Some general animation issues

Hi, I'm using Poser 4 for my animations and have been noticing some peculiarities when uploading to SL. I thought maybe someone has been observing these things too and found a workaround.

1. With several animations where the av is standing in a stepping position (hip and one foot forward) I've had the problem that in SL the forward foot or sometimes both feet are shuffling on the ground instead of being planted firmly on the ground as they are in Poser. I've tried making everything key frames in Poser, but that didn't help either. Any ideas?

2. I've had one project where I stringed 3 anims together. Between 2 of them there occurred a strange jump where the whole body jumped forward about half a foot length, although the last and first (really second of course) frames of the respective anims were identical. I solved that in the end by moving the hip with the whole body backward a bit in frame 2 of the last anim, but that certainly isn't very elegant and it doesn't explain why the jump occurred at all. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks

The feet shuffling is unfortunately pretty normal. What you have to realize is that the upload streamlines the animation data by removing really small movements. Since keeping the feet planted involves lots of really small movements, the automatic data optimizing results in feet shuffling around during animations.

If it is absolutly necessary that the feet stay perfectly still then your only option is to not move the feet or hips at all over the course of the animation, although you can certainly pose them at the start of the animation and just never move them during the animation. Of course, removing any foot and hip movement is a big tradeoff for many animations. As with many things, you're just going to have to weigh the benefits against the drawbacks and make a decision.

You've probably checked this already, but just to cover all the bases, are you absolutely sure that the feet are moved at least 4 degrees between the first and second frame? I've had this problem before, and when I've checked back that's always been the problem. If you use a standard setup, with a ready made frame 2 with all the movements done, then when you actually create the first frame pose, it's easy to move the feet (or anything else) back to the default position without noticing. I always do one last check before downloading. Also I assume that you're uploading at priority 3 or more.

By the way, making everything a key frame in poser won't make any difference. When you export as a BVH file there are no key-frames (or they all are, it depends on your philosophical viewpoint!)

To answer question 2 you may need to look at the script, rather than the animations.

Love Suzi