Preview Error?

When I upload an animation to preview, the torso seems to be twisted. Is this a common error to be disregarded, or is this a problem?

The same thing happens to me!
Firts I thought, the file was corrupted, but I think the file is ok.

Is it a bug??

I wasted 10 $ on uploading the animation to see if it is just a preview-bug.
It isn't! When I upload the animation, the avatar is rotated and then animated.

I tried to get some online-help, but this seems a waste of energy.
The response to this forum is not overwhelming too...

You are certainly right about that. No offense to any of the talented animators out there but this forum compared to the other forums (scripting, building, and textures) is very tight lipped.

Wish I could help, but i'm still trying to figure this out myself.

I've never had that twist. What kind of program are you using to create the animation? Poser? If so what version. Or are you using one of the other programs? I have only tried avimator. I have seen some freebie walks and dances where you look a little tilted. I wonder if those are the result of this problem.

I've just started out with animations, so feel free to ignore anything I say

If you're using poser, if the position of the body on the second frame is radically different from that on the first (lowered, rotated etc) then bring up keyframes by clicking on the key icon at the bottom and set the first and second frame to constant (the - sign in grey). Even though there should be no tweening between frames 1 and 2 poser tries it anyway. I had a lot of fun working out why my character bounced off the floor and bent in the middle for the next 15 frames.

I haven't uploaded any anis today yet but uploaded over the past few days..can't say I've been noticing any torso rotations as described in OP though.

<i>I wasted 10 $ on uploading the animation to see if it is just a preview-bug.
It isn't! When I upload the animation, the avatar is rotated and then animated.

I tried to get some online-help, but this seems a waste of energy.
The response to this forum is not overwhelming too...</i>

There is no need to waste $L. Upload your animations to the Beta Grid first to test them.

Atashi and Tristan. Maybe we're slow sometimes, but there are a lot of animators here who try to help out as much as we can, and being rude about us isn't likely to elicit a reponse.

OK, got that off my chest! Now, before we can help you, we need to know what software you're using. Also, when you say the torso, is that all, or do the hips move too? Here's one possibility if you're using Poser. Look in the animation palate (I remembered Johan!) and see if there's any movement in the body section (that's the very top unit in the heirarchy). I always delete the body section altogether, just to be sure.

To be absolutely certain, you can always read the BVH file itself (it's just a text file) and see if there is any hip / torso movement shown in the file. If not, it must be another SL bug.

Sys, I'd be surprised if its the first frame thing, as that results in the weird twisty dance which isn't at all what Pastrami is seeing. By the way, I use the break splines command to break the connection between frames 1 and 2, but I'm sure your way's just as good.

Love Suzi

I don't know about Pastrami's, but my animation was created with QAvimator and then edited with SLAT.
Both programs do not show the twist-effect.
It looks like the Z-rotation of the hip is set to some value.
I already looked into the bvh file and saw a lot of numbers. The numbers look like numbers, real-numbers with cyphers and a decimalpoint... nice numbers...
See for yourself, this is a part of the first line that looks to me like the movement data:
MOTION
Frames: 44
Frame Time: 0.033333
0.000000 39.000000 1.500000 -16.700001 -16.000000 0.000000 17.000000 16.000000 0.700000 0.100000 0.100000 0.100000 0.100000 0.100000 0.100000 0.100000 0.100000

I think its the hip's Xposition Yposition Zposition Xrotation Zrotation Yrotation
followed by (17.000) the abdomen etc.

The first six values are the same as displayed in QAvimator for the second frame (first frame is protected)

Don't know if that helps...

Thank you

"Atashi and Tristan. Maybe we're slow sometimes, but there are a lot of animators here who try to help out as much as we can, and being rude about us isn't likely to elicit a reponse."

Excuse me? Pointing out that you can use the Beta Grid to preview animations (or anything else) for FREE is rude?

Whatever.

No Atashi, but complaining about the speed of response to this forum is rude, in my opinion.

Whatever.

Doris, I think this might be your problem. You're right in your interpretation of the values. These are the values of hip rotation for the first frame, and if they are the SAME as the values for hip rotation in Qavimator's second frame then there's your problem. No hip rotation between the reference frame and the second frame. At least one of the hip rotations must be different (preferably by 4 degrees or more).

I don't know what SLAT is. Why are you editing the BVH file (or is that just what you used to look into it)?

Hope this helps.

Love Suzi

Suzi,

Show me where I complained about the speed of responses on this thread.

Whatever

Suzi,

You have a very serious reading comprehension problem. See those little <>'s in that paragraph? Do you know what they mean? Did you bother to go back to see who I was quoting?

No, you didn't.

Atashi and Suzi hold on a moment. Atashi was quoting someone else in her response and the quote got messed up. It is just a misunderstanding. As for my comment, my nerves were frayed trying to figure this program out and I am sorry for it.

I did see the little <>'s in the post and no, I don't know what they mean. I guess that does mean I have a serious reading comprehension problem. I'm really sorry for that. I thought you just had to press the button that says "Quote". Anyway, if it was a misunderstanding I apologise.

/me goes back into the dark cupboard under the stairs and locks the door

<blockquote>Anyway, if it was a misunderstanding I apologise.</blockquote>

No ifs about it. Thanks for the non apology.

Bah.

Come on, please stop that.
I just said that the response is not overwhelming, since there was no answer there after 3 days.

I don't see anything rude in that.

It would be more helpful if we all concentrate on the problem instead.
Everybody here is trying to be helpful, this was only some misunderstanding. It should not be emphasised any more.

Doris,

Like I mentioned earlier. Upload your ani's to the Beta Grid prior to wasting that $L. You can upload and tweak them as often as you need and it doesn't cost a thing.

You can download the aditi (beta grid) at the main sl download page.

And btw, I didn't see anything rude in it either, which is why I didn't remark on it. Having searched through this forum for answers myself it's pretty obvious it's not the most active one here.

Thanks for the hint, Atashi. I will do that next time.
Anyway, now that I upoaded the animation and wasted the 10 $ it is clear for me that it is not a problem with the previewer.

Since SL software is the only SW that shows the problem, I assume it's a bug in SL and I reported it.

Thanks