learning the different pose/animation systems?

[hyacinth3704]

Hi all,

I'm just getting started in learning how to manipulate animations and would like to learn how to add couple poses to furniture. I've been trying to find information on the various engines and systems out there, like avsitter, MLP, MPS and others, but it's hard for me to tell based on their MP descriptions which ones are easiest to use for 'dummies' like me, and it's not easy to compare/contrast the features they offer. Can anyone point me to a website or blog or resource of some kind that considers the different systems out there and does some evaluation and compare/contrast? I think I must be using all the wrong search terms. I have found some info but it's a few years old and I don't know if it's still up to date. Any advice would be helpful! I don't want to pay for something that's way more complicated than I'm ready for or underpay for something I'll outgrow. Thanks!

Edited May 5, 2017 by hyacinth3704

[Nalates Urriah]

@Evie Moriguchi AVSitter 1 is already open source, free.

AVsitter Going Open Source – Free

[Nalates Urriah]

You are somewhat doomed to tediously weeding through the various animation related tools available. The reason is they quickly change/update. So, reviews are mostly out of date. nPose just updated. So, most of its tutorials are out of date. People using nPose are mostly unfamiliar with the update. My point being it will be hard to get info other than, "I like..."

I like nPose because there are simple and advanced ways to use it. It is pose ball free, which reduces the number of prims in a region. Setting the placement of the avatar with nPose is easy. New tutorials are coming out.

I've tried others. I just found nPose better suited me.

The tools you mention being interested in are for 'installing' previously made animations in furniture. To make the actual animations one uses tools like Maya, 3D Max, Blender, and similar. I find these are important for making animations that fit the avatar to the furniture I have made. So, I got into making animations.

[Chic Aeon]

The "standard" as in almost all the furniture makers use it LOL is AVsitter. It however is not all that easy. I can say that as I just (finally) purchased it a few months ago. So it REALLY depends on your level of interest and whether you are a "hobbiest" furniture designer making things for yourself and for fun or if you are hoping to be a seller of furniture.  Personally, I almost always opt for The Standard of whatever the product might be.  

If you want to be able to ADJUST the poses easily (or your customers be able to do that) then you definitely want a system. And to my thinking you want the current system, not something that was popular five years ago and before. 

I suggest you go furniture shopping and testing and see how the finished products work, then look inside (build menu with "select only my objects" turned off) and see what the folks are using.   

I can't think of any animation system that would be considered easy other than a sit script that just sets your avatar on a prim -- and that has to be adjusted INSIDE the product though the script -- so not good for sales and many folks wouldn't know how to adjust. 

 

Whichever product you go with, start with just a SINGLE SIT in a chair to get the feel of things. Couples poses get more complex. There are some very good video tutorials on the AVsitter site. The only thing missing (for me) was the explanation that the second person needed to sit on the COUCH and not on the helper pole. So keep that in mind.  Examples come with the set too if that type of thing is helpful for you. 

Also, no reason to buy the extra packs that come with AVsitter unless you need them down the road. 

 

[hyacinth3704]

Thank you both!!! At this point in time I'm thinking of furniture mostly for my own use/as a hobbyist, but I won't completely exclude the idea that I might someday want to see if anyone wants to buy them! I think you make an excellent suggestion in terms of trying out furniture made with the different systems and seeing if I like how the menus are built, how the furniture functions, adjustability, etc. 

[Evie Moriguchi]

On 5/5/2017 at 6:08 PM, Chic Aeon said:

The "standard" as in almost all the furniture makers use it LOL is AVsitter. It however is not all that easy. I can say that as I just (finally) purchased it a few months ago.

While I never upgraded to AVSit2, I still use AVSit1 all the time.  It's perfect for synched animations and multi-sitting, and the system does not require rezzing poseballs nor do you get the permissions dialog box like you do with MLP.  [Note: anyone who's worked with NPCs can see the benefit of no permission dialogs and a static UUID for "seating", both of which are a problem with using unlinked temp objects to animate an avatar.  I've used AVSit with my "crew" (bots) to patrol an island sim in a motorboat...the limits to linked prims may be 54 meters, but sit targets have a limit of 300 meters, which is enough to have a bot "wear" a speedboat (or jetski) and sit on a slowly rotating prim in the middle of the sim.]

Once AVSit goes open-source in a few months, there really is not much reason to learn any other system.  It's the best sitting/animation system out there, communicates well with customized scripts, allows you to easily convert MLP notecards to AVSit compatible notecards, eliminates the need for poseballs, and is definitely worth its original pricetag of $3000.  The best news of all is that Code Violet's AVSitter will be released to the public for free in August 2017.

Until then....I really, really recommend learning how to use Neofan Teardrop's already open source SpeedySIT.  It's free, and an excellent solution for multiple animations, and seating more than one avatar on a prim (it doesn't really do synced couples animations, though) The biggest advantage for scripters with SpeedySit, is that it returns LSL compatible sit target information.  Even if you opt to not use the SpeedySIT.lsl script in your final product, you can still get sit target data to use in your own code.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Evie Moriguchi

[LittleMe Jewell]

6 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

@Evie Moriguchi AVSitter 1 is already open source, free.

AVsitter Going Open Source – Free

That link says that it will actually go open source on July 31 - June 1 is just when they made the announcement.

[Chic Aeon]

4 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

That link says that it will actually go open source on July 31 - June 1 is just when they made the announcement.

She said it before I did LOL. Good for her.

It is kinda unclear too how that will play out, but since I already own it in SL I am good. 

It is NOT EASY but with some puzzling it works very well. There are videos if we didn't mention those on the AVSITTER website. Might be good to download those if you plan on using the opensource version.