Are items better with Exclusive Animations?

[Syle Devin]

What are you thoughts on animations in furniture and other items?

 

Is it better to go the custom route and try to get someone who would work together to make exclusive custom animation for a % of sales?

Or would it be better to just use the animations that anyone else can put into their items? 

 

Would you rather buy something with custom animations if you knew or does it not matter?

[Amethyst Jetaime]

As long as the animation fits the furniture and is appropriate for the kind of furniture, i don't think it matters much.

Custom animations are expensive unless you make them yourself, and even then they are expensive in terms of time.  Sometimes it may be worth it but lets face it, there are only so many ways you can sit on something and so its doubtful that a consumer will notice much of a difference.  There is also a lot of quality full perm animations out there and its certainly cheaper to have a variety from different creators than pay for one full perm custom animation.  Its not like in the old days when quality full perm had limited availability and most builders used the same ones.

[Poenald Palen]

I have thought a bit about this, though I will add...I am not a furniture customer! I have bought some before...I think....I didn't realy worry because price was more an issue.

To be honest, I think people buy on looks and style of the item. Features are for those who are looking for those features. Price is always in ratio to what looks right with your stuff or what you plan on making your place look like, right?

If they use it to sit on...well, you are able to (as a customer) use:

1. Ao's built in. Preferable because it is styled for your AO and you chose that because your body language or movement was important to you. You like it...maybe.

2. You can use default or built in. The place may not be used much or is looked at breifly by guests before they focus on movies, other avatars or move onto more fun things to do during thier stay. For stores with wishes to have couches....uh, they are not even needed buy by really serious role play shoppers...unless somehow they offer or invite something fun or interesting.

3. You may not even be able to run the scripts and animations..landlord will notn allow scripts turned on!!

4. Heck, the item can have pose balls placed above it or a multi-avatar animator rez pose balls or take control or whatever method. The usage of an item is not dependent on scripted built in stuff and they may not like your built in's unless they top what is already out there!

5. You want a full perms item to fire out of a cannon at your neighbour because he left a couch on your property at 500 feet in the air in the middle of your build...you hate him and want a cheap couch to fire out of you custom made gun...animations? wut? No mods? More than 10L? Not interested! Same deal if you wanted to animate it all yourself because you do animate but do not build. In this case, you go the route of using clear prims or pose balls that turn clear. So, no need for scripts or even mod perms!

So...it depends. IF they want a certain style...deal breaker. No roccoco for the geometric contemporary living room please! Ok, cost is another deal breaker...but....usually land tier fees outweigh all costs. There is the 300L stipend limit for those wishing to be limited and are strong when they see a must have item....but...how can a furniture peice be must-have-able? I can only think that rare items, no on else makes one or it is totaly ugly gets it. But, scripting and animations may also make some items must haves and may even convert a person over to throw out thier old stuff....hey, maybe queen anne is acceptable...though not as interesting as roccoco stuff they have...just....adequite, and worth the swap. It depends.

 

But, once again. I don't shop. I only see items pop up on the marketplace as popular that have couples poses for cuddling and kissing etc. I see fun items with chill out places...but not up high on the popularity scale. If you see 3 beanbags, one has more of every feature and looks good enough and is priced lower than the better looking one....well, you might buy it because you can use it somewhere. If you are into some adult activities you wlil likely already have a system...so...is this item unique in it's arrangements to where it is hard to recline or otherwise be perched/placed or lean on? You see, cuddling may benifit from built in in some things...this circle of "It depends"Always continues and how it relates to your question seems to only be based on one thing....does the peice benifit from custom work due to bad looks or inability to find something that works well with it? Do you have an idea that makes it a different type of item, a different market than people who just sit or stand at a peice? If it is roleplay, then how many would use this? That is a more exact questions...."how many would like roleplay furniture with which you can interact?"is sort of the question you may need to ask more. Gosh, I don't know really....this is something you need to figure out and my thinking is based on my dilema with my vehicles! If I add a set of animations to interact with the car, interact with others around the car is this going to help sell it? I basically figure that most can use a product that is NOT made for the car specifically to have fun. Which is fine. I could still make one and include it as a freebie so people can rez the components, place the pose balls or clear (but clickable part somewhere....a HUD even...they invite others to be animated or temporarily make sitting locations pose balls visable cia this HUD?) and so on and on....and on....and on. It is hard to tell. A quick survey? But, this is maybe something they may like in theory...some buy, they never use it and basically I end up with stuff sitting around because word of mouth died out....just wasted time! lol. So, this is my thinking. Looks, the right style catagory, and then functions last. Basic industry standard functions IF they need to be included because of the specific needs of the build/object may work better if custom. Can they use a third party or do they already...can I even make a third party type solution outside of it and use it with multiple items and STILL be offering more features in the package? It is so simple of a formula, there is no need for a flow chart or diagram etc. Three questions!

P.S. One more annoyance and naysaying about to much custom animation investiment...avatars are different sizes and hands still go through items. So generic non touching stuff, stuff that is easily adjusted etc. is the focus of any product that allows interaction with an object. This limits and, if the desire to overcome obvious obstacles, complicates creation of extra features to do with interaction that are animation based. Though, there is little competition IF you can figure it out and put in the time with arm movementshat blend...as an example.