What's an AO?

I feel a bit stupid, but what exactly is an animation overrider? I see the pose packs for them on sl boutique, but where do I get the actual ao to put them into? And why do I often see avatars saying "AO off" when entering a busy area?

Thanks!

Don't feel stupid for asking a question. An AO is basically a script that replaces the standard SL anims with the ones in the pack. Basically, they activate and deactivate anims to match what you're doing.

AO OFF just disables it... they can be lag-inducing, so turning them off prevents a little lag... though recent ones are less likely to be a problem anyway.

Most Anim packs come with them. Otherwise, just click Find and search...

An AO is an attachment once worn and given permission by it wearer will play certain animations over the default animations when walking, running, flying, etc. Flying, walking and running are referred to as animation states.

AOs come in various shapes and sizes such as earrings, electronic devices, HUDs, etc.

These new animations will be placed inside the AO attachment by placing it on the ground and dragging and dropping the animations into it. You can't add animations to it while wearing it. Since many AOs are often very small, some care should be taken when doing this. For example, you don't want to drop it on the ground inside a club with 20-30 people.

Once the animations are added, you will usually need to edit a configuration notecard to tell the AO which animation to play for which animation state. AOs are often very picky about spelling.

Do you have any recommendations on purchasing some "starter" animations? like a walk, flying, ect?

You can go into Find Places or Classifieds and search for animations. But right off the top of my head, I can think of Reverie and Torrid (they are working together more or less) have several nice packages of animations. Cristano (or was that Christopher?) Midnight has several animation packs I believe. Another designer out there makes a some nice nice piercing style AOs and should have some animation packs in the same shop. I can't remember the shop name. But if you visit the places in your search results, you should find all the big names in animation.

A million thank yous Noel!

Glad to help. Also, if you are looking for a more community friendly AO you might check out Ziggy's AO HUD in Nomime's gigantic store. It will be on the third floor and the sign is simple black and white sign. It works without having using the use chat commands.