What is the .anim format?

[MelodicRain]

What program exports animations in the .anim format? Seems .bvh is the standard but .anim is an accepted format as well, and I wasn't able to find much info for this anywhere. Also, when you try to upload something in .anim, there's no previewer, so how do you set the animation priority, loop true/false, ease in/out, etc? Is it simply defaulted to some values?

I don't really have an actual .anim animation to play with so I basically just renamed a .bvh to .anim (which won't be a working animation of course) to test uploading it.

Edited September 14, 2020 by MelodicRain

[Chic Aeon]

Avastar will let you make anim files using Blender.     There IS no preview for anim files in the uploader (yes, not fun) so not you.  You set all the priority etc before exporting.     There may be other ways to make an anim file which I read was the original file format for SL-- before BVH became popular.   

 

Google tells me this so Maya could also be used:

 

"3D animation file created by Maya, a professional 3D modeling application; saves references to objects and their animation properties; includes keyframes that specify anchor points of the animation; also includes rotations and the timeline."

Edited September 14, 2020 by Chic Aeon
spelling

[Mollymews]

.Medhue made a video explaining the differences between .bvh and .anim files here:

 

[OptimoMaximo]

On 9/14/2020 at 6:35 AM, Chic Aeon said:

Avastar will let you make anim files using Blender.     There IS no preview for anim files in the uploader (yes, not fun) so not you.  You set all the priority etc before exporting.     There may be other ways to make an anim file which I read was the original file format for SL-- before BVH became popular.   

 

Google tells me this so Maya could also be used:

 

"3D animation file created by Maya, a professional 3D modeling application; saves references to objects and their animation properties; includes keyframes that specify anchor points of the animation; also includes rotations and the timeline."

The anim format in Maya is not the same as the one used in SL. This latter is a proprietary binary encoded format that follows some serialization rules and data format. For Maya anim files exports to Secondlife, look at my signature below 😉

[Vir Linden]

Sorry, it's a little confusing. anim isn't really a file format; it's just a binary dump of what the viewer uploads when it's creating a new animation. With bvh, you start with a file format and specify various options, and the combination of all that animation + option info gets sent up to create an animation. A .anim file is roughly equivalent to taking all the animation data out of a bvh, and then adding all of the various options chosen in the bvh floater - so you're bypassing the preview and option selection stages and skipping straight to upload. I say "roughly" equivalent because the bvh uploader also tries to do some optimizations on the uploaded animations, which using .anim skips.

It would probably make sense to allow the preview and option selection stages to be done for .anim as well, using the options specified in the selected .anim as the starting values. A possible feature for another time...

[OptimoMaximo]

On 9/15/2020 at 11:02 PM, Vir Linden said:

Sorry, it's a little confusing. anim isn't really a file format; it's just a binary dump of what the viewer uploads when it's creating a new animation. With bvh, you start with a file format and specify various options, and the combination of all that animation + option info gets sent up to create an animation. A .anim file is roughly equivalent to taking all the animation data out of a bvh, and then adding all of the various options chosen in the bvh floater - so you're bypassing the preview and option selection stages and skipping straight to upload. I say "roughly" equivalent because the bvh uploader also tries to do some optimizations on the uploaded animations, which using .anim skips.

It would probably make sense to allow the preview and option selection stages to be done for .anim as well, using the options specified in the selected .anim as the starting values. A possible feature for another time...

Sorry Vir, but your take on anim file format is misleading. 

First, it's not a simple dump. Bvh like data has to go through conversion to quaternion, get negated whenever the W term goes to the negative range so that the W term can be kept positive, then this manipulated quaternion goes through a conversion stage to turn the values into integers comprised between a certain range, in order to be written as signed integers of 2 bytes each, dropping the W term as the negation done at a previous stage allows its reconstruction on the fly. Joint names go through a similar stage to be converted into a byte array. Time code is also being converted according to similar rules. At that point, dump to file has to happen in a specific order, with a header section that contains a few things, then joint name, followed by number of frames, also converted to be 2 bytes allocation, joint priority, also converted into a signed integer, then rotation data frame by frame and finally position data. The serialization process implies a a format which has to be followed, along side with type of converted data (some need to be signed, some unsigned and so on) and therefore it definitely IS a format. The file extension is arbitrary, just for the sake of easier filtering when the file browser is summoned and told to look up for files.

Now, also an XML file is just a data dump, but it can't be read if some writing rules (aka format) aren't respected. That's what makes a format, and SL's anim is the same, it is a proprietary format developed by Linden Lab for exclusive use with their platform. 

Edited September 17, 2020 by OptimoMaximo
Grammar

[Sabrina Tamerlane]

When you import a BVH with Second Life Viewer, it makes an anim file out of it. Anim files are interesting because they let you animate only specific bones, for example not the head or the head only while the BVH files follow a hierarchy that starts with the hips. That way you can make for instance a walk animation that  will mix well with Bento heads since it won't interfere at all.

I have created 2 anim exporters, one for Poser that I am not willing to share at the moment, and one for DAZ Studio that I have just listed on the marketplace. They don't work at all like Avastar since they don't need a Bento skeleton to work but rather remap the bones of the native DAZ/Poser skeleton (Genesis). This makes it possible to use several content like DAZ Animate 2.

The Poser team did not like this at all and wrote to me that it was forbidden bv their ToS to export content from Poser into Second Life because Linden Labs claims ownership of any content uploaded on their servers. While I don't even know if this is true, I think that releasing this exporter for Poser would only create issues. I have also discussed with DAZ team and they didn't make such difficulties.

[Quarrel Kukulcan]

1 hour ago, Sabrina Tamerlane said:

...Linden Labs claims ownership of any content uploaded on their servers. While I don't even know if this is true,

I can find no text to this effect in the current TOS. The closest I see is that anything you create that gets seen in a public area can be freely screenshotted and video recorded by LL and all other players, who can then do anything they want with that media.

[Sabrina Tamerlane]

This is their answer. I replied to them that they must have misunderstood but they never replied back...

 

[OptimoMaximo]

On 10/5/2020 at 11:11 PM, Sabrina Tamerlane said:

The Poser team did not like this at all and wrote to me that it was forbidden bv their ToS to export content from Poser into Second Life because... (reasons) 

Well, it may sound stupid, but as long as you use the software features to export your own work, meaning that you make your own animations without using any of the content that Poser may provide, it is perfectly fine for you to distribute the plug in and use it. Also considering that you may want to operate on a SL avatar and skeleton setup made for Poser. At that point any of the forbidden clauses they stated fall apart. You're using the software and not their content, so a plug in that allows to do what yours does is perfectly legal. Otherwise they should close off any ability to develop plug-ins to rest assured that their precious software is being behold and worshipped as they meant it should be. 

[Sabrina Tamerlane]

You are surely right. The untold truth is that DAZ and Renderosity do not make their living from their animation software but by selling 3D models and related products.  I will certainly use that plugin I have made to make poses and animations but I am unlikely to sell it. Besides everybody use Avastar with Blender and seem happy with it.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Sabrina Tamerlane

[OptimoMaximo]

8 hours ago, Sabrina Tamerlane said:

Besides everybody use Avastar with Blender and seem happy with it.

You probably missed them, but sometime ago a few posts were made asking for Poser working scenes with bento avatars that would actually work. And thus far, the only option was bvh only, even when one could go with the legacy skeleton scene. 

However, not everybody in SL uses avastar. I myself have a pretty large user base of my exporter for Maya, so I would suggest to give it a go anyway. 

[Sabrina Tamerlane]

They can use the DAZ exporter that I'm selling because there are several options to export from Poser to DAZ but the simple BVH export works the best. DAZ Studio is free so that should not create any issue.

The main difficulty with DAZ and Poser is that they don't import very well. This is why I'm using the Genesis skeleton and remap the bones to Bento, but if it recognizes a Bento skeleton then it would export without remapping. Also using the Genesis skeleton allows the use of Animate 2 aniblocks.