Not all of the features of the SL Avatar are available to users. So, the face does not animate. But, it can somewhat be shaped. Not all the shape sliders work on this model. That suggests to me that some of the weighting used in SL has been omitted.

It makes sense to me that the fitted_mesh_270.blend file would export a nearly identical model to the  SL Wiki file and it would surely work as well. It pretty much does. If there is any difference, it is so small I can’t see it in a cursory look.

Collision Bone Weighting

Using the Feb 19^th build of Blender (2.69.10-6466454-win64) and its Collada export I get the distorted result talked about in the previous article: Avastar Updates & News. See the funny image of me. So, it is not  yet possible to test that idea of model similarity with plain Blender.

If you think you can test the idea with Avastar’s Collada export of the fitted_mesh_270.blend model and avoid the skinny result, you would be wrong. The Avastar system does not need the fitted_mesh_270.blend file. It inserts an avatar and skeleton setup for use with Avastar and that is what it expects to export. It does not export a workable model using the avatars in fitted_mesh_270.blend.

The result using Avastar avastar-1-1-978_blender-2-65 Collada export of the fitted_mesh_270.blend model is a static mesh. I may be doing something wrong. But, leaving the Deform-Armature modifier in place results in an export error. Applying the modifier allows export, but the result is not recognized by the SL importer as rigged mesh and thus one gets a static mesh.

Using the Avastar model contained in avastar-1-1-978_blender-2-65 add-on does not produce a duplicate of the SL Avatar. It is close but in three parts. Otherwise it is pretty much the same as the SL Wiki models.

In all the models I’ve tried some sections of the avatar deform differently than the SL Avatar does. It is close, but for tight clothes we are out of luck. It seems if we had a duplicate of the SL Avatar that deforms the same as the SL Avatar, we would have a better starting place.

Until I can get my hands on Blender 2.7 I won’t be able to complete testing. We should see a build with the Maya scale thing (the problem that lead to Blender Collada export making skinny models) fixed in the next day or two. Then I can get back to testing.

AvaStar Help

Avastar has a help system. If you did not know, check out the video.

You can also browse the Machinimatrix.org site to find the tutorials and help files. These are helpful to any SL users that use Blender.