The Latest Word 6/1 Late

Talking with Eleanora Newell (AvaStar) and Siddean Munro (Slink) We have come to the conclusion the updater in AvaStar 2RC8 has a bug. It will supposedly be fixed in 2RC9. Fortunately, we don’t have to deal with the bug.

Siddean Munro has updated the May 2017 Slink Dev Kit. The May Kit updated to AvaStar 2.0.30. It is now a June 1 Kit updated to 2.0.46, the newest AvaStar.

So, just download the Kit again and get the latest version.

Also, if you are moving older projects to the new version, Append those objects to the new updated avatar. It is easier, faster, and presents fewer problems than trying to update the rig.

Talking with Siddean,

Heya, I’ve been chatting with Eleanora and Gaia [AvaStar peeps] about the update process. It’s not entirely unique to my kit.

There was some bug with the update process that Gaia says she’s fixed, will be released in the next version of the release candidate, and Eleanora says you need to have the little snowflake enabled on the update tool for the female body, and to uncheck “male” under the appearance sliders on the male body.

I found it just easier to add the new rig and attach the bodies to it, than mess around with their update tool. It’s always been problematic.

I will be advising anyone who asks to download the latest from my DropBox though, I will try and keep on top of Avastar updates as much as I can.

The thing you described with the bones all rotating from their individual origins – I asked about that in the Blender channel the other day, and someone responded she’d had the same issue as me, and locking and unlocking the bones did the trick. 🙂

I don’t really know why they lock the bone rotations. It’s like they have AvaStar all setup for animations, but we have to jump through so many hoops to get the rig ready for creating mesh with it. I’m going to send them a NC with some thoughts today so I will put in a suggestion for a rig setup toggle – animation to skinning maybe.

The best thing you can do with your older projects is append them into the new kit, rather than updating the old rig and risking errors from the old body meshes.

…

Eleanora just messaged me that the update tool is broken, the sliders don’t work. So appending to an updated rig might be better in the short term until they figure this out.

The rest of the article below is mostly outdated now. However, if you need to update a rig, you may find some help in it.

================================Original Below================

Having some problems with newly released Slink model? I did. Took me some time to figure out how to get it working. This is the ‘step-by-step’ to getting an integrated Slink-AvaStar working base.

PS: 6/1/2017 – Various people and myself are running into additional problems. Be sure to read the comments. BUT…

Siddean Munro has resolved the problem. A new Dev Kit was released 6/1/2017 that is updated to AvaStar 2.0.46. So, save yourself some heartache and get the new file. If you are updating one of your older files, the information in this article may help.

As it appears now, the fix is to replace the old rig with a new AvaStar generated rig and avoid trying to update.

The model released by Slink is made with AvaStar 2.0.30 (or 2.0-Beta-30). The latest release of AvaStar as I write this is 2RC8 (or 2.0.46). The original Slink file works just fine. Whether you are Skinning and Wight Painting or Animating.

Here is the problem I found.

The file as received works as I expected. In Blender Weight Paint and Pose Mode, the bones behave as I expect. Once I ran the AvaStar Rig Update, the bones were screwed.

So, I did a bunch of experiments thinking it might be an update problem in AvaStar. I ran into something like this before. See: AvaStar Tutorial: Adding the Slink Model to AvaStar (March 2017).

So… I would like to say I worked out a solution using exceptional knowledge, superior planning, and precision execution …nope. I stumbled on the fix. Pure luck… and persistence.

The Install

See the previously mentioned article for information on how to get the Slink files.

With those files unzipped, open Blender. I am using version 2.78c.

Open the Slink file: Slink Physique Female Kit Avastar 2x Version1.blend. You can open the file using the Load UI option or not. I tried both ways. It makes no difference. However, using it you get to read the notes Slink included.

When the file loads you will get a warning the rig armature is out of date and you need to update it. Click OK to clear the message. Do NOT update yet.

In Blender’s OUTLINER, make all the Slink parts visible (eye icon) and enable selection (arrow cursor icon).  You may want a screen capture of the Outliner before you start. The disabling of the selection option in these parts is all about making the model easier to work with when modeling your stuff. But, it seems to screw the update if they are disabled.

Now select the armature and in AvaStar TOOLS click the Update Rig. It will take a few seconds to complete.

Next, in AvaStar SETTINGS in the Workflow Presets click Skin & Weight. It too will take a couple of seconds to complete. Then in the same panel click Pose & Animate. Give it a second to complete. Now click back to Skin & Weight.

When in Skin & Weight you can check to see if the green AvaStar handles are working. Select Pose Mode at the bottom of the 3D window. If things move correctly, you are good. Do, the same when you go back into Skin and Weight. Both should be working.

Now save the file to use as your updated Slink file. I suggest a new name so you will have a copy of the original Slink file… just in case.

You may also want to restore the Outliner settings to the Slink settings. Doing so is purely a personal choice. There is no hidden secret anything about these settings. You just have to know that AvaStar can have problems with an object’s select being disabled. Obviously, when you are working on a part and using AvaStar tools on it, you’ll have it selected. So, this selectable or not is seldom an issue.

Summary

It took me most of the day to stumble into this fix. That may just be my lack of knowledge about Blender, AvaStar, and/or Slink. Whatever I now have my working Slink model.

PS

From the AvaStar team I got this advice:

Before doing anything, select the Pose & Animate workflow preset near the top ………. my.jetscreenshot.com/15167/20170530-vlor-177kb Now you will only see the green animation bones. Select one of those green bones and do your update under Tools with the options you like. Then test the rotation of the green bones. Now when you go to “Skin & Weight” preset just above “Pose & Animate” the blue bones will behave as expected. The “Pose & Animate” had the effect of snapping everything into place.

You can see this is similar to what I discovered. The trick is in clicking between Pose & Animate and Skin & Weight before you run the Rig Update. It may not be necessary to change the selectable settings. I’ve spent enough time playing with the file. So, I may not get around to trying this.

PS   6/1/2017

Hi, Nalates,

I saw your video on Slink. I update the Slink Female with these options: In particular, Snowflake off since we aren’t forcing an a-pose or something

But you do, as I think they may have said, need to go to skin and weight after that.

Eleanora Newell

PS   6/1/2017

Siddean Munro IM’d me:

Updating the rig seems to be fraught with issues. I had better luck adding a new rig, changing the sliders to match the kit defaults and changing the target armature in the modifier, and then deleting the old armature.

Anyhoo ping me if you see me online and we’ll chat about it 🙂