Saving Poses in Layout

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pandorian

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I'm a bit new to Lightwave Layout, is there a simple or easy way to save poses for my character for later use? Im running LW 2020 on a Mac running High Sierra
 
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There are a few paid and free plugins here: https://www.lightwave3d.com/assets/plugins/contains/pose/

There are some more new plugins that may be useful here (not yet entered in the LW plugin database above):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z05WHr2-Gos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0ctl-9AfSo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WblTVsR7SMs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox_7LGjLpcA

Some of these topics include saving motions but you can also consider a 1 frame motion as a pose.

The simplest way to save poses, if you are content with saving the entire figure and choose not to use any of the tools above, is to create keys at negative frame values. You could save a seated character pose at frame -100. Then when you need the character to sit at frame 47, you slide the timeline to -100, make sure the character is selected, hit enter to create the key, and enter 47 as the frame. The pose at -100 is copied/saved to frame 47.
 
What I wanted to do was be able to access and use these saved poses for use whenever I load the character into Layout to create a new scene.
 
pandorian said:
What I wanted to do was be able to access and use these saved poses for use whenever I load the character into Layout to create a new scene.
Click to expand...

So what you really want is a kind of "pose library" you can keep with the character, for reuse in new scenes where you reuse the character?

There are various plugins to help with that, as mentioned. Native, you either need to use the "negative frames as library" approach, or dig into IKBooster save/load pose ability.
 
I've been using the Animation Toolbox that comes with RHiggit2. I thought RH had released those separately & for free, but can't find them. Maybe some else can recall.

Unfortunately even with 2019, the Save Pose as a file is broken BUT copy & paste from other keys or from a separate rig that you import via Load items from Scene works fine. With FBX export, your can just store the rig hierarchy (i.e. no geometry, textures, etc.) with as many Pose frames as you want & save as a LW scene that is usually under 200k in size.
 
I'm not really familiar with how to use IKBooster, so until I find a good tut on it then I may try the negative frames approach. Either way, thank you everyone for your assistance.
 
You can use also the native Keyframer plugin ( Utilities/Additional menu in layout ). Load/save single frame poses & animation clips and node to node copy.
 
Skywatcher_NT said:
Keyframer ... Load/save single frame poses & animation clips
Click to expand...

Not really. Go take a look at the UI and you'll instantly see why that won't really work in context. It's a channel-by-channel, entity-by-entity system. It saves as channels. That also means it's inherently dependent on scene entity ordering, and any subsequent changes will change that ordering.

While that might be okay for basic animation, trying to use that for pose storage of a moderately rigged and morph-attached character (while also keeping everything organized) would be a complete disaster. Go try even just selecting all the channels needed for a single pose in such a character, you'll instantly see the issue. Lastly, a substantial quantity of *.lw_channels files is as inherently unmanageable as similar number of .lws files.

Possible: Sure (if you're willing to spend a LOT of time for every operation, and never change underlying structure). Viable/Efficient: No.
 
I've found some very good IK Booster tuts and have already embraced it. It's not the intimidating monster I imagined it to be. Both the negative frames approach and IK Booster are very good options for what I had in mind.

This has been very informative for me, and for that I want to thank everyone for their input and assistance.
 
pandorian said:
I've found some very good IK Booster tuts and have already embraced it.
Click to expand...

IKB is actually decently workable for easy load/store of poses, particularly combined with negative-frames-as-library -- IFF you have a single posed rig, and only need to organize a reasonably small set of poses.

That said, lacking a basic, browsable, organizable pose library is a pretty huge functionality gap in LW CA, period. Nobody has any interest anymore in trying to stick enough metadata in filenames to use them for organizing something with so many "degrees of detail". While the IKB + negative-frames-as-library approach is workable (with above caveats), it's organization capability is extremely limited in practice. The second you have multiple rigged characters in the scene, any hopes of useful organization quickly end.
 
pandorian said:
I'm a bit new to Lightwave Layout, is there a simple or easy way to save poses for my character for later use? Im running LW 2020 on a Mac running High Sierra
Click to expand...

You could try Legato.
I don't know about Mac compatibility but it handles Poses and Animations.
From the same Layout timeline, or from an external LWS file that has the Legato plugin applied.

http://home.kpn.nl/vincentmesman/legato.html

First you must identify each pose and/or animation by defining markers and/or regions.
After that you're able to Clone, Move, TimeStretch, Bake, etc.

You may add each marker or region to the Library, in the negative frame range.
Select a frame range, then, MMB-drag to Clone, RMB-drag to Move a pose/animation.
Or select a target frame (range), select a marker or region from the listbox, then
press button 'T' to Transfer a pose/animation.

Note: LScript support has been stopped after LW2020.

Anno 2020 it's still a Work In Progress but many features should still work surprisingly well (at least on my PC).
 
I have an animation and want to extract a pose at a set frame and retain the bones so it can be used in a different scene
save transformed object does not retain the bones
Is there another method
 
twojays said:
I have an animation and want to extract a pose at a set frame and retain the bones so it can be used in a different scene
save transformed object does not retain the bones
Is there another method
Click to expand...
Make keys on specific frame (the all bones etc.)
Delete the all keys in Graph Editor, except frame.
(RMB in Graph Editor will help to select range of keys)
Because you made keys in 1st step, pose should be looking the same as previously (unless you use some dynamics elements).

Delete the all items except your character.
File > Save Scene.

Then use "Load From Scene" in other scene.
 
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Sensei said
Click to expand...
Make keys on specific frame (the all bones etc.)
Delete the all keys in Graph Editor, except frame.
(RMB in Graph Editor will help to select range of keys)
Because you made keys in 1st step, pose should be looking the same as previously (unless you use some dynamics elements).

Delete the all items except your character.
File > Save Scene.

Then use Load Scene From.. in other scene
Click to expand...

Works fine - but time consuming
Thanks
 
Why not use IK booster on a rig, save out pose, load your other scene character, provided it´s the same rig setup, load pose..done.

You can right click on the controllers, go to motion tools in the ik menu, pose save, and pose load when you apply it to the other character.
 
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Ik booster loading of a pose, will also work on a rig with simple fk bone deformation animated that doesn´t have been processed by ik booster initially, it should work for the basics, if it´s some other special ik controllers, I don´t know..perhaps.
 
Adding some more info about IK booster saving of poses and loading poses...

If working with daz studio figures for some reason :)
Poses from that can be loaded as scenefiles at desired pose, rip that pose with ik booster and save, so you can recall that pose at anytime on a clean daz default pose, or whatever.
So in principle you can rip most of the poses from Daz and store in your own Pose library made for lightwave, it can be handy rather than just save out a new figure with a new pose from daz, when all you may need is the pose, and it´s more flexible in the sense that you can combine and add to the animation with a different workflow than doing it all withing daz.
it takes some work of course to load each scene containing a pose and then ik booster apply and go in and save the pose.
Bvh export I haven´t tried so much, it was some time ago, might also work if it loads properly on the daz default fbx file, and then maybe rip the pose from there.
 
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