There are some people I am in awe of in Second Life and one set of such people are animators. ‘Animation overrides’ (Ao’s) are scripted items that you can wear to alter the way your avatar moves and acts. So it was with great pleasure that I met Meike Heston, who agreed to come and have a chat with me. I had been talking to avatar Nala Tenk a few weeks ago in SL London and she told me about Meike, who has a shop in
Mayfair. Animation overrides are so important in Second life, because they change the whole perspective of how we think about our avatars, giving us the ability to personalise our avs with individual movements and also allowing us to be interactive with our virtual friends and lovers.

Meike, who is from Holland, has been in Second Life since January 2007. She told me that she started working in animations about a year ago, although she had originally started designing clothes in SL, with the help of her former partner. Meike told me that she soon realised that there was a lot of competition as many people in SL were making clothes, so she decided to try other things, firstly scripting and building and then on to animations, although she still sells some of her clothes in her main store. Meike has 10 shops altogether and has sold animations to over 5000 avatars, so I think you can safely say she is doing very well.
She said at the beginning she started with a single product, which seemed to work pretty well. I asked Meike if it was difficult working with animations, she told me it was easy to start with making static poses, and after a while animations came quickly enough. She did say that she had a lot of help at the beginning though. I asked her what her first poses were and she told me they were exaggerated model poses, which are usually only one static frame, she went on to say that an animation is a group of frames, but you don’t have to create each frame, just the parts where you would like to change the current movement, say swinging your leg up, skipping 10 frames, then starting to move the leg back again.
I asked Meike why she first came into Second Life and she told me she had picked it up from the news and had got curious about what it was all about. She almost didn’t stay in the beginning, she said she walked about aimlessly, but she soon found that it was the people who were great so she decided to stay and SL became all that she expected it to be.
I asked Meike if she had considered building SL weapons with her talents, like so many scripters seem to do, she said no, unless you could count a pillow fight!! I also asked if she made animations for sex, which is a huge business in SL, she laughed and said everyone asks her that!! She said no, (although she had made a couple in the beginning) she likes to make animations that she would use herself or that she would really like to have. I bought some of her 'hug' animations a few weeks ag

o and they are lovely, you can hug someone, and the one I have includes a hug, a close hug, a kiss, you can leap into your partners arms, as well as pouncing on them with a kiss, but there are many more that Meike has made and they are all very tastefully done.
I wanted to know if Meike employed anyone in SL for her shops, but she told me that friends help her out a lot, which must be fun for them. She also wanted me to give a special mention to Justyna Huldschinsky, who gives her inspiration and helps her with the testing, giving her ideas and she also handles customers for her, giving Meike some free time to do other things in SL.
I asked Meike how she first came to the
London sims, and she told me that her good friend Nala had introduced her to London, showing her around. She says she loves it here, it’s nice walking through and seeing some of the events that go on. She either works in SL London or meets her friends and finds a nice spot to sit and chat.
Meike says she has plans for more animations coming up in the near future as well, so I will be very interested to see them, there is no doubt that making animations is an art form. Meike is a very talented person and a very important part of Second Life, without people like her, who use their innovations and great skills, SL would be so boring and ordinary, she brings life to our avatars and allows us to display warmth and affection to each other, which is a beautiful thing in a digital world.