Ai Dreams Forum
Creativity => Graphics => Topic started by: Bragi on July 04, 2011, 09:12:01 am
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Does anyone here have this plug-in for DAZ3d?
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Do you have any more details. All I can find is that it was a plugin for older versions of Poser. There's no mention of it being released for Daz. What kind of thing did you want to use it for ?
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bugger ye, didn't notice it was that old.
Here's the link that I found it with:
https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/entries/123820-which-programs-can-daz-models-and-products-be-used-in (https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/entries/123820-which-programs-can-daz-models-and-products-be-used-in)
I saw that it could export to flash and do scripting, which got me all exited. Then I realized, the flash is probably just an avi?
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I'm not sure about the scripting but I think Daz Studio will do animations already, it's been a long time since I tried it though.
It seems to me that AVI and Flash are slightly different things. I just found a video capture program that will export to both formats. I'm just reading up on different types of codec at the moment.
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Yes, daz does animations excellently: you can export an animation as a series of images. That's not the problem. I was hoping to get vector based output from daz in flash format (that is not the complete .obj file). That provides some more flexibility compared to images + it saves some space.
As far as I remember, daz has a built in flash export, but that exports images, not vectors, so there's no point in that.
The scripting looked interesting as well, to automate repetitive tasks in daz. Don't know if that's possible already or through some other plug-in though.
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Well there's a lot of plugins and stuff, maybe try asking over on the Daz forums, they are usually helpful over there.
I had an idea about doing batch renders of visimes by using the animation feature of Daz.
Basically you need 22 visimes so you make a 22 frame animation. In each frame you create an individual visime. Then you render the whole animation. And then after that you can use a frame splitter (I've used them in the past) to strip out individual frames and you get your visimes individually. I have yet to try it, in fact within Daz you might be able to select rendered frames individually and save them separately that way, I am not sure.
It sounds good in theory anyway, it means I won't have to sit here and keep doing one visime at a time, it can all be done in one render while I am doing something else.
Yes, daz does animations excellently: you can export an animation as a series of images.
Just reread that bit...my method seems doable then.
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I'd also been thinking in that direction. Daz can render an animation as pngs: each frame is a seperate png, so that part is covered.
Is it possible to save an animation and a apply it to another object? That would effectively automate the entire process.
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I'm not sure what you mean there ???
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Well, at one side you have the object, the character, on the ohter side, you have the animation data, that determines what the object does. In this case, go through all the viseme settings. If it's possible to split the 2 data sources, you can apply the animation part (aka the viseme settings) to another object, so you don't need to create a new animation for each character, but simply 'apply' the already saved preset and presto, you have a set of visemes for another character, or for the same character in different positions.
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Ahh, yeah I get you. I don't know how to do it but that might be possible using BVH - you export the 'animation' as BVH and then reload it into your other characters. Worth looking into...
If you didn't already know : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biovision_Hierarchy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biovision_Hierarchy)
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Ahh yes, and Daz appears to support it. Definitely worth looking into. could save lots of work!
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Ok, here's what I found:
http://artzone.daz3d.com/wiki/doku.php/pub/software/dazstudio/reference/fm_exportbvh (http://artzone.daz3d.com/wiki/doku.php/pub/software/dazstudio/reference/fm_exportbvh)
http://artzone.daz3d.com/wiki/doku.php/pub/software/dazstudio/reference/fm_importbvh (http://artzone.daz3d.com/wiki/doku.php/pub/software/dazstudio/reference/fm_importbvh)
That looks like it will do the job :) ;D
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Cool 8) I had used BVH in Daz before to animate some dancing so I knew it might be possible. Good find O0
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Hmm, well I tried it out - it works fine for the body position but does not seem to cover the mouth which is a bit disappointing. When you export there doesn't seem to be much in the way of mouth positions, it seems limited to tongue and upper jaw or something like that.
I've posted a question up at the Daz forums, so I hope there is a way that someone can share.
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It can never be just 'that easy', can it. :-\
Hope that it can be fixed.
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Ok well while that is brewing...
There is another way I am exploring. Almost the reverse approach.
You start off using the base V4.2 model and set up the 22 visimes in different frames.
Save all that.
Then you can inject different bodies/heads into this base model and it retains the morphs you had already set up.... but it looks like you have to do it for every frame.
Still - a lot quicker though and saves you having to redo every morph.
Still thinking here ;)
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I'm not really getting much further with this. No useful replies over on Daz yet.
One problem I didn't notice before is that if you set a different mouth shape up (the visimes) in each frame, it also takes account of the previous frames (tweening) - useful for making smooth animations but no good if you want specific frame control as it pollutes the other frames. So I asked if that can be turned off.
BVH is no good I have learnt as it doesn't do morph data. I do have another option offered there which may do the same job. Will let you know..
I think I will fire up Poser and see what that can do. Maybe I can make something in Poser that can be exported and used in Daz to get the desired effect.
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I haven't taken a look at poser yet.
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It seems a little easier in Poser to me, but that could just be that I am more used to it.
Well the idea seems to work, although it's a bit fiddly as Poser also does the tweening. Got to be some way to turn this off, just can't find it.
Anyway, so I made a four frame animation and saved it as a pz2 file - this retains morph data. This can also be imported into Daz (I have just been told there is a tool for Daz to make pz2 files - it's free).
So yes, it is possible, it's just fiddly in the first place as you have to combat the tweening, by going back over the frames to remove what it does even though you don't want it to.
If you want to test it; I have attached a four frame pz2 file. Just open up Daz, load up V4.2 and make sure she is selected. Then import my pz2 file (turn off limits when prompted) and if you flick through the frames (using the timeline) you should see a few mouth shapes.
Then after that you can inject other heads/bodies and it should retain the mouth shapes 8) - just make sure you do that while the animation is on frame zero for it to work right.
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This is the free Poser Format Exporter... (http://www.daz3d.com/i/shop/itemdetails/?item=8040) But it doesn't say if it works with DS4.
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Cool, give me some time to try this.
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OK...BTW Poser uses Python too, meant to tell you that in the other thread.
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cool.
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Just a quick update. The tweening can be controlled by setting each frame as a key frame, that stops them interfering with each other - at least in Poser anyway.
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Any joy with the pz2 file in the end ?
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To tell you the truth, I haven't gotten around it yet. It's somewhere in the middle of the list of things to do, so I guess it just about where the moon is give or take a few items. ???
Currently fixing some bugs, next on the list adding some of the final operators and engine features (for this version), next back to the characters. By that time, I probably have a clearer picture of what to do.
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The tweening can be controlled by setting each frame as a key frame, that stops them interfering with each other - at least in Poser anyway.
The guy who made Tara (I didn't draw here, he did: http://www.laticisimagery.com.au/ (http://www.laticisimagery.com.au/) ) also managed to do this in daz: he has an animation for all the visemes, but apparantly, it only works on 1 character.
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Ahh right. Well I got this to work in multiple characters so when you have a spare slot I will write up a tutorial on how to do it.
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That would be wonderful. I think plenty of people would love that. I think Patti and Wendell would also be interested in that.
Thanks. ;)
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No problem. I've done it so far in Poser, I will test it out in Daz in a bit.