<sigh> First BVH, First problem... Kneecentric animation

I managed to crank out my first animation last night. It was simple of course, I just went to frame 15, put my SL_Avatar model into a crouch by doing a translate/pull on the pelvis from a side view, went to the main view, and tweaked the knee positions a bit, then copied Frame 1 to Frame 30 to get the anim back up on his feet.

It played in Poser Artist perfectly, so I exported to BVH, and uploaded.

In SL however, it's kneecentric... (Hmm... How to describe...)

I set it to loop when I uploaded, and my character does indeed crouch, straighten up, and crouch again ad infinitum. The problem is that he's pulling his feet off the ground. With each crouch, the knees move forward, but NOT down. The knees stay at the same height the entire time. The feet leave the ground, and go up so the heels meet my avatars butt behind the knees

So my avatar keeps crouching, standing, crouching, standing, while hovering in the air and his feet only touching the ground when he's fully straightened.

Ok, I'm a Poser N00b, can anyone give me a hint what I did wrong here?

Ingot

Hmmm, that is a bit odd. Here's what I'd try... recreate the animation in poser, but instead of only moving the pelvis at frame 15, also make minor adjustments to the upper and lower legs and to the feet. That way you'll end up with keyframes for all of those parts instead of just the pelvis. Also, if you haven't done so already, download the SL poser mannequins from the downloads sections of the website. Install them in Poser as detailed in the readme file. Then use one of those to create your animation instead of one of the regular poser figures. Hope that helps.

Well, I was already using the SL_Avatar mannequins. I also tried jiggling other body parts (No, on the ANIMATION, you dirty minded....) to no avail.

I made another animation last night, of someone sitting on the ground cross legged. It involved the whole body, with the guy first crossing his legs, lowering his hips, leaning over to put one hand on the ground, then getting into a finished "indian style" sit.

First, I didn't know how to make my avatar hold his pose, so he pops right back up. I'm still looking for answers on that, but even so... He quite clearly is finishing his sit at knee level. Looks like this problem is going to affect ALL my animations.

I asked in game several times, even paged for live help. (She told me to look for Christiano). I've left messages here, and over at sluniverse.com...

One thing I'm considering is using something OTHER than the SL_Avatar... Maybe something happened to the one I'm using when I installed it...

<sigh> Right now Poser Artist is useless to me, so if anyone has any ideas, please chime in! I'll keep looking for Xenon Linden in-game!

Ingot

Ok, this is still bothering me, but I have a question that might clear it up.

It occurs to me that the keying of the first frame might be necessary to develop a reference for SL... I've seen such discussed...

So, I'd like to ask those of you that do animations... Exactly how do you key your first frame or two? What is most successful and why?

I've heard that the first frame should be left alone, in default pose, so that SL has a reference point...

Does this mean that you should start with the default on the first frame, and key the second?

Mine is a 30 frame animation. I remember keying frame 15 and 30, but I'm not sure WHAT I did with the first couple, since I'm a bit fuzzy as to the best practices there.

Can anyone advise?

Ingot

Yep. Don't do anything at all on the first frame. If you're doing a static pose, set your keys for that pose on frame 2. If you're doing an animation, set your first keys farther in. The amount of time between frame 1 and your first keyframes determines how long it takes for your avatar to go from the default standing pose to the first pose of your animation so you get a smooth transition. Every body part already has a keyframe at frame 1 by default.

Ok, everyone watch and laugh as a newbie tries to understand an expert's explanation!



Ah, I think I begin to understand something. I read a guide for static poses... Looks like what happens here is that if you have only two frames, and the first one isn't really used, then when you set it to loop, it's looping only on ONE frame, thus holding the pose indefinitely...

Hmm. This would mean that it would be impossible to play an animation, and hold the last pose... Unless I could create a script to play one non-looping animation, immediately followed by a static pose animation that matched the last frame of the first one.

I love moments of illumination! Thanks Chip!



Hmm. A LITTLE confused here... The animation is a fixed frame rate right?

I THINK what you're saying is that a first keyframe at 10 will be jerkier than a first keyframe at 20, given that both first keyframe's are for the same pose, and Frame one starts at the same pose...

Although it will take twice as long to GET to the first pose with the first keyframe being at 20...

Or do I need to go do a LOT more reading?



Hmm. Sounds like I'm barking up the wrong tree with my height problems. I'm almost certain I didn't keyframe anything until frame 15 on the crouch, and 10 on the "cross-legged sit" animation...

Still, I'll give it a good going over when I get home.

Thanks Chip!

Ingot