tip toes

How if possible can you make the avatar stand on tip toes like a ballerina?

Thanks

SL doesn't have any built-in ballet poses so you need to make your own animation or pose if you can't find something like this on sale. QAvimator is a free program that produces perfectly adequate animation files for SL and it's easy to find if you Google it. Unfortunately the program doesn't have a 'Help' manual so you can expect a very steep and somewhat frustrating learning curve. All the same, a pose like this might be a good place for you to start and there are plenty of contributors to 'Animation Tips' who will help with advice.

If I were making the pose, I would position the feet en pointe at about 70 degrees along the x-axis, rotate the hips forward by 8 or 9 degrees on the x-axis and compensate with a similar rotation of the thighs in the opposite direction (and a third of that again in the calves) in order to get some tension into the ballerina's legs. I would also turn the thighs out by a few degrees on both the z and y-axes and likewise turn the calves in on the z-axis to get a little 'spring'.

You should be aware that the grace of a typical ballet pose is probably beyond the limitations of the SL avatar mesh and skeleton, which isn't at all well articulated. Even pointing the feet down as I suggested above will result in bad distortion around the ankles and the shoulder joints will be a disaster if you attempt to raise the arms above the head.

The plus point is that residents are kind of used to avatars looking a bit choppy. It's virtually unavoidable so don't be too critical. Anyway you may be surprised at just how much you can achieve within a few simple frames.

There are ballerina AOs. You can look in animation stores. I did a quick search on XStreetSL and found this one. Not making a recommendation, just as an example:

https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1030238

Last Halloween I saw someone dressed as a ballerina and using an AO (it wasn't this one) and she was really was quite graceful.

Forgive me, but I must disagree with you Ephraim - at least to some extent.

I've made a very large number of ballet animations for SL (well over 100 now, I've lost count) - and despite the limitations, they can be made technically correct and, as I have been told by my customers, graceful. Many of my customers are dancers in RL and I respect their opinion of my work - and I do not have problems with the shoulders when lifting the arms above the head or with the ankles on pointe.

Anyway, my work is available for anyone to try - so people can make up their own minds.

@ Seven.

I expect it was this HUD

https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1363620

Tippy toes. That on the tip of ones toes. The highest I can get it a high heal. I want the heals off the ground on toes, feet straight down. Ballet point!

I want to make small sized hooves and to to that I need the avatar on toes otherwise the hoof has to be big enough to cover the heal.

ah your question wasn't clear... you are referring to shoes... someone in the building tips section may be able to help more with that

No apologies necessary, Deira, and fair dues if you can manage it. I guess I should keep my big keyboard shut. Thing is I rarely see arms raised above the shoulders without the mesh ripping apart and, although I'm not much interested in ballet, I would have thought that was one of the basic attitudes.

Perhaps I've watched one too many old Moira Shearer movies.

Now that I think of it, one is one too many unless you count 'Peeping Tom'.

Casandra, which program are you using?
In qavimator you have to uncheck "joint limits" under "options".

Then it should work.

So it is animation not a script. I have not done animation. The only program I have used is a free one like qavimator, but have not used it in a long time, and Daz studio, so not sure if it would work.

Just need to keep the toes pointy permanently while the hooves are on so I am not sure an animation would work.
Thanks

Might have to deal with the feet anyway.

I assume the same problem with the fingers and open hand. To make the fingers "crunched up" would take animation? Again the same problem needs to be fixed in a prim hoof on the hands.

Are their scripts to do this? Scrunch the hands and point the feet?

If you are putting hooves on the hands and feet, you need to consider that even if you make an AO with animations for everything, there will be times (in laggy sims, for instance) when the default animations will appear momentarily. So, I would also recommend covering the feet and hands with Invisiprims. If you do that, the hands and feet will never be seen. The only drawback is that invisiprims cause problems when in front of textures with an alpha layer.

Hi Casandra,

no, it's the animations, not the scripts.

Besides the problems, Cheree has mentioned, there really should be no problem with the tiptoes. It's not more difficult than any other animation. Uncheck "joint limits", stretch the feet and keep them there.

I make tiny anims, which have to keep folded all the time. What I do: I have a default folded aninm, which I take as a starting point. I use this as first and last frame, so it never unfolds.

I would do this the same way with your tiptoes. Set the x-axis of the feet to 70 degrees or what you need in frame 1 and copy it to the last frame. Done.

In tiny anims, where tiny hands also are covered with prims and never should be visible, I usually want the hands to be fisted. This function is not animated in qavimator, you have to chose "fists" from a dropdown list, when you upload your animation.

When you do not need movements in the joints between the hands and the forearms, I would even hide the hands by folding them into the forearms (set the z-rotation to about 170 degrees).

I suggest to read the great tiny animation tutorial, which you can find in the link down here, even when you do not make tinies. But the problems are the same: You need weird angels of the joints and want body parts to stay covered (though I have to add to this tutorial, that hands have to be hidden manually by try and error to find the best angles. They usually are not hidden properly by prims, when you just leave them in the default folded position, like ist is stated there).

http://purplewyvern.co.uk/thenest/2008/03/08/making-a-tiny-pose-in-qavimator/

I assume you are talking about an animation program, not sl settings.
I was thinking about making fists but I assumed it was an animation also. I could not find a setting in SL to do that. To bad it would save a lot of time.

I will look into a free one to do this. Thanks again

FYI I got the invisaprim script and it works great.

Casandra, the fists are a scond life setting.

You get the menu, when you upload the animation.

In the uploading menu, there is a dropdown menu called "hand pose".
There you can chose the fists. I send you a picture inworld.

Do you know, there is an animation creation class at NCI? That helped me a lot.

but if all I want is fists how do I do that? The avatar needs to work normal except for fixed closed fists.

Ok I gather I make an animation with just pointy feet and when I load it clench the fists.
But would it not help fold the fingers in the animation.

Also I assume this animation would have to be put in a prim and made into a avatar attachment so it is active all the time, like in the hooves.

Sorry for my ignorance this part of sl is new to me.

Hi Casandra,

depending on the animation program, you cannot even fold the fingers in the animation, there are no joints. In Qavimator you can't. And even when you have a program, which is able to do that, second live will not support it

It's how it is done:

You clench the hands when uploading.

Once uploaded it is part of your animation. That means: You upload the animation with the pointy feet and upload it with clenched hands. When done, you have one single animation with pointy feet and clenched hands. So you need only one prim, which activates it, you don't need a seperate one for the hands.

I would check this out on Betagrid, where you don't pay the upload costs and can experiment.

In case you dont know it, there are Informations about Betagrid (Aditi):

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Aditi

I did not know about the beta grid.

dead link the beta viewer does not seem to be there anymore. Anyother whay to test animations and textures without the cost?

Funny, the Link is correct. Are you sure, you did not copy/paste one of the parenthesis?


How to log in to Aditi:

When on your login screen (normal SL viever), type CTRL-SHIFT-G

Then a little dropdown menu appears on the bottom of the screen, just beside the "quit" bottom. It should be set to "Agni" by default, which is the maingrid. Chose "Aditi" from the menu and log in.

I have been there yesterday for hours.

To be more specific, uploading is not free, you also pay 10L, but you start with a stipend of 5000 Lindens, so 500 uploads are in fact free.

Notice, the things, you upload in Aditi are not availabe in Maingrid, you have to upload them again there. So it is not a good idea to make complecated prim buildings there - you won't have access at the Maingrid. And you do not have access to your complete Maingrid inventory in Aditi, because it is only refreshed every few months.

I highly recommend Adititi, when you make Anmations (and sculpties), because it takes usually several tries to get them right (27 tries for me yesterday on a tiny animation - I will run out of money on Aditi).

Thank you Carla Collazo for sending me the animations. It would have taken me forever to figure it out.
They seem Ok.

Thanks must have typed it wrong. Will try it out.
since you know sculpties I want to make pigs ears and and having trouble getting the nice floppy ear shape, is that how it is done?

Oh my, I am figuring out how to make sculpties myself. There my be people who know better in the building forum.

And how it is done, depends on the programm, you are using. There are lots.

The SL avatar skeleton does not have joints in the fingers (or in the toes, either). YOu cannot animate fingers and toes in SL. You are limited to a small selection of hand positions available when you upload the animation - fist, being one of the options.

I found a script to run a animation all the time.
It is put in a loop so it is stuck. Here it is.

default
{
attach(key avatar)
{
llRequestPermissions(llGetOwner(),PERMISSION_TRIGG ER_ANIMATION);
}

run_time_permissions(integer value)
{
if (value & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION)
{
llStartAnimation("express_open_mouth";
llSetTimerEvent(1); // Try 1.2 or even 1.5 - the required time varies for facial expressions
}
}

timer()
{
llStopAnimation("express_open_mouth";
llStartAnimation("express_open_mouth";
llStartAnimation("bvh animation"; // Additional animation file name if required
}
}



Same one that someone gave me for keeping an apple in my mouth and keeping my mouth open, silly me.


But is override by the poser stand and other animations so attaching the hooves to pointy feet works until anywhere animating is used. The closed fists it might work. I tried to make a hooves for the hand with invisaprims but it covers up the body when the hand is put there.
So I guess I have to make a pig hooves bigger than I would like to. I am too much of a perfectionist.

I am learning. I have been told there is no decent pig "furry" avatar and they like the nose and tail I made. Still have not been able to make floppy piggy ears, nice if they were flex!

Thanks again.