Second Life: Bento Example

I missed this when Aki released it three months ago.

The location for Project Bento meetings has changed from what is said in the video. They now meet in Hippotropolis, Agni (the main grid) on Thursdays at 1 PM SLT/PT. I think they moved to the main grid to make it easier for more people to get to the meetings.  

I think these meetings would be really important to those making mesh heads. So, if you like mesh heads and have a favorite designer, you can help Project Bento along by asking them about how they plan to implement the coming Bento changes and letting them know about the meetings.

The big change from the Project for most users is going to the change from a dozen or so facial expressions to an infinite number. Facial expressions will be just another set of animations. You’ll be able to buy as many as you can afford. Expect a whole new industry to pop around these expressions. I think very much like making clothes for Slink, Belleza, or Maitreya.

Time is running out for residents to request changes and features in the new Avatar. It is pretty much a now or forever hold your tongue sort of thing.

Notes

The wyvern shown has to be worn to be animated. The wyvern is using the new bones added to the avatar skeleton. The new tail, wings, and hands/finger bones not used in the classic avatar can be used for the wyvern and the original bones for the avatar so both can be animated.

This is neat. But, as things advance it is going to get complicated. When mesh body merchants begin using the fingers, tail, and wing bones for their bodies and we wear such a body then mount a wyvern or other attachment that uses those same bones its animation either the wyvern or the avatar is going to deform.

Consider. If a finder bone is used for a wyvern foot and our mesh body uses the same finger bone for a finger, novel idea, then when we wear them both the wyvern foot and avatar finger are going to be pulled into the same physical space and move as one. Probably not what we want.

If you think we have problems now, when it comes to explaining why a noobie can’t change clothes, think what it will be like explaining why their avatar horribly deforms when they mount a wyvern…

It will get figured out. We will handle it. But, Second Life while always a complex place was simplified for those new to 3D worlds. That simple time is vanishing.

I suppose we will end up with some form of labeling as we did with Fitted vs Rigged vs Classic mesh avatar goods.

2 thoughts on “Second Life: Bento Example

  1. Things are still up in the air with this wyvern, to be honest (no pun intended); there are some key issues with avatar height calculations and camera positioning that have prevented me from working on this attachment to any significant degree over the past two months.

    That said, while it’s true content creators will have to be careful about what they rig to in order to avoid conflicts, in many cases there are sufficient additional bones to work with which would allow people to avoid this. In this particular case, deliberate care was made *not* to rig to the hands or head, since I knew I was going to make it ridable rather than a full blown avatar and humanoid riders these days are likely to be using attachments taking up one or the other (or both) for their own appearance.

    Moving forward, it will be important for such content creators (such as replacement mesh body part-makers) to firmly establish and document the degree to which they have utilized Bento bones so that the rest of us can reasonably work around that. Establishing a solid vocabulary between all parties involved (content creator to content creator, content creator to customer) will be an important step towards managing expectations.

    • I appreciate your efforts and the comment. I agree.

      I also know how few designers learn what others are doing before making their creations. So, I expect problems.

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