Guides asco's Timeline Tutorials (1-5)

[ascorad]

ascorad submitted a new resource:

asco's Timeline Tutorials (1-3) - Learn Timeline from a different perspective

View attachment 223510
Hello! These are the first three tutorials in a series I've been working on to help beginners learn Timeline. The videos are located here, and there is a supplementary var file and zip file as optional downloads The var file has each of the three tutorial parts in its completed state for you to review if you wish. The var file is not necessary to learn the basics, but it might be helpful for some people who prefer a hands on approach. Unfortunately for...

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[ascorad]

ascorad updated asco's Timeline Tutorials (1-3) with a new update entry:

Version 2 Update

Parts 4 & 5 have been added to the series!
Part 4 covers Timeline triggers and Part 5 shows how to create a quality randomized blowjob animation from start to finish

Enjoy! ?

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[pinosante]

Looks great. Hey question, when you do the BJ animation yourself, do you also add morph changes like blowjob lips and stuff like that?

Great series, thanks!

 

[ascorad]

Looks great. Hey question, when you do the BJ animation yourself, do you also add morph changes like blowjob lips and stuff like that?

Great series, thanks!

Not usually. You can, but with proper collider editing, you don't really need them. But for these tutorials that was kind of out of the scope of what I wanted to cover

 

[pinosante]

What is proper collider editing? Can you point me in the right direction?

 

[Jocks3D]

Wow @ascorad , this looks extremely helpful! As you may have seen in my other posts I've been struggling with Timeline so I can't wait to see if this finally helps me make useful animations!

I'll give it a rating after I get through all the videos but I'm sure it will be five stars.

One question after watching your discussion about poses: I know we're not supposed to use the legacy pose buttons but I don't like using the new pose presets because I can't save my poses in custom folders, they all go into the main folder. By using the legacy pose "save" button I can save poses in separate folders. This helps me stay organized.

Are you aware of a way to save pose presets in custom folders?

Do you see any problems with using the legacy pose buttons?

 

[ascorad]

Wow @ascorad , this looks extremely helpful! As you may have seen in my other posts I've been struggling with Timeline so I can't wait to see if this finally helps me make useful animations!

I'll give it a rating after I get through all the videos but I'm sure it will be five stars.

One question after watching your discussion about poses: I know we're not supposed to use the legacy pose buttons but I don't like using the new pose presets because I can't save my poses in custom folders, they all go into the main folder. By using the legacy pose "save" button I can save poses in separate folders. This helps me stay organized.

Are you aware of a way to save pose presets in custom folders?

Do you see any problems with using the legacy pose buttons?

I don't think you'll run into too many problems. The only thing that you'll likely run into is that the legacy pose system saves things differently, so you might not have all of the same information. I can't remember off the top of my head what the differences are. I think one big one is legacy poses saved the root node location, which could be a hindrance, but I'm not completely sure about that. As for saving poses in custom locations, I'd try navigating to the pose preset folder and creating a new folder to test with. I have folders in my main vam install for different pose presets and it works fine for me. I understand what you mean about keeping things organized!

 

[Jocks3D]

I'd try navigating to the pose preset folder and creating a new folder to test with.

Did that, but when saving a pose preset there is no way to tell it which folder to save in, at least not that I can see. The screen just says "Create New Preset" which you enter a name and then that button lights up green, then you click on it and it saves the pose in the default Pose Preset folder. Am I missing something?

 

[VAMmerc]

What is proper collider editing? Can you point me in the right direction?

I'm quite curious about this as well. Does anyone in this discussion have the answer?

 

[VAMmerc]

Hi there! I have a question: I'm experiencing what may be an oddity from using Keybindings plugin, but this may also be a change in the VaM program itself that I didn't read about. It used to be, like in your video 3, that I could just click on a controller (such as Rhand) and then I get the transform and rotate widgets for it and I can move them around in my scene, in desktop mode, with the mouse. Now, I can't do that anymore. I have to now click on my manipulator target (Rhand etc) and ALSO hit and hold CTRL or ALT keys in order to bring up the transform or rotate widgets. Otherwise, simply clicking the target only gives the box icon thingy, but the target may not be moved without the hotkeying I spoke of. To your knowledge, is this due to Keybinds plugin or maybe a game update? If possible, do you know of a way to revert this, so that only selecting a node will allow me to move in both fashions again (transform, rotate)? Or am I stuck using CTRL and ALT now? Otherwise, loving these tutorials, they are amazing! And the use of Keybindings is REALLY helping. I've NO animating experience at all, and I'm already making transitions between 4 poses with some adjustments such as in your 3rd video, which is super exciting to me! Still, hope I can get some assistance with the node target situation. Thanks for reading, and for doing these dope ass tutorials bro! \o/

 

[ascorad]

Hi there! I have a question: I'm experiencing what may be an oddity from using Keybindings plugin, but this may also be a change in the VaM program itself that I didn't read about. It used to be, like in your video 3, that I could just click on a controller (such as Rhand) and then I get the transform and rotate widgets for it and I can move them around in my scene, in desktop mode, with the mouse. Now, I can't do that anymore. I have to now click on my manipulator target (Rhand etc) and ALSO hit and hold CTRL or ALT keys in order to bring up the transform or rotate widgets. Otherwise, simply clicking the target only gives the box icon thingy, but the target may not be moved without the hotkeying I spoke of. To your knowledge, is this due to Keybinds plugin or maybe a game update? If possible, do you know of a way to revert this, so that only selecting a node will allow me to move in both fashions again (transform, rotate)? Or am I stuck using CTRL and ALT now? Otherwise, loving these tutorials, they are amazing! And the use of Keybindings is REALLY helping. I've NO animating experience at all, and I'm already making transitions between 4 poses with some adjustments such as in your 3rd video, which is super exciting to me! Still, hope I can get some assistance with the node target situation. Thanks for reading, and for doing these dope ass tutorials bro! \o/

Hey there!
That's an easy one
It sounds like you have MacGruber's Power Handles plugin running. Personally, I prefer animating with it, as it prevents you from accidentally moving a controller while rotating your camera angle, but I can understand why you might not want to have to use modifier keys all the time. Just disable that plugin and you should be good to go
Thanks again for the verbose review. I do sincerely appreciate it. I worked in IT education for years and I'm somewhat confident in my ability to explain things on an easy to understand level, but you never really know for sure until someone actually says something, so thank you!

 

[VAMmerc]

Duuuuuude you are the BOMB hehe. ...Yeah, I shoulda figured it was something I did xD I love MacGruber's stuff, though. I guess that detail slipped me by, as I (until your AMAZING videos... BTW, did I mention how much I love your videos?) hardly used Timeline before, and have been a cycleforce noob. But I totally appreciate your help in nailing down what my trouble is.
Hmm. Maybe I should learn how to cope with those keys, then, considering your advice on how to not accidentally move stuff around. Not sure yet. Perhaps I'll graduate to that point and just use the normal click for now.
Thanks again for your help, and your lovely comments on my review (I thought it was a bit too quickly typed on my part; This deserves a full review, and perhaps I'll sit down and formulate a better one soon).

 

[ascorad]

Duuuuuude you are the BOMB hehe. ...Yeah, I shoulda figured it was something I did xD I love MacGruber's stuff, though. I guess that detail slipped me by, as I (until your AMAZING videos... BTW, did I mention how much I love your videos?) hardly used Timeline before, and have been a cycleforce noob. But I totally appreciate your help in nailing down what my trouble is.
Hmm. Maybe I should learn how to cope with those keys, then, considering your advice on how to not accidentally move stuff around. Not sure yet. Perhaps I'll graduate to that point and just use the normal click for now.
Thanks again for your help, and your lovely comments on my review (I thought it was a bit too quickly typed on my part; This deserves a full review, and perhaps I'll sit down and formulate a better one soon).

No worries. Glad to help!

 

[brasileirinho]

Do you know an easy way to block timeline from controlling facial expressions? Some creators like to set expressions to a value much higher than I'm confortable with, so I'd like to use ClockwiseSilver Expression Tool tool to control them.

Selecting all geometry thingies in the plugin and deleting them for every scene part sound a bit troublesome... If only there was a way to automate that...

 

[SizeDoesMatt3r]

Hey mate, I saw that when you select a nod, that the rotation and directional vectors disapear and only the main axix get's displayed until you hover your mouse over it. How do you set this up? Thanks a lot!!

 

[ascorad]

Do you know an easy way to block timeline from controlling facial expressions? Some creators like to set expressions to a value much higher than I'm confortable with, so I'd like to use ClockwiseSilver Expression Tool tool to control them.

Selecting all geometry thingies in the plugin and deleting them for every scene part sound a bit troublesome... If only there was a way to automate that...

The best way would be to go into timeline and remove/reduce them individually. There's not really a good way to block timeline that I'm aware of. Sorry!

 

[ascorad]

Hey mate, I saw that when you select a nod, that the rotation and directional vectors disapear and only the main axix get's displayed until you hover your mouse over it. How do you set this up? Thanks a lot!!

That's a session plugin called power handles. It's part of the Macgruber Essentials plugins

 

[LuCas23332]

In video 2 around 4:25 where the weird movements are fixed this clears up one of the major confusions I had. So we have to go back and fix some things for VaM to behave normally. I keep telling myself "What did I do wrong?!" and begin to question that I'm not good enough to use VaM. Now I know its not my fault and it needs my help, this clears up a lot for me

 

[cancer1111]

Hi Asco, is it possible to do the following: if i have three animations, how can i play sequence of [Anim1-> Anim2 loop x times -> Anim3] without sudden shifts or animation interuption? I tried this via main menu "Scene Animation" tab, however when i setup sequence of [Anim1->Anim2], trigger Anim1 (which as result of sequencing is followed by Anim2 loop) and let Anim2 to loop for x seconds and then trigger Anim3, Anim3 does not wait to Anim2 to finish but is played instantly although Anim3 does not have "Apply pose on transition" checkbox ticked. How to force it to wait ?

 

[ascorad]

Hi Asco, is it possible to do the following: if i have three animations, how can i play sequence of [Anim1-> Anim2 loop x times -> Anim3] without sudden shifts or animation interuption? I tried this via main menu "Scene Animation" tab, however when i setup sequence of [Anim1->Anim2], trigger Anim1 (which as result of sequencing is followed by Anim2 loop) and let Anim2 to loop for x seconds and then trigger Anim3, Anim3 does not wait to Anim2 to finish but is played instantly although Anim3 does not have "Apply pose on transition" checkbox ticked. How to force it to wait ?

I see what you're asking. It will probably be easier for me to show you with a video and example scene. Give me a little time and I'll put something together for you

 

[Chris237]

Hi! Can you make a How to add and change between different poses? Because when I want to switch between different poses, it's just completely misaligned. It does not save the position of the atoms and the keyframes. You showed everything but this. Pose: include root, bones and controls, pose morphs are checked as well as apply pose on transition. Every pose are saved after posing. And its just doesnt work. Like bethesda games lol

 

[ascorad]

Hi! Can you make a How to add and change between different poses? Because when I want to switch between different poses, it's just completely misaligned. It does not save the position of the atoms and the keyframes. You showed everything but this. Pose: include root, bones and controls, pose morphs are checked as well as apply pose on transition. Every pose are saved after posing. And its just doesnt work. Like bethesda games lol

I might need a little more context to understand what you need help with. Are you using pose presets or are you posing yourself? If you are, do the pose presets that you're using include the root controller?

 

[zqwvc1419]

So，why doesn’t the Person Atom add a trigger function?

 

[ascorad]

So，why doesn’t the Person Atom add a trigger function?

do you mean when you add the person controller as a target?

 

[zqwvc1419]

do you mean when you add the person controller as a target?

In the Person atom panel, there is no column for collision trigger, but all other types of atoms have this column. In fact, VaM should add this column to Person atom.

Then there is another question: Through your tutorial video, I know the knowledge of adding collision triggers in this timeline plugin. At a certain frame, the trigger is triggered and a certain action is executed. But now there is still a problem: the geometric deformation of the characters. For example: at a certain frame, the characters begin to change their expressions and mouth shapes.

This can be done, but I don't know how to do it. Give you a screenshot:

I know how to add controls and triggers. But don't know how to add geometry....

Also, the topology of all character models in vam are wrong, which causes the physical effects of breasts collision to be wrong.

Also, I'm making a mapped material now and it's so hard for me, I can't even get the UV map right. I don't want waste my time. I'm busy. Do you have toturials about making materials? Dude?