Sit Animations

 Pull up a chair, readers, we're discussing Sit Animations and scripting furniture in Second Life.

First, a clarification! While I say sit animation, what I mean is: temporarily connecting your avatar to another object that contains animations, which will move your avatar in a specific way. 

I'm calling this category Sit because that's generally the menu option you click on when you interact with an object containing animations. Sometimes people rename it things like 'stand' or 'dance' or 'climb,' whatever's convenient to express what that object will have you do.

Sit Animations 101

When you find an object with an animation (usually your mouse pointer will turn into a tiny chair when you hover over it), you can right click on it, select 'sit,' and then your avatar begins performing a preset animated loop on or near that object. 

If there are multiple animations assigned to that object, a blue pop-up menu appears with button options. You may also get an option to adjust your position if you don't like the way you line up with the object. 

Being animated by an object isn't the only thing that might happen.  Two examples: it can generate another object to go with the animation - a book, a rolling pin, or a game controller, for example, or it might start playing sounds. 

All of this is made possible by the Linden Scripting Language, or LSL, a Second Life specific programming language that I will be talking about for the rest of this post.

No, wait, come back! You'll want to hear this if you've ever wanted to:

Customize Your Own Furniture

I'm sure you've thought more than once that you wished a specific piece of furniture you owned had the animations from a different piece of furniture you owned. Technically, it's easy, and can be done within your own Second Life viewer. All you have to do is drop a few items into an object: animations files, LSL scripts, objects and notecards. 

Where Do I Find Animation Files?

The quick answer is Second Life's Marketplace. If you intend to make and sell your own furniture, you will need full-perm animation files - files that can be transferred to other avatars. If you want to customize a piece of furniture for just yourself, you can pull them directly out of objects you own and drop them into your inventory for future use.  For best results, only do this with furniture that is copiable and modifiable. Make a copy and edit that.

If you want to make your own animations, that will require its own post and likely a Youtube video or three. I haven't tried it yet, and I will document the experience if/when I do.

Where Do I Find Scripts?

Did you know there's a Second Life Wiki? On it, you will find free uploaded codes for your use in the LSL Library. Check it out if you're interested, but for today's topic, I am sending you in a different direction.

AVSitter

The most popular animation system in Second Life is called AVSitter, and they have very generously given us a free, open source option on GitHub, with lots of instructions.  

You can also pull out these files out of furniture you already own, but I always like to know I'm starting fresh, and that I have the latest of everything.

Go to AVSitter's github page here, click on their release page link, and download the file labeled 'AVsitter2.2-03.01.zip' to your hard drive. Right click on the file, select 'extract all' and save it to a folder in a place you can easily find again.

In the zip file is a lot of files with specific names. You can open them using Notepad. or possibly TextEdit on a Mac. You'll need to recreate these files in Second Life by copying and pasting their contents into a script file in your inventory. 

You only have to do this once! Make an evening out of it, it could take a while. So far, I have only needed to use the files listed below, so perhaps you don't need to copy all of them.

Creating Your Scripts

Open up Second Life and create the new scripts:

• Open your Inventory window
• Find and Click the + button 
• Select 'New Script' 
• It will create a new item called New Script in your inventory. 
• Right click and 'Open' the New Script. You will see the following 'hello world!' code.

• Delete the 'hello world' code.
• Find the first file that you just unpacked, open it in Notepad
• Select all text
• Copy all text
• Return to the Second Life window where you just deleted the 'hello world' script
• Paste the text
• Click save
• Right click on the New Script file in your Inventory window again and click 'rename' 
• Name the new script file after the file name you just copied
• Do not include .LSLO
• Copy the name exactly, upper case, lower case, symbols, etc.

Some of the scripts will go directly into the object, some go into the props you place inside the furniture, and some go into a basic object that you build and then place in the object. Follow the instructions provided from AVSitter. Note that a few new items will not be scripts, but notecards or objects.

Time To Start Posing

Once you've got all the files you need in your inventory, you're ready to start setting up your furniture. This is all done within Second Life. You will need a place where you can rez objects, either your own property or a public sandbox.

Rez your furniture/object, right click on it, and select 'edit.' 

Click on the Contents tab.

Keep the Edit window open, and open your Inventory window. Arrange them on your screen so you can see everything. You will need to drag the following items from your Inventory and drop them into into Contents tab: 

• All animations files that you want to use
• AVpos (blank notecard)
• [AV]adjuster (script)
• [AV]helper (an object) (technically optional, but trust me, you'll want it)
• [AV]sitA
• [AV]sitB 
• (One set for each avatar sitting, so if you plan to have 2 people sitting, you will need 2 AVSitAs and 2 VsitBs)
• Props you want to use (optional)
• place AVobject in all props first
• Attachment props must be COPY-OK & TRANSFER-OK for NEXT OWNER.
• [AV]prop (script) (optional)

I organize them so I can select them all at once and drag them in. 

• Once it's all inside, right click on the object and select 'sit.' 
• A menu will pop up with just one button, 'Adjust.' Click on it.
• Now you'll have three buttons: 'Back,' 'Helper,' and 'Pose.'
• Click on 'Helper.' This will give you a long, skinny pole, straight through your body. When you click on and move this pole around, it will move your avatar around as well.
• You'll also get two more buttons on the menu - 'New,' and 'Adjust.'
• Click on 'New.' Now you'll see 'What would you like to create?' 

• 'Pose' is for a basic one person pose.
• 'Prop' is for adding a new prop.  You will need to add the pose that goes with the prop first. 
• 'Face' is for adding facial expression animations. Strangely, it's not on the AVPos page, but you can find information about it here.
• 'Sync' is for couples animations that you want to happen at the same time.
• 'Submenu' is for making more categories. For example, if you have an L shaped sofa and want to specify which side of the sofa to sit on, you could have 'left,' 'middle,' and 'right' submenus, with different poses in each.
• 'Camera' is an option to move the camera around to a different location when you sit down. 

I'll walk you through a sample pose install.

• Click on 'Pose.' 
• The menu will generate a list of all the poses loaded into your object. 
• Scroll through and click the one you want to be first on the object. This is the pose it will automatically use when someone sits on the object. 
• You'll get a text box to give the pose button a name.  It will have to be something short, as there's not a lot of room on the button. 
• Click Submit when you're done naming it.
• It's time to adjust your pose.  Click on and move the Helper bar around until you're satisfied with the positioning.  
• Click the 'Save' button in the menu.
• The menu will go to its main page.  You'll see the button you just created, as well as buttons labeled 'New,' 'Dump,' 'Save,' and 'Adjust.'
• Click New to add more poses to the menu, and repeat the instructions above.  Click 'Save' at the end of each.  
• When you're done adding poses, click the 'Dump' button. This will generate a long piece of code to your chat window - you may get a temporary website link with the same code as well. 
• Copy the text that appears in the chat window, open up the AVpos notecard inside your object, and paste the code into the notecard. (It will tell you where to start and stop copying.) Click 'save.'

That Was Only The Start

The AVpos notecard is where all the customization magic takes place, and where you will spend all of your time. You don't need to touch the other files once they're dropped into the object. 

Take a good look at the completed code; you will want to be comfortable with it, and you will likely need to make adjustments. I suggest you start out very simple - maybe three animation options for one person before dumping the code and copying it to the AVpos notecard. 

You will see a very specific layout for the code once you dump the file. The Pose Button names aligned with the file names assigned to them. At the bottom, you'll see those pose button names again, this time followed by a bunch of numbers.  This is the positioning assigned to the pose - where it aligns on the object. You can make alterations this way if you need to, but I suggest using the AVhelper instead.

I could go into all kinds of detail, but everything you need is already laid out on the AVSitter site. Do people still use bookmarks?  Bookmark the AVPos page! I still reference it whenever I alter my furniture.

You will be spending most of your time adjusting your pose position so that you look like you are sitting/laying/interacting with the furniture realistically.  You might need to borrow a friend or log on an alt account when adjusting poses for couples.

Alternatives

Yeah, coding's a lot, and it will start to consume all of your free time once you get going.  There's easier methods for reusing animations.

Stealth Mode Overlap

The first is super easy if your furniture is modifiable.  

• Rez your furniture, right click on it, and select 'edit.' 
• Click on the Texture tab. 
• Click on the Blinn-Phong tab.
• Look for the Transparency text box, type in '100', and then hit enter on your keyboard.  

Your furniture object is now invisible! Sit on it while you can still find it, and then reposition it over the furniture item you want to use the animations on until it looks right.

Find The Secret Box

 For this, your furniture needs to be both Copy and Mod. Rez a furniture object, right click on it, and select 'edit.' You may have to click and drag your mouse around, but eventually you'll spot the secret: an invisible object linked to the furniture object, where all the animations and related scripts are actually stored. Click on the 'Edit Link' checkbox in your edit menu, and select just that box.  Then click the Unlink button.
NOTE: DO NOT DO THIS ON NO-COPY ITEMS. You're breaking it and may not be able to repair it.

Now you have a low prim animation box that you can add to or position over other pieces of furniture. 

Not all furniture is organized this way. Some may have the animations dropped into the main piece, some may have it in another linked piece, like a pillow or blanket. Once you find it, make a new folder in your inventory, and then click and drag all of the files from the contents tab of the furniture into that folder.  You cannot drag items from object to object, it all has to go into your inventory first. Then you can build new box, and add all your favorite animations into the box, make it invisible, and use that with other furniture pieces.  

I think that's more than enough for today's lesson.  I hope you found it useful!  Feel free to ask questions in the comments or in the game.  My in game name is Aggi Wycliffe.