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KeyMate from goFigure this month

nieman151_516f901a4anieman151_516f901a4a Posts: 0
edited December 1969 in Art Studio

I was on the goFigure website and saw a forum post about keyMate. It looks like it'll make creating aniblocks a lot easier as you'll be able to edit keyframes.

From the post: "keyMate is a traditional animation solution especially useful for creating animation from scratch. Visually copy, paste, move, and delete keys with great efficiency. Easily do these things on an entire figure or even scene, without all the busywork. Want to do a simple animation of the camera or lights and then adjust the timing? keyMate is the answer."

I know a lot of you have been wanting better animation tools in DS for a while -- hopefully this is it!

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Comments

  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,165
    edited December 1969

    fivecat said:
    I was on the goFigure website and saw a forum post about keyMate. It looks like it'll make creating aniblocks a lot easier as you'll be able to edit keyframes.

    From the post: "keyMate is a traditional animation solution especially useful for creating animation from scratch. Visually copy, paste, move, and delete keys with great efficiency. Easily do these things on an entire figure or even scene, without all the busywork. Want to do a simple animation of the camera or lights and then adjust the timing? keyMate is the answer."

    I know a lot of you have been wanting better animation tools in DS for a while -- hopefully this is it!

    wow that sounds great.. thanks for the news :)

  • bighbigh Posts: 8,147
    edited December 1969

    fivecat said:
    I was on the goFigure website and saw a forum post about keyMate. It looks like it'll make creating aniblocks a lot easier as you'll be able to edit keyframes.

    From the post: "keyMate is a traditional animation solution especially useful for creating animation from scratch. Visually copy, paste, move, and delete keys with great efficiency. Easily do these things on an entire figure or even scene, without all the busywork. Want to do a simple animation of the camera or lights and then adjust the timing? keyMate is the answer."

    I know a lot of you have been wanting better animation tools in DS for a while -- hopefully this is it!

    Thinking its for DS 4.5 .

  • nieman151_516f901a4anieman151_516f901a4a Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    bigh said:

    Thinking its for DS 4.5 .


    That would be a safe assumption. Is 4.5 a problem on your computer, Bigh? Or do you just prefer a previous version? I still use DS3 for animation just because I have everything set up how I like and it doesn't have the big fisher-price buttons that take up too much space.
  • bighbigh Posts: 8,147
    edited December 1969

    fivecat said:
    bigh said:

    Thinking its for DS 4.5 .


    That would be a safe assumption. Is 4.5 a problem on your computer, Bigh? Or do you just prefer a previous version? I still use DS3 for animation just because I have everything set up how I like and it doesn't have the big fisher-price buttons that take up too much space.

    no I use 4.5 - don't even have 3 set up any more .
    I like 3 better for some things - but never set up on my new puter .
    got used to 4.5 now .
    its all fun .

  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,165
    edited December 1969

    I use daz3a for animation also fivecat, my reason is because i have tons of VFX tools that don't work in daz4.5 and a ton of stuff that does not animate well in daz4.5 one problem i have still is with the feet. and shoes. I am getting better with the autofit tool but its way to much work using it for animation. so i opt for pp2012 and ds3a with conforming clothing it's much easier for me when it comes to animating characters.

    On a positive note., once i have recovered financially from my computer crash, I'll be contacting you Fivecat.. I'm still interested in buying your horse animations. its just not a good time of year for having any extra cash and having a $600 set back. didn't help much . But I wanna let you know i am still interested in your horse ani blocks..

  • nieman151_516f901a4anieman151_516f901a4a Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Ivy said:
    I use daz3a for animation also fivecat, my reason is because i have tons of VFX tools that don't work in daz4.5 and a ton of stuff that does not animate well in daz4.5 one problem i have still is with the feet. and shoes. I am getting better with the autofit tool but its way to much work using it for animation. so i opt for pp2012 and ds3a with conforming clothing it's much easier for me when it comes to animating characters.

    On a positive note., once i have recovered financially from my computer crash, I'll be contacting you Fivecat.. I'm still interested in buying your horse animations. its just not a good time of year for having any extra cash and having a $600 set back. didn't help much . But I wanna let you know i am still interested in your horse ani blocks..

    I have a couple plug-ins I use a lot that aren't available for 4.5, plus as I said I just like the aniMate layout in DS3A better. I'll have to learn how to do some customizing at some point. :smirk:

    I agree, the autofit shrink wrap and poke-through are a problem for animating clothing. I do want to start doing more animation with genesis.

    Regarding the horse animations -- I picked up the new horse, so I'll be refitting the aniblocks to the new horse soon, so I'll have both available. I now have poser versions also, although it's a bit different as poser doesn't have the easy looping and subtracks.

  • ammon_fde0d92863ammon_fde0d92863 Posts: 119
    edited December 1969

    Not just this month, it is released today
    - http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/13137/

  • davesolodavesolo Posts: 15
    edited December 1969

    I just bought key mate and have been using it for a couple hours. I have noticed there are no morph keyframes. It works great but morphs are a big part of animation. Am i missing something?

  • ammon_fde0d92863ammon_fde0d92863 Posts: 119
    edited December 1969

    davesolo said:
    I just bought key mate and have been using it for a couple hours. I have noticed there are no morph keyframes. It works great but morphs are a big part of animation. Am i missing something?

    Thank you. For morphs you will want to change that dropdown in the top center that has TR showing to the TRSV option. Meaning Translation, Rotation, Scaling, Values. Values means morphs and all other values.

  • davesolodavesolo Posts: 15
    edited December 1969

    Great! Thanks for the quick response! Ill give it a shot

  • davesolodavesolo Posts: 15
    edited December 1969

    Works great!! LOL the trsv was in the read me! Must read closer!

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,245
    edited December 1969

    There isn't much info available on this new product - nothing on GoFigure site other than the coming in December splash page. So, I have some questions:
    1) Does KeyMate work in conjunction with Animate2 and Aniblocks, or is my investment in those technologies wasted when using KeyMate? For example, can I create animation with Animate2 and Aniblocks and tweak it with KeyMate?
    2) How does KeyMate integrate with the DAZ Timeline? Or does it replace DAZ timeline?
    3) Does KeyMate work for all DAZ figures? Aniblocks were for gen 4 figures mostly and did not translate well to Genesis (for me).

  • nieman151_516f901a4anieman151_516f901a4a Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Go Figure said:
    Not just this month, it is released today

    Great news. Just grabbed it. I might have to wait to play with it though.

  • dtammdtamm Posts: 126
    edited December 2012

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/13137/#189696

    Post edited by dtamm on
  • ammon_fde0d92863ammon_fde0d92863 Posts: 119
    edited December 1969

    barbult said:
    There isn't much info available on this new product - nothing on GoFigure site other than the coming in December splash page. So, I have some questions:
    1) Does KeyMate work in conjunction with Animate2 and Aniblocks, or is my investment in those technologies wasted when using KeyMate? For example, can I create animation with Animate2 and Aniblocks and tweak it with KeyMate?
    2) How does KeyMate integrate with the DAZ Timeline? Or does it replace DAZ timeline?
    3) Does KeyMate work for all DAZ figures? Aniblocks were for gen 4 figures mostly and did not translate well to Genesis (for me).


    keyMate should work with all figures, but it is a different paradigm.

    keyMate is an alternative UI to the DAZ Timeline that allows more functionality. aniMate is a different system that takes over the DAZ Studio timeline.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Here's my question. Can we create AniBlocks from the new KeyMate timeline?

  • dtammdtamm Posts: 126
    edited December 1969

    Jaderail said:
    Here's my question. Can we create AniBlocks from the new KeyMate timeline?

    aniMate2 allows you to create an aniBlock from DAZ Studio keyframes.

    keyMate is a tool that operates on DAZ Studio keyframes.

    short answer yes.

  • KGKG Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Could you describe the main differences keymate vs aniMate?
    If I have animate animations can I reuse them with keymate?
    Can I switch to work with either them easily?

    Thanks

  • ammon_fde0d92863ammon_fde0d92863 Posts: 119
    edited December 1969

    JorgeMR said:
    Could you describe the main differences keymate vs aniMate?
    If I have animate animations can I reuse them with keymate?
    Can I switch to work with either them easily?

    Thanks

    keyMate is the somewhaat equivalent to Maya's dope sheet. aniMate is somwhat equavilent to Maya's Trax editor.

    aniMate takes over the animation system(substituting its own) for the figures and nodes that the user tells it too.

    keyMate shows and operates on the DAZ Studio keyframes.

    In anIMate2 you can bake to Studio keyframes. This puts a key on every frame. This is not very useful if you want to tweak the animation in keyMate(you would be better off tweaking it in aniMate2). But if you want to take a whole section of keys and move them to the side and then do a section of hand animated keyframing in between, this can be quite useful.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 2012

    You do understand that for us users who have never used nor seen Maya, what you just said, means nothing. And the answer I got for making AniBlocks from the KeyMate timeline did not answer me at all. Telling me "yes" was a copout. Saying right-click choose send to animate, or right-click create AniBlocks from timeline would have given me an answer.
    At this point I'm going to keep my money until I have an answer that will mean something to me and other users.

    Edit: I understand how to make AniBlocks from the animate plug-in. So I expected someone to say open animate and then choose create AniBlock from timeline. If this is too much trouble, then why should I trouble myself with buying software from people who consider my question to simple to answer?

    Post edited by Jaderail on
  • carolinebegbiecarolinebegbie Posts: 162
    edited December 2012

    DAZ Studio comes with a Timeline facility. So you can animate your characters using the Timeline tab. However, it's never been easy, because you can't move around keyframes, and it's very hard to see where you have made keyframes. This is where keyMate comes in. On the keyMate tab, you can see all joints with keyframes, and you can move them around.

    However, when you use an aniBlock in aniMate2, the DAZ Studio Timeline is subsequently ignored. So if you make keyframes using the Timeline tab, or on the keyMate tab, these are outside of aniBlocks, and they are ignored.

    Making an aniBlock involves transferring keyframes from the DAZ Studio Timeline into an aniBlock. You can't do this in keyMate, but you can in aniMate2. Once you've got your keyframes inside an aniBlock, all keyframes made on that character in keyMate will then be ignored.

    aniMate2 was mainly designed for using pre-made blocks, and although you can create your own aniBlocks, it was never the priority, so it wasn't as easy as in Poser, for example. keyMate changes that - you can create your own animation using more traditional tools, that people coming from other software will understand. (If I can use the word traditional in a digital sense.)

    I hope that makes things clearer, Jaderail, and I didn't muddy the waters. It's just the concept of there being two, and only two, totally separate animation timelines - one is the DAZ Studio Timeline (and keyMate works on that) and the other is the aniMate2 timeline, which overrides the DAZ Studio Timeline.

    Post edited by carolinebegbie on
  • davesolodavesolo Posts: 15
    edited December 1969

    OK i have been messing with keymate for since i got it yesterday. I have a couple of suggestions. First of it works great! I am very happy to have a decent animation system for daz.

    Suggestions:
    Is there a way to turn off elements in the scene to where they will not record the animation. For instance the default camera. That way you can move it around with out it key framing.

    The second is when using puppeteer to animate morphs. Ok so i have my animation finished, then i want to work my morphs for secondary animation. So i move over to puppeter, with out the record feature on in puppeteer i key frame what i want. Then if I scrub in the keymate window it starts keyframing as i scrub. I noticed however if I click in another window before i scrub in keymate it does not happen. Just a little heads up.

  • ammon_fde0d92863ammon_fde0d92863 Posts: 119
    edited December 1969

    Jaderall,

    I see that my analogy showed my ignorance and I apologize for that. I meant no disrespect. I think Carnite has explained it way better than me.

    aniMate2 has layers and levels. I guess I wanted to explain that the transfer from aniMate2 to DAZ Studio Keys, while the animation will look the same(or very close), going back from Studio Keys to aniMate2 the levels cannot be restored.

    Hopefully, a different analogy will be helpful. The effect is similar to saving a png in gimp(or photoshop), where you have several layers. You can bring that image back into gimp or photoshop, but you won't have your original layers. While, not really hard hard, that is why I would hesitate to say its easy to switch between the two.

  • ammon_fde0d92863ammon_fde0d92863 Posts: 119
    edited December 1969

    davesolo said:
    OK i have been messing with keymate for since i got it yesterday. I have a couple of suggestions. First of it works great! I am very happy to have a decent animation system for daz.

    Suggestions:
    Is there a way to turn off elements in the scene to where they will not record the animation. For instance the default camera. That way you can move it around with out it key framing.

    The second is when using puppeteer to animate morphs. Ok so i have my animation finished, then i want to work my morphs for secondary animation. So i move over to puppeter, with out the record feature on in puppeteer i key frame what i want. Then if I scrub in the keymate window it starts keyframing as i scrub. I noticed however if I click in another window before i scrub in keymate it does not happen. Just a little heads up.

    Glad to hear it davesolo. I will look into that puppeteer thing.

  • ammon_fde0d92863ammon_fde0d92863 Posts: 119
    edited December 1969

    davesolo,

    In regards to the camera many will simply switch their camera to be the perspective one. That one will never animate.

  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,165
    edited December 1969

    Interesting product.. I could see how this would help go along way in fixing Genesis bug fixes when using gen4 aniblocks especially replaces the key frames that make the feet curl up and the aiblocks that reset the morphs to the genesis character.

    I haven't seen anywhere though where you can target objects such as clothing aimed at autofit tool. that would be a great bug fix.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Thank you all for clearing up most of my concerns. I'm fully on board now and will be happily installing KeyMate very soon.

  • déessedéesse Posts: 2
    edited December 1969

    I bought KeyMate yesterday, but have no idea how it works.

    1. I have installated KeyMate, 2. opened the tab, 3. imported my character (SecondLife), 4. imported a .bvh-file and everything is showing properly. Now I want to edit parts because the arm does not move in the right way. I get the keyframe, found and marked (yellow) the point where I want to change something (rotation), but nothing is moving in any direction...

    Until now I used animate2, exported to QAvimator, changed parts and reimported to DAZ3D.

    Can anyone please give me a hint about the next steps? Or is a kind of tutorial (or another thread) available?

    Thanks!

    keymate.jpg
    1800 x 1200 - 254K
  • ammon_fde0d92863ammon_fde0d92863 Posts: 119
    edited December 1969

    Here is the first video. It probably does not help you in this particular problem, but more videos will be forthcoming.
    Getting started - - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX_knWUBOGk

  • kitakoredazkitakoredaz Posts: 3,526
    edited December 1969

    Thanks much! Go Figure.

    and I hope ,,if editing aniblock by keymate is more easy way than modify each parameter in animate 2 timeleine edit mode?

    sometimes I am confused about the difference of DS timeline and animate key.

    This tool seems best solution who install ds 4 to start basic animation I think.:lol:

    and I hope,, GO figure ,, make simple step by step tutorial how make new aniblock from scratch
    by using key mate and ds 4.5.

    (I believe many new user want to make original short ani-block @@;)

    anyway,, I must get this tool ,and try !.

    and hope animate 3 will be released which has more power for moving genesis.
    (I LOVE simple and EASY ^^;)

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