TAOZ

(tao2)

TAO2 is a new generation of Tiny Animation Overrides.

I have been a great fan of Kage Seraph's Tiny animations. As a budding avatar creator, I have gained valuable experience working with the kage animations in making my own Tiny avatar, and several Little Monsters.
As a user of Tiny avatars, I have sometimes been frustrated -- with, say, trying to put a fishing pole in my right hand and having it stay in my 'paw' while standing, sitting, and walking.
As a creator of Tiny prim clothing, I have also had to deal with limb bits moving out of alignment with other limbs, and other quirks of the kage animations.

Therefore, I set out to create a new Tiny AO, with limbs that remain locked no matter what position they are in. After a month and a half of testing, animating, tweaking, and more testing -- TAO2 is finished!

Like its predecessors, the Kage series and Zig Crusher, TAO2 is a fully free open source project. It is published under the Creative Commons Share Alike license. This means you can use them, hand them out, put them in your own commercial items, use them to create your own Tiny avatars, etc. In fact, if you want to improve them, or create your own animations with the limb lock positions, I have the BVH files for you to download.
If you create a new AO, it must also be released under the Share Alike license. But, if you create your own animations from the base, those are YOURS, and you may use them however you see fit.
Oh, the Share Alike license also requires that you attribute the work to me in the manner I specify. My specified manner is: I don't care how or if you do or not. Easy enough, huh?

TAO2 is distributed with a HUD that contains the AO script. I have tweaked the script (Franimation 1.8) to run more efficiently and with no listeners, so hopefully it is less laggy. You may, of course, take the anims out and use your own AO script(s).
The HUD also contains a Limb Lock button (for those poseballs/danceballs that unfold you), a Sit button (for when you just wanna siddown), and a toggleable Tiny Cam button.

Instructions for using the HUD, turning off your default Tiny AO, and other exhaustive details are included in the TAO2 notecard within the HUD.
Avatar- and clothes- makers may want to read about the details of the AO and its pros and cons. Very bored people may be mildly amused to read the animation details. Or, if you want to find out how to stop banking when you fly.
The general gist of the whole thing, if you want to skip it, is to throw yourself to the ground from great heights, to check out the nifty new 'hard fall' animation.

You can get the TAO2 from my Omni Orb, available at my Sky Shoppe or Veranda, or Hug*Mart freebies, or anywhere else that hosts my freebies.

Enjoy!

Downloads:

TAO2bvhs.zip -- all the original bvh files, and a little note how to use them.

TAO2 Logo -- You may download the above "TAOZ" yin/yang paw symbol on blue (just right click and save), or the below yin/yang paw symbol. If you want to use them on, say, product promo images to indicate TAO2 compatibility. (This is not required.)

Features:

=====Locked Limbs=====
The hands, forearms, feet, and shins are folded up and Do Not Move out of place in any animations.

---Pros---
1: You can now attach something to your hand and move it down to fit into your paw, and that attachment will not fly around or come out of place when you walk or sit.

2: Clothing can now be skin tight (fur tight?) without suffering from poke-through during movement.

3: That goofy left foot doesnt flip through your stomach as you walk!!!

---Cons---
1: All old clothing will be slightly skewed out of place.
...Workaround: I'm afraid there's nothing for this but to adjust the sleeves/pantlegs.

2: The hands stay at 30 degrees downward bend, and some poses have those eerie twitching fingers poking out.
...Workaround 1: Invisiprims could be applied to the hands.
...Workaround 2: Tiny arms could be modified to have a shoulder prim that covers the hands when they're not tucked into the body.
...Workaround 3: When making arm animations, splitting the arm movement between the upper arm and shoulder alleviates this problem. IE: instead of making the arm bend 90 degrees, make the arm bend 45 and the shoulder 45.

3: The feet are really wide, especially the toes at mid-leg.
...Workaround: Wear the included TinyShoe, which squeezes the foot and tapers the toes.

=====Torso Restrictions=====
In the walk/run animations, the hips and chest torque in opposite directions, but only a few degrees either way. The only side-tilting motion is contained in the pelvis, so the whole Tiny body moves with it.

---Pros---
1: Clothing attached to the chest does not need to be as bulky as before to avoid the Tiny body bursting through it while walking.

---Cons---
None, really. The pelvis tilt imparts the cape/dress swishing motion typical to the kagewalk. The neck tilt takes care of the jaunty head motion.

=====Sit Targets=====
TAO2 uses the original kage pelvis sit positioning. These are different than the Extrovirtual version of the kagesit and kagegroundsit positions.

---Pros---
1: Tinies can sit on normal furniture without hanging down through it.
2: Tinies can sit on the ground without sinking.

---Cons---
1: TAO2 will not work with furniture designed specifically to work with Extrovirtual Tinies.
...Workaround 1: if sitting places you too high, you can open and play an Extrovirtual kagesit, if you have one. (Note: Extrovirtual Tinies are no-mod; removing an animation from the body will break their functionality.)
...Workaround 2: you can also try playing the TAO2-GroundSit to sit lower. or press the sit button on the TAO2 HUD.

=====New Franimation Variation & HUD=====
     I've stripped down the Franimation 1.8 script a bit, and rearranged it to be (hopefully) less laggy. For one thing, there is no more listener. The AO is turned on and off by clicking the HUD button. Also, when it is off, it goes into a different state, without even a timer event to worry about, or needing to check if it is toggled on or off, etc.

     Lock Button: Like my Tiny Pose Lock, this locks the limbs and torso, but not the hips, arms, or legs. This allows you to use regular poses or dances without unfolding.

     Sit Button: Allows you to sit down on anything you can stand on.

   Tiny Cam Button: a tiny cam is in cluded in the HUD, with a button to toggle it on and off.

Future Expansion:

     I would like to expand some of the functionality of the HUD. For example, like a ZHAO setup, I'd like for it to be able to load custom stands, sits, ground sits. Then you could select a sit from the main menu, and use that whenever you sit, without having to mess around switching the entire AO notecard and all.
     Another thing I would like is a Dance button, which would basically do the same thing as a dance ball: dance your avatar, switching between all the dances you load into it. And without interfering with or being interfered by the AO stand switching.

     If anybody wants to help with these things, please feel free! PLEASE! :)