Frustrated to the MAX.. cannot get SL to upload .bvh files saved in Poser 5 or 6

Ok I expect that there is probably an answer already in this forum somewhere.. but I am too tired and too frustrated and have not got the time to wade through everything here to find it.

So When I try to upload my poses made in photo shop I get the message the the anumation failed to start on the upload window.. and that is that.. cannot upload. So I asked Live Help, they suggested I use Poser 5 or get the update for poser 6.. So I have poser 5 so I fired it up, and re:did the whole pose again.. with the same darn results.

So now what???

I have no clue how to get past this majour obsticle.. Quick help would be most appreciated.. And if it has to do with that first frame thing, please can someone explain it so I can understand it?? Thanks..

ummm, did you say photoshop?

be sure you have the latest service pack for P6, as it fixes a bvh file write error(not actually an error butdoes create one in the uploader.)

I believe that your pose has to be on the second frame of the animation, while the first frame should be a 'neutral' pose (ie the avatar standing as it would be default).

I think the movements are computed by seeing how far one part moves, so if the arm moves up 45º, then it will move the arm by 45º. So if your 1st frame has its arm by its side, and the next has its arm 45º up, that's what will happen in-world.
If your 1st frame has the arm at -45º, and the 2nd has the arm at 45º, then the arm in world will move by 90º, since that is the difference between the two frames.

The default pose in poser should do for a first frame.

or SL wont accept the pose.

Hope that helps.

That's not quite right. Frame 1 is not used to define the "zero" position. The joint locations specified by the offsets in the BVH file always refer to the T-Pose, and SL knows this already (even without frame 1). The only thing it uses frame 1 for is to detect which parts (if any) change at all during the animation.

The previous comment about using frame 1 to determine angle offsets (the -45, 45 degree example that Haravikk gave) is also wrong. SL knows that the "zero" position is the T-Pose and that joint rotations are always relative to the T-Pose. Joint rotations in frame 1 have NO effect whatsoever on the rotations given in later frames. As a quick test, try this:

Make two animations, both with two frames in them. For frame 1: in animation 1, make the figure stand in the T-Pose (arms straight out), and in animation 2, make the figure stand in the relaxed pose (arms down). In both animations, copy frame 1 into frame 2 so that both frame 1 and frame 2 are the same. Then, in both animations, move the arms to the same angle (say 45 degrees) in frame 2. So in the end, the arm positions in frame 2 will be the same, but they will be different in frame 1.

When you upload both animations into SL, they will look EXACTLY the same even though frame 1 is different. That's because all its using frame 1 for is detecting that the arms have moved, NOT how much they've moved.

Hope this helps.

Any hip rotation or translation in frame 1 appears to be mirrored(?) by the resulting frames in the uploader, and if the SL knows that frame one is a T pose, why does it matter what it is at all? I made a bunch of screwed up anims today to test it, and I can't seem to find a rhyme or reason to it, sometimes(albeit a limited number of times, but no rhyme or reason that I could see) the adjustments in frame one DO make a difference on the joint(maybe it depends on the second frame?), but in the hips always. Try making a T-pose animation and you will fail, it won't let you, if there are no changes detected it just assumes there is nothing there, but if it "knows" that no change means T-pose, shouldn't it render a T-pose? As if that wasn't screwy enough, making a screwed up second pose then the rest of a 15 frame anim all T-pose, seems to result in an occasional looping bug, where the 2nd frame is actually depicted in the uploader as the LAST frame. It was there then it wasn't then I jerked the slider over hard and bam there it was again, at the end. And the FEET, omg the FEET, ALWAYS stay flat to the ground, even if you rotate the avatar all the way upside down(if you don't make any changes to them that is). It's weird too weird for me to try to reverse engineer.


....Okay now, on top of that, everything changes when you adjust the ease in ease out values. My head hurts, I give up.


For your own sanity look at the first frame as a ZERO pose even if only for the hips sake, AND for the change between it and the second frame which is then compared to the first for changes, and if there are none at ALL, it will give you an error, I think ? lol. This is the frame (2nd one) that you want to be sure you modify all the joints you want locked throughout your anim, if your anim doesn't utilize that joint and you don't change it, weird things can happen whether by another anim or just the real direction and facing your avatar has during an animation.

Oh yeah one other item to note is the SL_avatar_T_pose you get in the mannequin package, is not all zeroed, there's a few joints that are minutely off, so if you want them freed you'll need to fix the T and re-export it.

In other words, listen to Vince, the Plunkster knows his schladizehl, but don't think that Reference pose is ignored in all applications, because in many animation programs it is the zero point that all the rest is offset from, and you can layer animation changes throughout entire animations by simply moving the joint a bit in that first pose.

If you're using a poser figure and not the downloadable SL figures for poser, make sure you don't have any keyframes for fingers, toes, genitals, or eyes.