Animations 101 - An introduction by Opal Lei
Animations in Second Life are what (obviously) animate our avatars. They make you walk, run, swim, sit, sleep, and, yes, even have sex. But did you know that animations do more than make your avatar move?
Yup! Animations can also:
1. distort your avatar, and
2. reposition your avatar.
Distortion
A common distortion done by animations is shortening limbs by folding up the arms and legs. This is typically used for tinies and other non-human avatars, which have short limbs.
The system shape (the one you edit when you go into Appearance mode) has limitations and can only be so small or so big. So animations and prim attachments are used in addition to the minimum shape to create the illusion of a different creature, whether a tiny bunny, a quadruped tiger, or a little dinosaur. These distortions as well as the motions are included in the animations.
Mer animations do the same avatar distortion by pulling our legs together, as we swim or sit or fall.
Position
Animations can also change the position of your avatar for a short distance. Most mermaid animations gently move your avatar to make you look like you're floating. You typically see these in mermaid dances that move the avatar up and down and around, when you're really not doing anything to move in those directions.
(Gearsawe Stonecutter once taught me how to use the animation positioning to "disappear". I used that trick, combined with a couple of other tricks, to create a fly avatar, which makes people curse the lag gods because I'm not "rezzing" for them. ;) )
What is an Animation Overrider (AO)?
Second Life provides default animations for bipeds to animate your avatar as you move around. Unfortunately, the so-called "walk" animation caused some ducks to follow newbies around thinking they're the mama duck. So a great genius invented the animation overrider.
An animation overrider is an object that you wear. It contains one or more scripts, several animations, and a notecard that tells the script which animation to use for which action.
The AOs by themselves (without the animations) are generally freebies. It's the animations that you're paying for. Most animation creators would sell the AOs already preloaded with the animations they created. You can use other animations by loading them to the AO and changing the notecard, but you need to follow the instructions carefully.
You can buy as many tails as you want, but you can use the same AO for all of them.
So, instead of ducks following you around, thinking you're a mama duck, you'd hopefully have hunks following you around, thinking you're a hot mama!
Which AO?
In general, there are two types of mer tails -- skirted tails and non-skirted tails. Even when you have a mer AO on, there's still that valley between the legs. Skirted tails use the system skirt to smooth out that valley. Non-skirted tails may or may not use smoother prims. It's a matter of preference; just different solutions to the same problem.
Some AOs are not too friendly to non-skirted tails, especially if you have skinny legs, because the legs are exposed. The knees shift or the legs come apart slightly or the smoother prims shift.
Some tail designers will recommend AOs that work best with their tails. So, *** READ THOSE NOTECARDS THAT COME IN THE PACKAGE ***. However, some mers purchase a non-recommended AO anyway and just ignore the imperfections.
I recommend EmeraldEver Cline's Preloaded AO HUD of Mer Animations for 150L, for these reasons:
- The animations are friendly to non-skirted tails.
- The graceful backbends show off the Mer Betta backfins well.
- The gentle movements in the standing animations make the large Mer Betta fins flow gracefully.
- The price is very reasonable.
DISCLAIMER: No, I do not get a kickback for recommending this AO; I don't think Em is even aware that I recommend her product. This is the one I use when designing my tails.
UPDATE: See the Mer Betta web for additional recommendations.
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