RR Tutorial : Anim plugin v3

Hello there,

Please note : I have made significant changes to the Anim plugin, so the tutorial needed to be updated as well. This is the new version, you can find the old version of this tutorial here and here.

This is a tutorial meant to show you how to use the new Anim plugin, that is meant to replace the old ForceAnim script. Although the plugin is complex, its use is simple and very close to what you are already used to : controlling your own Animation Overrider.

Until now, my restraints were providing at most 6 animations per product, and sometimes it would feel a bit cramped in there. For example, many people have been asking for a Kneel animation in the Vixen cuffs, but tough luck, there was no room for it.

Moreso, one would have liked to be able to lie down or sit down while standing straight with her legs tied, and couldn't because it was another lock, and so on. Or her hands would clip through her butt because her AO would make her stand in a way that her chest perks forward and her butt perks back (I don't know about yours, but mine does that).

Enough of that ! After months of working on my stuff, I have turned nearly all my restraints into the equivalent of an Animation Overrider, by replacing the old ForceAnim script with the new Anim plugin, giving you, the user, the ability to control it easily and make your bondage more enjoyable, life-like and sexy !

I won't write long pages of explanation... I am simply going to give you an example and show you enough to make you want to experiment !





The basics

I am now wearing my Siren ropes, which contain this new "Anim" plugin. I click on the arms ropes (remember, they are invisible while untied, so I need to press Ctrl-Alt-T to see them) :

Here is the menu I get :

I go to "Plugins...", "Anim...", and here is what I see :

Now, this menu is useless right now, because my ropes are not tied yet. But it will be filled with animations once I'm put into a proper tie, and this is what will allow me to select exactly the animation I want. But you know what ? I'm not going to use this menu much, unless there are a lot of animations and I know exactly the name of the one I want. Usually, I will use a HUD instead, and that HUD is included in the box of every RealRestraint product that ties either your arms or your legs. Its name is "RR Anim HUD (top left)".

 Don't try to wear several of them at the same time, the new one would kick the old one off. You only need one HUD anyway, that HUD allows you to control your pose while in bondage.

 So I wear this item and here is what it looks like :

Now, what are all those buttons ? What do they do ? There is only one way to know ! I tie myself up in the arms ropes with the "Arms tight" button.
Nothing new here, I'm tied up. The ropes play an animation for my arms, and whatever I do I can't stop it.

Let's see what this AO can do. I press the upper right arrow on the HUD... and my arms move up a little ! One more press, they move further up, and up, up, up...

Ok this is a bit much, but can be useful when tied into a strappado, like this :

I keep pressing that button, and eventually my arms are folded behind my back, making it easier for... uh... spankings...

Ok, that's all for the arms. I didn't show much, but that's good enough for an introduction. Now let's switch to the legs.

Same thing, I click on them and I get this :

Let's try "Hobble" :

Teehee. That looks embarrassing. I can walk around, or rather hobble around, but how about clicking on that yellow arrow again ? I do it and... darn, it moves my arms only, not my legs. How can I control my legs with that HUD ? It seems to only control the arms !

Easy, by clicking on the big hand icon at the top of the HUD :

And when I click on it, it becomes...

It doesn't take a genius to understand what this means. This icon indicates what the HUD currently controls : the arms restraints or the legs restraints. If I click again, it goes back to the hand icon.



Now, I click on the right yellow arrow of the lower HUD, and this happens :

I'm standing straight now.

I click again :

Leaning forward a bit.

And again :

And a few more times :

I keep clicking, getting variations of those poses (sitting right, sitting straight...). Eventually I come back to the first pose.

Whew ! This exercise made me sweaty ! I better get some rest... here, this wall will be perfect.

Hehe. All I did was stand back to the wall, and choose the last pose, which is the same as the 1st one but leaning back a bit. I always wanted to be able to use the environment to make my bondage more interesting and life-like. I can also do that while sitting on the ground, with my legs straight or knees a bit flexed.


Now, depending on the pose I'm in, my walk changes as well to accommodate. If I'm standing, I will hobble. If my legs are tied tightly together, I will hop. If I'm sitting or kneeling, I will scoot on my butt. If I'm laying, I will crawl. And so on. This makes it look so much more natural !






Sitting down in bondage

Alright, let's rest a bit more, these heels are killing me. I'd like to find a prim to sit on. What do you mean I can't sit down because my legs are tied ? Pfft. That was before !

I hobble my way to a comfy-looking plywood prim...

... and I sit on it.

What the hell ? I look like I'm standing with my legs going through the cube and even the ground... What can I do ?

Easy. The HUD allows me to actually tweak the sitting pose in many ways so that I am practically sure to find one suited for my current position. So I do this, I click on the upper right arrow  of the lower HUD (the one for the legs) until I am satisfied with the sitting pose :

 

There, my legs are still tied the way they were, but they are folded now. I can use the arrows to choose the pose, and that's where the new version of the Anim plugin really shines. I have optimized it so it can handle many more animations, in particular many sitting poses. I had always been bothered by the fact that you had to have your legs restraints unlocked when sitting on an object that plays an animation (a rack, a chair, a bed...). It would totally kill the feeling of helplessness. This was due to a SL limitation with animations. That limitation still exists of course, but I have overcome it by making many variations of the base poses, this allows you to sit almost anywhere while still being bound. You don't believe me ? Let's take a look.

First I need to find a bed or a couch... Damn, there is none around here, since this place is made for working, I have overlooked its furnishing. Sorry ! It's okay, let me teleport to another place...

There we go. This is a playroom of mine I go to often, it is filled to the brim with top-of-the-line stuff. Here I will be able to show you what I mean by "being able to sit almost anywhere".

Let's see here... "Exec Chair  v1.20.1 - LP" by Misao Nakamura. Comfy, good animations, and wicked. We'll start easy.

I sit on it...

Not really impressive so far, my legs are clipping through the seat... I click on the upper right arrow :

There is a little improvement, my knees are bent slightly. Still clipping, though. I click again :

Oookaaay... This is going to take a while. I click again. And again, and again and again and again until my thighs finally move. For this particular tie, it actually takes 6 more clicks.

Interesting, now my thighs are correctly placed, but my knees are straight again. Maybe if I keep clicking on the right arrow, I'll find a pose that suits me...

!

This is the 15th pose. Whew ! It took a while but I finally found a pose for my legs that goes well with that chair.


Oh, I know what you're thinking. That's WAY too many clicks, and I agree with you. But worry not, the HUD will help you there.

Have you noticed how many arrows this HUD has ? Until now I have clicked only on the upper right arrow, now is the time to explain what the others do.

   

Obviously, if the upper right arrow takes me to the next animation in the list, the left one takes me to the previous one. And if I click on the left arrow while I'm on the first pose, or on the right arrow while I'm on the last pose, it wraps around, so far so good.

   

The two double arrows on the second row take me 2 steps further or 2 steps back (once again wrapping when necessary).

   

Likewise, the two triple arrows on the third row take me 3 poses forward or backward, wrapping around when needed as well.

   

The two curvy arrows on the fourth row are very useful in every situation, they jump to the next "group" of animations, or to the first animation of the current one, or to first animation of the previous group if you are already on the first one of the current group.

   

The last two arrows on the fifth row are equally useful. The left one brings you back to the first pose immediately, while the right one brings you to the first pose of the second half of the list (if there are 20 poses in the current lock, that means the 11th one). Why not to the last one ? Because that would be of little use since you can reach it just by going to the first one then clicking on the left arrow. The first pose of the second half of the list is as far of the first pose as you get, in both directions, so that's the jump that would save you the most clicks.

Finally, you can select the pose directly by clicking on the Menu button, which brings this menu when tied up :

Each number is a pose, you can go to the first page, to the next page, or two pages ahead, or back, or to the first page of the second part of the list by clicking on "Halfway". For example, if there are 8 pages, it brings you to page 5. Like the button, "Halfway" brings you as far of the first page as possible (since the arrows wrap around, so the 6th page is actually closer to the first one on a 8-page list than the 5th one, because you can wrap back).

The name of the poses may be cryptic... Let me explain some of the syntax quickly.

Firstly, if the name begins with a dot ("."), then the pose is part of a group and will be jumped over by the "next group" and "previous group" buttons of the HUD.

The first two letters usually stand for the lock the pose is used in :

- "TT" for "Tight"
- "HL" for "Hobble"
- "HB for "Hands Back"
- "HG" for "Hogtie"

- etc

 The following part is what the pose is about :

- "Kh" for "Kneel high"
- "Km" for "Kneel medium"
- "Kn" for "Kneel" (low)
- "Kb" for "Kneel bundle"
- "Sd" for "Stand"
- "Si" for "Sit"
- The "w" part means "wall"

The following letter, if any ("B", "C", "D"...) stands for the variation. Usually "L" for "Left" and "R" for "Right".

Lastly, the number is the offset to apply, when the pose is not standing.


Confused about the groups ? Let me illustrate all this with an example and you'll understand. While I was sitting and playing with the arrows, you noticed that my knees were moved first, and then my thighs. My knees moved back 8 times, then my thighs moved back once, then I could move my knees back 8 times again before my thighs would move again, and so on. This is where "groups" are useful : every position for my thighs is a "group", containing all the possible angles for my knees. In other words, "jumping to the next group" simply means moving my thighs once, putting my knees into the straight position again. Let me show you. Groups apply not only to sitting poses but also to standing ones, both for the arms and the legs. They are simply a way to organize the animations better. For example, if I'm standing with my legs tied, the next group would bring me to my knees, then down to sitting on my butt. That's two clicks, whereas I've been actually going over 8 or 9 poses. But back to our example.

Right now I'm sitting corrrectly, but what if I want my thighs higher and my knees folded, like curved in a ball on the chair ? Easy, I click on the right curvy arrow 3 times to put my thighs high in the air, close to my chest :

       

Then twice on the 3-step right arrow to bend the knees close to the thighs :

   

Then once on the upper right arrow :

 

Bingo ! I'm now sitting curled on my chair exactly like I wanted !

I actually took the long way to show you how it all works, but let's do it again my way now. I click on the left button of the 4th row, the one that looks like an arrow pointing to the left with a bar on its left :

 

 Back to the first pose, with my legs straight and clipping through.

I click on the "previous group" button, which moves my legs back (it is useful in some situations, for example when you are lying on your belly but your pelvis is rotated up, making your legs poke through the furniture).

Now I click on the "previous pose" button to go to the last pose of the previous group, since the "previous group" button I just pressed took me to the first pose of the last group in the list (you may want to read that sentence twice, I know it is a little complex).

Tadaa ! I'm back to the pose I wanted, in only two clicks this time ! Three if you count the "go back to first pose" click.

Oh ! I was all about ajusting my legs, but what about my arms ? You know what ? Same solution. Except the arms have much fewer poses than the legs when it comes to sitting, but they are organized in groups too. So I simply switch back to the arms by clicking on the big foot button, then I click on the "first pose" button, then back twice, and I'm good.

       

If you really want to know what those curious names are all about in the legs restraints ("tAA", ".tCB", ".tDD" etc), here is an explanation.

The "t" stands for "tight", which means "legs tied together". In the case of Hobble, some poses begin with "w", which means "wide".

The second letter indicates the angle of the thighs :
- "A" is straight
- "B" means "30° forward"
- "C" means "60° forward"
- "D" means "90° forward" (straight angle)
- "E" means "120° forward"
- "F" means "150° forward"
- "Z" means "30° back"

The third letter indicates the angle of the shins relative to the thighs, with the exact same values (except there is no "Z" because that would look weird).

The dot at the beginning of some (but not all) animations means "part of a group", which means those animations will be "jumped over" by the and buttons. In the case of the sitting poses, every pose which last letter is not "A" (shins aligned straight with the thighs) is part of a group. This is why pressing on one of those buttons will move the thighs.

Knowing this will help you find the right pose you want by using the menu of the Anim Plugin itself directly.

Now, let me demonstrate a few more situations. I won't go into detail again, you have understood the principle already. I will only tell you the buttons I press, and the result I obtain, to show that you can actually sit anywhere without ever having to be unbound.


This chair is comfy, but no way I'm going to work on my computer right now, not in that bondage ! I'll take a rest instead.

I choose the "Slouch" sit pose of this chair (that's an animation contained in the chair, not in the ropes), I make sure my HUD commands the legs by pressing the hand button to switch to a foot if needed, then I press , and my legs are straight again. Now I press         then , and I'm in a pose that looks good in five clicks :

Oh and my arms are clipping through the armchair now. No problem, I click on the foot icon to go back to controlling the hands, then , and they're out of the way.

Enough slouching in the chair now, I need to show you more !

I stand up, and immediately I find myself bending over... This is normal, I went so far into the sitting poses that, because of the synchronization, I went beyond the number of standing poses available, so it chose the last one. I click on to correct that. Same for the arms, and I'm back to normal in three clicks.

Now, I want to use the bed on the other side of the room. There are a few poses that are very interesting for the matter at hand. Let's begin with the pose named "Petition", which I believe is a prayer :

I tie myself up again, press for both the arms and legs to put myself in the first pose :

I select the legs, then I click             , then and bingo, I am now kneeling down again but in proper bondage this time :

One more example now, there is a piece of BDSM equipment named "BH  bondage hook RLV" by Britt Halberstam on the wall over there, and it has an interesting spanking position. Of course it is meant to show you bound with your legs straight and your arms in a strappado natively, but what if I want MY ropes to do the job instead ? Let's find out how.

First I tie my legs in the "Tight" pose instead of "Hobble", for the sake of the demonstration, and I press on both my arms and legs.

I activate the hook I hop to the poseball and I sit on it :

I look like I'm floating in the air, and my ropes are connected to the hook. Gracious, but... not really what I expected. Let's get on with that strappado already !

I click and  on the arms to move them almost all the way up, and then I press     on the legs to move them all the way down. There ! Now I'm standing in a strappado !

I could also flex my legs a little, for example by clicking on , and then  once or twice :

It's all a matter of preference.


One last example ? Ok, a real quickie then. Did you notice that small cage earlier ? "serious small steel cage" by Vincent Weigler. I'll go curl down in it, and you'll see the ropes can withstand even that kind of situation.



This is the original position.

I click on both the arms and the legs, I click on once for the legs and then on once and I'm curled up. All I need to do is to adjust my arms by clicking on  once and that's it ! I might need to adjust my height a little with my Z slider, but nothing more.

If you wonder how to remember all those combinations to find the quickest route, don't worry, it comes naturally with a little practice.


I have shown you only the Hobble and Tight sits, but there are more. The Frogtie, for example, while simpler, is more flexible. One of its sits actually leaves the thighs free and only freezes the knees, so your upper legs still move in the position imposed by the furniture you sit on. This leaves you a lot of room for example for, umm, sex. The other sits in Frogtie allow you to curl in a ball but also to sit in scissors and such.



The ability of this Anim plugin to handle so many animations is the reason why the "on/off" and the "sit override" buttons have disappeared in this version. It had always bothered me that we were able to simply deactivate the current animation to be able to sit correctly, leaving the restraints in a strange state. Visible, but inactive. It looked weird and broke the mood. It was necessary though, because the older version did not have so many sitting animations, and its Autorefresh was simply broken so we needed a way to deactivate one restraint if we wore several restraints of the same type at the same time (like cuffs in a binder for example, or ankle cuffs with legs straps).

Now, with enough sitting animations to satisfy nearly all your needs and the Autorefresh feature being repaired, those buttons are not necessary anymore and are removed.

When you wear several restraints of the same type (several legs restraints or several arms restraints), a good idea is to turn Autorefresh off (on the main menu of the restraint, click on "More..." then "Autoref") on all the restraints of the same type but one. This prevents the restraints from fighting each other for the animations and for the movement. For example, you can wear both the legs straps and the Vixen legs cuffs, have the Vixen cuffs in "Taut" and the legs straps in "Hobble", but you want the Hobble to take priority. No problem, click on the Vixen legs cuffs and turn Autorefresh off. Now when you walk you will hobble and there will be no conflict.





Adjusting the height automatically


Another new feature for the plugin is its ability to automatically adjust your height, thanks to Henri Beauchamp's work on the "@adjustheight" command in the RLV some time ago. I am rather tall, and when I design animations I do it with my shape (I'm not only against alts, I'm also against changing shape all the time... what can I say), which means that if you are significantly smaller than me you will sink into the ground if you are in a hogtie, for example, unless you wear high heels. very, very high heels in some cases. Naturally, given the number of animations I cannot make several variations of the same animation depending on your shape. Some content creators do that, but I don't, too much work. There are over 300 animations in these ropes so I won't even consider that option.

The obvious solution is to let you tweak your height yourself thanks to your Z slider (many Third Party Viewers have one, including the RLV where it is directly at hand, but for some reason Firestorm does not, at the time of this writing), but that's tedious since you would have to do that every time you change your pose.

So the solution is to make the plugin tweak it for you automatically. It doesn't even require any input on your part. If the plugin detects you are using the RLV, and if the animation is meant to change your height, then it will adjust so you are as close to the ground as possible. It also takes the height of your shoes into account so high heels will not give the same offset than flatties. The offset also changes every time the animation changes, which means it changes when you start moving and changes back when you stop. Finally, it is set back to zero once you're untied or switch to an animation that does not trigger the automatic offset feature such as standing animations.

It works pretty well but is not perfect, and it is not meant to decide for you the height that you prefer. So you have a way to add a custom modifier yourself, that will be applied every time the plugin changes your offset.


Enough talk, let's illustrate :

I am currently in the "Tight" tie, standing, and my Z offset is zero.

Since I am standing, my height does not matter when it comes to making my feet touch the floor. SL calculates it automatically, so the Z offset can stay at zero (and will).

But what if I sat down ? Depending on my height, I would either sink into the ground or hover above it, but there is little chance I would be perfectly level. Well in my personal case, with my shape, I would, but only because this is the shape I used to make those animations in the first place. Anybody else would sink or hover, and that's where the auto adjust feature comes in handy.

To illustrate the height problem, I will now wear high heels without moving (the adjustment occurs only when the animation changes).

Since the plugin did not notice I changed height, and I am higher because of the heels, I am now floating in the air because my Z offset is still at zero. Let's move a little so the plugin notices the change and adjusts :

The plugin has corrected my height by -0.09 now. That's good, but not good enough to my taste because I'm still a little too high above the ground. Like I said above, the process is not perfect so it also takes your preference into account. Personally, I found out that I like it 0.05 to 0.07 units lower than zero, usually. To do that, I simply click on the "Offset" button of my Anim HUD : , and it gives me this menu :

This menu is quite simple. It lets you specify your modifier, save it in case you want to use another one for a bit, set it back to zero and also activate or deactivate the whole adjusting (because you might simply not want to let the plugin play with your Z offset at all, who knows). I set it to -0.05 :

Et voila ! Back on the floor ! Notice how the Z offset has changed now, taking my modifier into account : -0.14 is equal to the former -0.09 plus my modifier of -0.05.





To finish, you might have noticed that the HUD is surrounded by a darker area (it's faint, you may want to look at it over a light background). If you click on it, the HUD will get out of the view but a part of the dark area is still visible. Click on it again, and it comes back. Exactly like the Riding Reins HUD.


This pretty much covers it all. Sorry for the long winded tutorial but there was a LOT to explain.

Have fun !

Marine



PS : For this tutorial, I am wearing two outfits from Graves. The bottom is from the Bare outfit, the top is from the Resistance outfit. The heels and mesh feet are from Skifija.