How do I synchronize animations?

Hi all

I made a hugging animation for a couple. One animaton for the woman, one for the man and placed them each in one poseball.

Problem: The animation starts, as soon as the avatar sits on the poseball. As two persons never sit on a ball at the same time, the animation of the two persons is out of sync now.

I look for a way to wait with the animation, until both balls are occupied and then start them both at the same time.

Any idea?

Thanks, your Angel

Well, do you know how to script? If yes I can tell you how to do it. If not, I imagine someone is selling 'empty' poseball pairs, since it's something everyone who's doing paired animation needs.

I think I can change a script

Right now I use a free pose ball to place each part of the animation in it. I think I will find a way to let these two balls talk to each other when someone sits on it

The basic way of doing it is:

When the first poseball is sat on, it says "ready" to the other poseball.
When the second poseball is sat on, it says "go" back to the first one and then they both animate.

Of course, you have to allow for two things:

a) either poseball could be the "first";
b) anyone person might stand up.

Working out how to do this requires doing a concurrency analysis, and describing how to do that is really beyond the scope of one post in a forum! Suffice to say, the result is this (start from 1):

1. (No-one sitting on anything) If someone sits on me, say "ready" and go to 3. If the other poseball says "ready" go to 2.

2. (Someone sitting on other poseball, waiting for someone to sit on us) If someone sits on me, say "go" and go to 4. If the other poseball says "stop" go to 1 (other person stood up, go back to normal).

3. (Someone sitting on us, waiting for someone to sit on the other one) If the other poseball says "go" go to 4. If the seated person stands up say "stop" and go to 1 (person stood up, tell other poseball to go back to normal).

4. (Someone sitting on both) Animate!

I hope that if you look through this you'll see how it's working