Callisto 0.50 - Week 2 Update

Following addressing a bug in the map hint system the remainder of this week has been spent flexing my animation skills. I selected a 20 second portion of a reference routine which has provided a number of challenges during the animation process. Following roughly 30 hours of work on this animation, I have it almost ready for render. To be honest, I don't think I could have picked a more difficult animation sequence on which to start. I plan to fineness over the next couple of hours and then render over night.

Most of the animations I have undertaken previously have been relatively simple, only requiring a few key frames and minor tweaking. The complexity of a pole dance routine with the central figure spinning around a central pole makes this process far more challenging. I have managed to obtain a number of routines in MP4, which I can then view frame by frame in a video editor. Thus I can compare what I have achieved in a single frame within Daz3D to the original video. Hopefully this makes the animations as realistic as possible.

The way in which Daz3D animates has presented some real challenges due to it's reliance on the hip as the anchor point for the figure. Hence if I rotate or translate the hip of the figure, every single limb moves, whether I want it to or not. Whilst I can pin limbs to keep them in place, it only does it at that specific frame and not over all the frames from the previous key frame. Whilst you can tweak the pinned item at various points between the main key frames, the results are not pretty (jittery). As such I am animating without using pinning and attempting to make all of the limb movements as natural as possible. Whilst the result is far superior, it is a lot more work.

In terms of moving forwards, I need to manage what I can effectively animate within the time frame available. Hence sequences with the complexity of the one I have just completed will be rare. The plan is to create 4 main sequences and an number of bridging animations (just getting from end pose of one main sequence to start of next). Once complete, I can change some the main sequence parameters and also in which order they occur to create variety. Of the 3 main sequences left, I will do 1 more acrobatic (less complicated) and 2 lewd style animations (far easier).

On to the dancer outfits, the polls are in with Vera in the Realfit - Dawn of the Dead outfit and Felicity in the Ren outfit. As the Paige outfit did not have a clear winner, I will likely propose some additional alternatives. One of these will be to make the Helix outfit a little skimpier such that it is a bit more a compromise with the Angel outfit.

Sorry that there is no eye candy this week, however I will endeavour to post the results of the animation I have been working on once complete.

Xav