Animation Woes

I hate making my first post on a forum a negative one, but it seems I have little choice.

I've made a custom standing/idle animation which requires a small vertical bobbing motion. I made it in poser using that nifty Inverse Kinematic feature to keep the feet still, as they should be in this animation. Upon importing the animation into SL with a priority of 4 and no lead-in, however, the feet drift and slide about on the floor, sometimes moving more than the rest of the avatar!

Has anyone else encountered this problem before? or does someone know any way to solve it? I tried importing it into that AvMotion proggie to see if the problem exists in the file before I import to SL, but the animation worked exactly as it should in avmotion.

This problem is the only real thing that stands between me and my personal custom-built avatar, so if anyone knows how to get around this annoying set-back, it would be much appreciated.

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Combat, of Combat Kreations ^_^

Using inverse Kinematics is great for working, but make sure that you turn them off before you export. This puts keyframes where they need to go on all of the parts. I've found that if you DON'T do this, the default animations will override anything that ISN'T keyframed.

Another problem that I've found, and it may just me me not locking a bodypart down with a keyframe, so I'm not sure if this is across the board, but occasionally the AVs "breathing" will override a pose and make things move a little wonky.

So make sure you lock everything down nice and tight with keyframes and turn off IK before exporting. (Oh, yeah... if you don't want ANYTHING to move while the animation is on, make sure you make SLIGHT adjustments to everything, rotate by 0.1 or whatever. That way, the keyframe will "take" and the defaults won't override. I learned this the hard way making my first walk cycle. Forgot to lock down the shoulders, so the arms went inSANE when I walked! *grin*)

Hope this helps...

Thanks for replying.

Unfortunately taking off IK actually made it worse, since now the legs flail about uncontrollably, no matter what I do to the spline editor. I'm beginning to suspect that SL just doesn't like -me-.

I did however make one discovery. I found that by making a test animation, lowering a T-pose av's hips up and down and leaving IK switched on, it actually worked! Try exactly the same thing with my custom av's special pose, and it breaks again. Could joint angle be interfering with IK? If that is indeed the case, then my av will be impossible. >.<

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ZOMG it's a Combat~

Are you using Poser by any chance? I discovered that it tends to make up its own rules and tween keyframes where I broke the spline, add random arm flailings, all sorts. If something isn't meant to move between frames but breaking the spline doesn't work, copy the keyframes of those elements and paste them into each following frame until it stops being stupid. You may end up doing that a lot, often for the whole 'in-between' period.

If you're not using Poser then I haven't a clue Though I would add I bought an idling animation from *insert popular animation creator's name here* and what I failed to spot in the shop but noticed as soon as I had it (gah!) was that the feet swing backwards and forwards as you stand!

I thought it was just bonkers, but sounds like what you describe. Must've been supposed to sway at the hips or something. Still a bit odd to sell it in that condition though :/

Oops. I think I should've made the results a little clearer.

The animation I'm attempting to make is for a vertical kind-of "bob". If you ever played World of Warcraft, some of the creatures do this as an idle animation when they're standing still.

The feet of the avatar are supposed to remain perfectly still, locked on the ground whilst the rest of the legs move the body up and down. I achieved this using the inverse kinematics to keep the feet locked in position, then moving the "Hip" up, and down.

In poser, and when imported into avmotion to test it, the animation worked as it should. The feet did not move in the slightest, and the body moved up and down, with the legs contracting and extending as would a spring.

When imported into SL, all I get is a slight up/down movement from the body, and the ankle joints fail to turn, instead preferring to move the feet in a drifting, sliding motion.

I hope this helps anyone who might be stuck trying to figure this out.

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Combat, on the verge of dumping this project :/

I guess optimization happens. Read #9 Optimization on this page.