animations

 Animating on second life

Free AO in world

There are quite a few ways to animate your avatar in second life. When you first start playing second life, and you use your default avatar, you will notice that it stands still and just moves its head up and down. This means that the avatar is not animated. You will notice that a lot of other avatars move in a different way from you. They will have a cool standing animation, walking, or sitting. This is because those avatars are wearing something called an Animation Override (AO). An AO is a wearable HUD. Simply “Wear it” and an HUD menu should pop up somewhere on the screen. There should be an “On” and “Off” button on it. By clicking the on button, your avatar will automatically start moving in a certain way. The AO will take care of your avatar’s animations such as walking, running, standing, etc.

Now, let’s talk about balls. I mean pose balls >.< Pose balls are quite common in SL. Right clicking a pose ball and selecting “sit” will make your avatar sit on the pose ball. A confirmation message will pop up saying something like “so and so wishes to animate your avatar, click yes to animate your avatar”. Clicking yes will make your avatar perform an animation that the object is programmed to do. Pose balls are usually on furniture, where you have to click the furniture and choose to “rezz pose balls” or the furniture will come with the pose balls already rezzed. Once your avatar is seated on the pose balls, just click on the object it came from and select the animations from the list. If you are using a “couple animation” a pink and blue pose ball will rez. The girl sits on the pink, while the guy sits on the blue.

Another form of animating your avatar is to use HUDS. If you have a Dance HUD, then click the “On” button and select the dance you wish to perform. Other Huds will require you to rezz pose balls. Some HUDS that allow you to perform actions on another avatar will prompt you to send a permission message to your chosen avatar. If that avatar gives you permission, then only will the animation take place.
To stop all animations on your avatar, just click “Avatar” at the top of your screen, click “Avatar health” in the sub menu, and choose “stop all animations”.

I hope this post gave you enough info on the basics of animating your avatar. If you feel that I left out something crucial, then just comment.
Thanks.