I wrote the following for an SL user that wants to learn to build mesh items for Second Life™. If you are thinking about learning to build mesh items for Second Life, you too may find it interesting.
First: 3D modeling is not as complex as it is voluminous… There is just so much to learn… So, my suggestion is to avoid getting bogged down in details and cover as many aspects of modeling as possible. Then as you choose to make things, get into the details related to your project.
With and Without Normal Mapping
Modeling for each world or game has its restrictions and limits and Second Life certainly does. You will find lots of generic modeling tutorials around that are NOT Second Life specific. CG Cookie is a great source for good to great generic educational tutorials. Their best stuff is not free. But, it is cheap, cheaper than a book and more up to date. Also, some of the purchase-to-view stuff becomes free after a time. I tend to purchase a month’s access every now and then. I download the lessons so I can go back and review them later.
Hopefully you have been following the Mesh Deformer and developments around it. Today in the Content Improvement group meeting I brought up the subject of Consensus on Mesh Deformation Tools.
Content Improvement Group
Some people have the same concern I do. What’s best and how do we know? There is speculation on what is the best way to deform mesh so clothes fit. Discussion extended into the work flow of making clothes too. Maxwell Graf is keen on the idea that any solution has to provide a reasonably simple work flow. I agree. Making mesh clothes is already complicated.
Karl’s Mesh Deformer is reasonably simple. It certainly avoids adding complication to the clothes making process. In general it will simplify what needs to be done to get clothes to fit. Simplicity is a large factor.
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?
