Animation tip - working with frame 1 # 2

Ulrika shared this tip a long time ago, so I thought I would pay it forward by sharing my own tips on perfecting poses and animations. A major frustration with a lot of poses and animations is the floating avatar effect. There is a simple way to correct this problem. The key is knowing how to adjust the first frame to globally affect the animation. As I posted in my previous frame 1 tip, SL uses frame 1 in an unusual way. One of the benefits of this is you can manipulate frame 1 in certain ways to affect the rest of the animation/pose without having to touch the other frames.

To correct an animation/pose that is too high or sinks into the ground:

1) In frame 1, make sure you have the default figure stance applied - if not, press CTRL-A to restore it.
2) Click on the Hips section of the figure to select it.
3) On the parameters pallette, look for the Y Trans slider.
4) Adjust the slider in the opposite direction you want the figure to go in SL. If you want to lower the animation, raise the figure by pushing the slider to the right. If you want to lower it, raise the figure by moving the slider to the left. You will have to experiment with the exact amount of movement to correct your animation.

To correct an animation that starts off away from the avatar's current position:

Use the same technique as above, except use the Z Trans slider to move the animation forward or backward. The same opposite direction technique applies. Move the figure away from you to move the animation towards you in SL, and vice versa. You can also use the X Trans slider to adjust an animation that moves too far to the left or right.

To correct the rotation of an animation:

Again, use the same technique as above, except use the Twist slider in the opposite direction that you want to rotate the animation. You can also experiment with the Side to Side slider to counteract the leaning animation problem.


Hope this helps

Here's a technical analysis of why avatars sink into or hover above the ground when using custom animations.

http://www.ulrikasheim.org/animation/translation.html

~Ulrika~

umm did you forget part of the url? such as the www. and the .net .com .org ?

http://www.ulrikasheim.org/animation/translation.html

frame 1 should have no changes at all and the trans of the hips shouls be X:0, Y:0, Z:0...

Any positioning is based off the hips in frame 2. Make sure you are moving the HIP position and not the BODY position. SL does not use body trans at all, this is why people are getting messed up positioning most of the time, is use of body trans.

Positioning is handled by XYZ trans of hips and feet only (feet less so)
Overall there are 19 elements to edit and of those 19 elements 66 sliders (assuming the poser 2 figure) of the 66 sliders 9 of them deal with translation (positioning / trans) the other 57 are bend, twist, front/back, etc.

in a standard 30 frame animation the most slider adjustments you would ever need to make would be 1,980... 1914 if your first frame is the default with all 0's. Now that is a maximum number, usually an anim would (and should) require much less than that, average is around 300-500 sliders adjusted for a 30 frame anim... A single frame pose, only would require a maximum of 66

Starting with the blank "Jesus Christ" pose in frame 1 and adjusting position in frame 2 is the way to go. Yes, it's true you can change rotation / position in frame 1, but you end up just making more work for yourself in the long run by messing around in only 1 frame for a 1 frame anim

Frame 1 is where you get default centering and positioning.

Frame 2 is where it starts the anim from. Both position and rotation.

Applying these same rules to frame 2 will net the same results, so you really only need to work with one frame if you are creating a static pose.. (/me drifts off topic: baffles me why ppl sell one frame of animation for astounding amounts sometimes, should be 10$ max imo, I mean, c'mon... it's one frame! lol)

Cris you are wrong, frame one has to be left as the default pose and should never be touched, your animation or pose should always start in the second frame.

Ferran,

I am not sure what the point of your post is - adjusting frame 1 adjusts the offset for the entire animation - be it 1 frame or 900 frames. Adjusting frame 2 has only an effect on frame 2, which is fine for a pose, but not for an animation of more than one frame.

Ummm Isnt that the point of animation, you have to tweak hip position through the whole anim.

Because, if you are making the anim yourself from scratch you should be tweaking each keyframe as you create them. Each keyframe is nothing more than a pose. So naturally you would have to tweak each keyframe.

Or are you talking about tweaking the position of a pre-made bvh or pzh? like say making a dance anim that has a +Z axis so the dancing AV is on the dance floor.

Ahhh read your post over again, that must be what you meant... I was speaking from a creators point and you seem to be speaking from an editor's point. I dont deal with pre-made bvh files very much at all so I dont have much call to fix offsets and rotation in frame 1

So, yes getting a mocap from a CD or the net that is rotated or offset poorly is VERY common because mo-cap suits, recorders and capture software / hardware are not standardized. And, yes needing to make the adjustments for that are common and would have to be done in frame 1. If you are just tweking an animation that's already created you can disregard my previous post.

Ferran,

I was speaking even in creating them from scratch in Poser. I have often created poses in Poser that did not appear correctly in SL - they were either too high or too low. I am speaking as a creator also, thank you for summarizing me as an editor. The tip given applies to any animation, created from scratch or imported - the first frame determines the positioning of the avatar relative to the ground - if you find later frames are too high or too low globally, they can be adjusted. It is a completely separate issue from adjusting the hips on an individual frame.

well it's not too complex to figure that a y trans of -5 puts the feet in contact with the SL groundplane (with the model Im using, Im sure it's just as easy to figure out with the figure you use) and you just adjust the hips so there is no white extended outline of the feet, so Im not sure why you need to adjust an anim you are making from scratch in frame 1, hence my conclusion of 'editor'

So, creating from scratch you shouldnt have to touch frame 1 at all in my opinion.

So you suggest that he manually edit 120 frames, in order to hand tweak the hip offset in every single one? If your animation is almost spot on, but just translated slightly up or down, then adjusting the height using frame 1 is a perfectly valid way of saving time and frustration.

That's wonderful for you, Ferran, for those who like to adjust it slightly without tweaking a bunch of frames, the tip works. People work differently.

I agree with Ferran, there is no reason to have to adjust the position in frame 1 if you are creating from scratch... nor in frame 2 for that matter.. or 3, or 4...

If you are creating this pose from scratch, why would you have to change frame 1 (an animation yet to be created) to prevent it from sinking in the ground, or being to high? this makes no sense...

If you are creating this pose from scratch, why would you have to change frame 1 (an animation yet to be created) to prevent it from sinking in the ground, or being to high? this makes no sense...

That's a great point Sensual. Most of the time where I use the first-frame modification technique is when I make animations or poses for short, medium, and tall avatars.

What I do is make an animation for an avatar of medium height first. Then I'll move the hips in the first frame up for the short avatar (and export to bvh) and move the hips down for the tall avatar (and export to bvh). It is most useful when I have a pose or animation where the hips deviate up or down more than 10% of the height of the avatar. For example, I have three versions of a kneeling proposal animation (tall, medium, and short) that I created that way.

Finally, if one really doesn't want to move the first frame hips up or down, it is possible to open the graph for hip y-offset, select all frames except for the first, and simultaneously drag the hip height up or down with the mouse for every single key frame.

I know that you and Cristiano know this but I thought I'd just put it in the post for those who are just learning.

~Ulrika~

because what you see in poser, is not what you get in second life? the models differ in size, body parts can be different lengths. The two programs do not enter-pit or display bch files in the same way. Plus in poser your converting over into bvh after your done animate. The only way you know what your animation will look like in sl, is when you preview in sl. so you can: a, export and preview after every single time a change is made. or b make the animations, and then use the first frame to fix what ever offset was created

Did you even bother to read it? The point is to adjust the frame after you have made your pose/animation if you import it into SL and find it too high or too low. Many poses, especially sit poses where you are sitting on a chair or sitting on the ground/lying on the ground, are not perfect for every avatar and need to be adjusted slightly to avoid the floating effect. Moving the hips in other frames can often times also adjust the body itself, which is not the desired effect. Sorry it makes no sense to you, it has worked quite well for me and others who have asked for help with the same problem.

Yay for your personal attacks....


In all the poses and animations I have made, I have never had one sink in the ground, unles it was a pre made one... it makes no sense to do this other than the reason Ulrika gave.

Yay for your personal attacks....


In all the poses and animations I have made, I have never had one sink in the ground, unles it was a pre made one... it makes no sense to do this other than the reason Ulrika gave.

Well then you don't need to use the tip now do you? Does anything about the original tip not work, Sensual? The more techniques someone has to work with, the better, even if you do not personally use them, it does not mean it is not useful to someone else.

Thanks for trying to help each other. Please don't let things get out of hand.

Well, Ferran, allow me to share my opinion (for what it's worth)

I don't sell "one frame," I sell poses. Your idea suggests that an artist should sell a painting as canvas and oil/acrylic rather than as an idea or an emotion. My model poses are simple but I spend a lot of time searching for poses and then modeling my lil Poser girl so she looks natural (to the best of my, as yet, admitedly limited ability).

I've gladly paid 100L for original poses since forever - and I charge 100L for mine. I pay for the art expressed by the figure, the time spent adjusting the pose and the money spent on the program itself, not the physical "frame" in which the pose resides.

/me tosses in her 2 cents and runs for cover

P.S. Love your stuff, btw

No problem, maybe Im pricing too low, I dont even bother to sell my poses for the most part. I find it easy to work in Poser so maybe I take the amount of time I spend at it for granted. Is 100 the accepted going rate for poses? I usually just hand them out, maybe I'll make a pose package or something.

I do sell single frame poses for 500 full mod for people to use in their own projects, maybe that's too low too?

hehe maybe raising prices will help the L$ a bit =P

I accidently did that in one of my poses and couldn't figure out why my guy was starting in a weird position. I looked through all the animation and nothign was out of place except that first frame I guess..

Will save me a ton of time fixing some of my sits for those crazy amazon's.. (I'm a little people).. I usually just do the adjusts in scripts but with the proliferation of re-animatiors, the actual animations have to be changed.

Great Tip..