Another artist/merchant is contributing to Gala Phoenix’s legal fund by offering products and contributing all the proceeds. I have several pairs of N-Core shoes. I love them. So, I am thrilled to see N-Core participating.
N-Core and other Designers Join DMCA Fund Raiser
Now… if I could just get into the region… I may not be able to make it in until after SL peak concurrent users. So, late the afternoon… dang. (Update: I did make it. It is more impressive than I thought it would be.)
This fund raiser runs from July 9 to 22. An excellent note card came with the group announcement explaining the situation. I like well written informative articles. So, I’ve included it after the fold.
The Mesh Deformer has been the subject of lots of debate and discussion. It centers around the Mesh Clothes Sizing and how that will or won’t be handled in the Parametric Deformer Project, aka Mesh Deformer.
From a coming Weight Painting Tutorial
Last week (24) Karl Stiefvater, the Mesh Deformer coder, talked about where development of the Mesh deformer is headed in a MetaReality’s podcast: Come Together. Discussion starts about the 34:20 minute mark.
Standard Sizes Out
It seems sizes are out. Don’t get excited if you are Standard Size supporter. The real issue is how to fit our custom shapes and deal with some of the extreme shapes Second Life® users use. It looks like a better way has been found then using standard sizes or multiple base shapes, which was my favored solution until now.
There is a small collection of mesh clothes in Hippo Hollow for testing the Mesh Deformer, aka Parametric Deformer. You can get a copy of the Mesh Deformer Project Viewer. With that you can see how the clothes from the test set work.
Mesh Deformer Control in LL Project Viewer
Oz Linden says for now the lack of test clothes is not holding things up. But, very soon it will.
The current version of the deformer (0.3 by my count) has some problems that cause flicker and flashing. Once those are fixed, the lack of clothes WILL BE DELAYING the Deformer project. We need to get more sample mesh clothes into the test set. See this post for Oz’s initial request: Examples Request. It includes instructions for submitting examples.
The direction I’m going with tutorial is toward making clothes and weight painting. But, this tutorial will provide information for those building both objects and clothes. I am limiting this tutorial to just the modeling and the tools we need for making the model and the lower poly models we need for Second Life.
#1 – Modeling in Second Life
This is not your standard tutorial. There are loads of modeling tutorials. Making avatar clothes is a special type of 3D modeling. There are a number of tricks to be learned, especially for making Second Life® clothes. I’m going to focus on the things I had a hard time figuring out how to do.
I’ll lay this tutorial out with indexing so you can quickly find the various tricks. I need that because I tend forget a step here and there and need to look it up.
Index
Page 1 – First Decision – Which shape to use. Page 1 – Deformer – What it does. Page 2 – Modeling – Start the modeling tools. Page 2 – C-Select – A better select tool. Page 2 – Redoing Topology Trick – Snap with a good video. Page 2 – Snap – Details on using snap. Page 3 – Scaling – How to use Alt-S scaling. Page 3 – Shrinkwrap – How to use shrinkwrap. Page 4 – Triangles vs Ngons – Getting into Ngons and Bsurface. Page 4 – Bsurface – How to use Bsurface. Page 4 – Grease Pencil – Needed for Bsurface. Page 5 – Reducing Poly Count – Needed for LoD’s. Page 5 – Dissolve – Tools for reducing poly count. Page 5 – Using Images – How to use pictures and images to guide your modeling. Page 5 – How to Model – Some of the Second Life requirements. Page 6 – How to Model – The outline. Page 6 – Summary
I hate slow paced, rambling video tutorials. I’ve found some that are pretty good. I’ll include those where appropriate. After them I’ll add explanations. Sometimes they leave out the most basic but necessary steps. Even after a couple years of using Blender I’m going: how did they do that?
I’m always interested in hearing anything about the Mesh Deformer especially when when Karl Stiefvater (aka Qarl Fizz aka Qarl Linden) is talking. So, running through the MetaReality outline on Friday is a regular thing for me. Not much new on the Deformer, but Gianna touches on some of the Avatar 2 stuff I’ve been reporting on.
Metareality Podcasts
I used the Outline form with time marks.
? – Answering questions from last week
01:20 – What would a new Second Life look/function like?
Qarl thinks the current problems are with the Lab more than they are with Second Life. So, whatever they made for Third Life would still have ‘Lab Problems.’
Gianna’s take is whatever Second Life became it is a matter of the
04:15 Mainit Hellman’s opinion is if they fix some things Second Life would be better. He would check out a new SL.
We have an estimate for the cost of getting the computer code written for a Multiple Base Shape Deformer. We have some of the money pledges and only need to raise less than US$1,000. Our problem is convincing the Lindens it is needed and wanted.
Mesh Sandbox 20
There is some discussion ongoing in several places. But, check out SLUniverse where I wrote:
