The new Mesh Deformer Project Viewer seems to be working well. See the left column for a link to it. I’ve been playing with it in ADITI. I’m excited and seriously getting into finishing some of my models (clothes). I’m spending more time weighting and tweaking now that I think we know how the Deformer is going to work.
Problem Clothes
I will caution you that the Deformer is only in testing. It could change. But, I think it is pretty much as it will be at release time and I could be wrong. So, keep that in mind, if you plan to go crazy with mesh clothes making…
Buying Mesh Clothes
Mesh clothes being sold now mostly do not include a Deformer Ready version. All previous Deformer ready versions are out of date, unless made since mid September. My new rule of thumb and cutoff is October 2012. If it was made before then, it was made for the wrong Deformer version and is likely to be a problem.
I’ve been going through loads of mesh clothes demos. In general, if you strike a pose and take a picture, they look pretty good. However, standing around letting your stand animations run reveals LOTS of problems with many of the mesh clothes out there.
In the image I show the type of problem I am running into. The yellow arrows show places where the weighting is off allowing the mesh clothes to fall inside the avatar skin. These are places where using the alpha to hide the avatar is not going to work. The red arrows show the places where an alpha layer would solve the problem and be the best solution.
If the weighting is correct, the red arrow places would likely be helped by the Deformer. I suspect the alpha layer would still be needed, but may be not as much.
My guide of: try a demo first, has become my absolute Holy Rule that shall not be broken… ever… on pain of intense disappointment. OK… it’s not exactly life or death, but it saves me raging and it is a MUST for any mesh clothes.
If there is no demo, I won’t even consider buying the item. I am seeing way too many tops and skirts that go all wacko with my set of stands. One pose places my hands in my hair (shown). I often get horrible distortions with that animation (shown is a minor problem). I was so disappointed that a L$500 way cute sweater was a total mess, caving in my back when I raised my arms. Unwearable, for me. When sitting; skirts do some really strange things too. So, a sit is part of my testing of every demo.
I now takes me 3 to 5 minutes to try out a demo and decide if I will be happy with it. I am buying very few mesh clothes because so many are so poorly made. I am left wondering how many fashion review people actually check out these items. A comment or two on how well mesh clothes move with one would be helpful.
When I start to put out some mesh clothes, if I am every happen with what I can make, I plan to include several poses in the promo art; a hands up, on hips, behind me, and a sit or two.
Be careful what you buy. I do think we will start to see some really awesome clothes once the Deformer is officially released.
Nose breathlessly pressed against the glass of the door, waiting for the manager to open the store for the big sale!
You are funny, girl. 🙂
how about instead of wearing an alpha layer to hide the places where the mesh let the skin show, you wear a shirt layer with the same texture.
that way when the mesh layer drowns in the body of the avatar you will still see the texture of the clothes, the same that happens when rl clothes get very close to your skin.
They do not render the same. Think about the prim skirt fronts. Prims and mesh render and shade the same.
Also, patterns mess up. There is not way to match up the patterns, short of trial and error.