what is WITH the FEET?

For a while now I've been using qavimator to make animations, and all seemed fairly straightforward with that approach. Lately I've begun to learn Poser 4 on my own, trying to figure out the quirks and strangenesses that Poser offers, compared with Qavi. Generally I like Poser more, for what it can do, the things it offers that Qavi doesn't. However, one thing has got me cursing...

What is WITH the FEET? I mean, in Qavi it's all pretty simple, each body part down the hierarchy moves when you move a part above it. Move the thigh, the calf and foot move with it as a rigid structure, and you have to go in and fix each lower-order joint, one at a time. That's a pain, but it's a predictable pain.

Enter Poser. Supposedly the feet in Poser -- using the SL avatar figures - I *AM* using the SL avatar figures -- the feet are are at the top of the Body hierarchy, on equal par with the pelvis. In Poser this is apparent when arranging an animation or a pose. But when I import a BVH from Poser into SL, the feet are moving on their own, behaving like they're part of a rigid structure that runs from the hip to the foot.

In Poser an anim looks fine, but when I bring it into Poser the feet are sliding back and forth as the hips bump and grind. So why do the SL avatar figures even bother to assign feet to be equal with hips on the hierarchy, especially when hands on the SL avatars have had their hierarchy level reduced from highest (on Poser default figures) to lowest?

Is this simply a quirk of SL/Poser translation, or is there something I'm missing (likely, knowing me, something childishly fundamental) in building an anim in Poser?

As always.... I'm really, really, really sorry if this has been discussed a million times already here. But, I searched the forums for discussions of hierarchy and Poser and got nothing relevant...

try turning off inverse kinematics for the legs?

That's a good suggestion. In fact I'm not a big fan of IK for that reason... it freaks out the limbs. But even with it on, because for some animations having the feet planted would be nice, it's just weird how in Poser the feet don't move, but in SL they end up rocking forward and back. Oh well, lol. I guess it's one of those weird quirks about the SL avatar construct.

Anyway, thanks for the input. As always, it's appreciated.

Blessed Be,

- Syn

I'm impressed that you take it so well Synthia... I have been trying for a while now to make a simple stand animation and I have tried EVERYTHING I can think of to stop the feet from drifting around in sl. It's been quite frustrating... and I wondered what I'm missing....

I've checked and double checked the difference between the first and second frame... I've viewed the bvh file in poser, avimator, qavimator and bvh hacker and the feet are firmly planted in all of those programs... it seems like some of the hip rotation isn't translating to sl and is throwing everything else off.

so, if this is just an impossibility in sl I wish this information were made available (it might be somewhere but I haven't found it) .. it would have saved me a lot of time and frustration... if it IS possible I'd sure like to know what I'm missing...

I love problem solving until I hit a wall...

but still having fun,
--Flann

Did you try running at 15 fps? SL optimises to that, and will drop frames on upload if you have saved your bvh at a higher rate. Running at 15 fps can sometimes result in smoothing things out - but that is the only thing I can think of that you haven't mentioned trying.

Yes.

Anyone who tries to tell you different is lying, and there is no fix for it.

I wonder if this is specific to Poser, since I use DAZ|Studio for most of my animation and I don't seem to suffer from the same problem.

I'd recommend the OP try that, since DAZ is free it's a no-cost way to find out. DAZ isn't nearly as powerful as Poser (though it can import Poser content and animation), but for me it's far less frustrating.

http://www.daz3d.com

Yep, feet suck. As has been said, it does help to animate at 15 FPS, and perhaps to turn off IK.

Also, it may be that rolling the hips produces unpredictable results with the feet, depending on the avatar that plays the animation. Sometimes I"ll upload an anim in which the feet are stationary on a man but move on a woman, or vice-versa. 10 degree of hip roll on a man may produce a different foot location than the same degree of roll on a woman. In many cases the safest fix is just for me to stop rolling the hips one way or the other. Mind you, rolling the hips is sorta important to realistic ambulatory movement, so this "workaround" is hardly optimal.

The other option is just trial and error -- tweak things until the feet stop sliding around. Time-consuming and frustrating, but sooner or later it does work.