Second Life® for Dummies®

Chapter 16. Making a Statement with Poses, Animations, and Gestures

In This Chapter

• Deciphering the lingo

• Striking a pose

• Creating an animation

• Making a gesture

Everyone in Second Life (SL) has the same basic poses and animations. For example, your hands go up and down when you type, your feet shift a bit when you stand still, and you primly put your hands on your knees when you sit. But why be like everyone else? Why look like a stiff robot when you can move naturally, give people a thumbs up when you approve of an idea, or flip a cartwheel when you're excited?

In this chapter, we go over the difference between a pose, an animation, and a gesture. We show you how to try out one of each (you can buy one or use one from the Library in your Inventory), and then create your own. Before you know it, you'll have your own distinct style for expressing yourself physically.

Understanding the Terminology

Before you begin, time to lay out some of the terminology to help differentiate between a pose, an animation, and a gesture:

• Pose: Poses are stationary, frozen positions. Your avatar will strike the pose and stay in it until you turn off the pose.

• Animation: Animations are short sequences of movement, such as a dance step, cartwheel, or hand wave. They might or might not loop to repeat until you stop the animation.

  Tip

  Animation Override: You can purchase a HUD (Heads-Up Display, see Chapter 4 for more ...