Animation Experiments.

[parkdalegardener]

I have the entire CM library stashed. Poser, which I use; has no problem with BVH. There is a free Blender add-on that re-targets iClone, BVH, FBX, and most anything else to DAZ3D formats. I can't think of it's name off hand as Poser uses both, FBX poorly; and BVH usually perfectly. I personally use collada or alembic and move Poser animation into Blender. Faster Cycles rendering and more control over the whole project without needing a separate NLVE tool. 

[M-Callahan]

Thanks for letting me know about the Carnagie Mellon Project.

Presently I am working with converted files from Carnagie Mellon on the cgspeed site.  https://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/motion-capture/the-daz-friendly-bvh-release-of-cmus-motion-capture-database

Daz studio uses BVH files for animations.  FBX file work well in Blender.  These are to low cost alternatives to using animation files instead of spending thousands of dollars for high end software. 

These BVH files are free from cgseed.  Only one draw back they work with earlier character models of DAZ studio. 
They work with earlier models of DAZ models like:  3rd gen: Aiko 3, Victoria 3, Hiro 3, SP3, Michael 3, David 3
   4th gen: Aiko 4, Victoria 4, SP4, Michael 4, and from what I have been seeing what these with the first generation of Genesis.  But it takes some tweaking to get this series to behave right. Higher generations of Genesis Model really don't work with these files that is Genesis 2 and beyond.   Also they do work some what with earlier Millennium Figures as in Michael 1 and 2 haven't tested any other characters yet in the early Millennium Group yet.   As for Poser I don't know if they work.  But I believe it is how the model is boned that make a difference if it will work or not on a certain series of BVH files.   I don't think re-boning a newer character is worth the effort so that a newer model will work with older and limited BVH files. 

[parkdalegardener]

I don't use DS but I can offer some insights.

You might want to track down the Carnagie Mellon BVH files. There was a time that DS could import them. Probable still can. That will give you all the mo-cap animal movements you could ever want to use as bases for your own movements. There are plenty of BVH files for people in them as well. ShareCG hosted a copy at one time.

As for working in smaller size and scaling up, there are free unattended scaling scripts available that will upscale your animation to most any size you need from most any small size you work in.

[M-Callahan]

After 18 years of rendering still pictures, it seems logical to move on to animation to keep an interest in 3d art.  I like a challenge in doing things I am not familiar with and learn new things. 

[thelufias]

You're really getting into this aren't you.  I'm enjoying the vids.....great job this far...

[M-Callahan]

The title of this short is called: Evil Presence in the Main Core of Computer Room   

Finally figured how to move a person walking forward in a walking cycle.  Need to learn more on editing the person walking on ground if you noticed the feet are not place correctly.  Since this is my first time doing this, I notice thing that need more attention to make it perfect.  Will be going on to a different topic for study so not to bore people with the same thing over and over again.  Will also share items that are of interest for leaning.

[M-Callahan]

Now I am using MoCaps or Motion Capture so I can learn how to create forward motion for a walk cycle.  Here is a good article explaining MoCaps:  https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-mocap-definition/..   Plus there is a very good online tutorial from the WP Guru one YouTube :

This has an indept explaination on how the timeline works in DAZ studio. 

Eventually I want to not only create a short story, but also want to animate some animals as well, using Muybride's plates on locomotion that he did in the late 19th century around 1887 with his first publication.  As you know there is not that much for animals that sell 3d animation captures or poses and would like to animate them.   Presently rendering out very large scene.

[M-Callahan]

Working on cleanup and using Photoshop for Onion Skinning (A way of putting on one picture on top of the other on translucent paper to check animation.)   Using the key fames poses one can go through them three or four at a time to find flaws in the poses compared to the other poses in the series.   Noticing that I had a lag in the arm while walking help me pinpoint the flaw quickly.

Another thing I found out I can render faster if I reduce the size of the image even though it may not have the full quality of full size render it is hardly noticeable due to the fact that the image is moving.  I have reduce the size of the render in half which mean the render for the series of picture which is a one hundred render is reduce to 40 mins from over an hour for each camera angle.  I used eight cameras it took over 9 hours to render a few second of video.  Now with the reduced size it takes about 4 hours or a little less to render all frames.

One other thing I have learn is that you have to render out the full time of the action or scene, to eliminate lags to instead of trying to edit it in a video editor, since the video will lag in-between the block of video in the editor and will show up in the play back on the video .   

Below is how I used Photoshop to find a posing error on the key frames with the arm.

[thelufias]

Indeed you do....

[M-Callahan]

Thanks for the comment. It seem like I get a little bit better with each attempt.