Helpful Animation Tools for Daz Studio
Especially when coming from other 3D animation applications, Daz Studio doesn't seem very friendly when it comes to animations.
So why do it?
My number one answer to that is: Compatibility and Time.
Daz Studio rocks in almost everything else. Sure, we can't model 3d objects directly in Studio, but once we've made a model we can bring it into Studio and turn it into an actual product. A Great Product!
With the addition of Iray along with a free route into OctaneRender, Daz Studio is very powerful at turning its massive collection of support products into absolutely beautiful images. Buy anything made for Daz Studio and it works in Daz Studio.
Now that they've also added dForce, we're really making a strong argument.
Daz Studio comes with a nice, bare-bones version of aniMate 2. That works if we just want to toss in an aniBlock and call it a day.
By adding the full version of aniMate 2 we can take our animation activities Much further with some really cool added tools, like the ability to create custom aniBlocks, aniMate constraints let us parent and unparent objects along the timeline, we can use motion paths with key frame dots to drag-edit our aniBlocks directly in the viewport and a whole lot more.
Even if its not on sale, aniMate 2 is very much worth the investment if we plan to animate in Daz Studio.
Beyond that, there are a plethora of wondrous tools available at Daz 3d that can really help our workflow. He is a look at some of my current addons that I've added to my Daz Studio experience, and find them to be really helpful toward Animating in Daz Studio.
Bone Minion - by Riversoft Art
Bone Minion is fairly new as of this writing, and it is an Incredible set of tools that is as easy to use as it is Powerful! The Bone Minion itself converts pose information from one figure's generation and gender to the figure it's applied to.
Bone Minion applies to our figures as a collection of 3d bones - the kind of bones we see in rigging. We apply the correct Bone Minion to our figure by choosing the name of the figure the poses (or aniBlocks) were originally intended for.
So if I'm using Genesis 8 Male and want to use Victoria 4 aniBlocks, I'd select my Genesis 8M figure in the scene pane and apply the Bone Minion for V4.
Now we select the Bone Minion and apply the pose. The result will immediately appear on the figure the Bone Minion is applied to. Magic!
For Rosie 7, I was using the Zaz Animation Conversion Script and then creating aniBlocks from the results. With Rosie 8, I didn't really have a way to do the same, so I used The Ultimate Pose Convertor morph for G3F to G8F along with my G3F aniBlocks. It works.
With Bone Minion, I can just use any aniBlock, pose, or animated pose I want and either use it right away or create a new aniBlock first.
Once a few successful (Very Successful!) tests, I was convinced and have so far added the following Bone Minions to my Daz Studio:
This adds Bone Minions to transfer converted poses from any Generation 4 (V4, M4, A4, H4, etc.,) to the Genesis figure in the title
This adds Bone Minions to transfer converted poses from any Genesis 2 figure to the Genesis figure in the title as well as Generation 4 figures
This adds Bone Minions to transfer converted poses from any Genesis 3 figure to the Genesis figure in the title as well as Generation 4 figures
Genesis 3 Poses for Genesis 9
This was the first one I bought to test a theory regarding going from Rosie 7 to Rosie 9
Bone Minion products (all) come with a special Bone Minion called "Heavyweight Bone Minion", which takes a bit longer to load and a bit longer to process transfers because it can handle morphs as well as joint rotations.
The regular Bone Minion could take care of all of the aniBlocks I made for Genesis 3, but if I would take my completed animations with morphs and soft-body dynamics, and create aniBlocks from them (checking the Morphs box during creation) I can use this Heavyweight Bone Minion to transfer it all.
My hunch was correct and it works like a charm!
Note that the products will say "Genesis 2" instead of Genesis 2 Male or Genesis 2 Female. That's because they all come with Bone Minions for both genders where applicable. So we can even choose a Genesis 3 Male Bone Minion for genesis 3 Female to convert G3M poses to G3F, for example.
taking a quick break - to be continued...