Getting desperate. Can Poser 4 users help?

To all Poser 4 (or Artist) users...

I need a favor.

I bought this package, and I"m about to throw it out the window. I dont' know what I'm doing wrong, but obviously others aren't having the problem I am.

For those that are willing to help me, but haven't read my other thread about my problems, I'll put the details about what I'm doing at the end of this message, but the basic problem is that I created a simple animation (My first one, just a trial you understand) in which my character crouches, then stands back up. When played in-world, the body doesn't descend down to foot level, it descends to knee level, and the feet leave the ground and come up. Played as a loop, my character looks like he's hovering.

I've asked for help here, in-game, with live support in-game, and on SL-Universe. I'm not averse to doing my own research, but I can find NOTHING about this online or in the PDF that came with Poser Artist. The animation plays perfectly in Poser Artist, but when exported to a BVH, even the preview in SL plays it wrong.

I was hoping I could convince someone with Poser Artist (or 4) to follow my steps below, import the animation, and see if you get the same results. If you don't, then we can compare procedures, and maybe come up with the cause...

Thanks if you can help!

Ingot

Procedures:

I start with the SL_Avatar, and set up for a 30 frame animation.

I set the animation to frame 15.

I go to a side view <ctr-;>, and use "Translate Pull" to pull the hips down into a crouch.

I go to the main camera view <Ctr-M> and adjust the knee position a bit.

I then click on the + to make it a keyframe

I open the frame editor and copy position 1 to position 30. (Just the green part, the "body" portions)

I make frame 30 a key frame.

I play the animation to make sure it's ok, then do a "File", "Export" to a bvh file

Then it's just upload to SL, set to loop, and play.

Make the first frame a keyframe.

No, this isn't it. Making that change does nothing.

Is there anyone that can try duplicating my animation, so I can see if the same happens to yours?

Ingot

Hi Ingot,

Upload your BVH file here as an attachments. So I'll be help you.
Don't forget to archive it as a zip when you upload.
I'm not sure if it is available that you can change just its attribute to ".txt".

Well, Ingot - actually you're not alone! Not in the least. Actually, the problem you're having is fairly commonplace.

First of all, let's start with the basics. BVH animations, as played in-world, start at the "hip" level, then work their way up from there. As such, any movements to this region will affect your whole avatar. That's for starters.

Now, regarding your exact problem, my guess is the size and shape of your avatar simply doesn't match the actual animation. This is a bug in its own way; naturally, we could use better information to tell what exactly is happening when we create avatars with Poser or other tools.

So, to cut it short, you can try one of two things:

1) Make the Poser Avatar resemble your avatar's size and proportions as best as you can.
2) Overcompensate for the animation problems directly, trial-and-error style.



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Actually, this problem has and does make a strong case for us to be able to "export" our avatar proportions directly to Poser or equivalent tool. This has been discussed before, but feel free to ask the Lindens about it.

All:

Thank you very much for your time. I got some very good help in-game.

When we discussed our ways of creating an animation, about the ONLY difference was that I was using SL_Avatar from the Second Life model.

So, I made another one real quick, using a poser 2 model.

That took most of the problem away. I DID know about the .bvh miscalculation (I'm not one of those people that just scream for help... I've been reading everything I could get my hands on, including the messages discussing this.) When the problem wasn't so obviously centered on my knees, sank frame 15 into the ground a bit, and viola! No hovering at all!

So, while the .bvh problem seems to have been part of it, i THINK the SL avatars were doing something funky.

Ingot