Secondlife Upload Animations Sometimes Rotates And Bends In Middle?

TLDR: SecondLife supports many of the avant-garde animation techniques of modern games - But we simply don't accept advantage of it.

The Basics

The majority of uploaded animations are in a format where each bone along a chain of basic has a stock-still rotation value - This is commonly referred to as an FK animation.

FK Animations are OK for single poses - But they accept flaws with couple poses. For example when yous want to hold hands with someone else, by and large your hands will not line up with your partners, considering the rotation of each bone needed for the hands to meet each other changes depending on each avatar'southward shape, but the FK animation has fixed rotations:

IK Animations piece of work different, instead of controlling the rotation of the basic individually, they control the target - The basic rotate dynamically to get the limb into the target position. In our hand property example, if both easily target the aforementioned fixed point in space, the avatars would always* hold hands, no thing which size they are.

*Unless the size difference is so large they cannot physically attain each other

Constraints - How they piece of work

Most people are non aware, but SL's blitheness system does back up IK animations in its own special manner, it'south just not well-documented, and we lack popular creators tools that can brand them. Blender's Avastar lets you pose an avatar using IK controls but the exported animations are always FK.

Lets say yous want to put your hand on your head. The 'Source' is R_HAND and the 'Target' is HEAD. If this was all our mitt would go inside our head, merely we likewise have an 'Get-go' that tin can move the hand to a set offset then it is beginning from the head. The target is then relative to the head. Now no matter how long or short your arms are, your paw volition pretty much always end upwards on the side of your caput, and never clip through information technology.

SecondLife'due south animation format supports many targets for constraints including PELVIS, Abdomen, CHEST, NECK, HEAD, L_CLAVICLE, L_UPPER_ARM, L_HAND, R_CLAVICLE, R_UPPER_ARM, R_LOWER_ARM, R_HAND, R_UPPER_LEG, R_LOWER_LEG, R_FOOT, L_UPPER_LEG, L_LOWER_LEG, L_FOOT. You tin target joints to move relative to all of those places. Merely there's ane special one...

The GROUND Constraint and why we should be request for it

You see, it turns out that those impuissant default animations we all blitz to replace are some of the almost advanced animations in all of SecondLife

See how the feet respond to the incline of the footing? The original SecondLife developers added lawmaking into the viewer back up for targeting GROUND - And they used it, in the first (albeit clumsy) animations ever. The viewer tin can notice where the basis is, and conform animations that are relative to basis accordingly.

What's this got to practise with hand holding? Well, when you are able to target limbs to an showtime relative to a fixed position such as the ground, yous tin can do things kinda like this:

Both Avatar'due south easily volition ever connect because the constraint target position is set in such a style that both avatar's targets end upward in the same place.

Why am I telling y'all all of this?

Well, I started working on a tool to make use of the constraints characteristic of SecondLife. But I've run into some bug.

1. Firstly, even though the SecondLife viewer supports the GROUND constraint, and the viewer uses animations that use the GROUND constraint by default - The animation uploader does non recognize animations that use this constraint - And that'due south a real bummer! I think that with this constraint nosotros could honestly make the posing experience in SecondLife so much ameliorate for couples every bit you would rarely demand to adapt a pose always again.
2. I desire to be able to make AO'southward and animations where artillery and limbs don't tend to clip through the trunk depending on shape. Constraints would aid achieve this. Animations that *ahem* self-affect would exist much accurate too. The trouble hither is a lack of third party support for constraints equally far as I tin see.

My hope past writing and illustrating all of this and sharing it is that it raises awareness, perchance in the future we could get tools that take advantage of this, and maybe someone at LL volition update the uploader to allow GROUND to work!

Source: https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/467916-constraints-what-are-they-and-why-you-should-care/

Posted by: albatescomirce.blogspot.com

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