Animation Guide

This article is part of the Extended Second Life Knowledge Base that includes advanced and specialized information. This information was originally provided by Linden Lab, but is not actively maintained nor guaranteed to be accurate. Linden Lab does not certify nor assume any responsibility for this information.

See the official Second Life Knowledge Base for the most current information.

An animation, in Second Life lingo, is a set of intructions that cause an avatar to engage in a sequence of motions. Custom animations can be created in programs such as Poser, Blender, and others. Several Resident-created animation applications have been released over the years: In 2005, Posemaker(ref-thread) made its debut. And in 2006, two free applications were released: Avimator (ref-thread) and slat (ref-thread). Animations can be imported from these programs into Second Life by storing them as Biovision Hierarchy (BVH) files, and using the File menu > Upload Animation command. There is a L$10 fee for uploading an animation. For more information on uploading an animation, see How to upload an animation.  Animations can be used in gestures in Second Life but should not be confused with gestures. Animations in your inventory can be activated by double clicking the animation name in your inventory list. This produces a dialog box with the animation name, a field in which to see or enter a description of the animation, and two buttons: Play in World and Play Locally. Play Locally allows you to see the animation, but it will not will be visible to other Residents. This is useful to make sure the animation is really something you want others to see your avatar doing. Play in World allows the Residents within visual range to see your avatar perform the animation. For more information on animations, and how to create them, check out the Animation page on our wiki.