How would you add looking animations to a base animation for you AO?

[Lionblaze44]

Sorry to ask yet another ao question but I am rather confused. 

 

The ao that I have for one of my avatar's idle position is rather still, so I want to add some looking animations to the AO without messing up the pose that the ao puts my avatar in. How would I do that? What would I categorize the look animations under?

 

If I were to use a self-learning ao where I just drag the animations into it and I pick which animation is which, what would I put the looking animations under? Please someone help! :(

 

 

[Lindal Kidd]

Unfortunately, there aren't any animations for "looking."

There's the built in function that makes your head turn to look toward wherever you move your mouse cursor.  Depending on your viewer, you may be able to turn this on or off, or even limit the amount of head movement, but that's about all.

If you want to have an animation that has you looking around, that would have to be a part of the stand or sit animation itself, built into the animation at the time it's created.  Unless you want to get into making your own custom animations, you'll just have to go shopping and find some sits and stands that include more "looking" action.

It is quite possible, though, to make your own animations.  You can create them by hand, in an animation program like Maya, LightWave, or Poser, or the free Qavimator program designed especially for animating Second Life avatars.  While this way is relatively inexpensive, the animations produced do not tend to look very realistic.

The most realistic animations are created using motion capture cameras and software, or "mocap" for short.  Cameras record the positions of real life actors, and that position data is then used to animate an avatar skeleton in the animation software.  While not cheap, the price of mocap has fallen to the point where a dedicated hobbyist can afford it.  See, for example, this website: http://ipisoft.com/