Question for seasoned feral animators

[GimmeCat]

Hi there,

Many animal avatars and pets have stiff-looking legs, due to the inability to add more bones to the skeleton. But it seems a few talented animators have worked around this limitation. I'm looking for any tips or advice you could offer to someone interested in developing good, realistic animations for these types of avatars.

The biggest problem I see in many animals/ferals, are feet that cannot bend below the hock. But I have seen some that work around this (Tokushi's Feral Fox springs to mind). Is it just a matter of fusing the hock joint, using the skeleton's foot instead directly linked to the animal's toes? Is there any way to have both joints animating?

 

Thanks for any advice!

[Medhue Simoni]

Well, really, an animal skeleton has no more moving segments than a human skeleton. The problem, IMHO, is that some avatar makers think that the whole foot of a human is like the whole foot of an animal. Generally, animals walk on their toes, not the heal of the foot, as a human does. So, for this to look right on the SL skeleton, the foot of the animal needs to be placed where the toes of the SL avatar's foot is. With the foot place correctly, the SL skeleton can work much more like a real animals skeleton would. This would result in the SL avatar looking like they are walking on the tips of their toes.

[GimmeCat]

Yes, this is how I've seen it done. But because the avatar cannot bend its toes, the foot is stuck in place, unable to bend. When the avatar sits or lays down, for example, the feet end up sticking upright, and it looks rather awkward.

[Medhue Simoni]

yep, exactly

[GimmeCat]

So there is no way around that?

Thanks for your replies, by the way.

[Medhue Simoni]

Well, I guess you could code this into the prim of the animal's feet. After working with mesh tho, the SL skeleton does show to have toe bones, even tho the uploader does not show them. I guess it is possible to see if the toes bones will move using 3ds Max to animate on an SL avatar. Plus, LL has said that they would like to implement custom bones for rigged meshes. We'll have to see, probably would not expect much on this for another year.

The good news is, or maybe i should not speak yet, as I have not got the chance to really test it all yet. A mesh avatar does seem to fix many height issues related to avatar size. So, i think it is possible for some1 like me to create 1 set of animal animation that will fit any size mesh animal avatar. Don't quote me on this, but if it is true, then that is a major plus for animal animations in SL.

[GimmeCat]

Well then, many thanks for your valuable wisdom on the subject.

I'm also pretty excited to see how mesh grows and evolves. I think I'll feel much more comfortable being able to animate that way. I've heard rumours about its current bugginess and the ease of mesh theft, but hopefully the major issues will be addressed before the community writes it off as a failed experiment. I really want it to succeed.

[Medhue Simoni]

If I were you, or any1 else hearing all this mesh speculations and what not, ignore all of it. Most people are just riding a wave of fear. Fear with no basis in fact. Mesh is not a test. It can not be a pass or fail, or even an if people like it kind of thing. Mesh is the future. It's not even anything new to any1 outside the SL platform. Any1 running around saying "I won't use mesh" is a bonehead. Plus, the collada format and the way it was implemented actually gives creators an extra added layer of copyright protection.

It is my opinion, that all these mesh haters are just worried that all their sculpties are now junk, which they most likely are, compared to the same item as a mesh. Some people are going to hold steadfast to sculpties. This is bad, as a sculpty will be far inferior in every way. Some people and creators even think that sculpties still have a place here with mesh. Technically tho, sculpts are completely replaceable by mesh.

[Tyrian Slade]

As far as I've seen, you have to sacrifice a joint somewhere because SL doesn't give us animatable toes.  I usually choose to sacrifice the thigh, since in animals it's close to the body, and it's easier to disguise that it's missing.  If you do that, you'll have to make the joints bend in ways they might not want to.  I've also seen people use a morphing sculpty for the foot to get the appearance of an extra joint.