Assorted Notes - Ease In & Out

Today’s post will be a mishmash of things I have gleaned from reading other much more knowledgeable folks and so I cannot take credit for the following bon mots but I will share them with you. They are paraphrased because I have collected them over time in my head and cannot recall from whom I heard them.

 If you want to have a natural looking walk, remember that Abdomen and Hip must move in opposite directions, arms and legs also move in different directions and should have a slight swing. As I have said before, do the move you want to create a few times for yourself so you can see how your body moves naturally.

Regarding Ease In and Ease Out –

First let me quote the SL Wiki directly:
“Ease In(sec) & Ease Out(sec): This setting allows you to set the amount of time for your avatar to realistically ease (or morph or tween) into an animation from it's current pose, or out from the end of the animation into the next. A setting of 0.000 will cause your avatar to snap instantly into the new pose, instead of smoothly transitioning there. This setting is measured in seconds.”

What this translates to is the smooth and flowing change from one position to the next. Sometimes you want to use and other times no. For example our little Jumping Jack – Ease in and out there would have made it seem as if she was flowing from the ground into the air and back down again, negating the effects of gravity – unrealistic! In other instances, perhaps a dance? The use of Ease in and Out are required- play with the feature and see what works best for you.  You can choose where to use this feature by ticking the appropriate box, or if you know ahead of time you need it mostly or through out your animation, choose Tools, Configure QAvimator from the drop down menu  and tick the Ease boxes. Now QA applies it continuously. If at any point in your animation it is not needed, you can untick the box at the particular spot in the animation.