In some of the generation 4 aniBlock packs I have, there are motions for touching the face, stretching arms, rubbing the head, etc.,

I made partial aniBlocks of just the arms, sometimes just one of the arms, sometimes the arms and the neck and head, etc.,

It was one of those that I chose to use to get Rosie 7 to put her hair back behind her ear in the course.

https://youtu.be/bKrceXiIRw4

These partials get me close, then the added Control Dials I made help me finish it all off in the timeline easily without having to hunt down keys to edit in the graph editor. Nothing against the graph editor, I just don't really need it with these dials, and the dials have the added benefit of being adjustable anywhere along the timeline with a selection of tweeners for the transitions.

It's a very elegant way to work. I love it!!!

You can see some of the dials in action in this promo - taken from the course but, for the promo it's playing at a Very High Speed.

https://youtu.be/ckmYne3FGcY

Funny bit of trivia:

Nobody that I know - even my Bass Guitar-playing brother - caught the fact that, when I mention Rosie's Base Scene that she comes out playing a five-string bass! LOL

Import BVH

Cool little demo includes correcting the messed up first frame

https://youtu.be/u-XlyXKFSrw

Export Options

https://youtu.be/6p1HTBnpc7E

Preferences

Working with some of the behaviors of aniMate 2

https://youtu.be/ySisX6z8hiI

High Heel Offset

The title says it all. This feature allows us to shift the height of the character by lifting or lowering the heels while keeping the ball of the foot in the original position, automatically bending the toes at the same time. This feature applies to the entire aniMate 2 timeline - not just individual aniBlocks

https://youtu.be/r_r7IBeaPmY

Editing Keyframes

Now this is cool and very powerful. Not only that, it's easier than what the title may suggest in your mind! ;)

https://youtu.be/6NsLiVaEn2E

Editing Splines

More on editing the motion paths of aniBlock data

Foot/Leg

https://youtu.be/rJ5iDoNOcGg

Hip - This one shows the cool trick of "pinning" the feet while altering the position the hip

https://youtu.be/gGbXldn522A

Speed, Direction and Positioning

Some of this may seem trivial at first. But to me, especially using the Split/Crop functions, being able to edit the speed, direction and positioning of the motion capture data Before I send it to Studio's timeline can have Profound effects on the entire outcome of the animation

Speed

https://youtu.be/4r_uyGUe6Q0

Reverse

https://youtu.be/4CLXSl7iSYw

Position and Direction

https://youtu.be/AlMinNk3ZA0

Splitting Cropping and Mirroring

I prefer to work in a more "Hollywood Studio" sort of fashion, so I tend to keep my animations short. It makes for a more efficient workflow and we just stitch the various animation renders together later in a movie editor. So I only make each animated scene as long as it needs to be to get the point across and, even then, I may use more than one saved animation scene to convey a single point.

We probably already know how to edit when an aniBlock starts and ends, but I see that many folks are unfamiliar with Cropping them - which, as you'll see has more power to it than one might expect

https://youtu.be/ZNLYrrbwmy8

Likewise, I'm sure we all know how to mirror our motion capture data. But just in case...

https://youtu.be/hshty1XTVsg

This is how I work with the limitations I have with having a low VRAM on my GPU - creating multiple renders to be layered in Fusion or HitFilm, PD Howler... whatever compositing tool you use

https://youtu.be/PViRJCLNzZs

It's actually more fun and definitely more powerful!

Working with Subtracks

Subtracks are what allow us to stack motions over one another. Some of the features of this tool are not supported on generations newer than Genesis 2, so for that to work smoothly, we'll need to make our own Partial aniBlocks. You'll see what I mean.

https://youtu.be/_7ZoVL5VbfQ

Parent Constraints

Speaking of Magic:

Did you know that we can actually control whether a prop is parented or not throughout time? Like in this example - pick up a phone, talk on it for a while, and slam it back down!

https://youtu.be/wizGBFRHTV0

Since I've discovered this feature (Parent Constraints) I use it a lot. It can really add a whole extra level of 'Awesome' to an animation! :)

Pose Splines

In my course, we'll be making wonderful Control Dials that allow us to manipulate the outcome of Any joint rotation, shape, or morph. 

GoFigure has added Amazing functionality to aniMate 2+ that actaully allows us to manipulate the path of motion of the major joints of our figures - visually, directly in our viewport!

https://youtu.be/5R0wuXfSFkQ

I agree with him: That IS Magic! :)

Multiple Start Circles

Being able to actually manipulate where the whole animation begins in 3D space is an excellent feature to have.

Did you know that we can add new Start Circles for any given aniBlock? Check this out!

https://youtu.be/wngITcT-97M

Okay, this really isn't as good as it should be with embedding not working! Maybe I should just link to my article at Daz 3d instead? Drats! This was going to be Fun!

aniMate 2 Timeline Guides

A useful little feature that can help us to visually line things up in the aniMate 2 timeline and can also give us the power to align multiple aniBlocks to the nearest guide.

This can be very handy - especially if we really need to line things up precisely!

https://youtu.be/TKcNFHDM8r0

aniMate 2 Trim and Blend aniBlocks

Joining motion capture data without having to painstakingly rework positioning and rotation in a graph editor between the subsequent data is Truly Magical!!!

https://youtu.be/NOxM4jk74Wg

(No idea why the video embed isn't working! Argh!)

Thanks! I really appreciate that!

LOL!

In that car chase scene, I have over 160 Predatron LowRez figures animated walking, stopping, standing around talking... That was Fun!!!

It was also fun having the Starship Piranha as the chasing vehicle!!! :)

Wet n' Wild - Beauty and the Beast - Finders Keepers