Well the title kinda says it already.
I want my character to dance on the bed and then just fall down. But she just ignores the dance animations before that and just immediately falls off the bed.
What can I do to change this?
Script:
@LYRA walks to spot 0.504 212 403 in zone 2 in 2
&LYRA is dance_wavehands_happy_loop
&LYRA is dance_drop_it
&LYRA is dance_armsup_hipthrust_loop
&LYRA is fall
If you use &, you’re coding it to do all the animations at once, so it’ll just default to doing the last one (fall, in this case). You need to break it up with @. So:
@LYRA is dance_wavehands_happy_loop
@LYRA is dance_drop_it
@LYRA is dance_armsup_hipthrust_loop
@LYRA is fall
OMG thank you so much. I never understood the difference between & and @. Do you mind explaining it to me?
Of course!
& is used when you want multiple things to happen at one time, but you don’t want it to stop the flow of the story. Essentially, you can have one character talking or doing an animation, while another character, or camera, or overlay is doing something else. Here’s a random example from my story:
So in this screenshot, I have a few characters having a conversation. In the first part, when the doctor stops talking, I want her doing an idle animation, but I don’t want to do @ since using @ will make the story pause until she’s finished the animation (2-3 seconds). In a normal conversation, there aren’t a bunch of random pauses (unless they’re being used for dramatic effect).
Then, I have Etsuko taking a deep breath in relief while Kichiro talks. This gives her something to do in the background of the scene while the story still moves forwards, while letting her react to the new information.
Lastly, while the doctor talks, Name is reacting to what she’s saying (by crossing her arms). This allows the conversation to feel more authentic - think about real life. If I’m giving you bad news, you’re not going to wait until I’m done talking to react with body language, right? But I’m also not going to stop talking while you cross your arms.
@ is used when you DO want to stop the story for whatever purpose - it could be for dramatics, or so a character can finish an animation, or because an overlay needs to complete an action. Here’s another example:
In this scene, Name is walking into the room on screen, and I don’t want the scene to start until she’s in place. So I use the @NAME walks to- so Etsuko doesn’t say her line until Name is ready. (It’s also worth noting, the next line I use a & because I want her to keep walking to a different spot while Etsuko says her next line).
Then Etsuko says her line from offscreen, and says the following line once she’s also walked into the room, which is why I would use the @ sign for her walking in as well.
Lastly, I use the @ so Name can roll her eyes. She is reacting to what Etsuko is saying, but I want her to do her full reaction before she starts speaking, for comedic timing and also realism.
Does that make sense? I can try to explain it differently if not!
No this makes perfect sense! Thank you so much for taking all this time and explaining it to me!
I totally get it now. I was usually just randomly using & whenever I wanted the character to do an animation.
Thanks again 
You’re very welcome! Let me know if you get stuck on anything and I’ll be happy to help 
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