How do I Create a Static Pose - or a smooth loop.

I am having a rather odd problem, and I can't decide where it is occuring...

First, I'm trying to create a static pose (seated). Now from what I was able to find, you accomplish this by creating a short animation in Poser that doesn't actually move, then loop it.

Let me note that I'm fairly new to SL, but reasonably experienced with Poser 4.

However, I'm having trouble making that happen. (Poser v. 4, using the P2 figure - the new figures will not load for me for some reason).

When the first frame is the default Poser pose, then the remaining keyframes are the new pose, it works swimmingly. But of course I get an animation that only lasts a few seconds. I tried this because I read somewhere that SL's interpreter wanted the first frame of the BVH file to be the default pose.

If I take that out and save a BVH file that has only the frames with the pose I want, something odd happens.

I upload the same file *set to the same priority level* and I get a bizarre pose where my figure sticks a leg out at a funny angle that really doesn't resemble the animation I put together.

I tried the upload at every priority level - 1-4 and the effect is the same in all cases.

But the same pose works fine if I include the default pose as Keyframe one...

Only I can't stop it.

Is there a way to play an animation and hold the final pose?

For that matter, I see smooth looped animation where clearly the first frame isn't standing bolt upright with your arms out.

I'm sure there's something about exporting BVH to SL that I'm not getting, but I'm not sure what it is. I post because at this point another possibility is simply that it's a random bug with this animation, but I want to see if there is anything basic proceedural I'm not doing right.

Any thoughts or suggestions.

To create a static pose, do the following:

1) Set the animation length to 2 frames
2) Frame 1, standard T pose.
3) Frame 2, pose your figure as desired.
4) Export-->BVH-->Scale Automatically
5) Import into SL - check the loop box, and set the In % to 100% and the Out % to 100%.

Voila, looped pose.

As far as priority, I use priority 3 for most poses except sit poses, which I use priority 4 on. I have found that less than 3 causes the annoying problem of things like laughs and such knocking the pose out to do the laugh animation, which looks stupid. To override sit, you always need priority 4 unless you do it fully with script.

Cristiano,

I can't tell you how useful that little summary was.

Thank you

== danny d.

You're very welcome I realized in testing that you can actually leave the in % at 0 and it will work fine - just check Loop and make sure the pose is 2 frames.

I was about to type that til I scrolled down more

Hi Guys!

I can't tell you how helpful your suggestions are! And thank you ever so for taking the time to write all this! BUT I got an error message on the upload. I followed the instructions:
1) created a two frame only animation - made sure it was only two frames, one standard T pose in frame one and then my sitting pose in frame two,
2) then exported with a scale automatically and as a .bvh file
but got a failed to initial error on the upload to SL.
Im running Poser 5.0 on a PC, windows XP home edition. ANY help would be most welcome!!

Thankies!
xoxo

Arcana Roo

Hi Guys!

I can't tell you how helpful your suggestions are! And thank you ever so for taking the time to write all this! BUT I got an error message on the upload. I followed the instructions:
1) created a two frame only animation - made sure it was only two frames, one standard T pose in frame one and then my sitting pose in frame two,
2) then exported with a scale automatically and as a .bvh file
but got a failed to initial error on the upload to SL.
Im running Poser 5.0 on a PC, windows XP home edition. ANY help would be most welcome!!

Thankies!
xoxo

Arcana Roo

try making it 3 frames, frame one your default pose, and frame two and three the same.

Did you add the key frame at 2? SL is saying to you that your pose is not recognized as an animation, this will happen if you do not add a key frame.

I have Poser 4.. so I dont know where is Poser 5 the add key frame button is.. but in Poser 4 is on the bottom right had side and looks like a "plus" sign. after you pose your character and you are happy with it... click on "add key frame" then you can export to BVH

I don't think your problem is 2 frame vs 3 frame, unless you did not set a keyframe on the second frame (though if you posed the second frame at all, a keyframe was created anyway). A common cause of "Failed to initialize motion" is using the Poser 4/5 figures for poses - if you pose a part of the body that SL does not support, it fails to import.

The solution is to make sure you are using the correct figures for your poses - either the Poser 2 figures (many people use the casual female or casual male figure), or better yet, the recently released SL avatar Poser figures, which you can download from:

http://secondlife.com/downloads/avatar.php

There is a male and female version of the avatar bodies. They are not perfect because of differences in each avatar, but they have better results than the built in ones. To change figures, bring up the Library window, select Figures, and choose either Poser 2 or SL Avatars.

Also, ensure that your first frame is the default pose - if it's not, you can have weird results and occasionally I have seen Failed to Initialize Motion from that as well.

Hello

I have a question that is about the same. How do you make an animation stay in a certain position after it's animated. For example, I made a pounce animation, however when it animates it goes back to standing. I would like it to stay in a pounce position after animated with all four hands on the ground.

How do you accomplish this? thank you

hi Cheetah. animations don't actually move you. your real position is where you started the animation and that's why you can dance thru people instead of bumping. without scripting about all you can do is loop the last frame of your pounce so you look like you stay there but yeah, anytime you end the animation you'll pop back to your real position.

with scripting you can put the pounce or any anim in an over rider or another prim and actually move yourself fourward either walking, jumping, running or with script movement. basically you have an anim that pounces in place and you move yourself forward with the keys so it looks like you really pounce. hope this helps.

thank u zuzi

btw, how do you loop the last frame of the animation. Do I do that in poser? thank u so much for this.

I assume he means when you upload the animation into SL you put 100% in the IN thingy field. Its usually 0% IN and 100% OUT. Or something. This means it will play thru your entire animation once and then keep playing the last frame over and over.

hmm in the preview of that it looks like its loopin the entire animation again. I just want it to pounce, then stay pounced till i release it. oooo my head.

Loop at 100% in 100% out and it will loop the final frame.

k that worked, im gettin somehwere!!! but now, if I lower that will it loop tha last frame for a certain amount. Like i want it to hold the pose for a while then stand up again. I used it for a gesture but then i stay stuck like that. lol. my gosh.

Cheetah,

Since there is no generic "stop all animations on my avatar" key, it becomes necessary to make a stop gesture to correspond with a normal gesture that uses looping. For example, I have two gestures - one called /faint, the other called /stopfaint. In the first one, it loops on the last frame of the faint and my avatar lies on the ground. In the /stopfaint one, I have it set to stop the animation called Faint instead of starting it - this will stop a currently playing instance of it. Alternatively, you can set your gesture to wait a set amount of time - 30 seconds, for example, then stop the animation right in the same gesture - this will cause it to stop looping.

Thank you all so very much for taking the time to respond and for your suggestions! You're all so sweet and wonderful!! I love SL!

Same here! TY! This helped fix all my animation problems Nice people. Why can't RL be like SL?