Weird results

I'm pretty new to this animation stuff, so pardon my ignorance. I just used QAvimator to created a new walk animation. I followed all the advice I could find. It has the standard T pose first frame. The animation came out pretty good in QAvimator for a first attempt. I upload it to SL fine. If I just play it standing in place, it looks fine, just like it did in QAvimator. If I load it into my AO and play it from there, the arms start jerking around in little jerky motions superimposed on the normal arm swing. I tried loading it with different priority settings 2- 4, but that doesn't seem to make any difference.

The weird thing is, if I log on to the Beta test grid and try it there, it works fine, even in my AO. What could be going on here? Am I doing something wrong? What could be causing the jerky motions?

This is only a guess without being able to see it in-world but...

You know how your avatar follows your mouse and looks around at things randomly and shifts positions? Well any limb/body part that isn't different from the t-frame will continue to do that.

For instance, your neck joint is at 0,0,0 on your t-frame. If you leave it at 0,0,0 on the next frame, it will continue to move with your mouse like it does by default.

However, if you move the neck joint to 0,0,1, or any coordinates that are different, it will override the default motion. You have to do this with EVERY joint to completely override LL's animation.

Well that's not it. I doubled checked that frame 1 was different from frame 2 in every respect and it still happens. What got me stumped is the fact that it works fine on the Beta test grid via my HUD. On further testing, it works ok on the main grid when I turn around and walk back (using the down arrow). It only seems to be a problem on the main grid when I'm walking forward (using the up arrow). Really strange!

I had been having the last frame identical to the first to facilitate blending. This morning I tried omitting the last frame, thinking it was playing twice and that was the problem. Same thing. This morning the effect as described above is also occurring in the Beta test grid. So at least I've achieved consistency. But it's even inconsistent there. Some times it plays ok sometimes not.

I noticed that the SL female walk animation is just 14 frames. The one I'm using has 32 + the first, played at 32 FPS. Do you think that would make a difference? Funny that the effect only occurs via the AO (HUDDLES).

Also I notice that even though my AV is perfectly vertical in QAvimator, in SL she is leaning toward the right a bit and seems slightly rotated in that direction.

Gee, I wish there were a decent free program that would translate well into SL.

Well I think I got it fixed. I should probably rename this thread "Trials of a Newbie". I think Griptape may have been right after all. It turns out that I had overlooked the collar bone. They were both the same between frames 1 & 2. I suspect that was causing the jerking.

Unless you're a professional animator, trying to learn this stuff on the cheap is hard. Valradic a Vanek's entry is really helpful. What we need is better documentation for QAvimator. For newbies I think it is the best place to start and the easiest to use. We need a good tutorial on how to set up an animation for SL.

I use Poser. However, I'm going to assume that principles are similar for most animation for Second Life.

I create the animation first without the frame #1 refernce frame.

For a looping animation, the I have bookends of the first animation frame being identical to the last animation frame.

When I think the animation is ready, I make each frame a key frame.

I then chop off that last frame I had for bookend purposes.

Then I retime the animation to create a frame for the reference frame. (For example, in Poser, if I have a 60 frame animation, I retime the animation so that frames 1-60 become frames 2-61.) When I do this, what is left in frame 1 is identical to what is in frame 2 (the actual start of the animation now).

Now I start editing the figure on frame 1 to create a reference frame. Every single rotation on every single joint must be different between frame 1 (reference frame) and frame 2 (actual animation start), by at least 1 degree. That assures that joints will not move on their own during the play of the animation.

(You really can't just use a default frame 1 reference pose, without comparing whether the joints move between the frame 1 reference frame and the frame 2 animation start.)

If I do want a joint to move independently of the animation, I make sure the rotations on the joint are identical between frame 1 (reference frame) and frame 2 (actual animation start). So if you want the head to be able to move independently of the animation, say to follow the cursor, leave the rotations on the head 0-0-0 on both frame 1 and frame 2.

Because I already converted every frame into a key frame, editing frame 1 to make it the reference frame does not change anything in the subsequent frames of the actual animation.

If you have additional jitters after that, it may be because your joint movements are so subtle, Second Life ingores them on upload or in playback. Now you have to go back and examine the frames where the jitters occur, and see if you can make small adjustments between single frames so that there is enough of a rotation that Second Life picks it up when uou upload.

Good advice Amity. Thanks.