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.
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
While I am happy with my new Slink Dynamic Hands and the add-on Stiletto Nails, Strawberry Singh is pointing out that not all add-ons work with all mesh body parts. See her article: Cutie Loot March 2017 Unboxing Video. She is working to keep people honestly informed about the products she reviews.
That all this new Bento stuff doesn’t work together is no surprise to me. I was expecting problems, especially for facial animations. Strawberry ran into the problems with Catya’s Bento Bubblegum. Catya, to their credit, tells you the gum is designed to work with a specific Catwa head, not all Catwa heads.
Bento Heads are going to be a problem. Trying a demo before buying any Bento product or add-on is very important, especially animations.
The Bento heads have a load of new bones. Each of those ‘head’ bones is rigged and weighted to some part of the head’s skin. So, it isn’t surprising that each developer will do things differently… even the same developer trying to make their products as similar as possible will likely not be able to achieve full compatibility.
This means add-on and animations for different heads, even in the same brand, will likely have to be tweaked. A great looking smile animation for one head is likely to look odd when run while wearing another head. So, I expect to see a lot of …for specific brand and model only… notes on Bento products.
There are some conversations in the user groups about how to minimize these problems. But, it may be awhile before things get ironed out, if they do.
So, be careful. Try a demo before you buy.
Hopefully, we will see some people using Advanced Experience Tools (AET) to make some nicer demo tools. I really don’t want to see more animation demos that work like dance demos… the ones where they put 10 to 50 animations in a pose stand and you click through them. Tedious.
Making stockings for the Classic and Slink legs has some challenges. One is understanding how to get a straight edge at the top of the stocking. I’ll explain some of the oddities between Second Life™, Photoshop, Blender, Classic and Slink.
Classic UV Map: Slink and Classic
The frustrating oddity is dealing with avatar templates. Slink and Classic are not compatible, close but a problem.
In the image, look in the ‘A’ section, there is a copy of one of the Robin Woods templates made for the Classic Avatar. I’ve used Photoshop 3D to paint some lines on it.
If you have drawn a straight line across the 2D template assuming it will appear straight on the avatar, think again. I knew it wouldn’t work as I’ve experimented before. Continue reading
There is an update on the new forum roll out. See: UPDATE: New Community Platform Timeline.
Seems the data transfer is taking longer than expected. So, the forum remains locked today, no posting. The forum should open 2/28… some time today… well may be…
Countryside Holidays
Mesh Body Addicts has a new Weekly Fitmesh Finds are here! I’m not sure how much their finds affect traffic to the regions listed. My empirical experience is: it may take days for me to get into some of the regions listed. Uber seems unusually busy. Continue reading
Medhue Simoni is one of the better know modelers and animators in SL. He has a post in the SL Forum containing videos that show how to make your own LoD (Level of Detail) models.
See: How to make LODs / Levels of Detail
Mesh development is shaking down into some common methods. This tutorial covers how to make Slink Nails using 2017 information. Section headings will give you an idea of what you can skip and what you need to read based on your experience level.
If you are totally new to Second Life™ there is a lot to learn. I am only touching on the parts needed to make nails for Slink Hands. Other brands of hands are similar.
Make Your Own Slink Finger Nails – 2017
In 2013 Linden Lab, owner of Second Life (SL), added a feature we call ‘mesh’. Prior to that all things in SL were made of primitives, shortened to ‘prims’. Technically everything in SL is a primitive and made of mesh.
What we call mesh is a particular type of primitive just as a cube or sphere is a specific kind of primitive. While everything in SL is made of mesh (press Ctrl-Shift-R to see it), we only refer to things made in Blender, 3D Max, Maya, and other modeling programs and then imported to SL as ‘mesh’, more convenient than rational. Linden Lab® added the mesh prim in 2013. Continue reading
LoD = Level of Detail. In 3D modeling LoD is a basic optimization technique used to increase performance. If you are making things, avatars, or clothes it is something to know about. Medhue explains what LoD is and shows how it affects your render and how to and how NOT to adjust for bad LoD design as a user.
Gaia has a new post up on Machinimatrix.org. According to the announcement they have reached the end of design and are going into a user-testing phase. Those that have filed trouble tickets on the Machinimatrix bug reporter will get their copies of 2.0-24 first. The rest of us, later.
There is a load of documentation in this announcement. So, check it out.
There are people using a 2.0 version for their main production tool. However, others are having problems. I think many of the problems are from a lack of documentation. It is hard to keep the docs up to date with an in-development product. Much less make the video tutorials.
If AvaStar 2.0 finalizes we will start to see more tutorials arriving.