Can someone give a short tutorial on how to do an animation with Octane in DAZ Studio 4.8? Part 1: what I figured out. Part 2: my problem. Part 3: problems I managed to solve.
Part 1: Let me take the first steps here, and say what I figured out so far (perhaps this can be done better?), but then say where I run into problems --- perhaps many others do too. Let's say you know how to render a still image, using the Octane DAZ plugin. So, pose or load some animation in DAZ. Select a camera in the "Scene" tab. In the "Camera" tab, switch "Depth of Field" to "on", and, if you have not done so already, make sure it is nicely focused where you want it to be focused during your animation. Go to the "OctaneRender" sub-tab of the "Camera" tab, go to the third item "OctaneRender: Auto/focus modes" and select "Link to DAZ camera". Next, onto the OctaneRender tab. Go to the "Animation" tab there. Make sure that "Rendersetting" is set to the size you want, that the folder locations and file naming is ok, and that you have the right first and last frame set. Ok, hit "Start Animation". With some luck, it will then create a series of files as chosen by your settings.
Part 2: NOW comes my problem. Somehow, the figures do not seem to update their poses!! Very frustrating. I can tell from the sequence of images that the camera IS moving through the frames and (with the "link to DAZ camera") I even get it to focus, as chosen. If the figures change position, they do that too. They just do not change their pose. What am I doing wrong? Ah, and furthermore, once done, the Octane Render Viewport stays open. I cannot close it and I cannot try another animation. The only thing seems to be to restart DAZ, essentially. What is going on there?
Part 3: Incidentally, there are a bunch of other things that can go wrong easily: for example, the camera position may be stuck throughout the render, or it does not animate with the camera chosen in your main viewport. I seemed to get around that by going back to a still render, perhaps restarting DAZ, then still render, until that works as it should. Then at least this little issue got solved, though I imagine there is a simpler way there too. Simply put ... a short "here is a bunch of steps, and yes, now the figures will move and pose as intended" to do a basic animation would be much appreciated. Could it be the graphics card, perhaps? Are some newer NVidia graphics cards not supported?