I have everything set in a scene with the characters posed and all but now i want to try animating them. But the timeline already has keys which i used for the deforce. But i couldn't find out the way to clear the timeline without disturbing the scene and everything.
Daz How to clear animation timeline without disrupting scene?
- Thread starter immortalkid69
- Start date
- Jul 20, 2018
- 724
- 1,185
Not a great solution but why not lengthen the timeline and start your animation from where you ended up?
- Aug 17, 2019
- 5,380
- 8,650
Keep in mind that this will return the figures to whatever's at frame 0/1. It's not the best, but it's really the only way.
- Jul 20, 2018
- 724
- 1,185
This works indeed if you can start from scratch but if OP has used the timeline to set up dforce you are better off starting after the last keyframe.
- Aug 17, 2019
- 5,380
- 8,650
Unless it's a looping animation (which you shouldn't be using dForce anything in), then the clothing should simulate with the animation.
- Sep 26, 2018
- 3,130
- 3,194
go read this it will show how to save your dforce settings
hope this helps
How to Save a Daz Studio dForce Frame as a Morph
hope this helps
How to Save a Daz Studio dForce Frame as a Morph
You must be registered to see the links
I tried to look on his web site, but I could see any script to clean up the timeline, can you give me an idea (or the script ;-)) ? Trying to delete using the "delete keyframe" or "clear animation" is a tragedy, it is basically never working and almost always freezing Daz.
The timeline is - IMO - one of the mostly poorly designed features of Daz. I gave up trying to find ways to clean a timeline when you have a scene where you already did Dforce simulations or have other items on the timeline.
What I do now is when I know I will be doing animations, I always save the Scene as a DUF with no timeline (well, 1 frame) and that DUF never gets edited. I then copy that DUF to do separate scenes with different animations. If my scene is a mess and I want to start from fresh, I make pose presets of the characters and take note of where stuff is like a bed (for example). then I change the timeline to 1 frame and use the pose presets to put the characters back where they are supposed to be and then save that DUF. Don't use the scene subset option because that saves the timeline for whatever items are part of that subset.
If I have only simple stuff on the timeline, like a 15 render simulation, then I just extend the timeline from that point to do the animation.
I also save poses at every step of the way as a pose preset, and when working on the timeline, I use the memorize and restore feature of the Edit - Objects menu.
And finally, I usually leave frame 0 for all the scene items to be posed. Like spots and cameras. Took me a while, but I mostly remember to set all that up ONLY when I am on frame 0. Nothing more annoying than to run a 200 render series and find that your camera started to fly all over the place on frame 45 or something, lol. My actual production renders will be from frame 1 and up.
Well, Daz Studio itself to me is a combination of great features and a concept (considering also the base figures, figure families, "clones", etc.) well implemented and nice, and a messy badly thought out and badly tested program, all at the same time.
A positive side for the timeline (but of course, can also be seen as negative), is that at least when it saves the timeline, it also saves the results of the simulation, if already done, so one does not forcibly have to do it again - although probably for that reason even moving from one keyframe to the other takes some time (as well as loading the scene)
Thanks, honestly, I had never used the timeline before, I just used it for dForce, or more specifically, for dForce with dMagnet. It is not the fastest to set up, but in the end it is relatively decent as result.
Otherwise, when I played with dForce I tended to use "static", only for the picture, but I have to admit using the timeline works better as result, for complex poses and clothes.
It is just that as the timeline simulation results were good, and wanted to prepare a kind of follow-up scene changing only the pose of e.g. arms and hands, made sense to extend the timeline and put the scene there - till when I found myself reusing the scene elements but reposing completely all the characters.
At that point, it made sense to try cleaning up, and I realised the problem.
I see your point about using saved poses.
Unfortunately, when the pose is complicated (full body, or hierarchical), it takes a long time with "not responding" for it to apply, or Daz can even freeze (recently, in one case it stayed one night, till when I killed it) - though if one remember to "check all modified only" (something unfortunately I do not always remember to do, ending up with a basically useless pose file) it seems to improves greatly.
The trimming down to one frame worked, kind of, unfortunately it trims to the first one, bringing back to the pose file thing.
Well, we have to do with what we can, at least, now I can stop losing time trying to find a way to clean up that in reality does not exist, thank you again for your help.
I was like you originally... I only used the timeline to do Dforce simulations for like the first year of my making my VN's. I learned a lot about Dforce and therefore started doing more complex simulations where body parts and scene props moved in a way that made the simulation result more realistic.
It's only when I started to actually do timeline animations that I really got uber-frustrated. Like, I understand the whole concept of key-frames, but the mechanism to erase the key frames from every item just doesn't work properly (or I am to clueless to figure it out) and then there is the issue of shit moving around but there's no damn key frames for them ANYWHERE!
A few absolutes I have learned now... 2 years later.
1. Dforce is really supposed to be used every time you repose a character or item. Sure, the timeline saves the Dforce result, but one of the biggest limitations of Dforce is that you can't hit that CLEAR simulation button without resetting ALL Dforce items in that scene... doesn't matter if they are visible, hidden, static, or frozen. Hit that CLEAR button and they all revert to their default shapes. Anyone who has used a Dforce duvet or bed knows what I am talking about ... don't ya? Haha
2. It's best to make and save a 1 frame base DUF for any scenes you even think you might need to do a timeline animation on. It avoids so much time and headaches to have that pristine 1-frame DUF to copy off of instead of trying to repair a well used scene DUF to start an animation.
3. To avoid things jerking in weird and unpredictable ways, I've learned to make key frames for any critical bones you want to protect. Sure, you can do frame 1 at X position and then frame 30 at XX position and the timeline will move the bones through extrapolated positions. However, there is really only the two key frames in that situation.. frame 1 and frame 30.
The reality is that any minor changes can cause bones to move erratically when you go to render. So it's best to work through, frame by frame and create key frames on each frame for those bones. That's why scripts like Limbstick create key-frames on every frame, right across the selected time frame.
It's only when I started to actually do timeline animations that I really got uber-frustrated. Like, I understand the whole concept of key-frames, but the mechanism to erase the key frames from every item just doesn't work properly (or I am to clueless to figure it out) and then there is the issue of shit moving around but there's no damn key frames for them ANYWHERE!
A few absolutes I have learned now... 2 years later.
1. Dforce is really supposed to be used every time you repose a character or item. Sure, the timeline saves the Dforce result, but one of the biggest limitations of Dforce is that you can't hit that CLEAR simulation button without resetting ALL Dforce items in that scene... doesn't matter if they are visible, hidden, static, or frozen. Hit that CLEAR button and they all revert to their default shapes. Anyone who has used a Dforce duvet or bed knows what I am talking about ... don't ya? Haha
2. It's best to make and save a 1 frame base DUF for any scenes you even think you might need to do a timeline animation on. It avoids so much time and headaches to have that pristine 1-frame DUF to copy off of instead of trying to repair a well used scene DUF to start an animation.
3. To avoid things jerking in weird and unpredictable ways, I've learned to make key frames for any critical bones you want to protect. Sure, you can do frame 1 at X position and then frame 30 at XX position and the timeline will move the bones through extrapolated positions. However, there is really only the two key frames in that situation.. frame 1 and frame 30.
The reality is that any minor changes can cause bones to move erratically when you go to render. So it's best to work through, frame by frame and create key frames on each frame for those bones. That's why scripts like Limbstick create key-frames on every frame, right across the selected time frame.
- Jul 20, 2018
- 724
- 1,185
You can simulate just one item at a time. Right click the simulation tab to simulate selected and clear selected items. I haven't tried it with animations though.one of the biggest limitations of Dforce is that you can't hit that CLEAR simulation button without resetting ALL Dforce items in that scene... doesn't matter if they are visible, hidden, static, or frozen. Hit that CLEAR button and they all revert to their default shapes. Anyone who has used a Dforce duvet or bed knows what I am talking about ... don't ya? Haha
I wish I had known it sooner. I'm guessing you feel the same way now as well...
Jesus! ... LOL!
Even after 2.5 years, I'm still learn stuff that is "Why the fuck didn't anyone tell me that before?!"
Oh well... not knowing this forced me to get really good at doing simulations - and doing them fast.
Thx!
Thanks both. Not planning on doing animations for now (well, maybe something for a small funny thing for work, but it would be something very simple I already did long ago, with not dForce), only dForce - but that, yes, I saw for complex positions or movements, it is good to have more than one keyframe, it is more natural.
And thanks for all the tips, even the last one about how to clear the simulation only for one element, it can be very useful.
And thanks for all the tips, even the last one about how to clear the simulation only for one element, it can be very useful.