Importing Animations via DS Link

Bryce 6 adds the ability to import full animations from DAZ|Studio, including textures. In order to keep the Bryce files down to a more manageable size, Bryce uses DAZ!Studio as an animation plug-in, saving the figure and the animation in a DAZStudio scene file instead of in the Bryce scene file. If the animation and objects were physically imported into Bryce, each frame would require a new object which would increase the file size of the Bryce scene file and cause memory issues, effectively limiting the ability to import more than about 10 seconds of animation. By using DAZ|Studio to store the objects and animations, the number of frames that can be imported into Bryce is practically limitless (well, depending on what your machine can handle that is).

There are some known issues with this new function:

1. When making changes to the animation after importing it into Bryce, the original animation is deleted but not the working area, so the updated animation is added at the end of the original working area. See "Updating Imported Animations" for more on this and how to avoid it.
2. Breaking the link to DAZ|Studio deletes the animation in Bryce since the animation is stored in the .daz file. After breaking the link, closing the Bryce scene file, then re-opening the scene file, Bryce will re-import the animation and objects. You'll now have a static object from the original scene and a new object linked to the "new" animation. Basically .... DON'T BREAK THE LINK TO DS FOR AN IMPORTED ANIMATION!!!!
3. Trying to import a second animation after breaking the link to a previous animation will crash Bryce. Instead of trying to import two or more separate animations, build all the animations in DAZ|Studio (either as one file or multiple, then merge), then import the full animation into Bryce.

To import animations from DS:

1. Launch DS by clicking the Launch DAZ|Studio button located at the right side of the Create palette.
   
   
2. Load a figure into DS and animate it using the Timeline tool. You can also import a saved Poser file containing a figure with an animation applied, apply a saved animation pose file to the figure, or import a BVH file.
   
   
3. Once you have finished animating the figure, save the scene by choosing File > Save As > Scene from the menu. If you don't save the scene, you will have to redo all the animation work if you need to make any changes after importing the animation into Bryce.
4. When the scene has finished saving, exit DS by clicking on the Return to Bryce button to return to Bryce with your object(s) in your Bryce scene. You can also return to Bryce by clicking on the X button in DS, pressing Ctrl-Q, or choosing File > Quit in DS.
   
   
   
   If the Return to Bryce button is not visible, choose View > Tools > Bryce while in DS.
5. DS will close and Bryce will come back up from the background with the Import Studio Animation dialog showing. Accept the default of 0 to import the entire animation or enter the time or frame number to start the import at. Please note that currently, the frame import indicates the Bryce frame not the DS frame.
   
   
   
   Click on the OK icon to close the dialog and begin the import. Bryce will first convert the objects then the animation.
6. Unlike importing static objects from DS, the imported objects with animations will import at full Poser/DS size. Once imported, you can select all the objects, group them, then resize or move the group as needed.
   
   In the image below, note that the animation timeline is filled with the imported animation. You can preview the animation or play it, just remember that doing so will not be as smooth or fast as an animation containing a couple of objects.
   
   Note: Playing the animations is not compatible with the OpenGL display modes since the display cannot refresh quickly enough and the meshes break apart temporarily.
   
   
7. Setup and render the animation just as you would any other animation.

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