Setting up Poser 9 for SL animations

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

This isn't meant to be a full guide or complete tutorial on making animations in Poser, this post just shows all the basics on how to set up your poser scene for animating for SL.

Setting up the SL Avatar

- Download the Second Life avatar files for Poser, you can find them on this page.
- Move the folder called "SL Avatar" to C:\Users\Public\Documents\Poser 9 Content\Downloads\runtime\libraries\character. (If you use windows)
- Open Poser, both the male and female avatar can be accessed from the library. Remove the "Andy" figure by selecting a piece of it and hitting delete. Double click the female avatar from the library and it will appear as "Figure" in the scene. (It's possible to have multiple avatars in one scene, in that case it would be good practice to change the names.)



Setting up the scene

By default, the feet are locked into position. For this tutorial, they need to be able to move freely. Uncheck "LeftLeg" and "RightLeg" under Figure->Use Inverse Kinematics.



Use Shift-Ctrl-V to open the Animation Palette. Alternatively you can access this window through the "Window" drop down menu.




In this window you can set the number of frames and the framerate of the animation. The default is 30 frames @ 30 fps,
so one second of animation.
The example here will have 24 frames and will play at 12 fps. The first frame in the animation will be the reference frame for SL, so it's excluded from the actual animation. The first and final frame of the animation itself will be identical, so frame 2 will be the same as frame 26 (!). To make the animation loops smoothly, the first (or last) frame needs to be excluded too.

- Change the "Rate" to 12
- Change the number of frames to 26 and confirm
- Drag the little arrow next to "Play Range" two boxes to the right



- Open the "Figure" menu on top of the screen and select "Zero figure", this will reset all rotations to zero

Now you have a good base pose for SL you might want to save for other animations.

setting up the animation

- In the Animation Palette, select the second frame, this will be the base pose for the animation
- Select the "Right Collar", you can do this either by clicking it in the viewport or in the Animation Palette

On the right lower side of the screen, you'll see the Right Collar is selected in the "Parameter Dials" window

- Change the tab from "Properties" to "Parameters"
- Change "shrug up-down" to 30
- Select the Right Shoulder and change "reach up-down" to 35

(Alternatively you can use the Editing Tools (keyboard R, W and T) and the viewport to move the bodyparts around)



You'll notice in the Animation Palette, the corresponding blocks turning green instead of gray.

- In the Figure menu, select "Symmetry -> Right to Left"
- In the Animation Palette, select the second frame, next to "Figure, so all bodyparts for frame 2 are selected. Copy
the values with ctrl-C, select the last frame and paste them with ctrl-V

You should now have light green blocks for frame 1, 2 and 26, representing key-frames. The blocks for frame 3-25 should be dark green, meaning they have interpolated values.
If you hit the play button in the Animation Palette, you'll see the arms moving all over the place.

- Select frame 2 and click the "Toggle Spline Break" button, you'll notice all blocks for frame 2 will be marked



If you play the animation now, the avatar should stay in the base pose you made for frame 2. The final step is to make the actual animation, just select any frame between 3 and 25 and move the bodyparts around.

Don't forget to remove one frame before you upload the animation! You can do this either by removing a frame in Poser (If you do this, make sure the first and last frame of the final animation only have key-frames) or by skipping a frame in the SL upload window (find a calculator).

EDIT...

To make a longish post short: Make sure:

the first frame has no rotations

the second and last frame are identical

on the second frame the spline is broken

 

[iCade]

Thank you so much for the guide, will try it tomorrow after work, RL work has been kicking my ass, working in retail during the christmas period is definitely a try on ones sanity @.@