AO | aaionline

Animation Override (AO) Tutorial

current version 18.04.01.05

What is this AO [Animation Override] you speaks of???
When your avatar is created, it comes with a set of default animations for walking, standing, sitting and a whole array of other movements that are triggered when you turn corners or fly around. Unfortunately, these animations are well, particularly dreadful, if not absolutely horrible [no offense to the wonderful person/people who created the default animation sets for the Avatars, but I don't think they've been updated since well 2004...]

So an Animation Override (AO) is a scripted object that allows you to override the default Linden Lab animations with better ones created by any number of talented SL designers - [like maybe Avatar Animations Inc for example....]

Basic AO
The simplest AO available is a single prim with one walk animation (and sometimes also a run or a sit). There are freebie AOs of this type all around the grid that offer a few different gaits for men and women, such as Academic Man and Academic Woman, or Sexy Lady Walk. Some shoes and boots will come with a free walk as well.

All you have to do is Wear the AO prim once it’s in your inventory and you’re good to go. The default walk will automatically be replaced with the AO walk; you don’t have to do a thing.

Advanced AO [such as the one we provide with our AO bundle sets]
The advantages of a more complex AO is that you can select animations that are more suited to the specific personality of your avatar. In addition to a different gait, you can have variations of movement for your avatar while standing and sitting. You can even have a distinctive style of jumping, flying, and landing.

There are a variety of more comprehensive AOs that range from the free ZHAO II to the more expensive (but feature-rich) Huddles. When animations are dropped into the contents tab of the AO, a configuration notecard has to then be updated for the animations to be able to take effect.

Because so many people shy away from the task of configuring their own AO, most animation sellers have a range of pre-packed AO sets, usually in a ZHAO II, with the configuration notecard already filled out. Again, all you have to do is Wear the item when it’s in your inventory and the animations will play auto-magically.

The smallest and least inexpensive AO sets typically provide 1 walk, a sit and 2 or 3 stances, A complete AO will provide at least 5 stances, a left turn, right turn and the half-dozen or so animations involved in flying (crouching, leaping, flying, hovering, landing, etc.). Typically the more animations included in the AO, the higher the price.

One good thing, is our Animation bundles are provided with a modify/copy Animation Override, the scripts are all proprietary, but the notecard formatting is taken from the highly popular and easy to use ZHAO II line.

Note: With version the addition of 06.08.16.04 we've implemented code to allow our AO to be RLVa & Opencollar compatible.

Server-side AO [built into your veiwer - ie. firestorm]

Check out the post over here for more details, includes videos to watch to help if needed.

Customizing your AO:
For those who want to be more selective in their choice and also to mix animations from a variety of different designers, you must learn to configure your AO.

* Unpacking your AO

There is no need for unpacking, as our AO's are shipped ready to wear. You simply need to find the folder in you inventory that corresponds to your AO. For example if you purchased the [Penelope - Female AO] you would have a folder that is named [AAI - Penelope Female AO] inside that folder will be the AO, as well as a notecard with these instructions.

Open your inventory and wear the object named {for our example} “Penelope - Female AO 07.25.17.01″. If you rezzed the AO to the ground, please take it back into your inventory. Never wear the HUD directly from the ground.

The AO is a HUD [Heads Up Display] which means it shows up on your screen. If more than one [category] notecard is in the AO's inventory you will be prompted by a menu to choose which category [notecard] to load. Once loaded you're set to go, no need to worry about it again. You can click the button with the smiley face on it to minimize the AO. Or if you're more adventurous... You can click the button with the 3 lines [to get the menu] and modify some of the settings.

If for some reason you're a gluten for punishment lol... and want to modify the available animations, [add your own, or other ones you've bought that you like. You will need to trek further down this increasingly long page of text lol....

To add an animation to your AO:

Drop your AO onto the ground.
Right click on the AO and choose Edit.
Click the “More…” button and then choose the “Content” tab.
Open your inventory and using your mouse, drag the animations from your inventory into the Contents of the AO.
Wait to make sure the animations have transferred to the AO.
Right click on the AO and choose “Take”.

Important notes to help avoid inventory loss:

Do not wear the AO from the ground. Always take it then wear it from your inventory. Wearing something that is sitting on the ground can lead to inventory loss, since it doesn’t immediately save the edited object to the main asset server. Taking it first and then wearing it does save it properly to the SL asset server.
Move no copy animations one at a time (or move them only a few at a time). Do not attempt to transfer an entire folder of animations at once.
I now also recommend that after adding many animations, you leave your HUDDLE on the ground an extra 5-10 minutes to make sure all the animations have transferred and saved to SL’s database.

How do you know if the animations have transferred? You should see them in the Content window for the AO. It make take a short time(10-15 seconds) for SL to update the Content window especially true if are trying to add a bazillion animations at once [things get weird, cats and dogs laying together type stuff]. If it is not updating, touch another object and then select the AO again.

Also note that when you pick up the AO, it may not return to the folder it came from. Often you will find it in your Object folder instead.

Once you have added animations, you may want to create a notecard with a list of animations for a particular category of animations. For instance, you will likely want a notecard for your dances. Scroll down to the [formatting notecards section below.....]

To remove an animation to your AO:

To remove animations from your AO:

Drag the AO from your inventory to the ground
Right click on the AO and choose “Edit”
Click the “More…” button on the edit window
Click the content tab
With your mouse, click and drag the animation from your AO to a folder in your inventory

If the animation is copyable, it will copy to your inventory, leaving the original animation in your AO. To remove a copyable animation, right click on the name of the animation and choose “delete”. Note that this will immediately delete that copy of the animation. It won’t end up in your trash. It’s gone. Do not delete ‘no copy’ animations that you want to keep.

Formatting notecards [you're truly a sadist you know...]
This is a broad overview to provide a general understanding of the process. Once you grasp the concepts involved, setting up your own category notecards won't seem so overwhelming.

Step 1: Rezz the AO on the ground. (I recommend doing this on Linden ground to reduce the risk of dropping your AO into the floor prims.)

Step 2: Drag-and-drop each animation into the Contents tab of the AO. To prevent asset server issues, do this one [or 3-5] at a time rather than as a massive 30,000 animation batch, seriously you'll crash real life if you try this....

Step 3: Create a notecard in the contents. You can copy [ctrl+c] or [cmd/c] and paste [ctrl+v] or [cmd+v] the following into the notecard:

[ Standing ]
[ Walking ]
[ Sitting ]
[ Sitting On Ground ]
[ Crouching ]
[ Crouch Walking ]
[ Landing ]
[ Standing Up ]
[ Falling ]
[ Flying Down ]
[ Flying Up ]
[ Flying ]
[ Flying Slow ]
[ Hovering ]
[ Jumping ]
[ Pre Jumping ]
[ Running ]
[ Turning Right ]
[ Turning Left ]
[ Floating ]
[ Swimming Forward ]
[ Swimming Up ]
[ Swimming Down ]

These are the animation slots used by LL for their own defaults and which can be overwritten with your AO.

Step 4: Our AO allows more than one animation to be listed for every motion slot. The animation file names are separated by a “|” [that is by holding shift hitting the \ key] symbol, and the AO will cycle through the variations. This is especially useful for stances [please note, you can set up dances in your configuration notecard by simply putting your dance names on the line following: [ Standing ]

A card slot only needs to be filled in when you have animation you’d rather use. Any slot you leave blank will continue to defer to the Linden defaults. Here’s a sample card configured for so you get the idea of how to set them up

[ Standing ]Chad Male Stand o1|Chad Male Stand o2| Chad Male Stand o3| Chad Male Stand o4
[ Walking ]Chad Male Walk o1| Chad Male Walk o2
[ Sitting ]Chad Male Sit o1| Chad Male Sit o2| Chad Male Sit o3| Chad Male Sit o4| Chad Male Sit o5| Chad Male Sit o6| Chad Male Sit o7| Chad Male Sit o8
[ Sitting On Ground ]Chad Male gSit o1| Chad Male gSit o2| Chad Male gSit o3
[ Crouching ]Chad Male Crouch
[ Crouch Walking ] Chad Male Crouchwalk
[ Landing ]Kick4$$_Landing
[ Standing Up ]Drunk_stagger_up
[ Falling ]OHHHH_NUUUUU
[ Flying Down ]SuperMan-Fly DWN
[ Flying Up ] SuperMan-Fly UP
[ Flying ] SuperMan-Fly
[ Flying Slow ] SuperMan-DDDFly
[ Hovering ]Fithin-Sexyman_hover
[ Jumping ] Fithin-Sexyman_jump
[ Pre Jumping ] Fithin-Sexyman_pJump
[ Running ] Fithin-SexyRUNo1| Fithin-SexyRUNo2
[ Turning Right ]boringTRUNleft
[ Turning Left ] boringTRUNright
[ Floating ]dontDROWNdude
[ Swimming Forward ]breast_stroke
[ Swimming Up ]swim_up
[ Swimming Down ]diveDown

Note: Sp311ing counts..... If the animation in the contents tab of the AO is named [BIG BAD ANIMATION] and you type [Big BAD An1m2t10n] the AO is going to literally go ape shit..

Step 5: Save your notecard and TAKE your AO back into your Inventory. DO NOT wear your AO from the ground, because reasons....

Step 7: Once it's safely in inventory, wear your AO [right click and choose 'add' or 'wear'] and don’t think about it again, because haven't you been through enough pain as it is.....

Step 8: Wonder what happened to step 6... Realize I did it because its way too early in the am of day 3 of being awake and working in SL>>>>

I hope that this has helped. If you have a question, or would like to leave a comment. you can do so below!!!

Avatar Animations Inc.

Important notes to help avoid inventory loss:

To remove an animation to your AO: