Hi I am interested in Mimic2 pro-but I find no example clips-could be a real selling point. Any available?? Thanks, Eric

http://www.daz3d.com/products/mimicmovie.php

(QuickTime required)

You want examples? Just wait until I install the bloody thing, and I'll be cranking out more examples than you could ever stomach.

I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with (I have a big stomach! ;)

So, how does Mimic work exactly? Does it export a Poser scene with the animation tracks for loading back into Poser or do you do all of your work, including rendering, in Mimic? Need more input. :) BYS

It's a standalone application. Mimic takes a .wav file of a voice, analyzes the audio, and generates an animated pose file (.pz2) which can later be applied to any compatible figure within Poser. For more accurate lipsync calculations, you can provide Mimic with the text of the recorded dialogue. Rendering is still done in Poser. Mimic 2 adds a number of helpful new features, such as a real-time hardware-accelerated preview of the lipsync (by loading the desired Poser figure into Mimic), a timeline editor which makes it easier to fine-tune the pose before you even launch Poser, and several configuration options, including the ability to redefine which morphs are used.

Attached Link: http://www.brickhousedigital.com/demoreel-small.mov

BYS: It's a very nice little app. If you are using Mover with your Vue or Propack with Lightwave and want to do any Poser character animation, it is a must in my opinion. If using Vue or LW for doing you animations, simply import the .wav into your editing program and line it up with the appropriate scene clip in the timeline and you're done. Certainly one of the most effective price vs. functionality programs I own. The facial animation is saved with your Poser file just as any other parameter (arms, legs, walks, etc.) are. But without the ultrafussy keyframing for mouth movement.

Does Mimic work with the Poser5 figures (Judy, Don) or just the Daz figures (Vic, Mike, etc)? Terry

Wrong question IMHO. correct question: Do Don, Judy, and other characters have the right morphs to be compatible with MIMIC? Answer: Yes, basically, although due to variation sin the morphs the quality of the results varies. Indeed any character given teh appropriate morphs can become MIMIC-compatible - hence the proliferation of MIMIC morph add-ons for characters like the Hatchling Phoenix, the Poser 3/4/5/ dog, and so on and so forth. Probably the characters which work best with MIMIC1 are "Dork" and "Posette", since the program was written specifically for them. However, with MIMIC2 (especially the Pro version) you can tweak a great deal [like which lipsynch morphs to use for which phonemes] and so improve/alter the effect with any character which you feel could be improved upon. In MIMIC2 you can do this per animation but with MIMIC2 pro you can define "configurations" which improve on how MIMIC2 uses a specific model (Michael, Don, the DAZ3D turtle - whatever) to acheive apparent speech.

Ah, so you get an animated pose as a result which can be applied to your figure in Poser. Okay. It was late and I wasn't comprehending anything at Daz. :) Went ahead and purchased it, but using PayPal am still waiting for the email in order to download it. Thanks, BYS

So does mimic work well with Victoria 3 with the facial morphs that come from Daz or do you need other morphs to make her work well with mimic?

IT works great with V3 no problem.

Installed it yesterday, tiny note: Mimic2 relies on OpenGL for its realtime animation, so those remaining Mac users whose only OpenGL support is software based (i.e. not built into video hardware) will see the same 'every twentieth frame' result they see when playing animations in Poser before making movies. Expect the same results from DAZstudio. Audio is not chopped, however. I was impressed with their inclusion of a default bald "Vickie head" character.

That's not a "Vickie Head" character, that is the included Vickie 1 Reduced Resolution figure. Look in your DazPeople folder of the character library. She's in there in the "buff" and wearing painted on top and shorts.

Thanks Little Dragon- That is JUST too cool! Tempus- HAHAHAH! It's got possibilities- I especially like the dimwitted Frankenstein Interview. I was able to get a full screen fuzzy version-very cute! I 've been doing a fair amount of character animation with ProPak and Lightwave 6.5b-but the lack of Mimic was limiting my possibilities. I blame BOTH of you for FORCING me to buy Mimic2. Duanemoody- I have a fine OpenGL card-but NOW I have to get OSX , and set up a dual boot system-so I can run Mimic2Pro! OR I could wait tlll next year when I get a G5!! Naaaah! :-) Eric

Forgive me if this question is stupid, but... Supposing you've applied a bvh anim to your figure, can Mimic/Poser "fit in" the Mimic-generated facial animation without disturbing the rest of the animation info?

Yes. If you wish to retain head and/or neck movement you might need to "lock" those before applying the MIMIC-produced pose... MIMIC produces Poser-standard .PZ2 files - how to mix poses is down to Poser operation rather than MIMIC itself. Cheers, Cliff Bowman

Eric: Mimic2Pro doesn't have to be run under 9 native, it'll run in Classic mode just fine (unless that's what's gumming up the live animation).

Hi Duane No I am still on OS 9.2.1 but may try the OSX installation tonight. I need to read about dual boot systems and the like first. I had to get OSX because Mimic2pro-which I have-says it requires OSX! I've gotten to the point where I am somewhat comfortable animating characters-but trying to match conversation to mouth movements is too tough. THAT is why I bought Mimic2Pro-and am attempting to install OSX on my G3 233 upgraded to G4533. :-) I am off to do some reading on the subject. Thanks, Eric

Hello, I read on a form that Mimic2 has a built-in real-time hardware-accelerated preview of the lipsync(by loading the desired Poser figure into Mimic) Forgive my stupidity, but I don't actually own mimic or poser, but do you mean to say that your charactor (textures, morphs and all) will be displayed in real-time using the lip-synch animation created by mimic? p.s. if so, will only the head be displaied or the torso as well?

"in real time" will depend on your PC specification - it needs to be waaay better than minimum spec to do a reasonable-sized character at full-speed. Otherwise "yes2 answers most of your queries. You can show or hide as much of the body as you'd like - the Arcana section of DAZ's site has some tutorials that you might want to flick through if in any doubt. Cheers, Cliff

Thanks for the reply; I have a 3.02 GHz/HT with 512MB and also a 2.66GHz with 3.66GB machine- from talking with DAZ the 3.02 seems to be the best choice for fast rendering as I will be doing; how "real-time" are we talking about with either machine? Around < 2 seconds with full textures (shoulders and face only) for a one-sentence render is what I'm after.. possible?? Thanks a million for your help!