When they were introduced, the VKC^® Dogs had no animations that allowed avatars to pet them. Enrico Genosse, the visionary of virtual dogs, did the first round of animations but he neither enjoyed the process nor was he particularly pleased by the results. Sandry Logan was well on the way to creating the first successful animations for petting the dogs, but they never reached the market because at about that time the Linden Lab software broke gestures for a while. By the time gestures were functional again, Mr. Genosse had added a protective bubble around the dogs, to reduce problems related to collisions, and the avatar no longer could get close enough to the dogs. He placed this bubble as a workaround to prevent a glitch that occasionally would cause the dogs, in the early days, to crash a sim. 

Solcar Amat came to Turing Isle one day and, as usual, all the dogs came bounding up to him, sniffing and greeting. “I was physically afraid,” he recalls. “These objects all moved toward me. Never in SL had anything friendly approached me in this way.” Overcoming his initial reaction quickly, he immediately fell in love with the Chihuahua and the Doberman. As he continued to visit the Dog Park, “the big, ugly gray dog” always would come up to to Mr. Amat and follow him around. Slowly, he came to love, and eventually adopted, his first dog, the Newfoundland he named Pepe. 

Mr. Amat was so impressed that the dogs could hear and understand and learn tricks. As he read the manual and worked with Pepe daily, playing with him over and over, it became emotionally difficult to put the dog back into inventory. “Those pixels were no longer pixels,” he observed, reflecting an experience common to most owners of VKC Dogs. “They were flesh and feelings.” He yearned for a way to demonstrate his feelings toward his dog. 

One day, Miss Logan mentioned making animations and demonstrated a gesture for him. The seeds of a career took root and sprouted that day. Solcar learned to be an animator. Once he began to feel good about his animations, he showed them to Enrico. 

The meeting between the two men quickly lead to an alliance. Mr. Amat began creating animations, first for the Australian Shepherd, next for the Chow Chow. These first animations were 14 seconds long, each second of finished animation representing hours of behind-the-scenes, tedious work. Most of the animations for the VKC Dogs are now 29 seconds long, the upper limit that SL places on animations. Each animation is lovingly and thoughtfully crafted for the particular breed. 

“I spent time watching them to find out what animation the dogs wanted,” Solcar said in describing the process of creation. “I would wake up in the middle of the night [and realize] I know how to do it!” Now avatars can clap their hands, move in close, kneel down beside the dog to caress, tickle or hug it. 

Creating the animations in which the avatar hugs the dog is the most difficult. Solcar must create movements that work with many different sizes of avatars, being careful that the avatar’s hands, for example, do not penetrate the dog in a way that looks unnatural. 

Of course, the movement of the avatar is but one half of a successful animation. Look carefully at the dog when petting it. You will see the dog move in response to the avatar’s attentions. Some lean toward the avatar. Others hold out their paw, or playfully show their belly. ❧