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A couple weeks ago I wrote about Dancing in Second Life, and I wanted to elaborate on something I had mentioned: animation overrides. This is a scripted attachment that changes the manner in which your avatar’s body moves. Like most things in SL, they are created by Residents and the marketplace has a multitude of styles if you’d like to add a little oomph to the way you walk, jump, stand, etc. (Photo by Catloafs) You can get a set of animations or even a single gesture if you’re looking for something very specific. There are AOs made for females, males, and some are unisex. Some basic AO sets come with dances as well, which you can try out using the HUD. Swim like a mermaid, strut without a care in the world, or bellydance on a colorful Oriental rug. I even saw an AO that replicated the final dance scene in Dirty Dancing, so there is certainly no shortage of options. The animations category of the Destination Guide has many great shops in which you can demo different styles before purchasing. It’s important to note that certain situations, like pose balls or sitting on furniture, will require you to turn off your AO to function properly. This script will make that automatic, if you prefer. Since most Bento heads come with a selection of facial expressions, you can decide if you want an AO for the entire body or from the neck down. If you don’t know where to start, a tutorial should make the variety of animations a little more approachable. Our bodies are such a huge part of how we express ourselves in RL, so why not extend that element to your presence inworld? If you have a photo or video of yourself being particularly lively, silly, sleepy, etc., submit it to our Flickr!

Hello! For many, many years I am to today still enjoying the many interesting things Second Life can bring us. One of which is travelling through the many places that allow you to travel with vehicles. Driving, flying, sailing, swimming, surfing, cycling... you name it, you possibly have done it as well! In the beginning, vehicles were rather limited to capabilities, throughout the years a lot has changed, textured vehicles became sculpted, sculpted vehicles evaluated to mesh-made content. Not only did the way of vehicles and how they were/are made change, as well as what they can do. From simplistic WASD/Arrow key control to complex simulative controls. But... Something is missing! I'm sure that I can't be the only one whom may agree or disagree with how some things still are in the current state of Second Life, yet right now I'm talking about Mouselook camera. Or in gamer-talk, the first person perspective. With in greater detailing, the positioning of this. How come this never was an adjustable feature? For many years I tried to figure out why the mouselook camera is always off-set to the left eye, and ''mounted'' on the forehead as if it is a ''Go-Pro'' camera. I've had this discussion with several friends whom I've travelled SL with for many times, but no-one really had an idea. We tried to see if this could be affected with scripts but no luck on that font. Thus here is the boiling question: Can we have the ability to adjust the mouselook camera position, rotation and be able to alter this? With this in mind I've personally already had made a little list of ideas of how and where this may be able to be set. Since avatars have their own shapes and complex style of bone-structure. My suggestion was to implement this feature under the shape-edit configuration. With the idea behind it that people whom create, say, animal avatars or avatars that have a different camera position than a say 'humanoid' avatar, they could create custom mouselook-camera positions bound to that shape. Benefits of this summed up: Ability to customize mouselook-camera to shape Allowing content creators to fix complex shapes for non-humanoid shapes Allowing camera position to change to desired location. (for those that love driving in mouselook, but just can't see those indicator lights ;P) Giving more personalization to your own experiences. Possibility to grow and allow more research in to VR*. * - As VR is an uncertain 'road' whilst I'm writing this, I do not know where or how far the technology goes within Second Life to the ability of VR. Please keep in mind that this may or may-not be WIP. To round it up. With this idea, that I've been wandering around SL for, I've been eager to hear everyone's opinions about. Suggestions to this or perhaps people like to add anything to it. Maybe i missed something or if you've been wanting the same. Please don't hesitate to comment. To the Lindens. I am not that much of a tech-person, so knowing that this may or may not be very complex to implement in to Second Life is beyond me. Of course I would love to be able to get a reply. As I think this would make things a lot easier, create paths for future ideas and allow residents/creators to come up with steps further from this. Kind regards, Saga Virtanen, (Combine Clary)