Preferred Animation Priorities

Hello all-

This may be an old topic, but is there any consensus on what the preferred animation priorites should be? We know what the base priorities for all the Linden anims are (mostly 2 or less), but the only advice I have seen on this topic is "pick a nice high number so it will override any other anims that are playing."

It would be easier to design things to work properly with everyone elses poses, dances, ect if we all agreed on what to recommend for different applications. I was thinking something like:

2 - Animation Overriders
3 - Dances / Chair poses
4 - Static poses (fashion modeling, ect) / huggers

I don't know if these are the right choices and it certainly is not a complete list... I am just making some wild guesses based on the way I would like the anims I use to interact. What do the rest of you think? I am very interested in hearing what the more experienced animators would recommend.

Thanks!

There is no set rule in my opinion. I tend to make everything i can think of animation wise, and the priority of the anim depends on its use.

It really is personal preference, and as the creator, i get to decide ^^.

If i hit my LL laugh gesture, i like to see me laughing. To that end, most dances i make are of weak priority. Granted, some people dont like that, but hey, i made em

Some sit poses i have at 4......some at 3.

Items that use multpile anims, like a my sword fighting ao's require varying priority. Starting an attack and then having it cut out because of a stronger 'standing' pose is relaly annoying lol.

So, like i said, i think the call should be made on an animation to animation basis.

But then what do i know !

Check out this thread and the linked Wiki page. They are not everything 2 or less.

Speaking of myself, I just think it binary, that is, overriding or not overriding. So I always set all animations priority 4. When I don't want some parts to override, I don't just put keyframes on them.

*blinks* Clearly I need to check my eyes... last time I looked at the wiki page I could have sworn that everything was 2 or less!

Clearly, as the creator you get to decide what the priority ought to be, but a reasonable expectation as to what priority an ao or a hugger should be set at would make it easier to build things that interact gracefully with others.

Seagel.... just saying "I want to override everyone else" doesn't seem cover all the situations. I am mostly doing animation override poses right now and I WANT them to be overridden by sit poses and such. In the ideal world, I would never have to turn off my animation overrider to sit on a bar stool or stop dancing to be hugged. If we had a recommended standard, maybe we would be a step closer to that ideal world.

Why don't you just keep blank lines at the sitting fields on the AO setting? I can't find any reason why you'd better set priority lower. The latter animation will be given priority over the former if they have the exact same priority. You can set the priority of the both your dancing and hugger 4. If you play hugger while you're playing dancing, the hugger animation would overide the dancing. If it keeps stepping, you just missed to set keyframes on its legs in the hugger animation.

*smiles* You have never used the default sits while wearing a short skirt, I expect.

The point about the hugger seems well taken, however. If two anims at the same priority are competing for a joint, the LAST anim gets it? That would seem to be reasonable and desireable, and it explains some of the odd behavior I see when I am wearing two animation overriders at the same time. (Yes I know - I am an overrider junkie.... I just keep buying them! That is why I decided I need to make them for myself.)

Jamie, most playing animation scripts restart animations again and again to continue them and to allow to change them by using timer. So if you used two AOs, they would race with each other, that is, the LAST anim changes by turns.

Animations are made to be played and shown. I don't think that animation makers have to consider their animations to be overrided. That would be the matter of scripting. Using double AOs at the same time might be beyond even the script makers.

Why use multiple AO attachments when you can use the Zhao? Its free, and can have up to 16 different notecards. When changing ao set, you just click load on the hud and load a different notecard. Each note card can also have multiple walks and sits in it where you can load them seperatly.

Most of my AOs are set at 2. That way gestures can take over when needed. My older ones are not, I just need to reupload is all.

Model poses are at 4. Due to when modeling things people don't want shots ruined because of something interferring.

The hug attachments Im making are at 4, because i've seen it where hugs don't take over the dancing.

My dances are at 3 or 4. Same with furniture anims. Who wants to be cuddling someone and then type with their hands going through bits? ick.

I agree some times there needs to be a logical way in which people decide what priority they are going to use, but no one is going to follow a pre set list.

Ooops - Luth/Seagel, I don't wear multiple AOs intentionally. they just collide when I am swapping them. The problem also shoes up with AO-equipped clothing. I really need to get my AOs all connected to the same attachment point someday real soon now *grins* And - I do need to get a copy of the Zhao (AO junkie, remember?)

Luth - I agree that, when there is good reason (or bad reason, for that matter) creators will upload at whatever priority suits them. My point, and I think you understand it, is that they will often be happy to follow a guideline, especially if it gives them a reasonable expectation of having their anims 'play nicely' with others. Certainly I would.

You can grab a copy of the ZHAO at Animation Warehouse, I think Luth's main store has them on display too.

As for priority it's really about what you are designing the animation to do, I think for a lot of things, 4 is the right priority though. The point in playing the animation is get seen, not to get overridden by something else.

Here is one exception though: There are stands which do a lot with the arms and torso that you want the chat/typing animation to play over, so in those cases a lower priority (I think two is required) is in order.

One frustrating thing I've found with priorities is sits. If I set the priority too low, the legs don't seem to get animated when using an AO. But if I set them too high, then the typing animation doesn't kick in. My comprimise is to have some sits which are priority 4 but only animate below the waist, so the typing animation still comes into play and the legs get animated.

Jamie, I consider this again.
If the talk is limited only to dancing and hugger, we might have to set all dancing animation's priority 3. And of course the hugger must be 4. It is no problem that the dancing ones are set priority 3 unless you want to dance while sitting, I think.

Your saying "sit poses and such" is the sit poses of SL default animations, isn't it? Are these poses also custom made ones? I think it is natural that if you want to be overridden by the default animations, you must not set them by AO.

Personally I set all of my override stands at 2 so the avatar is not frozen in a pose, can type, look around, etc. I use two part animations for most of the sits, bottom at 4, top at 2, I can't stand having a low priority sit where my avatar pops up when I laugh. For other animations in the override the priority is usually at 4 (walk, flying up, down, etc). My modeling poses are set at priority 4 though I usually include an additional stand set at 2 for those who just have to use modeling poses in their AO. That's my way of saying "at least don't stand there completely frozen" lol. I've been meaning to convert my AO set and stands to ZHAO but I procrastinate, this reminded me to get off my bum and do it.

Although that depends on how to write AO script, you'd better know how the script can work. It is applicable according to each avatar's state, such as standing, sitting, flying, falling, typing, and so on. It is the reason because there is the list of each avatar's state to have you discribe in some AOs. So you can type even though you have the standing animations' priority set at 4. And there are couple of standing states because they changes in a few secs in world.

*Unless you let your animations occupy all of them, the SL default animations sometimes would appear.
[EDIT] This part was my mistake. The scripts won't be able to detect each animation in the same state. The scripts, however, can stop your animation and replace the default animation for it in any time. That depends on the script indeed.

I don't think there are any reason to set at priorty lower, such as 2 except using some poor scripts.