New free animation tool

Right, but it does make sense to use an avatar of your choice. For example, the Poser/Qavimator avatars are very atypical of avatars in SL.

Animation is always a compromise to some presumably typical avatar shape. This tool lets you choose the shape you deem as typical.

Consider making all the Library shapes available. That way, people can at least try them all out ingame to choose the ones that best suits their needs.

Does it support multiple avatars with different shapes? That would be very useful.

So, are you saying that Animeeple doesn't support this? QAvimator does.

Nexii - That's an interesting idea. Right now we only support skinned characters (which you can import using the collada format), but maybe we should support skeletons too.

Ilana - Thanks for the bug report. Sorry for the trouble! We'll try to get our hands on a 64 bit machine to fix the deployment issues.

Morgaine - Yes, you can pose the character. Sorry, our documentation on it is sort of buried... What you want to do is right click on the character and choose Modify > Edit. Here's some documentation about how the edit block works: http://wiki.animeeple.com/Edit_Block. FK handles (for rotation) show up as spheres, IK handles (for positioning) show up as blocks. Don't hesitate to message me or post again if you have more questions.

Lear - Yes, Animeeple supports animating multiple avatars with different shapes at the same time. I'm sorry, I didn't know QAvimator could animate multiple avatars. I downloaded it to try it out a couple of times, but truthfully I haven't used it aside from that. While I'm on the subject though, if there's something you like in QAvimator that Animeeple doesn't do, please tell us so we can think about how to put it in.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Very interesting, this! thanks for making it available.

One question, one comment:

Question: when I try to import a bvh file made in Qavimator, I don't seem to be able to make the bones match - e.g. where is a place to put the abdomen, and lcollar and rcollar? Sorry if I missed something obvious.

Comment: Qavimator does allow multiple simultaneous anims in the scene

I'm not an animator but I am always inspired by people who put time and energy into providing things that make our SL life better; thanks for this.

Ok I have downloaded it and had a quick look. Seems very useful so far however it is not very intuitive. without a full set of instructions we are shooting in the dark a little.

It may just be me being inexperienced with anim software but I found the link mentioned regarding editing blocks but the information was minimal and didnt get me much further. From what I have discovered so far there are 4 handles for adjusting the pose. Is it possible to click on a limb and edit its position like in Qavimator?

Alos I have to agree with those who are worried about SL account information being used to import/export to SL.

I think your next move needs to be making a full set of instructions available so people can test it fully and give constructive comments. without it you will only get negative comments as people are unable to work out how to use it.

Overall the Idea looks good.

is it downloaded on my pc, but the actual animation created through/via (and then saved) through your website? i'm not getting why i'd need to login anywhere once it's downloaded on my pc.

in other words, it's not a stand-alone software? it's server reliant?

Hey guys, thanks for more great feedback! Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Tempest - Thanks! lcollar and rcollar should be the "collar" bones. All bones between the hips and the torso are matched automatically, so you shouldn't need to do anything with the abdomen. If you have more questions, please post again or message me. Thanks for the correction about QAvimator -- I'll go back and edit my previous post.

Dnali - Thanks!

Hurley - Definitely agree we need more documentation and a way to get avatar shapes without passwords. We're working on both of those things. Sorry the info on blocks was unclear -- we'll work on that too. There are 4 IK handles (one on each hand and one on each foot). There is one FK handle on each joint. That means you can position the hands and feet, and rotate the joints.

3RingBinder - You need to login in order to upload content to the marketplace and to purchase content, because the server keeps track of the marketplace. When you create an animation, you are putting together animation blocks, and the way those blocks go together is saved on your PC (if you save your workspace). If the blocks came from the marketplace, they stay in the marketplace (server-side). If the blocks came from your local content, they stay on your PC. And finally when you export animation, it's on your PC.

Animeeple has a Wiki. If the documentation is not clear, and you figure something out, then PLEASE go back and add your knowledge to the Wiki.

From what I have done so far, the little square handles move the wrist and the ankle, moving the rest using inverse kinematics (which is good). If you look really hard, you will see the skeleton of the arms and legs and so on. Click on the joint between two bones, and you will get the ability to rotate (and other??) that joint.

As the OP says, it is not entirely clear yet.

Hey guys, just a quick note to say that we added more detail to the wiki page on posing: http://wiki.animeeple.com/Edit_Block

Let me know if anything's unclear or if you have other questions about posing.

- Sparkle

Thanks Sparkle that makes it a lot clearer

Sure, no problem hurly. Also, we just put up some more documentation on how to import files: http://wiki.animeeple.com/Import

Hi Sparkle- a small confusion maybee, but is this a standalone offline animation program or does it need connection to a portal online in order to run.
What are the supported OS?
What minimal tech specifications are required (frameworks incl.)?
Is this spy/malware certificated?

Top post mentions IK, that would be one thing that Qavi does not have :)

BR
ab

Sparkle, I'm trying to download, but it says I must login.

I try to create a login, but it says my email is already registered but unverified. I believe I did register earlier, but don't remember getting a verification email. I don't see any confirmation email in my google mailbox (inbox, spam, or trash, and I haven't emptied trash).

Could you please clobber the entry for [email]lear.cale@gmail.com[/email] so I can try again?

I'd email you or PM you but you don't have either of those options turned on in the forum.

Not only am I interested in trying this, but I'm interested in contributing some algorithms. For example, I wrote a program that uses a convolution filter to smooth animations.

But first I'd like to see if I prefer the tool to Qavimator.

Abraxes - Sorry for the confusion! This is not a stand alone application. It needs to have a network connection to run, since the content that shows up when you do searches comes off our servers. Supported OS's are Windows and OSX. There have been reports of bugs on WinXP SP2 and on 64-bit Windows. You need a pretty good graphics card -- integrated graphics probably won't work. Do you know of a good company that does spyware/malware certification? We are definitely interested in this. Animeeple doesn't have spyware or malware, but obviously having a certificate that verifies this would be great.

Lear - Sorry about the trouble. I erased your DB entry. Please let me know if you keep having problems. I turned on PM.

Thanks Sparkle.

I don't see a way to load a bvh file I already have on my hard drive, for editing.

I'll have to check out the wiki; my apologies if it's already covered there.

Hi Lear,

What you want to do is go to File > Import > File, then read in your BVH file (make sure the drop-down menu says "BVH". That will start the import wizard: http://wiki.animeeple.com/Import#Import_wizard. If you're not looking to sell the motion, you can skip over filling in name, description, tags, price, and category.

The motions will end up in the "Imports" panel (look for a tab on the lower-left of your screen). You can use those motions just like any other you would get from searching. As long as you don't hit the "Publish" button at the bottom of the "Imports" panel, your motion will stay local on your computer and won't be uploaded for sale on our servers.

If you save your workspace (File > Save workspace), that will save the motions in your Imports panel. Then when you load the workspace (File > Load workspace), they'll be ready to go for you again.

- Sparkle

Darn, now it won't run:

AppName: animeeple.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: ntdll.dll
ModVer: 5.1.2600.2180 Offset: 000535a9

Got that the first time I ran it but second time worked. Now it's failing every time (well, 5 in a row).

Sorry Lear! Can you PM me with your OS and hardware (including graphics card)?

We just made a new release of Animeeple. The new version includes support for generic Second Life avatars, so you can animate a Second Life avatar without putting in your SL login credentials.

Go to File > Import > Second Life > Generic, and choose gender, height, thickness, and fatness.

We're still working on video tutorials and resolving the crashes some people have been running into.

Thanks for the great feedback everyone! We really appreciate it.
- Sparkle

This looks exciting, and it's generous of you to share it.

I wouldn't worry too much about people's concerns over using their SL login to export an avatar created in-game. As far as I know, no other tools (certainly no free ones) offer that - an obviously you'd need a login to export it! I can imagine huge advantages to this, especially for avatar+animation creator combos.

If anybody's that bothered over it, they can always create a dummy free account & just export one of the newbie defaults.

Good luck with this
Cherry.

Hi Sparkle, I think this is great, but I'm trying to import an existing BVH but when it won't let me get past the wizard (the "OK" button stays gray) not sure what to do from here. Also where do I find out how to work with two characters in the same scene? Thanks!

Another Question....

I'm playing around with the program trying to create a pose....but when I try to either export it to SL or export it as a file it says either I have non-exportable content or non-distributable content.....

What does that mean and how do I fix it? Thanks!