Blender

AvaStar Feedback Request 2015 Week 09

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Gaia is asking for feedback regarding what changes to make in AvatStar during 2015. See: Avastar 2015 where to go? You can pick 3 items:

  • Implement: “The Mesh machine” (for easier fitting mesh attachments)
  • Make basic video(s): “Blender for SL Noobies”
  • Make Video: Fitted Mesh (basics)
  • Add Sample Models
  • Make basic video: “Create Attachment”
  • Update existing Reference Videos
  • Help Blender to improve the http://blender.org/manual
  • Implement function: “Import SL animation to Avastar”
  • Implement: Avastar Update check in Blender’s splash screen

Click over to Machinimatrix and put in your two-cents.

As of 12 noon 2/26 the Mesh Machine was winning.

AvaStar’s Sparkles Sale Ending

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Gaia Clary at Machinimatrix.org is running a 50% off on Sparkles for AvaStar users. It ends February 15, until then Sparkles Pro: US$15 web* – US$7.50±/L$1,800* in-world, with 1 year of updates. (Prices are a bit unclear. I checked and the regular price is/will be $15.)

If you are not sure what Sparkles is… the video is a preview. But, read on…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfO1PKge4Q4

Sparkles is a standalone tool set for building clothes and characters for Second Life. It is integrated with AvaStar, but does not require AvaStar to be used. The list of tools is:

Read more

Blender 2.73a

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A new version of Blender came out last week; 2.73a. Click for: Download Blender and changes overview.

Blender 2.73a Released January 2015
Blender 2.73a Released January 2015

This download is a 90mb file. I use the ZIP version of the install as it operates as a standalone version. That allows me to have multiple versions installed at the same time.

AvaStar will need to be updated to the latest update (avastar-1.3-18_blender-2-70) to work with Blender 2.73a.

Blender Tutorial: Pie Menu

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This tutorial from CG Masters came out in August 2014. I found it in November 2014. It is a 13 minute video on using and tweaking the PIE (or radial) menu that came out in Blender 2.72. When the video came out Blender 2.71 was current. The video was a preview of the coming PIE menu and to use that menu you needed to download a daily build of Blender to get it. Now it is included in Blender 2.72, so all you need to do is enable it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDeKy2gHV7k

 

Blender 2.73 Planning

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Ton Roosendaal regularly shares his Blender developers meeting notes. Blender Nation summarizes them and links to the notes.

A feature being added back into the workflow is Mesh Transfer or Data Transfer. I’m not at all clear on what it is. The details are here. This seems like some type of attribute copy-paste… I don’t see how it will help me with my designs for SL.

Blender 2.72 - 2014-10-06
Blender 2.72 – 2014-10-06

They are planning to add support for Chinese/Asian complex characters.

A Dependency Graph is in the works. This would let you see how all the parts of a scene relate and which objects require which resources. Not something I’ll need in my simple files.

Various improvements are being made as part of the Gooseberry project. We will see viewport and asset management improvements that will likely help SL designers.

Currently Blender 2.72b is the current Blender release. The fixes and improvements list (release notes sort of) are here.