Prim Animator Now Available!

Please send me feedback on how well this works for you, either to my PM/in-world IM, or if all else fails, here. Thank you.

The simple version: Yes, this script animates prims using animation files from outside of Second Life. More specifically, the same ones that SL uses for avatar animations.

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From the Linden Hotline:


Yep, it would be cool. And it's now available!

/15/da/37403/1.html

Before you open that though, a few things about it:
1) You'll need a text editor with macro support. I would suggest http://www.jedit.org if you don't have one.
2) You'll need a BioVision Heirarchial animation (.BVH - yes, same ones as Second Life) that you want to import.
3) Once you have your importer in-world, do NOT rez more than one unless you edit the code (listener channels).
4) You read that correctly. Listeners. 1 Listener per joint (firing every 0.35 seconds), folks, unless someone finds me a better way to send data in this manner. It wasn't so hard on the sims I tested it on, but be wary of performance.
5) You can import (at the time of this writing) roughly 50-71 frames with a few joints to 20-30 with several. Blender can be used to split Poser animations up as need be, as you can import different joints from separate files (for example, left arm, legs, right arm).
6) The easiest way to do multiple animations is to pair off two or more animations in the same imported file, then call them separately. You can do this by editing the "Base Code" I provided as an example that loops all frames.

Happy importing!

Jeffrey for president!

Kudos

awesome!!

-Ghoti

Also, for those of you using the script, I direly need feedback on it. Specifically, how easy it's been for you to use, any actual bugs you run across, etc. A few people have had trouble getting it working, and I frankly didn't work day and night on this thing for nothing.

So, by all means spam away - either here, to my in-world IM, or my PM here on the forums. I need the feedback, people. It's the only way for me to make stuff for you!

Besides, if this turns too much into a tech debate, I'll ask Jeska or Robin to politely move this to the appropriate forum.

One last, shameless bump before I let this fade into obscurity. Argh!

There is no shame in celebrating a good thing. *bumps*

This sounds great! Took me a few minutes to realize what this actually does. Glad to see someone made this.

I do wonder, though, how much utility people see themselves getting out of this.

First off, can anyone recommend some fairly good modellers that'll export BVH animations, in any form? I currently use Blender, Anim8or, and Milkshape for the most part - and I'd like to toy with others to see how different the syntax is and how fun it is to create models with them. And please, don't say Poser. I'd like something less.... "sugarcoated," and I've already tested imports from it.

Second, does anyone have problems with the documentation? Holes? Stuff that's difficult to read?

Finally, I forgot to add something. The easiest way to do multiple animations is to pair off two or more animations in the same imported file, then call them separately. You can do this by editing the "Base Code" I provided as an example that loops all frames.

And again, happy importing! And thanks for the positive comments.

Jeffrey, you are so cool. Thank you for your tireless efforts to make SL more fascinating.

neko

ok. *fluffs her hair and smiles sappily* uhmm... u guys are talking about something here...?? yes?? no?? uhmm... any chance this could be said in english so maybe then someone could explain to me what u r talking about?

i might like it. maybe not. dunno. kinda guessing i need to know what the hell it is first.

so then i can bug someone who does understand it to get me one or maybe keep it way away from me. if its a gun i dont want it. is it shoes?? i like shoes.

so sayeth:

marilyn

I think I am a dummy, I am not sure exactly what this does any pictures or something?

Lmao I was just thinking the same... scary

If I understand it correctly, it animates prims, as if they were an avatar. For example, you could build a human-like "avatar" out of prims, and use this thing to animate the prims to do something, like dance.

A good use of it that I can see is to create animals that walk fluidly, like a dog. We could recreate "There"-like dogs in SL.

Heh, sorry. "Simplified explanation" added to the top for those of you that don't speak Lindenese.

Sensual: That's the thing - you can't really take a single "picture" of something like this, because it's an animator. However, Hamlet did a nice article on it here.