Emotes & Slow Motion Animation

Cajsa asked me to contribute my Emotes & Slow Motion Animation tutorial for the Blogger Carnival at SL9B exhibit, so I’ve decided to update the images, but the instructions are all the same. In the original tutorial from 2008, I used another HUD to create the emotes but this year, I have a new favorite! I have mentioned the AnyPose Expression HUD before, and it works beautifully to create facial expressions and also, can control eyes position and hands!

How to create facial expressions using Emotes & Slow Motion Animation:

• Press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+D, to bring up the Advanced client menu
•  Go to Advanced -> Character -> Slow Motion Animations and click to enable it (Slow Motion Animations is a feature that slows down animations on your client only, so others will not see this but it is useful when trying to capture dances, emotes, poses, etc.)*note: Don’t forget to uncheck Slow Motion Animations once you’re done using it, otherwise animations will look too slow on your client.)
• Play with the random expressions on the Emoter and snap away!!

To make the facial expression above, I used a combination of “Open Mouth” and “Tongue” with Slow Motion Animations enabled. There’s two ways to do this — snap a dozen images and pick the one that you like best, or focus on just the eyes and snap an image, then focus on the mouth area — and combine two that you like best in Photoshop (or any graphics program of your choice). For this image, I have decided not to use PS, and waited patiently to get a combination that I liked. I’m also wearing tattoo lashes, so I don’t have to go without lashes or bother with adjusting prim lashes.

Here are tutorials from a few other SL residents on emotes that I really like:

Ophelia’s Gaze: How To Use Lip Sync To Make Second Life Avatar Screenshots Come Alive
Grid Expectations: subtle facial expressions

Be sure to visit Blogger Carnival at SL9B exhibit, and explore all the birthday sims!