Animation Alignment

I'm sorry if this question seems silly. I have a piece of furniture for which I need to create an animation that puts someone in a very specific aligned position. For example, if an arm needs to go through a particular loop in a piece of furniture. Is there a technique to figure out how to get the arm pose in the right place - so far I have been using trial and error.

I mean after 12 or 13 round trips - I'm thinking some smart person must know a better way.

All help appreciated.

Hugs and kisses,
Staci

I don't know of a way (other than tweaking the llSitTarget as well as the animation).

Worse, grab my Designers Toolkit and watch how the different shapes in the toolkit utterly wreck your careful positioning. They're extreme shapes, sure, and I've never seen anyone in SL using them except for this purpose; but it makes the point that a tall, long-boned av and a short av with short bones are not going to be in the same positions.



* The Toolkit is a freebie, available at
SL Exchange
http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=811584
OnRez
http://shop.onrez.com/item/705477
Spark of Genius
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Achlya/199/185/102
Seshat Studios
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Roosa/47/104/37

I use a product called U-Poser. It is an in-world device that makes this sort of thing easy. You can adjust it to the size of your avi, then set the initial positions of all the avi's joints in the piece of furniture. I can hit that first position on the first upload using it.

Once you have the initial pose created, you can animate it and then use a sit target system to place it in the furniture (or use a poseball.)

You can find U-Poser here:

http://uncensored.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=276563

I would be happy to give you a demonstration in-world. Or if you are only going to need this one animation, I would be willing to help you make the intitial pose.

I’m not sure if you can do this with all animation programs but with Maya I just create and add a prop object. It doesn’t have to be an exact replica or your chair, couch or bed. Just some blocks in the shape of couch seat, back and arms will do. Than when you create your animation you can see exactly where you need to position your joints and set your key frames.

already good advice here posted by everyone... just wanted to add one thought...
if you are designing the furniture, it will often be easier to upload the animation first, and then (wearing an average size avvie) tweak the furniture around the pose, rather than the other way around.

Excellent advice, Ben. This is especially true for vehicles. On a couple of occasions I have had to squeeze an avi into a vehicle that looked great but wasn't proportioned properly for avis.

Thank you to everyone for such fantastic advice - I really appreciate everyone's time.

HUGS!!!!