slide animation

I have Poser 4 and upgrade to 6 today. Having a hard time figuring out how to make a simple avie climbing a ladder, then going down a slide. It looks ok initially in Poser, but then after i export to a .bvh file, then try to import it into poser, the avie just shows the body movements 'in the same place' and doesnt move in 3D. Ive tried with and without IK. Any ideas?

Didn't you move its "Body" part on your Poser? "Body" doesn't get exported into the bvh. The top of the bvh's hierarchy is "Hip". You should move its "Hip".

BTW, how can we keep showing this FAQ thread? Bump, bump, bump?

Thanks! That helped alot in Poser.. Now it works there, however, when i upload the animation into Second Life, i put the animation into a ball and put the ball in the air (i.e to go down the slide) and when i click the sit here button, it doesnt look like the Poser animation at all.. it looks odd. it moves around a little, but way out of whack compared to the way the motion looked in Poser... i used the Poser 2 Low figures since thats what Curious Labs recommended. (i have Poser 6).. and ideas?

Did you try to play your animation as just an animation file in-world? If it works, it is not the trouble of your animation, isn't it? Don't complicate things by using a Poseball.
And did you bring back the "Body" part position?

Trust Linden Lab, not Curious Labs. I mean use this avatar on your Poser.

i tried in world without the ball, but it starts 'on the ground' and goes 'down' so i can't see it.. maybe i should start my animation at ground level first.. also, what do i need to do to 'bring back the body; ?? is that in Poser or SL ? thanks for the help!!

You made keyframes on its Body part. Delete all keyframes of Body. But it leaves on the first frame. You have to reset the value of all parts of Body on the first frame. You'll see your avatar be the ground level on your Poser, too. Then you can tweak and move its Hip.

Consider this, if you move its Body up 1m and move its Hip up 1m, you'll see it be 2m up in your Poser, but it moves up just 1m in-world because the movement of Body is ignored in-world. Don't touch Body not to complicate it.

I tried what you said, but still am struggling. Im only changing HIP but still what i see in Poser isnt happneing right in SL at all. Would you happen to have an example animation i could look at in poser to learn from?

thanks.

If you post your animation (pz3 file) here, I will fix it for you. Don't forget to zip it before uploading here.
This is a good example for you. You can see this avatar moving up and down on Poser, but you should find it not move in-world because it is moved by Body.
And I post the fixed one below. Compare the both of Animation Palette. Look through Body and Hip keyframe's values on the Parameter Dials.

not sure how to post, and i dont have winzip yet. what i did is i opened your good .pz3 and then i altered it in poser to show what i wanted with an avatar going up a ladder, with move up/down, at frame 30. then at frame 60, i moved him backwards/forwards, and down to ground level for the diagonal slide. In poser this looks fine. I then exported to .bvh and in SL it looks like he goes up the ladder ok, but then moves laterally in height, and finally he goes straight down, then back to the default start, like moving in a square, not a triangle. i also tried this by using 'move left /right'. Same thing.

On a related note, when i do new figures and poses, for the hip, i never see the dials Roll,, Pitch, Move right/left, move back/forward and move up/down, and i never see this when i import a .bvh file. I only saw this when i opened the .pz3 files you gave me.. Any help on this? Thanks

I'll leave the heavy stuff in Seagel's hands - but I do suggest that you get the SL figures for Poser.

Tell me how to move your avatar backwards/forwards? It sounds like exactly moving its "Body". You have to move its "Hip" and don't touch its "Body". Did you make sure this?
And when you move him, use Parameter Dials. Never touch the avatar's picture screen to move because you might move its "Body" by mistake. And always open the both "Animation Palette" and "Parameter Dials". And make sure which part you're moving.
The both is the same under window menu. When you load a new file, it may close. So you need to open them again. Or sometimes they might hide behind the screen. Then, close and open them again. The menu is a toggle switch. You can open and close them on the pull down menu.

[Edit]
Ben, Help meeeeee!!!!

wait....Did he moves forwards anyway? damn, I can't figure out until seeing it. Try to rewrite the attribute .pz3 by .txt. It might work to upload it here.

I just downloade the SL avatar and retried with just moving the HIP again, making sure that i only moved the HIP in poser with the dials and animation pallette. STill looks good in Poser, but makes a square in SL. I also made sure it was just changing the hip..

Hi Troy,

I'm not sure but there might be the end wall of the SL animation world. How far did you move up and how far forward? Try to set all within 5m.

Ahaa, I tell you how to post your file here.
1. Rename your file, such as from "yourfile.pz3" to "yourfile.txt".
2. Press "Manage Attachments" button in Additional Options below on edit mode.
3. Browse and select "yourfile.txt", and press "Upload" button.
4. You can close the window. Submit reply. That's all.

i made progress by using the sl avatar, but i think the 5m end wall is my biggest hurdle now. (I also noticed that i can do down the slide from right to left in the Z axis, but not down left to right in the Z axis).

Anyways, is there a way the END WALL can be made bigger? or does Linden limit it to 5m in all three axes? thanks again for all of your help

It's a mere assumption that there is the 5m end wall. I've not made sure it because it is rare to change the standing positon far away too much by just the animation.
Can you do down the slide from right to left in the Z axis, but not down left to right in the Z axis? I don't believe there is any difference between left and right even though there is some limit. Of course I won't fiugure out unitil I see what you were doing though.

Anyway, I will try to create an animtion which changes positon far away when I get home.

OK, Troy, you were right. I made sure it moved along square line. And the world seems to be area of a cube with 6m on a side. And you're allowed to be 3m up and 3m forward because you are standing in the middle of the cube. Even if you went out of the cube, you could just slide the face of it. It is the end wall of the world.
Sorry, I cannot help it. But consider this. It is not natural that the animations are used by such a way. You don't really move at all in the way of changing hip position, that is, a shadow moving. When someone created an animation standing on 1m left position and played it, you would find his avatar not be illuminated by the tracking red beam. And you can't bump his avatar because it is just a shadow.
I think you'd better change your mind and you make your avatar really move its positon. It is. however, the problem how to climb the ladder. You can create a ladder crimbing animation but you have to fire the animation when you climb the ladder. You might need some script work. I suppose you need a scripted ball in front of the ladder and when you sit on it, the ball moves up with making you play the climbing animation, and reaching the top, it slide down with making you play the sliding aniamtiion, like that.
Sorry for not helping.

Spent a good while playing with the max distance you could move your AV in a anim. 5m or just shy of it is the max, translates to a poser distance of 4m. If you make an animation that goes over the limit, SL will still play the animation but your "hip" location will stop at the 5m bubble.

Youve been extremely helpful and I appreciate it.. Thanks again for everything..
Take care.