[Pended] Does Animate2 work in DS4.12 or DS4.20? Results May Vary
I’d like to try animation but it’s information overload and intimidating.
I’ve included a screen shot if I try to get a plug-in called “Animate2” via DS.
From the product page, the video for Animate2 is “private” and leads to a You-Tube Premium site ad.
The stills from the product page look like he’s using M4/V4
Would “Animate2” work in DAZ v4.12 or 4.20?
If it helps, I'd like to test my system to see if animation is even possible on an aging Intel i-7 “skylake” based desktop. I have a power hungry Titan Xp that would probably have thermal issues if >6 hours. A Quadro P5000 draws far less power and operates at a lower temp. It could probably run solo for >24 hours. (I’d probably need my desktop if render time greater than that.)
So...
Animate2? Other DS plug-in or export .duf file to different app? Render it in DS and export the frames to another app?
Hope all that makes sense. Wouldn’t think just putting a car on a turn-table and trying to make a short clip would turn out to be a bit problematic. : )
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Comments
Animate 2 works in Daz Studio - indeed you have it for the first thirty days after instalaltion on a new system, then it turns into AniMate Lite unless you give it a serial number. The product page at https://www.daz3d.com/animate2 works for me.
Animate2, along with Keymate and Graphmate, were important tools for animating before roughly 4.11 or 4.12. At that time, basically the same tools were built into the timline (although not very intuitively). I do not think those two add-ons are even sold in the store anymore. I believe I have loaded them into Daz up through 4.15 and used them as I like them better. I may have a 4.20 beta lying around I could try later. My guess is they will work.
Most of the animate2 animations work well from generations 3 through 6 (victoria 3 - Genesis 2) but not Genesis 3 and 8 without significant tweaking. I have an M6000 and have let it run many hours many times making frames which can then be put together in a movie for free with the Express version of Hitfilm.
EDIT: It is a lot of information to learn at first. Just play and experiment with simple things and learn the controls. You can move on to bigger and better projects as you go.
Richard and "3141592654"
From wishlist I can access the product page you suggest. The movie part reads "Private" and clicking on it goes to a YouTube Premium page. A turn off to be sure but for DS, Animate2 is how I'm going to add clips or "aniblocks" and have more control over the timeline? Tried rendering "Make an AVI Movie" and the result wasn't the expected 30 seconds in Timeline pane. A one second clip with a gap. : /
So...
If I understand correctly, I'm going to get a slight 'jog' or gap if I attempt "Car Ranger" parented to cylinder rotating 360 degrees. I made a key every 5 degrees. (Render as make an .AVI movie.) Size 1080. Render time was several hours using both cards. All I got was a one second movie that I looped in Windows Media Player. Noticable skip at around 350 degrees. Then it starts from zero degrees again.
1.) More stable and safe to render the frames and skip the .AVI part? Import the .png frames into Express version of Hitfilm to make movie in file type of my choice?
2.) While the store sells aniblocks for most anything G3 and G8, I'm going to run into problems with that noticable skip or jump if want a slow loop to showcase a car or aircraft. (M8 varient was the driver in the Car Ranger test)
3.) Specific forum area for animation questions? Animation will be a learning curve. For full 3840 x 2160 Possible to make the frames in steps while I sleep? Would take far too long and stress system with heat issues unless I use a "Quadro" card that draws less power and operates at lower temp. than GTX series.
Again, I hope all that makes sense. Question 3 might be most important! Specific topic area or forum area for "new user" animation?
1 may be partly interpolation - it doesn't have the same run on after/before the end of the loop - though rotations at or near 360 degrees can be problematic certainly.
3 I'm afraid there isn't a dedicated animation forum - we don't have workflow subforums like that, or texturing/material set-up, or modelling - but you could of course start a thread for workshop-type discussions.
Good day,
I am not sure why you got a skip/jog on your rotation. Some setting must be off because I have done those many times. As Richard mentioned, changing your interpolation setting may help a lot. This TURNTABLE might help you out also.
Frames are much safer to use, especially as the animations get longer. If something goes wrong (like the power going out) you can lose everything done in an .avi. With frames, you have the work up to that point and you can simply start again there. With projects that are long, you can start and stop it (for instance, you want it to run each night while you sleep and use the computer for other things in the daytime) this is not possible with .avi.
Kind of disappointing there's no topic for animation. Used to be "3DL Lab" and "Awe Surface Test Track" for specific questions about them. I'm sure a "Show Us Your iRay Renders" was/is proabably around too.
Made mistake in key frames at very end. Tedious.
1.) Animate automatically makes key frames? If DAZ comes with short clips for timeline (the same as animate lite) I'm not sure what the difference would be.
2.) Store adds to confusion. What's Animate, Animate2, and Animate-Plus? Some products don't mention it at all. These just use the timeline? Animate2 on sale. Invest in it only to find products stating Animate+ are for a different animal? If they don't say that on product, I'd be spending $25 on what exactly?
"Turntable" added to wishlist BTW. Think he has completely different approach in rotating camera rather than subject. Parent camera to a torus or something. Might try that until product goes on sale again. Seems I just missed animation products being on sale.
Animation is a deep subject and like all things in 3D CG, I am just a hobbyist and dabbler at it.
The Animate product was created by the vendor GoFigure and goes back to pre-2010 days. I won’t try to lay out its version history because I don’t know it myself, but there has been Animate Plus, Animate 1.5 and Animate 2. I bought Daz Studio 2 in 2008. I don’t know if Animate was out then. I bought Animate 1.5 in the Daz store in 2009. Animate 2 came to the Daz store in 2010 but I didn’t buy it until 2017 when it was on sale for 60% off. I’ve also purchased a few other Aniblocks products from the Daz store and the Renderosity store.
I don’t think Animate 2 has been updated by GoFigure in more than a decade. The vendor has a YouTube channel (GoFigure3D - https://www.youtube.com/user/GoFigure3D ) where there are 41 Animate videos. They’re all 11 years old though; nothing more recent. Other YouTubers have created more recent videos on animating in Daz Studio; some of them include using Animate and Aniblocks - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=daz+studio+animate+2 . One of the YouTube channels that I visit often is that of Jay Versluis (The WP Guru) - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWPGuru . He has posted hundreds of YouTube videos and the majority of them are on Daz Studio and range from short ones (3 or 4 minutes) to lengthy ones ( 2 hours). He has a YouTube playlist of videos just on animating in Daz Studio. One of those videos is specifically about creating a turntable animation in Daz Studio (8 minutes).
Daz3D commissioned him last year to do monthly deep dives (live streamed) into Daz Studio in the In the Studio with Daz 3D series. You can find those videos in the Daz 3D channel at YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/Daz3Dcom .
Thanks for link to tutorials. Those slick animiated clip seen on DAZ site now probably post work wizards? Just a hobbiest myself. Started in 2018 & still consider myself a rookie at DAZ Studio. Hve lerned that... Animation will require long render times. Might also require third party apps and plug-ins to get movie from series of .png files.
I pulled trigger on Animate2. Works in 4.12 but many of the aniblocks don't work on G8. Those that do work look kind of odd (choppy) and might have clipping of arms into chest, etc. Subjective, but the only ones that worked and looked natural were the G8 walking and turn clips.
I'll answer my own question with qualifier then.
Animate2 will run in DS 4.12; however the results with the animation itself will likely depend on users' expectations. ; )
I have not used Animate 2 extensively partly because I soon realized that one needs a system much more powerful than what I had at the time that I purchased Animate and even the two-year old system that I have now. When I played with Animate a bit yesterday, I rediscovered that the Aniblocks that came with Animate and the few that I have purchased since then work best with the figure generation that was current at the time of release. Animate 2's use with G8 appears to be quite limited unless you buy Aniblocks made for G8 or you create your own Aniblocks for G8 (or other figures/objects as needed).
Aniblocks only work well through Geneses 2. To get passed this, one option is to load a Genesis character, add the aniblock(s) you want, then save it as a ??pose preset?? (I am not at the computer and am not sure exactly which 'save as' it needs to be. But the preset you make can work on Genesis 7 and 8 a lot better than directly applying the aniblock to those generations.
Thanks for replies. Picked up "turntable" on sale and a test showing off PW Floatplane worked nicely.
Am learning that yes, animating the frames from turntable clip at 4K would take several nights for a week!
Think I'm still missing a piece of the puzzle-- even at lower resolution tests. Hitfilm will make a movie from frames, but it's more a slideshow with no interframes or whatever they're called. Read somewhere that yet another 3rd party app or plug-in is needed (alembic?) to have smooth movie made in hitfilm? Hit film needs a plug-in? Slideshow stills into smooth looking movie with fluid movement?
Definitely a challenge. Will try using earlier versions of Genesis and see if tweaking with pose converter works.
So Animate2 does work in recent (v4.12) or most current version (v4.20) of DS. How useful it is (or just use timeline) probably up to skill and experience of enduser. Rookies to animation like me might not do Animate2 justice.
Thanks again for the help and enjoy week! : )