"Joining" anims.

I've got a great collection of (freebie) Salsa anims, but can only play them one at a time - there's 27 in total.

Is there any way I can "join" them, so they play in sequence, from #1 through to #27?

you could put them in an AO or chim or a huddles or something like that..then set the order in the note card and then play them on auto or whatever the setting is for that certain tool.. then they would play one right after the other..

There's no way to automatically run one anim when another finishes, without knowing the length of each anim and starting it using a timer.

So, a script to run a set of animations in sequence would need to know how long each animation is. Unfortunately, there's no way the script can get this information from the animation or the world, so it would need to be notecard-configured.

Another set of problems is caused by download delays.

Whenever an avatar plays an animation, the viewer program for every avatar that can see them has to get a copy of the animation from the server (if it hasn't done this recently). So, there's a delay before the new animation appears. Worse still, this delay is different for the two anims for two avs in a couples dance, so the animations for the couple will appear out of synchronization.

If there were just a few animations, the first time through the sequence things would look dodgy, but eventually they'd be fine. However, with 27 of them, it's doubtful that the viewer would still have the 1st one in cache after the other 26 had played.

Where did you get these animations?

You might do better asking about this in the Scripting Tips forum, where, if the following suggestion is wrong, it's more likely to be corrected.

But, I think you are going to have to make a list of your anims in order, together with the timing for each anim in seconds, so your list would start something like, "Salsa 1", 25.5, "Salsa 2", 27.5, and so on. You also have a counter, set to 0 (LSL starts counting at 0).

Then you start playing the first anim on the list and set a timer event for the first (corresponding) time interval. That fires 25.5 seconds later, and in that you stop the anim you're playing, increment the counter by 1, and then start the next anim and set the interval for the next timer event to value corresponding with what the counter now stands at. Then let it run through the sequence until you reach the end of the list, when you reset the counter and start again.

It's a bit like playing clips of music -- LSL doesn't know how long anims last and when it's finished playing them; you have to tell it, and that means timing the anims yourself, unfortunately.

But, as I said, if you ask in /54/1.html there are lots of people there who know more about this than do I.

If you need help writing the script to do this, that's certainly the place to go.

This isn't a question for scripting tips unless the OP plans to write a script. If not, it might be a question for the Products Wanted forum.

That's why I said, "If you need help writing the script ...".

Which is why I said, "If not, try the Products Wanted forum."

Thanks all for your help. As to where they came from I'll have a look next time in world.

Hi Bethany - If you have full permissions on these animations, you could look at putting them into a Gesture. You don't need any special scripting skills for that - You wouldn't be able to get all 27 of them in because there is a limit on the number of command lines you can put in a Gesture - I think it is 15.

If they are looped animations, you will need to put in "Wait" commands - so you could run 5 or 6

Your Gesture would go something like:

Play Anim 1
Wait 2 minutes
Stop Anim 1
Play Anim 2
Wait 2 minutes
....etc.

There is a freebie box of 27 anims from waaaaaaay back. I have one, too. No idea where the originals came from.

Another issue is that the anims do not all loop. So, they tend to be jerky at the point where one stops and the next starts. For that matter, they tend to be jerky when one ends and then restarts.

Animeeple has a feature that blends the end of one animation into the beginning of the next. Too bad this isn't built into SL.

I agree. A free chim and put them all in. Rez the chim or wear it, follow the instructions to dance (either by typing /99dance or clicking on it) and all of them will play one after the other once they're all in your cache that is. Until they are, you will have a few seconds between each standing still (possibly in a hilarious position) while they are cached. Warming up in private before you dance somewhere in public helps that.