Animations & Franimations

Hello,

I know what animations are & do, but what are 'Franimations' , or 'Franimation Overrides' ?

On animations, can more than one animation be used at the same time? Which one has priority ?

Thanks as always

FH

Franimations a trademark name probably made by someone called Fran?

Yes, via scripting and also in gestures. Animations have set priorities, depending on what the creator decides they should have.

I'm sure you'll get better more extensive replies after this.

The "Franimations Overrider" is an open source animation overrider (AO), scripted by Francis Chung. It's the basis for pretty much all decently-functional AOs that have succeeded it--notably the venerable ZHAO II--Ziggy (Puff)'s HUD Animation Overrider.

(An AO is a script that automatically replaces an avatar's default animations with others it's configured to use, as for walks, stands, sits, etc.)

"Franimations" is the name of Francis Chung's SL avatar animation business. Francis was the first person to script an animation override and all AO's are based on her work.

In SL there are always multiple avatar animations running pretty much all of the time. If you open up the Client/Advanced menu, you can see which ones are running.

Use CTL ALT D on a PC to get the Advanced menu
Select Advanced/Character/Animation Info

This will show all the animations currently running as a list above your avatar's head. The number alongside the animation name is the priority number - from 1 - 4 where 4 is the highest priority.

When more than one animation of the same priority is running, the latest one to run will take precedence.

I would suggest using Zhao II which is free if you want to change from the default anims to custom ones.

The Zhao II uses a formatted notecard to list the anims you want to use.

You rez the Zhao II on a prim on the ground, edit it and put the anims you want to use in the contents.

Edit the notecard (which has to be called config) included in the Zhao II to add the exact names of the anims you added to the contents.

Be careful not to change the formatting otherwise.

Take the Zhao back into inventory and then attach it to a HUD position (I used Bottom Right). When the Zhao is active, it will show green.

Choose Load to have the Zhao recognize your notecard.


On the menu is also a sit button which means you can turn your sit on or off.

The custom stand anims will now play one after another.

This is very brief but I hope it helps you and others.

Some anim makers sell an AO with their packages..Outrider, Torrid, Abraminations to name a few. Huddles makes a great AO that is useful for dances as well.

i prefer the old hudless franimation ao myself.
ive never seen the point in the ao hud.

How does that work Nina? I don't think I've every used one.

The HUD setup is nice if you use several notecards, or more than a handful of animations, and want to use them without memorizing all their names. Really, it's more the menus than the HUD part that make it nice to have. But it's full of lose if you spend a lot of time in the editor, since HUD prims won't get touches then. Clickies with chat shortcuts FTW.

Zhao II, from my understanding, is a "next generation" expansion on the concept, and a combination of the old Zhao AO and the Franimation (or Wet Ikon) AO. From my experiences, both are quite good, even today, but ZhaoII has a hud based interface, allowing you to toggle in on and off with a click, instead of chatting "ao on" and "ao off".

Both are free. While I have used Franimations for most of my SL life, in the last 6 months or so, all my AO's have been Zhao II.

I'll be a cranky old curmudgeon and say that one of the design goals for ZHAO-I/II was no permanently open listeners, and I'm going to stick to that But point taken, of course, and AFAIK some of the ZHAO mods/variants floating around have added the chat control back.

It's only wafer thin…

What would be really cool is if there was something like a link message that would be shared among an agent and its attachments, not just for a chat replacement but also things like clothing objects that want to match up textures, etc.

Hearsay - a long time ago, I believe link messages propagated through avs (I'm not sure if they went to attachments or not). Which makes sense, since an av sitting on an object kinda becomes a linked prim. But I guess people started sitting on vendors and sniffing their internal comms, so they put an end to that.

I agree, a way for all attachments (and maybe even the sat-on object) to talk to each other without listens and whispers would be very cool. Especially with HUDs, since so many products have HUDs that control another attachment or vehicle.

actually the notecard can be named anything you want it to be named, and you can use multiple notecards, just choose load and choose the name of the notecard you wish to load from the menu that pops up

Good to know Rha..now I can use names that are more descriptive.

I prefer no hud clutter either, why do I need to see my AO? I never turn it off or ever touch it as I keep the sit line blank so it doesn't interfere with anything!

So the AO I include with my poses is a modified version of the franimation ao script (which only listens to the owner and not on the main chat channel).

you are welcome

I have one named default (yeah I know, pretty basic LOL) and one called no walk, they are the same except the no walk has... no walk... for when I wear shoes with built in walk

Where does one get the Zhao II?

How do you know what animations to list on the card? or where do you get the actual animations? Thanks in advance.

it works just like the zhao ao, even using the same notecard, it just doesnt have the hud aspect to it. its just a prim containing the script and the notecard, and you attach it to the av somewhere. mine is textured alpha and i wear it on my hip.

You list the animations that you put in the contents of the Zhao II.
Lets say you put an anims "Stand tall", "Stand with arms crossed" and "Stand with hands down" in the contents area. You then list these anims in the notecard and when you wear the Zhao II (attach it to a HUD position) it will play the stands listed on the notecard one after another. If you have an anim in the contents but don't list it, it will not play. If you list an anim but don't have it in the contents, you will get an error message saying that it could not find the anim.

To get the animations you can buy them or look for free ones. You can shop around and buy one anim one place and buy another one somewhere else..they don't have to be from the same set.

As far as I know, stands are better bought but you can find good free sits and ground sits.

I'm not sure where to get a copy of the Zhao II. The very generous creator was posting on these forums, perhaps they can tell where to pick on up.

Sounds good. I have my screen decked out with several HUDs at this point and do run out of locations. This is good to keep in mind.

Check my profile in-world, you'll find landmarks to my store where you can pick up a free empty (i.e. no animations) ZHAO-II. You'll then have to fill it with animations like Dnali explained. You can probably also find empty ZHAO-II's at some animation stores. Another option is to buy pre-made AO sets, which would consist of a ZHAO or ZHAO-II already pre-loaded with animations with the notecard already set up.

As a side note to this topic, since Francis Chung was mentioned:
You should really look up her profile and visit her stores. She's been a pioneer in various fields, her work being the foundation of various common tools and objects in Second Life.
Her car for example, is a class example of development, and still is a creation that other creators of vehicles should use (and some actually do!) as a target of what quality to reach.

There are a number of creators who've had a big hand in the development of Second Life, and she's definitely one of them.

Agreed.