DAZ Studio 2.2 Released with Auto lipsynch included

[NewsHottie]

Forum: CG News
Posted By: anobrin
Post Time: 06-11-2008 at 12:20 PM
Text:

For those looking for a free character previs solution
that exports to Collada format
Daz Inc. has a new reales of its FREE Program along with free figures for possible previs work

FEATURES

Lip-Sync

• The ability to create lip-syncs are now available and included in this release! You start with some of the sound files included in DAZ Studio or create your own to see your favorite figure lip-sync.

• Lip-Sync provides the ability to show your figure speaking or singing along with facial animations and gestures. Quickly and easily load your figure and sound files, then Lip-Sync does all the work to “sync” up your figure’s facial and mouth movements with the associated sound file and time line. In no time, you have a fun and fanciful animation using Lip-Sync and DAZ Studio.

• More specifically, you now have the ability to load audio and DMC files from Mimic directly into DAZ Studio to animate the figure for speech synthesis. Audio can also be recorded directly to the Lip Sync plug-in and applied to the figure. DAZ Studio provides the option to load Mimic Pro and edit the animation there and then update the animation in DAZ Studio. If you do not have Mimic Pro, you can purchase it through our online store.

Smoothing Angle

• Offers you the choice of which surfaces you would like smoothed, and at what angle. This tool is found in the Surface Tab.
• You will enjoy the benefits of more versatile content. This will make it easier to create content as well.
• Previous releases of DAZ Studio had smoothing turned on for all objects. This made most objects smooth by default. Special care had to be taken to model a sharp edge or a corner into an object. Now smoothing is available down to the surface level. This new feature makes it easier to specify a sharp edge to an object. For example, take a primitive cube that is now welded at the seams. Now you can specify any angle below 90 degrees and it will remain a cube. However, now that the smoothing angle is in place, the cubes are treated differently. They are now welded at the seams and, as such, can be sub-divided into a smooth sphere. This Smoothing Angle tool will make it easier for modelers who want the sharp edges defined on their models, and a faster way to define a smooth blend when a set of surfaces is at a specified angle greater than 90 degrees.

Morph Panel (Parameters Tab) updates

• Some changes have been made to the Parameters Tab. You’ll see that new "Figure Favorites" and "Local Favorites" group have been added to the top of the tab. Both tools will allow you to copy your favorite or frequently used sliders to your favorites list. The favorites are broken out into Figure and Local Favorites. Local Favorites are node based, so if you have a morph slider in Local Favorites and its V4.2’s MouthHeight morph, you can use this slider in favorites as long as the head is selected. When you select her shoulders, the Mouth height morph slider will go away until you select the head again. However, if you place the MouthSize slider into Figure Favorites, that slider will remain in the list even if you select another figure node.
• The addition of the Favorites group in the Parameters Tab is a workflow improvement that allows you to use your most frequently used or favorite sliders/tools and have them copied into your favorites list.
• You can also save space in the Parameters Tab by using the Mouse Over Sliders. This tool, which is found in the parameters tab options list, can be turned on or off. It hides the sliders until you mouse over the area - thus eliminating the space they take up. As the mouse moves off the item, the slider goes away.

Power Loader

• Provides an interface to allow you to load content and select only the desired morphs or injections you need for the figure. You'll also have the ability to modify the morphs and injections during the session for each figure loaded. This allows you to free computer resources if you want to load a subset of the available morphs. The Power Loader will rely on models/content that support the new tool. In other words, if you don’t have the supporting figure with its files, you won’t see this interface.
• A few content files will begin to be shipped with the PowerLoader scripts. These files include SubDragon, V4.2 and Aiko.

(Updates to the) Content Manager

• The Content Manager rescan has been optimized to run much faster. For the optimization to kick in, you’ll need to scan your database one more time and from that scan forward, the scans will be extremely fast.
• If you're used to seeing files in a Tree View, you'll be able to see all database categories listed in a tree view as well.
• New DAZ 3D default categories are in place, which means a better starting point for you. Old categories will also be respected.

Hexagon Bridge to DAZ Studio

The Hexagon Bridge tool now supports Sub-D models! The tool that has allowed you to take models from DAZ Studio into Hexagon for modeling and back now allows you to transfer Sub-D meshes into Hexagon to create morphs for use in DAZ Studio.

Sandio 3D mouse and 3D Connexion mouse support

DAZ Studio takes it to the next level by supporting 3D pointing devices from Sandio and 3D Connexion. Now you can leverage the power of these devices to accelerate your work flow and work without the limits of a 2D mouse. Directly manipulate your objects, cameras and lights in 3D space using the device controls that allow you to control movement on all three axes.



P.S. Here is a lipsynch I wipped up in literally five minutes
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v14186405SN3JPyBE

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