Mol's V4 Animation Toolkit

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Overview
A Keyword Index
V4 Hip and Positioning V4 in Poser
Library Thumbnails for Animation Kit
Alive Folder
Background Folder
Using the poses with a clothed V4
(Fixing V4 breaking through Clothes)
Video Tutorials (Online)
Trouble Shooting
Faq (online)

  
  



Dedicated to bringing
Virtual Characters Alive!

    

IF YOU WANT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF VIDEO EXAMPLES / TUTORIALS / MAKE SURE YOU ARE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET WHILE VIEWING THIS HELP SUITE. CHEERS... mol

If you like this package, Mol's V4 - Come-Alive Expressions is a perfect addition.
Available from Renderosity - click link above. (You must be connected to the Internet).

If you find errors (easy to create from my perspective) and want to point them out to me, please do. I will look into them and correct any problems. After awhile, I will re-release the modules to all purchasers (update) freely. Contact me at here please!


OverView
The V4 Animation Toolkit comprises a set of animated poses which can be applied to Daz's Victoria 4 figure. The Poses are designed and described in their Library thumbnails in such a way as to aid Poser Artists who are unfamiliar with animating. The goal is to encourage static Poser Artists to adopt the idea of making mini-animations of their creations. The Toolkit is also an essential aid to the more experienced Poser Animated, saving hours of time by setting up V4 in close proximity to the artists required pose. The experienced Poser Animator will only need to tween and add to the applied poses to accomplish what is normally very complex movements.

The Toolkit has been deliberately priced much lower than its real value. Not very commercial, I know, but many animators using Maya or other highly expensive and powerful animation software packages often scoff at Poser and its usefulness to animators. So... as I love Poser, and the community who really managed to get the owners of Poser to persevere over the decade, I thought if I make this cheap enough, then hundreds (more) existing Poser users will take their first steps into animation. I cannot teach everyone how to use this toolkit well as it would take too long. However, the following help files should get you off to a good start with the kit and animating per sec.

This Help suite will also help you to understand how to do things beyond using my Animation Kit... like fixing Body Break-through when animating with conforming clothes.

Mol

Poser Library Thumbnails

Poses (and other elements in the Poser Library) are represented as thumbnails in the Poser Library side-window. The problem is that all of them never really give you an idea of what will be affected when you apply them. My toolkit applies poses in different ways according to your needs. The Thumbnails therefore provide essential information about what will happen when you double-click them to apply the pose to V4.


I have used the following conventions:-

Buffered,      Sp-Buffered-Sp,     Trimmed,     Sp-Trimmed-Sp


Some Poses (mainly the facial ones) also may contain addition or alternate conventions: Mix, Replace, NMC


Let's Start with Buffered...
Below is a Screen-Capture of my Poser Desktop. The Graphic Window is open showing the timeline and keyframes for the Bend element of V4's Right Shin.
The Picture should be self-explanatory. Study it for a few minutes and then scroll down through the help windows for Trimmed, Sp-Buffered-Sp, and Sp-Trimmed-Sp.




And now Trimmed...



And now SP-Trimmed-SP....



And lastly, but by no means least: SP-Buffered-SP....



So to sum up... this way of applying animated poses is very powerful and useful. It allows you to fully understand what is happening and encourages you to try the different variations and see their effect. Instant learning by click and see. More though, it allows flexibility in controlling the way Poser Tweens and alters your animation as you build it up your work with small sequences.
If you are not very familiar with the Animation Graph Window or the Animation Palette Window, you will need to get acquainted with them as they are your main allies when making
animated sequences. I have provided a very summary help page which you can locate in the Menu Above.


Before doing this, please take a look at the remaining thumbnail help below....
When you apply a pose, especially to the head, a whole load of values
are applied to the V4 figure element. Working outside of Poser, it is
possible to edit the Pose files (PZ2) and better control the impact of applying these values. It is possible to determine exactly what values will be applied and one can filter out unwanted values.

For example, in the Pose 'Nod-No', I can make 3 different ways of applying
the Pose details. I can make a pose so that only the head movement is applied but no facial expresssions. I can make a pose where both the head movement is applied and all the morphs making up the face expressions are applied too, even ones where in fact no changes take place. And finally, I can make a pose where the head movement is applied, and ONLY the changed values needed for the changes (either the head moving, or/and the expressions) to be applied.

One reason for applying all the expression control morphs in one pose is to ensure the previous expression is completely over-written. If one only applies the changed values, then V4's expression will be made up of a mix of whatever expression was in force and the new expression.

I have copied 3 summarised pose files below. Here you can evaluate what information is being applied to V4 for each of the alternative poses for the 'nod-no' pose file.

In 'Replace', under the Head element, all the expression values are included {A}as well as the x,y,z Translate and Rotate Values, including zero values. In 'Mix', only the expression values that are non-zero are included and only the changed values for the Head movement; in this case - Rotate Y and Z {B,C}. In NMC (No Morph Channels), no expression values are applied and only the changes to the Head Movement are included.
Incidently, POSER-EDITOR, available at Renderosity is a brilliant tool for looking at PZ2 (Pose Files) and all other Poser Files, and even changing values. Poser Editor was used extensively to create Animation Toolkit. The Poser File Editor is especially useful for quickly removing unwanted morphs from the head (expressions), which may otherwise distort the user's own changes to the V4 figure!

   

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Copyright: Mol Smith 2008 UK www.onview.net        www.molsmith.net     www.v4-ultrareal.net