Second Life Mesh Clothes Blender 2.6 Setup 2012 Tutorial

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Update: 1/2014 – See: Fitted Mesh Base Avatar Files for an update on available files for use in clothes making.

Update: 11/2013 – Fitted Mesh, previously the Alternate method or Liquid Mesh,  is now the approved method for making mesh clothes that conform to the avatar’s shape. See: .

UPDATE: 6-25-2012 – Things may drastically change. See: Alternative to the Deformer. 4/2013 – Several designers are using  the alternative methods now. Linden Lab is recommending avoiding use of those non-supported features. The Lab may make changes that break the feature some day.

UPDATE: Rewritten 5/24/2012 for the Bone Weights problem.

Maya users see: Rigging Mesh in Maya

11/27/2012 Avastar Users: Check out AVASTAR: Using Freeze Mesh for Edits and Seams.

My previous article on setting up Blender for making mesh clothes (Second Life Mesh Clothing Tutorial) was written in September 2011, eight months ago. I’ve updated it several times, but it is still out of date and awkward in some places. Blender is now at 2.63+ and has BMesh. Photoshop is up to CS6. The Mesh Deformer is close to being completed. We have a self correcting Bone Weight Copy add-on and more. So, lots of stuff has changed as of May 20, 2012. So, it’s time for a new version of the tutorial.

#1 The Default Avatar Shapes (Kinda funny)

A few days after I wrote this tutorial I found a problem with the file. The Paint and Weight Paint Brushes were messed up. How we create the files has to change. So, I’ve rewritten this tutorial again. This is the revised version. It replaces the previous one.

In this tutorial I’ll assume you are new to making mesh clothes. I’ll also assume you have some knowledge of Blender and Photoshop. I’ll be using only Blender 2.63a in this tutorial. I will also omit the import to Second Life as this Tutorial is already over 9,000 words. Plus, there are lots of tutorials on the Second Life mesh import.

Index

  • Page 1 – Blender Install, Base Mesh Selection
  • Page 2 – Details on Files and Base Avatar Meshes Available
  • Page 3 – Deconfuser, File to Use, Actual Mesh Differences, Easy File Fix
  • Page 4 –  Not So Easy Fix for Learning, Exporting Shapes from SL, What’s Needed
  • Page 5 – Getting Started, Customize Blender, GPU Kick-in, Load Mesh – Import OBJ, Setup Layers
  • Page 6 – Join Parts or Not, Remove Doubles, Parenting, Check Parenting, Start Weighting – Vertex Weight Painting
  • Page 7 – Weight Painting, Checking Weight Painting, Checking Weighting Source, Bone Weight Copying
  • Page 8 – Checking the Weighting, Exporting Collada for Second Life

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#SL News Update Week 20

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Some transcripts got posted and there are some bits of news.

Balancing

You may remember that the Lindens started balancing the regions by running adjacent regions in the same physical server, or at least physically nearby servers. They also made changes to the system so that popular regions would not load into the same server. The change improved performance and up time.

Beta Server

Since there was no new software roll to the main channel this week, they took the opportunity to do more balancing work. More busy regions were moved in to non-busy hosts. Oskar Linden says this makes a huge difference. They were going to get us some neat graphs and do a blog post, but that has never happened.

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Myst-Uru News Wk20 2012

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It has been some time since I wrote about Myst or Uru. These were the first virtual worlds in which I played. Myst Online: Uru Live was my first Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). When it closed in early 2008 I became one of the D’ni Refugees living in Second Life®.

Myst Inspired Devokan Tao

From time to time one hears of the Myst community in Second Life or OpenSim worlds and their affect on and contributions to these worlds. Hamlet at NWN wrote:  Myst & Uru Roleplay Regions Leave Second Life to Be Beautifully Reborn on OpenSim Grid. That is a bit of an overstatement. It is probably more accurate to say some regions closed and moved to other grids, but the people are still in SL. Now they are also playing in other grids too.

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MetaReality Week 20

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Metareality Podcasts

I was curious what is going on with SL9B and what the LEA deal was about. I saw that there was something about it in MetaReality’s lates podcast, May 18 – link.

Remember. At best I only paraphrase. While the podcast is intersting, there isn’t much I wanted to expand on or things I was that into… so I didn’t write much. But, the time marks should get you to anything you want to hear.

00:20 Start with SL9B

I’ve been busy with RL clients and not keeping up with SL. So, the cast was interesting. Daniel Voyger has a good article in what will be happening: SL9B resident centralized birthday formal announcement.

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#SL Server News Week 20

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We did not get a roll to the main channel this week. The Region Crossing Phase I package failed in Release Channel (RC) testing. Since it failed, no new roll. It was worked on and is now running on Le Tigre and Magnum.

Region Idling

I wrote a short piece on that a couple of days ago. See: #SL Region Idling. That code is now running on Blue Steel.

OS Updates

The Lab has been upgrading server operating systems (OS) to a newer Debian version. Week 19 we saw 3 days of intermittent service in the evenings as backend systems were upgraded. This week Tuesday’s typical restarts were used to upgrade simulator OS’s. I don’t have any information on whether all the simulators were upgraded or not.

Missing Info

RL has been busier this week. So, I’ve missed some meetings and the Lindens are lagging getting the transcripts posted. So, I won’t have any more news until they post or I hear something from this afternoon’s meeting.