Coaldust Numbers

I appologize. It seems this now only shows what built-in animations are playing. I'm almost positive it used to show all animations that were playing on the avatar. I seem to recall it would show non-built-in's via their GUID instead of a name, but I'm not sure about that. Phoenix has a Animation Explorer you could use to get the information you want (and stop the animation, and revoke permissions), but Firestorm doesn't seem to have it, and the standard viewer has never had such things. If you want to stop a animation use: Avatar: Stop Avatar Animations You may also want to select: Edit: Preferences Firestorm vertical tab: Protection horizontal tab Revoke Permissions group: Revoke on STAND radio button There is apparently a known problem where scripts that have taken a permission, then been taken back into inventory before the permissions were revoked, never release that permission, even if the client says to revoke it. You may want to see Perrie Juran's testing results here: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/LSL-Scripting/Revoking-Permissions/td-p/1112303/page/3 They continue on to page 4. If you don't have the patience to read all this, the most important thing to know is about all you can do to stop someone from griefing you this way is get further than 96sqm from them, then use Stop Avatar Animations. Sadly, they will be able to continue if they get back within 96sqm of you. Relevant JIRA's include: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-1006 https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-13228

In Firestorm: 1. be sure you have the developer menu turned on (Avatar: Preferences, Advanced tab, Show Developer Menu checkbox) 2. Develop: Avatar: Animation Info

There are several tools that can be used to produce Anim format files other than Blender (e.g. a modified version of QAvimator and AnimMaker (with great pain, since it's really intended for modifying them)). Some (like that altered QAvimator) have become rather hard to obtain. It is true you have to use a third party viewer, *usually* via the bulk uploader (the regular upload dialog usually doesn't work), to upload them. Blender is normally incapable of exporting Anim files, but you can buy a exporter for it: http://blog.machinimatrix.org/avastar/avastar-anim-format/

The rig used for creating rigged mesh cannot be used for creating animations for the same, that is correct. The code that handles transforming the BVH format into the internal format is blissfully unaware of anything to do with mesh. It's quite old (and buggy), so predates mesh. Your experience uploading a 'abnormal' skeleton is normal. Well, you either get that, or the client crashes outright. This is how it's supposed to work. To the extent that anything is documented about the animation system, it is documented. I've listed the names of all the bones the BVH uploader accepts (see the leftmost column in the table on https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Suggested_BVH_Joint_Rotation_Limits ). There are other bones, which /can/ be animated, along with the attachment points, but you can't do that with the BVH uploader. You have to do cute things with modified clients and third party tools. I am reluctant to say "it won't change in the future", because, for instance, the behavior of alpha sorting has changed several times, and is now seemingly random/unpredictable, breaking almost every HUD in Second Life. I think it's unlikely Linden Lab will /intentionally/ change this, given it would break all animations for all mesh avatars. Perhaps it will be less surprising that you can't use the new bone names if you keep in mind that the animation subsystem existed long before mesh did. If that doesn't help, the only solution may be to stop expecting things to work in a rational way. They usually don't (e.g. in animations hip joint motion is relative, but all other joint motions are absolute; LSL has lists as a basic data type like many modern programming languages, but unlike any other language with them built in, they can't be nested; LSL, a non-joke programming language released in the last 10 years doesn't have arrays or references; the client already displays normal maps and 1-bit alpha, but users are unable to use their own textures for this; the Lab says there is too much group chat traffic, which is supposedly why it's laggy, but doesn't give group admins the ability to turn it off in groups that don't need it...).

Such things are possible. What is necessary depends on what is required. When the group doesn't have to move through the sim (e.g. hugging) a scripted attachement, to play the animations, worn by all participants, is enough. If the group has to move through the sim (e.g. walking, holding hands) a vehicle needs to be rezzed, which all participants sit on. The vehicle itself tends to look like a set of pose balls, which turn transparent when everyone is seated. This prevents the couple's hands from 'sliding apart', should one move a bit faster than the other, in the example. Things like this are sold in world. If memory serves, Abranimations specializes in things like this, and toys. I also occasionally saw oddball things of this nature, like a 'vehicle' to allow a giant bat avatar to carry someone, at Grendel's Children. I'm sure there are many others selling them. Be aware that there will still be 'issues'. For example, the animation system makes no attempt to adjust for the characters' bone lengths, so if a tall person and a short person try holdng hands, then the short one will end up floating above the ground, or they will both end up 'holding' empty space. This applies to all SL animations, though, not just what you asked about.

Your problem is explained in the "You've Got a Bad Hip?" section here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/BVH_Reference_Frame You may wany to read the other articles on the technical aspects of uploading a animation that works: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Talk:How_to_create_animations

Yes, that sounds like a reasonable workflow. A method you might find more pleasant, but would require spending some money, would be using this: http://blog.machinimatrix.org/avastar/ As an aside, unless it's been fixed, you can only upload Anim files by using the bulk uploader (even if you only want to upload 1 file) in some clients. It used to be that it worked with normal individual files, but this seems to have broken at some point in Phoenix, and I don't think it ever worked in Firestorm.

I've only used DAZ 3D for a very short time, and I no longer use it, but I doubt your problem is specific to it. Be sure your skeleton (e.g. bone arrangement and names) matches what Second Life expects. DAZ 3D can export BVH animations for many different things, not just Second LIfe. The animation upload dialog will reject it otherwise. There is usually a error message telling you what, exactly, is wrong with the animation file (e.g. if it's too long, or doesn't have the right bones), when it fails to upload. This is what you need to look for to figure out what the cause of your problem is. If you don't understand it, you need to post the exact error message so someone that does understand it can help. If you Google for: "Daz 3D" "Second Life" (those quotes are important) you will see several tutorials. Some are Youtube videos. You may have luck following along with those, since they will show you exactly what you need to do with the GUI to get a animation that will upload.

QAvimator tends to either display a corrupt model (e.g. the head is attached to the shoulder) or crash outright when the BVH file doesn't match Second Life's skeleton, or if there is anything at all odd about its formatting (e.g. extra channels). Most BVH files can't be used for Second Life, or at least they can't without significant hacking around (in, for example, bvhacker) to 'port' them. QAvimator is mostly useful for making static poses and sanity checking animations made for Second Life. If you need anything 'fancy', including something that supports extra channels or advanced animation techniques (e.g. inverse kinematics) you'll need to use something else (e.g. Blender properly configured).

I added several articles to the Wiki, and linked them to the talk page: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Talk:How_to_create_animations

When you upload a BVH file to Second Life using the viewer to convert it to the internal format, it will drop everything except the standard bones (along with causing various errors, like triplicating the first frame in looped animations). You can make animations with the bones you're referring to, and even animate attachment points, but you have to do it by making Anim (Second Life's internal format) files with one of the various utilities for that purpose (e.g. AnimMaker, QAvimator modified to produce Anim files, the commercial Blender Anim exporter...), and then upload it using a viewer modified to upload Anim format files (e.g. Phoenix, Firestorm). In general, this is not for the faint of heart. There are no Anim tools that accept BVH files with the 'extra' bones that I am aware of, so you have to get really cute and animate some standard bone the way you want those bones to move, then 'rename' the standard bone to the normally-inaccessible bone name using one of the Anim tools.

I've written several wiki articles about making animations. It seems not many people have seen them, and it was suggested in the "Animators of Second Life" group chat that I post a link here. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Talk:How_to_create_animations I hope they help someone.