M is for Myg

Sometimes you meet a girl/boy and you find her/him totally cool and you can’t specifically say why. Clothes are okay, but not that great, accessories are nothing to shout about…but still the general feeling is good.

Most people forget about this but a good look is not only about what you are showing (clothes, haircut) but how you behave, and the first step is to have poses that fit your look.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Two kinds of poses: the animated ones, and the bad ones, period. We are speaking about virtual avatar here, and you need to work on everything that can help you make your avatar come alive. Try a static pose in RL; that won’t fit.

(Keep reading to learn what you need to know about AO - animation overriders - and keep your butt moving.)

My favorite spot is definitely Outrider Animations–one of the famous ones. Sometimes trying too hard to be original means you end up avoiding quality! Be sure to check both poses, Male and Female, especially if you are a firm girl!

You can also find some nice poses at Reverie Virtual Systems and MP shop.

I have done a good specific ZHAO notecard with some “mistress” poses from Risque Animation, “Ladies, Build your own AO” vendor 1. Check for “June Dom” pose around the number 30, they are fantastic (if you have something in your hands, like a crop or a ruler).

Wait wait, you all know how to configure your ZHAO right ? *listening* What is ZHAO ? Vanny, please *looks Vanny orbiting the asking guy*

A ZHAO is a tool that allows you substitute standard (read “ugly”) SL poses with your new ones, like standing poses, sit, fly, land, etc… How ? Follow these guidelines:

1. First, get a ZHAO, it is open source (free) and you can find one at Outrider Animations
2. Rez it on the ground, and copy the notecard in your inventory (Ctrl Alt T to see invisible object, sometimes, it is tricky to see it on the ground)
3. Copy/Move all the new animations you wanna have in your ZHAO tool
4. Open the ZHAO notecard, and put the *exact* name of the new animation under the corresponding section (stand up animation under stand up section, fly animation under fly section, etc)
5. Copy back the notecard in the tool
6. Equip it, push “AO ON”, enjoy!

Some advice:

• A. You have 5 stand-up pose sections (from 1 to 5): The ZHAO will switch from one to another every 30 seconds, automatically. If you leave some blank, the ZHAO will switch back to the ugly SL standard stand up pose. Fill all the stand-up poses section, the 5 of them, and put several times the same animation if you don’t have 5 different ones (but I cant believe this!)

• B. Don’t forget to put a sexy walk animation under Walk section… please …

• C. If you wanna to choose your stand-up pose and manually switch, you can do several notecard and select the one you wanna “play”. All you have to do is to only put the specific pose name under “Stand-up” section, and give a new name to this specific notecard. You will be able to select which notecard you wanna use by pressing the “Load” button.

Saturday night fever

If you like to move your body all the night long, and not necessarily in an horizontal position, you must love dancing ! Here are the two best shops, according to me:

1. Sin waves : the best, simply the best …. Check Dizzy Orchid, Dip me in chocolate, Orange Squash, Carnival .. etc. etc…
2. Some good also, and cheaper at ANOmations Mavericks, but dont expect the same quality !
3. Devils Moon / Abranimations, with some famous Dance HUD.

If you wanna share the fun, you can use some dance bracelet, a tool where you add your dances inside and allow people to use them when they click on it. That way, they will dance on the same rhythm and dances than you ! Beware, dances are looped, and the customisation can be tricky.

Sit on that ball !

Not my favorite but sometimes, they can be handy : the pose balls ! Here are a list of pretty good shops, with one highlight (thanks Vanny for the tip ! ): HAPPY DISPATCH

HAPPY DISPATCH is a specific poseball shop: you will find some user-controlled animation pose balls, meaning that the user(s) can switch from one animation to the other and also influence the speed of the animation. I won’t say more here, but be sure to bring a partner (or two!) there to test theses balls. I can rent Vanny if you need, just IM me.

Oh and they have some nice AO as well! Check that shop, period!

A couple of other places to check:

Bits and Bobs shop : I like that shop, some original animations there

Essensual Designs : Good quality and fair price.

Here’s DJ Ketchup modeling the classic Bits and Bobs “DJ2″ animation in his soon-to-open rock club in Topgol. How does he get those turntables to float? And you see what a good poseball can do. . .
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Editor myg’s update: Aenea has a good little addendum to this post on her blog here for those of you interested in advanced AO topics.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 10:04 am and is filed under Animations, Mode Premiere, Second Life.