Pose Academy

[EdgeyMcEdge]

Just starting with some static poses, animations are so time consuming. lol.

[RzyKns]

8 hours ago, Kalm said:

Hey. Is there anything, preferably a video, where some of the more skilled people showcase how they create their poses (static or animated)? I'm really curious about their workflow, especially how they start out working on their poses because I think that is most likely where I already mess up with my sorry attempts.

I would love to see the same honestly. There are some gods with the animation keys amongst us.

The pose editor is truly easy to learn, and it is really hard to master.

For myself:  

• I start with a static pose in the animation (not interactive) setting, and with the models in the positions I want.
• I copy all the keys in frame 01, and paste them into frame 96 to start of simple loop.
• From there I usually have a smaller loop of around 4-5 keys over a set of frames ranging from 1 to 12, 16, 24 or 32 frames. (Numbers that divide easily into 96)
• I start with the basic movements of the models in those first set of key frames, and try to animate them to appear as natural as possible. 
• Remain conscious of how inertia would effect the scene, i.e. what effect does crashing hips into someone in doggy vs. someone prone on a mattress. 
• Once I am satisfied with the overall movement of the characters I copy and paste the same grouping of keys a number of times until I hit frame 96.
• Then I move onto the smaller details like the subtle shifting of fingers as they grip on a hip, a biting of a lip, or a curling of their toes.
• Keep in mind the tiniest details of a character, like when they are looking downward, their eyebrows should follow them downward, and vice versa if looking upwards.
• Little details look their best spread out of the course of the full animation rather than repeating.
• The vertebrae keys are very helpful too. They can be used to mitigate or exaggerate motions, and bring character to your models. An example would be a shemale designed thrusting pose looks odd when a male is performing it, as it can add a flamboyancy or femininity to the thrusts.

Reverse engineering someone else's pose is also a great way to learn too. 

[Nicolay_Solid]

could find these guides on pose editor

Spoiler

 

[Guest]

9 hours ago, RzyKns said:

• Keep in mind the tiniest details of a character, like when they are looking downward, their eyebrows should follow them downward, and vice versa if looking upwards.

I find this the most difficult part. For me creating natural facial expressions is the most time and energy consuming part, and I'm never satisfied with it.

[Kalm]

11 hours ago, RzyKns said:

• I start with the basic movements of the models in those first set of key frames, and try to animate them to appear as natural as possible. 

Thanks for this. I guess this is a point were I'd already would need some bigger pointers because I just don't get them to look "natural" at all  I always start out positioning and rotating the hip because I think it has the biggest impact on the pose but no matter how I twist and bend my character they never look like they have proper "balance".

[savate]

20 hours ago, Kalm said:

Hey. Is there anything, preferably a video, where some of the more skilled people showcase how they create their poses (static or animated)? I'm really curious about their workflow, especially how they start out working on their poses because I think that is most likely where I already mess up with my sorry attempts.

I captured one video and it took 26 minutes to get the basic thrust animation template done, that means there's no life added and no adjustments, just the motion. Problem is that long videos are boring to watch and 5x speed was the limit where it was watchable (but then again it was me who just made the animation so I knew what was happening).

[Condoriano]

I got a question

Anyone know a way to move an entire model in pose editor without moving it joint by joint? Like in Honey Select.

(Sorry if my English looks Ooga Booga)

[DANDEE]

30 minutes ago, Condoriano said:

I got a question

Anyone know a way to move an entire model in pose editor without moving it joint by joint? Like in Honey Select.

(Sorry if my English looks Ooga Booga)

Click this manipulator, then hold shift and drag the arrows on the model around. You can also hold ctrl+shift, then click anywhere in the room and it will teleport the model to where you clicked.

[Syke]

15 minutes ago, DANDEE said:

Click this manipulator, then hold shift and drag the arrows on the model around. You can also hold ctrl+shift, then click anywhere in the room and it will teleport the model to where you clicked.

Additionally, there's a 'move all actors' button on the top right when you do this. And there are checkmarks under characters in the pose menu which refines exactly which characters.

Note that the translations have some 'scale' to them - e.g., if your models are different sizes, they will translate different amounts. 

[vanott]

On 11/23/2020 at 6:52 AM, RzyKns said:

For myself:  

• Then I move onto the smaller details like the subtle shifting of fingers as they grip on a hip, a biting of a lip, or a curling of their toes.

 

Could someone suggest how to get lip biting? I've tinkered with the mouth controls for a while and haven't found a way to get a lip to curl into the mouth.

[savate]

On 11/25/2020 at 1:42 AM, vanott said:

Could someone suggest how to get lip biting? I've tinkered with the mouth controls for a while and haven't found a way to get a lip to curl into the mouth.

Here's one way to do it. You need to move the teeth positions forward, closer to the lips in customizer to make lip biting happen without making the jaw recess in the neck.

[MIA3DX]

On 11/22/2020 at 10:52 PM, RzyKns said:

I copy all the keys in frame 01, and paste them into frame 96 to start of simple loop.

From there I usually have a smaller loop of around 4-5 keys over a set of frames ranging from 1 to 12, 16, 24 or 32 frames. (Numbers that divide easily into 96)

Once I am satisfied with the overall movement of the characters I copy and paste the same grouping of keys a number of times until I hit frame 96.

I wasn't following this topic for some reason. I'm trying to wrap my head around why you'd want to place the first key over to 96 four seconds later when you still have to make the core movements as described in your following statement. Everything else makes perfect sense though. Maybe I'm just dense   I'm imagining you working on a 1 second loop and then having it go dormant till the timeline reaches 96 and then it finally repeats.

To add to your good suggestions as a whole, I'm still learning myself and so far I've learned the hard way is to just focus on maybe 2 bars or 3 bars (24 or 36 frames) for 1s to 1.5s of animation or some other timing adhering to the bar lines if your doing a normal sex style back and forth animation. I find that in my preference, a half second loop (one bar) is just too quick for my tastes so sometimes I go one and a half bars for faster stuff but it's harder to keep track of that of course. Sometimes just speeding up captured clips in a NLE works and sometimes not. Still experimenting with that one. I need to test TKXutils speed setting, haven't tried it yet.

"Once I'm satisfied" is the hard part of animation. The important take away for me when making loops is that I find I want to change a bunch of stuff in the core fundamental back and forth motion quite often and if I copy the core loop too early, it forces me to go inside the key editor window (not the time line) more often when I later realize that something needs to be added to the entire animation for every thrust motion and then I have to copy/paste stuff from one thrust to the next inside the key editor from the first loop to the next and so on. This gets old quick. I prefer to dial everything in for one short core loop followed by staring at the animation for hours constantly looking for things that need to be added until I have potentially "hundreds" of keys in place. Then I copy paste that loop and make variations. This way, if my core loop is solid, I can just delete some keys like maybe the neck and what ever else that needs some variety. I typically go a step further and make the core loop1 into a second modified core loop2 and let that repeat for awhile. Once you get a double loop sorted out, copy that as many times as you require. This a is not a quick process in the slightest so trying to shave off as much time possible is always helpful so getting your core fundamental loop down solid is a good practice to follow.

There really is no simple answer for getting good motion except practice, practice, practice, practice but it's mostly in the vertebrae manips, hip rotations, hollow, arch and creating in-between frames. I discuss those somewhat in the tutorial I did. I'll probably revisit it when time allows.

One thing I don't see enough of are forearm, elbow and shoulder rotations as well as foot and toe curves. For forearms and elbows, only adjust the red manipulator as the other 2 axis move the entire arm.

Don't forget to make that ass get to work. Make it get bigger when the hips flex back or squish into the other character and make it squeeze when it's digging in. Same goes for breasties. I've ended up not working with auto breast bounce anymore at this point. I may have a condition I need to learn about the inertia scripts and maybe I can revisit auto bounce. Isn't there a way to turn off the auto ass jiggle physics? Can't remember where I saw that option.

[Syke]

5 minutes ago, MIA3DX said:

Isn't there a way to turn off the auto ass jiggle physics? Can't remember where I saw that option.

It's among the inertia options under the body customizations, basically right after selecting custom bodies.

[El Wrey]

On 11/24/2020 at 2:35 PM, Condoriano said:

I got a question

Anyone know a way to move an entire model in pose editor without moving it joint by joint? Like in Honey Select.

(Sorry if my English looks Ooga Booga)

Hold shift

[RzyKns]

22 hours ago, MIA3DX said:

I wasn't following this topic for some reason. I'm trying to wrap my head around why you'd want to place the first key over to 96 four seconds later when you still have to make the core movements as described in your following statement.

I do that so frame 1 and frame 96 (or really final frame on a longer pose) of the animation are identical to have it loop perfectly.  Then I would have an "action" that would end on a number that was divisible into 96. (ie.. 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16 , 24, 32, 48, or 96) Then copy and paste those sets of keys numerous times until frame 96, and then I work on the smaller unique details of the pose that shouldn't get repeated. My process for longer poses is different than what's state up here.

Hope that was clearer

23 hours ago, MIA3DX said:

Don't forget to make that ass get to work. Make it get bigger when the hips flex back or squish into the other character and make it squeeze when it's digging in. Same goes for breasties. I've ended up not working with auto breast bounce anymore at this point. I may have a condition I need to learn about the inertia scripts and maybe I can revisit auto bounce. Isn't there a way to turn off the auto ass jiggle physics? Can't remember where I saw that option.

This is so true. The VX sliders for breasts, stomachs, limbs, asses, and testicles are fantastic to create motion with.

[MIA3DX]

8 minutes ago, RzyKns said:

I do that so frame 1 and frame 96 (or really final frame on a longer pose) of the animation are identical to have it loop perfectly.  Then I would have an "action" that would end on a number that was divisible into 96. (ie.. 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16 , 24, 32, 48, or 96) Then copy and paste those sets of keys numerous times until frame 96, and then I work on the smaller unique details of the pose that shouldn't get repeated. My process for longer poses is different than what's state up here.

OK makes more sense, however, are you having to recreate the root pose from scratch on key 3 i.e the return point before you make it to frame 96? Then copy that key 3 to 5,7,9 etc? Or, are you also copying the root key to keys 3, 5, 7, 8 etc same as the one on 96? Obviously you have to create the other motion for key 2 and copy that to 4, 6, 8 etc but wondering how you do it for the "root" ones.

I think the confusing thing for me still in the creation process is the concept of copying the root key. For reference, I like to make longer loops of a page or two made up of the basic 1,2,3 keys but copied several times with in-between frames added (ie 1.5, 2.5) and then have variations in expressions and head movements. I want the 3rd key in a 1 second loop to be the same as the root key but not have all the unnecessary keys enabled because when I copy the root key it copies every key even if no data is present. This leads to clean up duty problems on all the keys in the middle of the longer loop where I copied that root key to keys 3,5,7,9 and so on because the in-between keys have the data I want and not the root. Hope I'm explaining this right and I fell like I don't have a way around this except recreating the root onto key 3 with only the keys I've actually made changes to. Is there a function that will let me only copy the active keys from the root that I've been unaware of or a another workaround?

[ntsa]

On 11/19/2020 at 5:31 AM, ntsa said:

I know about using + and - to make manipulators larger, but they only extend them out. Is it possible to make the red, green, blue arrows and curved lines thicker and larger as well? Make it easier to click on, my dexterity isn't what it used to be...

I just solved my own problem, it was actually in game under settings all along.

[misterhouse]

I’m sure someone here is familiar with the two, but I assume what I’ve learned using 7.5 will have to be unlearned for VX.... cause VX looks like it has a lot more buttons/options....

[mr jones]

42 minutes ago, ntsa said:

I just solved my own problem, it was actually in game under settings all along.

wow! I never knew that, thankyou

[MIA3DX]

1 hour ago, misterhouse said:

I’m sure someone here is familiar with the two, but I assume what I’ve learned using 7.5 will have to be unlearned for VX.... cause VX looks like it has a lot more buttons/options....

I doubt it, I messed with 7.5 for one month before realizing VX was a thing and the only problem was using poses from 7.5 getting scuffed because some of the slider values were extended in VX. You basically just get more manipulators. You'll probably have to reconnect body parts and move a few sliders to get the pose back to what it was or close to it. I did the import tool as well for reference. But that's just my experience in a short time so I'm not the best example.

[misterhouse]

22 minutes ago, MIA3DX said:

I doubt it, I messed with 7.5 for one month before realizing VX was a thing and the only problem was using poses from 7.5 getting scuffed because some of the slider values were extended in VX. You basically just get more manipulators. You'll probably have to reconnect body parts and move a few sliders to get the pose back to what it was or close to it. I did the import tool as well for reference. But that's just my experience in a short time so I'm not the best example.

Thankfully I haven’t invested much time in actually creating any poses, rather just familiarizing myself with the system. Reading through this forum I’m seeing a ton of cool little tools that I don’t believe are available in 7.5. At Least not in the repack i have. Either ways thank for letting me know, more manipulation sounds like a positive to me.

[elcuvo]

Hi everyone! is there a way to erase several keyframes at once? It seems I can only erase one at a time and it turns into torture when I want to erase more than 10.

[MIA3DX]

37 minutes ago, elcuvo said:

Hi everyone! is there a way to erase several keyframes at once? It seems I can only erase one at a time and it turns into torture when I want to erase more than 10.

Shift+click is your fwend for entire sections of keys in the timeline. Or use the keyeditor to click and drag multiple manipulators then hit Del key. There's some good tutorials on the site. I don't know of a way to actively select say, keys 2,7 and 9 selectively without selecting 3,4,5 and 8 though but that'd mess with my head anyways.

[elcuvo]

19 minutes ago, MIA3DX said:

Shift+click is your fwend for entire sections of keys in the timeline. Or use the keyeditor to click and drag multiple manipulators then hit Del key. There's some good tutorials on the site. I don't know of a way to actively select say, keys 2,7 and 9 selectively without selecting 3,4,5 and 8 though but that'd mess with my head anyways.

Ah! this changes everything! thank you!

[Bbird]

On 11/28/2020 at 10:22 PM, ntsa said:

I just solved my own problem, it was actually in game under settings all along.

 

You can make it even bigger with Numpad + (temporary)

R makes it transparent