Animators: Diversify or DIE!

Yesterday I sought out a variety of animations, with great difficulty.

I had no difficulty finding an endless variety of dances, sex poses, and modeling poses.

My message to animators:
DIVERSIFY

You are competing against each other making the same type of stuff over and over!

Make some new animations, sell them as sets. Or market them to designers of objects.

Ideas:
- Athletics
- Driving (shifting, turning steering wheel, etc)
- Fighting (Single movements that can be chained together)
- Emotes - replace things like anger, crying, sad, happy, etc etc
- Household - cooking, opening fridge, turning on stuff, etc - that can be triggered with appliances
- Fidgeting - sneezing, twiddling fingers, stretching, leaning back and forth, etc

In addition, if you are an animator and aren't listing your land with the keyword "animations" first, you are being overlooked!

All those animations you listed Hiro are a good idea but the reason why i think you don't see them alot is because using just a "general" action animation for something could be tricky. If you go and buy driving anims or kitchen actions etc and try to fit them with items you have the result could be very frustrating. I think alot of animators probaby do customs for people that want animations like that so it's fit to exactly what they need.

I know that gwin did a violin playing animation for someone's violin they wanted to sell, she did skateboard animations as well for someone who wanted to sell a skateboard. Just because you don't see those animations in the store doesn't mean animators aren't doing them! It would be great if we could do one size fits all animations though wouldn't it? lol

I can make all of those animations. The problem with attaching them to objects are avatar size.

Lets say I add some kitchen animations to my kitchen. They will work aweome for me, and maybe Cristiano because we are about the same height, if Lo come over, she is a shorty so it won't work well for her and Trimda is a giant, so it won't work well for him. The car, would be a nightmare. You can do a lot of things but they would end up being a lot of individual customization.


The fighting ones are pretty easy and I could make a set for you if you wished, just tell me what you are looking for.

The thing I find annoying is that i can't find poses and animations that don't look completely pretentious. I just want to stand like a normal human being does, not a model... without my butt and chest sticking out or my back arched into an imposible position.

Excellent suggestion, Hiro et al. Personally, I'd like to see a lot more short-looped, gesture-type animations that can be embedded into Siggy's Emote-A-Rama thingy (which, btw, I absolutely love and endorse!!). Brief facial and body-language emotive animations that subtly express common emotions are what I have in mind. The "hmms," the "awwws," the "maybes," the "pensives," etc.

Having done dozens of vehicle poses its not so bad... Vehicles are saved by the fact that you position things from the hips, so unless your doing something like a motorcycle where the exact position of hands/feet are really critical, vehciles generally tend to look alright with custom anims.

Or on your knees, your head bowed, waiting for a lashing from the "Master".

Seriously. I use some of the model poses for ... well, modelling for my own clothing billboards. But otherwise, most of them look so pretentious (great word) that other people would have to be wondering "What the hell kind of physical deformity makes her stand like that?"


Ok, where do I find Siggy's Emote-a-Rama and do I have enough attachment points left after dance ball, Animation overrider, floating title and jewelry?

Cindy

Just noting for any wanting to make those - the only 'requirement' is that they be modify so people can rename them to words that they replace... not really are requirement, more a customer convenience. Apart from that its anything goes.

I can't stress enough how when I made that gadet that I WANTED people to use their own anims (made - bought - any) - and encourage others to bundle up new ones and make them available.. the project was about bringing more individual personality to your avatar - so I tried to make the device as open as I could.

Keep an eye out Paolo - I'm not gonna steal anyones thunder, but there is very good animator that is seriously thinking about making and bundling 'emotimations' to cover different personalities and things that I don't have the time (or skill) to do.

Siggy.

Hi Cindy.. You can find the Emote-A-Rama at Little Rebel Designs in Gallinas. The gadget comes with 30 or so preloaded animations, and there's 3 expansion packs out. You can test them all there to see if it's what you want. Stand on the disc, and get the List to test out the anims.

The gadget, which looks like a little mp3 player, attaches to the hip, but you can attach it to anyplace you don't have something already.

(shameless plug over)

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Something I would really, really like to see in animations, are animations that use Limits on joints. I don't want my wrists and elbows turning backwards or corkscrewing in poses or dances. I want natural limitations on movements. I also want a 3 second or so ease in and out of animations so it doesn't look like I'm jumping from one pose to the next.

And for those who make Modeling poses... Unless I miss my guess, those poses are more often than not used for modeling clothing for box and/or vendor art. Please make more poses that don't stretch out the torso of a top, or force the legs through a skirt, or otherwise warp the clothing texture beyond all recognition.

I would gladly pay more for animations with those considerations in mind!

Totally missed that post... Yep - what Jon said..

as for attachment points - heres a lil tip for you too... although it comes in an attatchable 'mp3 player' you could take the script an anims and put them in any attachment you have modify right on....

Stop the typing; that action ruins many an animation.
Some "normal" activities are ruined by being so over the top. Yes, it is common to type lol or rofl, but how often do we find something funny enough to grab our stomachs and convulse? An amused smile would be more reflective of typical amusement.
While we're at it, a simple pleasant smile to wear in the company of friends would be most welcome. The drinking animation should be renamed the big gulp and be replaced with a slight head backward tilt with lips parted slightly, perhaps, not mouth agape.
Plenty more, but that would be a good start along with the others already mentioned.

Use my PoseCubes, then
You can customize the height for any person!

but I agree, height is a problem... probably the best idea is to use the animations in attachments. Consider the kitchen one:
- Opening the fridge: Heigh is sorta moot, as long as the hand is somewhere along the edge of the door
- Frying / cooking: attach to pots, knives, spatulas, etc
- Stools / chairs: use PoseCubes for multiple animations
- Mopping / cleaning: attach to the broom / etc
- Eating: Attach to utensils
- Drinking: attach to cups / glasses



One thing at a time. I have a dedicated and talented animator at the moment (Abramelin Wolfe) and any offers go to him first.

It's not so much the height issues Hiro, it's also dimensions of Avatars...

Body Width, arm length, leg length, torso and hip length all throw off an animation from one AV to the next.

And as for why you dont see a lot of diverse animations as you described available as just general stock. Its because those animators will use that stock in their own products. It's out there, you just need to look in different objects than for sale boxes. It may mean ruining a chair or a bike or a microphone or a vehicle or a coke tray but there's your animations you seek.

There is a device called the BTM Keep a Smile On that keeps you smiling. I am not sure where you can get it from a vendor but I can sell you one or you could contact the head of the BTM's (Black Thong Mistresses), DIANNA Fredericks for a copy.

Can't you just turn your lips upward in appearance?

RE: - Fighting (Single movements that can be chained together)

I bought an double-kick kung-fu styled animation in FurNation (I think). Pretty cool I must say, and the price was reasonable... L150.

Damn that reminds me, I never did make my kung-fu animations for my Kamen Rider V3 avatar.

Posecubes aren't priced at a level that allows mass production of items for sale in world unless you are selling sex. Which I don't.

People make what they want to Hiro, and for the majority, its where the demand is.
I'm afraid that most people dont animate for pleasure, but to make money, and in animation the demand is in sex, dancing, and poses. If people want other anims, they can have them custom made. I takes a long time for a precise animation to be made, why should we waste our time doing something that may only appeal to a handfull of people.

Ben Stravinsky, i animate.

Cattering to a niche and doing it well implies less competition and a higher rate of return customers. It makes simple business sense to catter to this model if you can create a loyal userbase of your products that keep coming back.

So the questions is that of a tradeoff. If you are in it for the money, would you make more selling "en masse" in the light of stiff, cut-throat competition? Or would you do better serving a smaller niche, as Hiro described, that has lower barriers to entry and "makes you a bigger fish in a smaller pond?"

As for me, these concepts are still quite foreign. I still create content "for enjoyment's sake," so I like discussions like these as an observer looking in.

I too would love to see more subtle modelling poses for the same reasons as Jonquille.

Sensual Cassanova (she's still around, right?) had a whole bunch of assorted combat animations, last I checked..

I agree. Like many people I got the free franimation thing in the local paper, and went out looking for anis. I spent all night on it and went to what seemed to be *all* of the top animation sellers. I also asked all my friends for suggestions and went to a bunch of other places suggested. All in all, about eight stores and all night checking out every single item for sale.

I found practically *nothing*. At least nothing that did not fall into the categories Ingrid describes here, or were just woefully crappy.

Mr. P's was the exception, but even there I only found a half dozen or so that fit my requirements.

So to all those of you constantly shouting about capitalism in SL, here is a customer (and possibly an entire market) looking for a product that is just not being supplied. I was flush with ill-gotten Anshe Chung cash and champing at the bit to spend it, but I couldn't.

I would have spent thousands for the right animations, but instead I got to throw away about 400 bucks on what turned out to be 100 bucks worth of product when I got it home.

To anyone thinking of entering this business, practically everyone I have talked to in the last few weeks about animaiton overides says the same thing. What they want are subtle, "real" stands and sits, as well as twitches, hair playing, coughs, etc.

Everywhere I go I find same style of love animations with same type of user interface. I feel there is considerable lack of innovation.

This even applies to bondage collars. I looked at several collars from different designers. To my great surprise they had almost identical set of 20 or so poses. Well, I guess that is how far downloading from the Web goes.

One year has passed since SL 1.4 patch. After one year I am still not able to express myself sufficiently with existing products:

o The "vocabulary" available in anims and poses is insufficient
o The tools to access and organize them are still too cumbersome.
o The marketing of products is lacking. If there is any cool stuff then I am unable to find it.

I go to the clubs and it is depressing. Clubs is #1 business in SL, isn't it? And dancing is #1 activity of a lot of people. So I go there and what do I see? People running same loop of standard dances. No interaction! Even two year ago in Star Wars I could vary my dances by triggering flourishes. I had one great vocabulary to express myself and interact with audience by triggering different moves during dance and at same time giving somebody smile or nod or other gesture. That one year after SL 1.4 nobody even managed to copy Star Wars dance system I really don't understand.

I think something should be done. Maybe there should be one big animators convention in Second Life. People should all meet in one sim, present their work and then exchange ideas for how to add to and improve the content. Since many anims are based on AV interaction there might be benefit of standards. Also userinterface standards and naming conventions could help. Venture capitalists could involve for financing new and innovative products that are not yet tested on market, to get away from copycat and cookie cutter problem. Workshops could be held and new residents could learn how to contribute. One large directory of all designers and their products could be compiled. Tests could be performed and juries could rate products. Lotsa things could be done.

I completely agree! I want express myself, act, roleplay, do stuff. Not rez some ball and trigger yet another 69 anim, then sit back and just watch. I want control over my virtual body and all of its actions. I want this to communicate, not just to pull off some gag. Basically I want one incredibly large and standardized vocabulary of literally thousands of layered visual emotes that does not exhaust itself with /preen and /bj.

For this we need one standardized platform in Second Life. It would also greatly benefit if animators who participate in this could be convinced to put animations into public domain after, say, 6 months or so. Donators could play one helpful role in buying content rights and then release them to public. This would ensure we all have the same base vocabulary available and can teach each other in its use.

Mmmm, yes. I would like us to reinvent the way people communicate online, this time in full visual 3D and with all subleties of body expression we know in RL. I know that SL is capable to support this, question is just if people can work together towards this goal