanbeck's VFX" category I made, and used throughout that episode is Amazing and I use it all the time! To demonstrate how I made that I made a sample one, which has turned into the one I've just described above - and it, too, is So Cool to Have!!!
With the "Dartanbeck's VFX" category, containing all of Josh Darling/Dimension Theory's Animated VDB system, all of The Philosopher's iReal, KindredArt's Environment Kits, my own Ghost Lighting setups, and more... I have an wealth of often-used tools at my fingertips at all times - which is a HUGE Boon to all of my work. All of these things are making it ever-more-possible for me to render entire scenes directly within Daz Studio without having to rely on all VFX being added in post - which is Amazing in many ways - and one of my favorites is that I can now move my camera however I like!!!
Code66 Toolboxes
Code66 Toolboxes
I have now collected all of the Code66 Toolboxes and used their awesome feature that adds them all conveniently to their own menu on the top of my workspace. So I used that same listing to add the rest of my Code66 scripts and tools, including the links to their manuals - since I'm still learning them.
These tools, although I'm still only using a fraction of them (I'll keep learning them as I go though) are saving me a Lot of time!
Also from Code66, I've had this really cool D&D area that he made, but I only just got around to trying it out - and I've learned a lot from using it - and I love how it looks.
Rosie 8.24
Rosie 8.24
Having fun with Icon Creator Pro, by MikeD, this is the new Tool Tip icon for Rosie 8.24, who is really working overtime these days - as am I.
Dartanbeck is starting to look like he might start making a presence too.
After a long month of fighting unjust from the corporate overlords, Dartan finds Rosie in the gutter - barely having in there.
He scoops her up, carries her home, and lets her recover in a nice dry bed with some of some clothes he ran and grabbed from a friend who runs a shop down the street.
The Incredible Rosie 8.24 - Part A - Daz Studio Animation
The Incredible Rosie 8.24 - Part A - Daz Studio Animation
Rosie 8.24 is constantly getting a workout, so I decided to put some of the tests together into a sequence.
Having her go from dry to soaking wet in the same shot is a new experiment I've been working on, as with the part where Dartanbeck, whose WIP is making a debut appearance, massages her and removes her shirt. Of course I used camera work to hide most of that.
The new car chase was built from scratch other than using the city base that I started creating for Kara Pitat's special Creative Cart presentation.
Speaking of... the beginning soundtrack: Metal Gate, was created by me for Kara Pitat's Creative Cart Promo videos
"Oppressed - But Not Afraid" and
"My Little Question"
are soundtrack titles in progress - meant for the first episode of Dartanbeck and Rosie - whenever that might happen. Like the soundtrack for Kara Pitat, they are modular for sculpting into movies, and what we hear here are some of the shortest variations.
Animating in Daz Studio is getting easier and easier with practice - still using the same principals I've been recommending all along in my courses and Creative Cart sessions - it just Rocks!
I'm going to start making fresh, new animation packs using Cascadeur, but that's only to fill gaps in motion availability. I still stand firm that the motions available at Daz 3D that I've been recommending are a wonderful way to get characters doing what we want - and, very much like building new animations in Cascadeur, we can sculpt the motions we have into whole new actions that fit with what we want!
aniMate 2 within daz Studio... it's a Win WIN!!!
Rosie 8.24 Cyberpunk Street Hero
Rosie 8.24 Cyberpunk Street Hero
Sometimes seen running around with Dartanbeck's mighty Legend Sword on her back, this adorable little street heroine sports Complicated Eve (Victoria 4) pants with custom geoshells over the mostly refractive and transparent pants proper - each shell using one of Jen Greenlees' Cybernetic Shaders for Iray, and they're housing Complicated Eve's gun-filled holsters, the boots and leg straps, and some fun tech parented all around - tools that help her to slip into cyber-space.
Also for the V4 era are her goggles, from V4 Brazen.
Her tank top is the undershirt from dForce Streetwear Outfit for G8F, the gloves are from Elita Cyberpunk Megapack for G8. The bandana on her head is actually a cap the the sun bill removed, sporting custom settings to one of Jen Greenlees' Somewhat Essential Iray Shaders.
Rosie 8.24 - New Wetness Methods
Rosie 8.24 - New Wetness Methods
Still images are one thing, but for animations Wet characters can pose several challenges.
It seems to me that one of the more difficult factors in "Wet" skin renders is the lighting.
If we're using any of the excellent Wet Skin products from Daz 3D, it's usually a matter of load n' go - ready to render. Except for one thing - the lighting.
One of the Wet Skin products I bought suggests that we don't get too bright face-on from the camera to the character, but to come in from behind.
We don't want the scene to be too dark, but the less bright it is the more the lighting will have lustrous effect on the wet shaders.
As always, I resort to joelegecko's HRDI Photoshoot, now with a version which adds a whole new realm of character lighting that is just a Blast to work with!
These things are each (each HDRI map from each pack) a studio lighting rig nicely presented via an HDRI lighting dome for Iray. So to tweak out how the lighting affects the scene, simply rotate the dome and find our favorite look.
Doing this often inspires me to try the mirrors of each, going back and forth for different shots - different camera angles, different side of the street, etc.,
This one is using SimonWM's Wet Body Iray, which comes with Iray Decal water droplets that can be animated - so this is a single frame of an animation with water droplets navigating Rosie's soaking curves! ;)
Linday's dForce Wet Style Curly Hair is an incredibly well-delivered Load n' Go situation. Shorter style or the base, which is nice and long, preset pose to clump the tips to make the hair appear to be Really soaked, with those options available as well for the ones that tuck the hair behind either or both ears - all from selection we make in the product folder!
Then we get Linday's usual Plethora of color choices, simulation settings, and option to make the hair look just damp or completely wet for the materials settings. Like I say... Load n' Go.
Press the Simulate button and if we've tucked the hair behind either or both ears using the library presets, the hair stays tucked behind the ear. Suggestions within the library offer advice on changing settings for more or less "Drenched" behavior during simulation.
I was amazed at how quickly this thing simulates too!
Now this is interesting and, if you really like to tweak skin to perfection but aren't savvy at fully editing an Iray/Daz Studio shader, I strongly suggest trying the version of this system that matches the figure your using. Like, I'm using Genesis 8 for Dartan and Rosie, so I have this bundle.
A very sophisticated system with a built-in control panel pane that we can launch with a click. Within that we have an incredible amount of skin appearance options that we can work with simply by working within this rather awesome set of controls.
She has three very nice videos that illustrate how to use the system, and further dives in to really show us how to get Really into it if we want - yet there is a wealth of simple presets for the system that we can use by clicking in the library - so simple-Simon, or dive in deep... V3Didgitimes has you covered!
BTW - her Pose control and alignment tools are truly incredible as well!!!
Long Wet Hair with dForce for Genesis 8 - by Linday
Long Wet Hair with dForce for Genesis 8 - by Linday
Okay, this is one Awesome pack!
We get this amazing hair for both Male and Female Genesis 8 which also comes with sets of GeoShells to make the characters really wet, sand clumps on the skin, or both. So this is a Huge value. The wet skin GeoShells are simple to use (Load n' Go!!!) and look Great!
As always, this hair looks Fantastic, simulates really well, and comes with all of the wonderful options that we've come to expect from a name like "Linday"! Kudos Linday!!!
Amazing!!!
This wonderful garment oozes all of the quality I've learned to expect every time I buy a new Linday.
A really cool method of setting which of the buttons are buttoned and which are not - with an optional load with All buttons buttoned.
We can set it to be wet or dry and it looks and simulates remarkably well. As with many intricately made items that scream realism, some care should be taken in how the arms and legs behave in an animation - and that really goes with any simulation no matter what we're using.
May the Forth be With You - Alwayth!!!
May the Forth be With You - Alwayth!!!
If you look closely, this particular Idle shot is using my early workings (current at this time) with the Micro-Expression animation that I've been talking about.
Throughout the entire animation, every muscle in her whole face is moving. The thing that makes it really hard to notice is because it's these micro-expressions that make the face look more natural. Our face muscles are constantly firing in many ways - so we're very used to seeing it on ourselves and other people - every day.
While we might not notice an absence of it in animations without full facial animation, it's that absence that truly helps to sell the fact that it is an artificial CG person.
But much more, creating a workflow for utilizing micro-expressions is what really helps us to define the look of the character throughout every action. So we don't use single, 'fix-it-all' dials to do these. Instead we use what those dials are driving - individually. This allows, say... Peter, to look like Peter no matter what he's doing. How can we tell? By the facial actions. That's how.
We're all incredibly different in this. From what our mouths are doing when we're just sitting there watching TV, reading a book, listening to someone talk, talking to someone, think about something... our facial muscles are always moving.
Getting used to animating on this level doesn't take long once we establish which of the muscles do what it takes to identify This character. Once we have that down, the more generic emotion changes become much more effective.
As we identify these 'characteristic changes' for the specific character, we'll notice that it doesn't take many new custom dials to more easily add the character's identity on the fly, for all animations.
Wording this for reading is one thing - showing you what I mean will be far easier. I'll see what I can do.
Rosie 8 Revisited
Rosie 8 Revisited
Rosie 8.24 is discovering new ways to look and feel more natural in her animations.
The frame we see on the left here is just a still - of course. Within the actual animation, all of her facial muscles are moving (firing) throughout each frame - but as the animation plays back it looks so natural that we don't notice it. We just see the subtle facial changes of her mouth and lips as she breathes, maybe pick up on her blinking, but the fact that her eyes are constantly moving... it doesn't look like they are - it all just works - which is what I'm going for.
We may not 'notice' that her eyes are moving, but the fact that they are makes it less obvious that she's a hand-animated 3D figure.
Using Dynamic Character Animation techniques, she's constantly getting new posing and expression dials and, adding Anilip 2 (text/audio Lip Sync plugin) adds a plethora of fun lip and jaw dials for Genesis 8 that are fun for adding realism to any animation - and will now become incorporated into further Dynamic Character dials for expressive micro-movements.
In the actual animation she's standing more upright, which didn't seem to look right with this big sword. I've mad a custom dial that widens her stance, bringing the hip down keeping the feet on the floor and also rolling and bending her feet to match the pose changes. So we can dial it all the way up bringing her much closer to the ground, and we can also use any position in between, which is what we're seeing above. Then I simply hunched her forward a little using my original set of custom dials and posed her arms and hands to hold the sword, and to move along with her motions. It turned out really nice!
This is all a Lot of fun!!!
Just recently I decided to save myself a lot of time from jumping around using so many dials to animate her eye movements, so I made a few simple custom Dynamic Character Animation dials that move the upper and lower eyelids as I move the eyes. What a great help! Wow!
And the few dials that I just made before that, for adding "Rosie" shapes and movements to her lips, eyes, and brows have really proven to be a massive boon to getting better, more realistic results on her facial actions.
Micro-Expression Facial Musculature - Character Specific
Micro-Expression Facial Musculature - Character Specific
A major part of what's coming in 2024's Rosie 8 is a set of controllers that are created to control FACS muscle movements at a Character-Specific level, so that Rosie's micro-expressions are unique to her.
Eyes, lids, brows, nasolabial fold (corner crease of the outer nostrils), nostrils, lips, jaw, tongue, jugular...
The way these muscles operate on a face are part of every individual's uniqueness.
While these controls will work on any Genesis 8 female, they are designed and organized specifically for Rosie 8, so I won't use them for anyone else. They can have their own! ;)
It's not just the unique pulls, twists, bends, etc., but how and when they're fired according to her current behavior is what will distinguish her from everybody else.
Once we get to the point where we're taking actual performance capture from Real Rosie, these controls will be valuable for the 'final mix' of correcting the crossover from the absolutely real shape to the stylized 3D Avatar.
Creating new custom action dials (as we make in the Dynamic Character Animation course) that quickly facilitate total changes to animations. In this case a single dial that widens the stance, lowering her hip at the same time - making this stance easily added to most idle-style actions. This pose was inspired by a promo picture for one of Aeon Soul's excellent pose packs. I'll probably make another that puts her hands in her pockets as seen here.
To finish off the total pose change from the original animation, 3D Universe's LimbStick script is utterly powerful!
Rosie 8 2024
Rosie 8 2024
No, we're not changing Rosie 8!
Rosie 2024 is going to be a wonderful, progressive and aggressive additions that will improve her performance and create identifiable characteristics and behaviors to help her stand out from the crowd even more.
This page kind of goes backwards in time. So the material at the top of the page is the most current. Some things might go slightly out of order chronologically as we scroll down the page, but for the most part, as I advance her technology the reports will go on the top of the page - unless otherwise noted.
The image above shows a single frame of the result of some of her current improvements made for 2024 - most notably to me, the hair. If we look at the hair below this report under the heading "Jammin my new Rosie 8!" we'll notice how she began 2024 with what I thought was going to be an improvement. In practice, however - when I see that version of the hair in my early 2024 videos, I can't stand it!
These kinds of things can happen as we get focused on certain parts of the project - we have a glaring problem right in front of us and we don't realize it until after we publish videos demonstrating how awesome our horrible mistake is!!! LOL
So I got rid of the idea of 'topping off' her Classic Long Curly Hair and went back to similar settings that I used for the ever-so-amazing Rosie 7 and started working new simulation experiments from there.
After a Lot of experiments, tests, and practice renders I've come up with settings that have the hair working better than ever - I think. We'll see after I publish some videos, which is when I really get to see how progress is going.
Other changes that can be seen in that image include her slightly altered Metro cargo pants and newer render settings for the character renders, which don't add a whole lot of extra time but greatly improve the final image - special thanks to a chat I had with the Wonderful Jay Verluis, whom I learn from constantly!
Something that is less obvious in that image is hopefully going to be the star of 2024 for Rosie's animations - new custom action dials - made using the methods demonstrated in Dynamic Character Animation for Daz Studio.
She'll be getting her own custom dials for her own specific personality - both in facial musculature and body movement. New arm and hand/finger dials, new posture controls including the widened stance she's holding, secondary breathing dial and a lot more are on their way.
Additionally, I'm being more diligent at using Bone Minion and Body2Hip to bring a Lot more aniBlocks into my Genesis 8 library. On that note, I also just got a new Bone Minion that transfers Genesis 8 poses to Genesis 1, which will greatly speed up the ability for me to populate the scenes with more people and creatures.
There's a Lot more planned and a Lot more to report - so hopefully I'll be posting more info on Rosie 8's 2024 Behind-the-Scenes in the very near future - stay tuned!!!
Delving Deeper into Micro-Movements for Animations
Delving Deeper into Micro-Movements for Animations
I've been doing it to the full body in little ways for years. Now I'm focusing
my attention on FACS (Facial Action Coding System) and adding subtle micro-changes in what the facial musculature is conveying to us.
Our brains are so much faster than anything else we know of, and 'knows' exactly what each and every muscle is going to do before it happens. That's pretty
damn fast. So for micro-movements, we're using what we know the character is 'going to do' and simulate the process that the brain sends to the whole body
to make it react properly to the situation.
Some people almost always smirk their mouth before speaking. Some might look away without changing the aim of the face - rolling the eyes off to the side - maybe up too. Some might always move their scalp around or follow up everything they say with a clenched chin.
All of these little near-involuntary muscle movements truly help us to identify with each individual in ways we might not even realize. We get used to it almost immediately
in most cases. Some folks behaviors might always put us into an uneasy feeling. But everybody has their own, whether they really want to or not.
If we're made aware of these things that we do we can focus on it and change it. But we'll seldom recognize what we're doing unless someone points it out or we decide
to focus hard on our own musculature habits that we've sculpted into our brains default mannerisms.
The best way to convey these sorts of things is to use advanced performance capture on the actor. But what if we don't have an actor or an advanced Performance Capture
setup?
Well, we imagine our own mannerisms for the character we're animating and make custom dials for them - so we can use those on the fly as they should be called forth.
Like the guy who always seems to chew when he not doing anything else.
It adds a whole new depth to trying to complete an animation. For one thing, when we get these sorts of things timed wrong, it really looks bad. You see examples of that
in my videos all the time - but I still use the clip anyway - well... sometimes it's bad enough where I won't! LOL
Some of her new costumes.
Some of her new costumes.
The red suit in the above images is a bit of a work in progress for her sexy space attire. More info on that as we advance it further.
Below
Below
The one on the left simply uses a different material preset for the cargo pants, but under the hood the pants have been optimized to better cope with the plethora of Rosie's action movements. I must say, Aeon Soul knows how to deliver The Highest Quality! Amazing mesh and materials, but the included morphs and tweaking options are second to none. The optimizations I made are slight and only necessary for the image on the right.
On the right - the same main costume (I call it CP - Metro) but with an open Linday's Boyfriend Shirt Dress that Rosie has tucked into the front of her cargo pants. It's quite impressive how well it simulates without failing and having a very natural motion to it.
I use it as part of my demonstration in DAZ Studio : Movie Magic and it turned out excellent. I was reusing a previous animation and purposely didn't alter the arms animations before running the simulation, so that I could demonstrate how I correct these common dForce Explosion failures.
We needed a new home from which to grow all of this exciting information around animating in Daz Studio
For me, that all revolves around aniMate 2.
There's a Lot more to it than that, but it truly is aniMate 2 within Daz Studio that allows us to take any motion data and combine it and alter it in many ways before committing to the timeline.
And once we're in the Timeline, we can always send it back to aniMate 2 to blend in more, or....
The possibilities are endless!
Jammin my new Rosie 8!
Jammin my new Rosie 8!
Daz sales events really helped me boost what I'm doing with her, and where she's acting.
I now have a lot of new tools to work with which is very exciting.
One of the big ones right now is the complete MeshGrabber Bundle. This thing allows us to select and move vertices, lines and/or polygons and, best still, we can create a new morph dial for the results of the MeshGrabber session we're currently on, even if we've switched tools, changed the timeline, etc., and this new morph dial can be used in this scene alone, saved to the actual item it's being used on or, what I sometimes do is to simply save the item as a new wearable, so it has the dials but the official product remains undisturbed.
This ability to turn the results into morph dials is the big deal for me. It allows me to make corrections to simulation results or, instead of 'corrections' just a bit of artistic alteration.
MeshGrabber is also great for animating things that we're not simulating!
I had a short stint with her looking a lot more realistic - shape-wise, but then I opted to go back to the cute stylized look, and I'm much happier for it. Sexy and cute is what she's all about.
I was just writing in my Art Studio thread about how quickly eyes target things in real life - even without the person realizing it.
I've tried a new attempt at how to go about simulating this in animations:
She's come into the room, put her fists on the table and started talking about what's on her mind to the off-screen Dartanbeck.
3D Universe's LimbStick worked beautifully holding her fists in place on the table as the animation wiggles her around, and then I simply animated by hand what her arms and hands do as she stands back up at the end. It all looks fabulous.
To get her eyes doing what I want, I have a rig that I've made up that focuses her eyes at a specific target within the rig. So I can align the rig to various location to have her eyes change focus. Works really well.
So for this one, I dropped in a Genesis figure, animated it with an Idle conversation, and parented the eye targeting rig to his head.
The head of Genesis moves around throughout the animation, and Rosie's eyes track it. Worked really well in this first go!
There's a lot to consider when starting over from scratch.
I began by creating a rough resemblance and then started adding custom control dials. Running her through animations with hair and cloth simulations is essential to make sure we're getting everything right.
This task is getting more and more awesome for me the deeper I step into it.
Getting Ensley HD for Genesis 8 Female was a really good move for me. I always liked the custom sculpting - especially the mouth. Those feet are absolutely stunning too, so I'll definitely be getting some shots of her feet when we start rendering.
I'm still working out the final shape. Currently her head is 75% Sol, 75% Ensley, and 40% Lara.
bluejaunte (at Daz 3d) really knocked it out of the park with this one.
Ensley is a masterpiece character with HD details that we can choose to use or not.
Until I get a beefier system, I need to shy away from HD character shaping or my system goes down. Ensley looks Phenomenal even without the HD details applied!
Check out the store page for her, and check out the highly detailed feet she has. Custom sculpts galore for Genesis 8 Female, and the asymmetric teeth and custom smile makes her So Precious.
Although I've chosen to stick with Sol's incredible skin shaders, Ensley's are absolutely Top Notch! Sol's just a better fit for Rosie, is all.
Now I'm working on the hair. I really like what we've got going on so far, but since I'm in this whole "Starting Over" period, I want to push a little harder on this.
I've just created another fun blend with her hair pulled back and currently a bit more sun-bleached (for a reason) and stored it away as a wearable preset group, so I can work with it more when I get to it.
Right now (as I'm typing) I'm analyzing various affects with different setting for the individual layers of dForce Long Curly Hair. I had certain workflow habits with Rosie 7, so now I'm dropping the muscle-memory for a moment and digging deeper into other options.
For me this is a really good move because That hair is what directed my into this path in the first place - and I'm grateful for it. Finding my favorite settings for this hair was something I've established with myself at my very earliest stages in Daz Studio for animation. I've teaked my methods along the way, but didn't want to wander too far away from what I knew worked well. The simulations do take a considerable amount of time, so "playing around with experimentation" wasn't something I did very often.
This Hair ROCKS!!!
This Hair ROCKS!!!
Years later, along with expanding my collection of Linday's dForce hair I've learned a lot, and at this initial stage of character development, I don't want to rush.
This particular hair product is really amazing. Curly hair that simulates really well. It's dense. Lots and lots of polygons!
It's really neat how it's built in four well-designed layers. There are morph parameters for each layer and they each have their own material zones - even better, the roots are separated out in to their own zones as well.
That makes the look incredibly customizable, but for dForce it means the world of difference. We can set completely different simulation parameters for each individual layer as well as their roots - and Linday's setting are superb to start with.
It's obvious that Linday has put a Lot of time into testing each of the hair products.
It's crazy how life works sometimes.
I just had a major data crash and lost years of work - everything just... Gone!
Rosie 7 and all that came before and after her - all of the custom things I've made: aniBlocks, control dials, clothing, texture maps... not to mention the nearly 2TB of animation renders I was about to composite into a short movie.
Along with all of that also went my entire Daz 3d content library.
The content library was the least of my worries thanks to DIM (Daz Install Manager), which I let chug away overnight as it got me my most needed items installed to start getting back on my feet. Over 2,800 products downloaded and installed in the few short hours I slept. That's So Cool!
Well, when I was talking about Rosie 7 - and even in my Dynamic Character Animation course for Daz Studio, I mention that I'm using Genesis 3 Female because 8 just isn't working very smoothly in my viewport, making it annoying to work.
I had forgotten that, back when I first started attempting to animate in Daz Studio I was really green with how to do certain things. Carrara is completely non-destructive to the Daz 3d Content Library because it's incapable of writing the neccessary files to wreck anything.
The same does not apply to Studio, since it's designed from the ground up to allow artists to be able to create custom figures, props, etc., so it Has to be able to be Destructive - it really does.
Anyway, trying to build my first custom Rosie 8 back then, I accidentally wrecked my Genesis 8 Base Female. Richard Haseltine from Daz 3d helped me get her squared away again, or so I thought - but like I said... I was Really Green in regards to Daz Studio at that time.
Now that I lost everything but my preferences, the fresh installation of everything totally fixed it!
Rosie 7 was started at a time when I didn't have much at all for Genesis 3, so I transferred every little thing I could think of from the V4 family, Genesis and Genesis 2 Female using GenX2, and custom built everything from there. She really was a special character. All of her expressions before I got the Genesis 3 & 8 Face Controls product (I Love It!!) were hand-created dials made using any facial morph I could use to get the right "Rosie" expression. I built in all manner of muscle movements for animation realism as well. So pretty much everything about Rosie 7 was custom.
I do want to try and reconstruct her someday, but I need to get back on my feet.
I started creating Rosie 9 and she's looking marvelous. But whenever I work with Genesis 9 every so often, when I turn on Iray in the viewport, Daz Studio does a hard crash. I'm still working on her here and there, but I need something that works on my system for the immediate long haul.
Whew... I think that takes care of the long introduction that brought me to wanting to try my hand at an all new Rosie 8!
After my first couple of hours working on her, I am already convinced that I have my Rosie 8 working. Since I'm working from scratch having to start all over, this time I'm using my story to drive how I proceed with this, so Rosie is a very young adult at this point.
Like Rosie 7, I began with Sol as the base to start with. Victoria 8 provides much of the body shape along with a plethora of other tweaks, and Thorne's Lara adds that touch of stylization to her face, with Sol's lovely face left full-on and she'll be using Sol's incredible surface materials as well.
Being young and on her own, I wanted to do something a bit special with her hair - beginning with the very hair that drove me to Daz Studio in the first place - Linday's incredible Classic Long Curly Hair with dForce for Genesis 8 Females. I wanted the top of her head to be fraught with curls with a nice, messy edge to it all. I ended up customizing a copy of Lani Hair for Genesis 3 Females, and spent quite a lot of time later getting the materials to match up - and I'm probably not finished with that part yet.
Getting MeshGrabber jst before this whole data crash was a real blessing. I haven't even had a chance to try it out yet at this point. Wow! What a difference that tool makes for a customizer like myself!
Right: First draft WIP - Rosie 8 Revisited - 07/28/2023
...Top Hair materials weren't match yet
Next, I knew I needed to start putting her in motion. That's when I realize the most obvious changes that need to be made. So I took a break from the design process to fill Genesis 8 Female full of Custom Control Anim + dials. And wow, did I ever make some really good ones! The new Breathe for Genesis 8F is really good! I stuck with Genesis 8 instead of 8.1 because I really love using the Genesis 3 & 8 Face Controls product, which was a direct answer to 8.1 getting that FACS gizmo.
So I immediately started getting my Anim + dials into the Face Controls. I still have a lot more to add, but I've got a really good start.
Daz 3d has really been rolling out the content and celebrating with massive sales discounts. That's how I was able to grab a bunch of new Stonemason, Mesh Grabber Bundle, Render Queue 3 and a whole slew of other amazing products.
Today (time of this writing) there was a special: Use xxx Code to get 50% off up to 3 things from your wish list!
So I got PoseRecorder to try out and Rosie's new costume starter: Elita Cyberpunk Megapack, by BatKitteh Co!
Oh I've been drooling over that set since the first time I saw it!
And it Is special! I'm amazed at how customizable everything is - without having to make custom things. And it really looks good.
The materials are Awesome! The dress portion works very nicely in dForce, and is also rigged very well so we don't have to simulate it if we prefer not to - or simply don't have time to. Crazy Awesome!
I've barely started converting my M4/V4/Genesis aniBlocks to Genesis 3 and will be continuing with that tonight. But at my very earliest opportunity, I'm getting some more Bone Minions. I love these things!
I've also decided to start combing through mCasual's site for scripts and stuff. Too long have I gone without, so this New Beginning will change that.
To Be Continued...
To Be Continued...
Simply log into the Daz 3d forums and send a PM to Dartanbeck with the code
While you're at it, go ahead and ask me a question about my workflow or techniques, products, anything! Always happy to help!
Support for this site goes directly into more creative workflows, animations and articles
A very special and warm Thank You to those who help!
A very special and warm Thank You to those who help!
I love and appreciate you all!!! Thank You!!!
I love and appreciate you all!!! Thank You!!!
Appreciation for Your Support!
Appreciation for Your Support!
In honor of the Wonderful People who enjoy what I do enough to offer support, This Appreciation Page is For You!
For those who have asked to remain anonymous, I have not included you in there. If you'd like to be included, I'd Love to!
Anonymous or otherwise, I really appreciate your Support - and All of it goes Directly into what I'm working on at that time, so it's a Huge benefit. Thank You So Much!!!
Every opportunity I get to make improvements is a delightful boon and helps push everything forward!
Rosie Rough Rider - The Fourth Frame
In that same thread, I detail the workflow used to create a "Rough Ride" on Cyberpunk Motorcycle, by Charlie - though the same method will work with any bike.
Most of the animation came from an In-Place Zombie Walk from Mocap Online's Zombie Animations Collection P1 for Victoria 8, believe it or not!
Find out the whole story!
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I don't do subscription plans, but AVFX+ is much different - if you cancel, you keep what you got! But they also offer non-subscription sales as well - which is Brilliant! Check them out!
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