Making an arm only pose

[Meow Spore]

So what I'm trying to do is make an animation or pose that only affects my arm but overrides any other AO I may use so the arm stays in position when I walk/sit/run/whatever.

My problem is that I only know how to do poses in QAnimator that affects the entire body.

So if someone could point me out to a guide how to or explain it to me. It would be most appreciated.

[Luc Starsider]

I don't know QAnimator (I use Blender for poses as well as modelling) but is it not so also in QAnimator that only the bones/joints that have been changed is written to the .bvh file, thus  only affecting the changed bones/joints in SL? (That may not be the correct way of saying it...)

- Luc -

[Meow Spore]

When I tried the whole body animation was saved even though I made no change in it. But I'll try blender instead, thanks.

Edit: Nevermind. You were absolutely right. It only affect the part I had edited. Only not in prewiew. Won't do the mistake again.

[Luc Starsider]

Good you got it sorted out!

If you feel like looking at animation in Blender, here is a script (for Blender 2.49b) that makes the process very simple and easy.

- Luc -

[guY Ralior]

And another thank you Luc!! You are on a role today!!  

[Medhue Simoni]

To just animate the arm, you would set your Tframe to all zeros, and the same for the animating frames, except the parts of the arm that you want to use. Upload the animation with priority 4 set to it.

The AO is a whole different question. Right now, as far as I know, it is impossible to have an AO that works perfectly with an object that you hold, almost but not fully. Walks, runs, turns, jumps, falling, prejump, landing, flying, sits, and sitgrounds, if not more, would all have to be priority 3 animations. Some of which I'm not even sure they would overide the defaults. Stands being priority 1 or 2. Plus, recently, walks and runs were fixed so that they could be priority 3 animations, so you are still going to see AOs with priority 4 walks and runs. Turns still do not work correctly. For the most part tho, as long as walks and runs are priority 3s, and stands are priority 1 or 2, you should be fine.

Here you can see that I'm only animating the right shoulder, the right bicep, the right forearm, and right hand. Everything else is set to exactly zero.

[Luc Starsider]

It is the funniest thing (as in strange) when you see a woman standing somewhere holding a baby on her arm. Everything look fine and good, as it should be. Then she starts walking... Arms swinging and baby all over the place... Because of the animation priorities.

Even if walks can be priority 3, the priority 4 ones are going to stick around for a long time unless, I guess, they are reupload at a lower priority. I wonder if it's not going to take a long time in any case.

Quick question: When you upload animations; do you upload them at the same priority level as the default ones they are to replace, or at the next priority up from the default?

- Luc -

[Medhue Simoni]

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Luc Starsider wrote:

Quick question: When you upload animations; do you upload them at the same priority level as the default ones they are to replace, or at the next priority up from the default?

- Luc -

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Hmmm, I think the animations that you upload need to be of a higher priority than the default animations. This, I think, was the problem that LL created when they changed the default animations over a year ago. I'm assuming that LL was using animations with the correct priorities, but correct for us, not them. This is all spectulation, on my part.

As far as animators changing priorities, I can only tell you how I feel on the issue and what I'm doing. Personally, I "try" to update my AOs every year. This does not really workout great tho, as I have many AOs and some of them take weeks to redo. The bottom line is that there are going to be more AOs on the market with the wrong priorities than there will be with the correct priorities, and for a number of reasons. LL's goofs in the area do cause the most damage tho, and numerous headaches for those of us trying our best to create good AOs that work properly.

[Luc Starsider]

Thanks, Medhue.

I thought maybe that was the case; uploading at a higher priority than the defaults.

I can imagine how much work it is to update all the AOs. You have a ton of them! Guess we'll have to live with things not working correctly because of errors in priorities. I imagine you often get questions about things not working because priorities are messed up in peoples AOs.

- Luc -

[Medhue Simoni]

Years ago, I saw a jira asking to allow us to have a priority 5. At the time, I thought it wasn't needed, but now, I think it would be a life saver for many many things. Even if it was just designated for hold animations or weapon strikes, that would be cool because those would always work then. We also need more documentation on priorities, or possibly done in a more direct way, so that animators learn about priorities first, and not last, lol. When people start out, myself included, they know that 4 is the highest, so they tend to over use it, until they learn the details.

[Luc Starsider]

I didn't update my subscriptions since the forum consolidation until now, so I didn't see your post until now...

I've seen the jira myself. In the jira someone gave instructions on how to upload at priority 5 even if it was not supposed to be possible. I tried it myself with a pose I made. I'm not sure it worked... The pose seemed to be constantly overridden by my normal priority 4 stands.

Yes, documentation could always be better. The problem is organizing it in the best way and making it visible enough so that new animators can easily find it. 

Also, don't you think that if priority 5 became available, that people would start using it the same way they have used priority 4 up to now? I have a sneaky suspicion that  is what would happen, but I could be wrong.

- Luc -

[Medhue Simoni]

Yeah, you are probably right, which is why I would not label it as a priority 5, or have it as a normal option in the upload window. I would like to see it separated from the normal priorities and designated for holding or combat strikes. Don't ask me how, but i think it would have to work this way to keep every1 from just choosing a priority 5 to make sure they play. Sadly, even this would probably not stop people.

[Luc Starsider]

You may be on to something here!

The uploader could read the .bvh file which contains a list of bones affected by the animation. The uploader could then make a higher priority - whatever it is called - available if the shoulder, arm and/or hand (I don't remember what the bones are called) were the only ones animated. (Don't know if that made sense...)

Better yet; let the creator change priorities after the animation is uploaded.

I hope, but have my doubts, that any of this is ever going to happen, though...

- Luc -

[Medhue Simoni]

Well, IMO, holding and strike animations are a unique enough, and important enough type of animation that I think it should get some kind of special treatment. :matte-motes-nerdy:

 

[Osprey Therian]

 

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Medhue Simoni wrote:

Well, IMO, holding and strike animations are a unique enough, and important enough type of animation that I think it should get some kind of special treatment. :matte-motes-nerdy:

 

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Would be a nice addition.

[Medhue Simoni]

Maybe i will write my own jira to try and give hold and strike animations a priority 5. Maybe instead of adding a 5 to the option, LL can just put a check box labeled hold/strike. So, basically, you chose a priority 4 and check the hold/strike box to make it a priority 5. This way, a new animator does not automatically choose to make everything priority 5, because they would have to know that HOLD/STRIKE means priority 5.