Types of Animations Within Second Life

Typically speaking when you are talking about animations within any platform and particularly Second Life there are two forms that come to mind. The differences between them can be quite large, but the overall effect is the same. Your intention is to change the standard behavior of your avatar, this is also useful when you are working with animations to create a cartoon as well though, and learning the basics of animation can be very useful in a wide array of activities.

Within the Second Life world, the two major types of animations are static poses and then actual animations. What many people refer to as animations is often instead considered a static pose. The simplest way to tell the difference between the animations is the presence of any actual movement of the avatar. When in a static pose, the avatar will typically not move except for the single position. Depending on the animation priority, the head and eyes will move, but the rest of the body should remain in a locked position.

An animation on the other hand is designed to actually move continuously. There may be brief pauses in the animation, but typically speaking it will continuously move in some form. Many animations are quite simple with only a hand or a foot moving. Others are far more advanced and can consist of dancing, walking, running, and even playing sports. The more advanced and complex the animation the more time it takes to create. While simple animations require much less time and are far simpler to generate.

For the beginning person learning to create an actual animation can seem virtually impossible. Creating a static pose is significantly easier, plus there are plenty of times when a static pose is all that is needed. Generally speaking, for standard sit and stand poses a static pose works perfectly while for things like dancing and running an animation is the preferable choice.

Of course, there are many that argue that poses are not really animations, but in reality they are, even though they are significantly simpler. Now that you know the difference between the types of animations, you should find that it is much easier to actually create the perfect animation that you have in mind, and ensure that you are correctly calling it by the proper names. After all, calling an animation the wrong name can be quickly construed as being completely inexperienced which is not a situation most people like to find themselves in.