AvaStar-Blender: Switching from IK to FK and Back

Medhue streamed a tutorial this weekend. He was showing how to switch between IK and FK animating. In September 2014 I was facing that problem and posted a tutorial titled: Blender-AvaStar Animation IK/FK Tip because I couldn’t find any tutorials saying how to change between the two animating styles.

I think the video is a way better tutorial on switching between the two styles than my old ‘text’ tutorial.

 

Second Life Animation: Priorities

Medhue Simoni is doing a live stream YouTube presentation on Second Life™ subjects. You can catch his previous live streams, now videos, on his YouTube channel.

For now he plans to start a stream between 8 and 9 AM SLT. I caught this one live. YouTube provides a live chat channel to go with the stream.

I think Medhue is winging it through the presentations, extemporaneous. There are sufficient and-huh’s, a bit of ramble, and several false starts. But, the information is good. Scripting the presentation, working from an outline, and quick rehearsals all before the live presentation can greatly improve it. But, it is more work. Continue reading

Second Life Animation: BVH vs ANIM

There are two formats of animation file used in Second Life™. Which one to use? Medhue gives us his take on the two formats.

Basically, ANIM avoids the SL Import Program’s gotchas.

Medhue talks about animation priorities, for the overall animation and/or for each individual bone.

Bone translation has additional options in ANIM. If you aren’t familiar with the idea of bone translation, think bone placement.

 

Slink Update

In my article AvaStar Tutorial: Adding the Slink Model to AvaStar I provide the steps to get the Slink Mesh Dev Model updated in AvaStar 2RC5. Slink has been handing out a model made with AvaStar 1.1.34. So, there are a lot of AvaStar updates between that and 2RC5. Enough so that 2RC5 can’t update that old a rig.

Ara

Ara
Nal: Mesh clothes make the…

I contacted both the AvaStar and Slink people in regard to getting the problem resolved. Siddean Munro, the creative behind Slink contacted me to say,  Continue reading

AvaStar Tutorial: Adding the Slink Model to AvaStar

Update 5/30 – I’ve run into a similar problem updating from 2.0.30 to 2.0.46 (2RC8). Working on that fix now.

PS: SeeAvaStar – Add the Slink 2017 Model

Update 3/24 – AvaStar 2 RC 6 fixes part of the problem previously reported. But, it does not yield a working rig. You still need to follow this process to update the rig 1.1.34 version to 2.0.45.

Update: 2017 – As I used the Slink model I had updated, I found some problems. So, after more testing and a back and forth with AvaStar/Machinimatrix, I pulled the original of this article the day after I published it and rewrote it.

Revised

Slink provides a developer’s kit labeled Slink Creators Kit March 2016. It contains all the models needed to make shoes, pants, dresses, and shirts for Slink’s Physique and Hourglass. Both male and female models. There are blend, dea, fbx, and mb files for import to various modeling programs.

The file is an older version made with AvaStar 1.1.34. So, the rig in the blend file provided must be updated. I’ll step you through the process.

The video is handy, but unrelated to the rig update process.

The first step in developing for Slink, or any brand of body, is applying for the developr’s kit. In the case of slink it is the Slink Creators Kit. Apply here. Let them know you want to develop mesh clothes. Only ask for one kit at a time. Otherwise, you won’t know which ONE they will choose to send you. The kit will arrive in-world and the model files by via email.

[su_note note_color=”#976402″]Correction: Slink people ask that you ask for all the kits you want in one request. See: Slink Update[/su_note]

Continue reading

Second Life: Content Creation 2017 w09

This week I actually got everything working and captured the meeting on video. Next week there is no CCUG meeting.

I sped up the video to cut the run time from an hour and a half to about an hour. About the only noticeable change is people’s voice pitch goes up.

Synopsis

The additional assets via HTTP viewer is in the pipeline. The server changes are running on ADITI (preview grid) now. As well as the new server OS versions. We can expect both of these to show up ‘soon’.  Continue reading