3rd party program

Well, being entirely new to creating animations, I have no idea how to make them. Sure, I can make gestures >.> but I want to make animations. Is there a supported program LL offers or some third party program I have to dl.....or is it all scripting???

I dunno, but it would be cool to make anims! If anyone knows post here or IM me.

There is Blender (Free), or a another called Poser that I saw used here in SL.

Poser bro. That's the only way I know of, I don't think Blender will work.

And read all the stuff you can from Cristiano Midnight, Chip Midnight, and Ulrika Zuqzwang has a great tutorial to get started in Poser 5 on her site below

http://www.ulrikasheim.org/animation/

Hope that helps, Ulrika, sorry if I've put this out without your expressed consent. It's a great started and I just know you LOVE to share wiht us all

Don't use Blender. Poser is what you need. I really don't want to restart the open source vs. proprietary argument that ensued the last time I told someone not to use Blender, so I'll leave it this: If you are VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY good at rigging skeletons in Blender and you already know EXACTLY how Poser skeletons are rigged so you can replicate one perfectly in Blender, then technically Blender will work. Otherwise you have to use Poser.

The SL avatars are based on Poser models, and SL is set up to interpret BVH files as created by Poser. You can create these files with other programs, you could even write them from scratch on any text editor if you were so inclined, but since Poser is already set up properly, use Poser.

Sorry for the verbose answer, but I wanted to cover my bases incase the Open Source Nazis are on the prowel.

Open Source On The Prowl!!! Blender!!! Blender!!!

Technically speaking, there are 2 things that need to be set up in Blender before you can make a BVH anim for SL: the skeleton, and the set of "empty" objects whose movements are recorded into the BVH file.

The first part, setting up the empties, is quite easy: just import any BVH file created in Poser using a Poser 2 model (preferably with the default pose in the 1st frame) into Blender. It's the second part, building an armature skeleton around those empties, that's the real challenge. The empties' rotations relative to each other are what get recorded into the BVH, but it's the armature skeleton that defines what ways the virtual "bones" can move. And while this skeleton doesn't need to be set up exactly like the one Poser uses, it does require some 3D design expertise and knowledge of the human body's movements in order to create something that will bend/step/etc. realistically.

In short, doing it in Blender is not for the faint of heart.

Life Forms is another program I've heard of being used but you have to have access to Poser to correct the bone names, now perhaps once it's been re-exported you could then import that default pose to get the names right for new poses, dont know for sure. Will look for that thread.

L8r,
UU

Edit: Yes they got Life Forms to reimport and work, read about it here:/52/77/28118/1.html

Now as for its functionality I have no clue... yet

Blender is much easier to use now. One can get a AV model, exporter and Blender screen layout from: http://tentacolor.com/sl-animation-for-blender-newbs/

The sticky thread about animation editors (free and commercial) contains the list of available editors, along with some opinions about which to use.