SceneGraf plugin
DS3 PC
June 20th 2013 Added the 64-bit version
NEW June 30th 2010 : Scene Graf now does not crash when Dynamic clothes are selected
herein i release the plugin ( dll for windows ) for Daz Studio 3 named SceneGraf,
in the attachments at the bottom of this page you will find
the file "dzsceneGraf.dll", this is the plugin
the zip file "SceneGrafManualV1.zip" which contains a copy of the web page you are looking at presently, it's the manual
for programmers' eyes : a zip file containing the source code and project files ( MS VC++ Express )
Introduction
I wrote this plugin for my animation needs, so it's very rough, and not meant to be as practical as commercial applications.
This plugin lets you view and tweak the animation curves for the currently selected node.
Installation
"dzsceneGraf.dll",must be placed it in your daz studio 3 plugins folder
typically this is the folder : C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio3\plugins
Warning
if you experience daz studio crashes, you could remove dzsceneGraf.dll from the plugins folder.
This way you can know if dzsceneGraf.dll is the culprit, because indeed, plugins can cause crashes.
i release this with the most 'open' license i can think of (based on the MIT License )
Copyright (c) <2010> <mCasual/Jacques>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
Software is furnished to do so.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
manual
You bring SceneGraf into view using daz studio's menu : View / Tabs / Scene Graf
by default Scene Graf displays 6 channels that are common to all nodes
the x, y, z rotation channels and the x, y, z translation channels
Body parts of figures use different names for those channels
ex: the XRotation for the head is called "Head bend"
Each curve has a header that displays
- the channel name
- the allowed minimum and maximum values for this channel
- the frame number and channel value
Some channels have a very large range ( minimum, maximum )
and their curves will appear to be completely flat.
Example, you selected a figure's hip bone. you know for a fact that your
character's hip moves from position ZTranslate = 0 to Ztranslate = 1000 ( 10 meters );
When you look at the curve in Scene Graf it's completely flat.
You then notice the allowed minimum and maximum for Hip/zTrans is .... 20 millions !
if you go in the Parameters Tab, and double-left-click on the "zTrans" channel
a panel will pop up where you can set humane values for Min Limit and Max Limit.
in our example we could set minimum to -2000 and maximum to 2000.
and now we can see, that curve is not flat
Scene Graf also lets you view/tweak the animation curves of up to 3 Morph channels
Example, we want to view/tweak the "Blink Right" "Blink Left" and "Smile Open" channels of the figure's head
we go in the Parameters Tab and while holding down the Shift key, we left-mouse-click on those 3 channels
as you can see the selected Morphs have a white frame.
and Scene Graf now Displays the 3 Head Rotations and the 3 selected Morphs
Note that here too i had to change the "Min Limit" and "Max Limit" of the morph channels because they were outlandish
Time to Tweak
On the curves, the red dot is the value for this channel at the current frame.
The green dots indicate the presence of a Keyframe
NOTE: if a keyframe exists between two frames ( example a keyframe at frame 10.3 )
then this keyframe wont be displayed by SceneGraf. . . . Maybe in version 2 ....
the white dots are the values for this channel at each frame.
The curves cover the entire playrange, In the case shown above, that's 300 frames.
To make tweaking easier, you should probably set a smaller playrange.
Example, we want to tweak the Eye Blinks, so we use this range: frames 80 to 120
To modify a keyframe, left-click and drag one of the green dots
To create a new keyframe, left-click and drag one of the white dots
To delete a keyframe, right-click on a green dot.
and that's about it :)
