Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Today I saw Blender has a new release out. I don’t see any changes, just a lot of bug fixes. But, the page is only current to an f5 build. This one is an f9 build. So, I doubt this version is much different than 2.70. If you are having Blender troubles definitely update.
I strongly recommend downloading and using the ZIP versions over the Install version. Once you unzip look inside the folder and find blender.exe. Right-click it and select pin to Task Bar and you are ready to rock.
AvaStar is on RC version avastar-1-1-1052_blender-2-65. Changes: wip: cleaned up the mesh_morph functions for better readability Alter to rest Pose now also works for automatic weight from mBones Removed obsolete print() call from previous commit Blender: Using Brush Textures in Blender – This is a good texture painting with brushes based on textures. [youtube 7FobUOuISak] … Read more
Well… surprise, surprise…
There is an excellent thread in the Second Life™ Forum about the designer side problems of getting fitted mesh to fit. See: Blender/Avastar [Fitted Mesh]: Need help/advise with a few issues. Posted by Zakiel Windlow the problems are clearly expressed. Zakiel includes a great set of images to show the problems.
Zakiel explained where he is coming from and what he has realized, “A few weeks ago I was using a workflow that gave me good, fast and (more or less) SAFE results:
Standard rigging and 5 or 6 sizes (or more). But I wasn’t happy, anyways. I always wanted the “fitted” mesh so all the girls could use my clothes without problems or restrictions. That was what I thought or was expecting.
Now I realize that with the fitted mesh there are restrictions too; and the workflow (for now) is harder, longer and not safe as the standard rigging. I have to check the fitting with big breasts, small breasts, big+high, big+low, small+high, small+low, big+close, big+open, big+high+close… You get the idea… And what works for 1 combination probably won’t for the other…”
Numerous people are running into the problem with their mesh clothes creations not working well with the Second Life avatar. Gaia Clary’s latest comment in the SL Forum is here:
2014-04-14 06:35 AM – edited 2014-04-14 06:36 AM
Maybe I [Gaia] can add 2 remarks here:
- You could use the Morph targets to create a dummy character and implement the SL Shape sliders to shape the dummy into the SL shape. Then you can use that dummy as reference for making your mesh garments of course. But note that the morphs themself [sic] take no active role in the fitted mesh deforming.
- If you wanted to create something reasonable then you would create some sort of controllers that modify the Collision Volume bones. If properly done, then you could immediately see how your mesh would react in SL with changing slider values.
The main problem is to understand which bones are affected in which way by which slider. Most of this is noted down in the avatar_lad.xml file. And yes, in Avastar we actually have ported the SL Shape slider system into Blender This works as intended for the dummy itself. But for the mesh garments there is still something wrong (so right now we do not have a complete solution )
BTW: Blender allows to export shape keys to Collada, so in theory you could take our workbench blend file, then export the character with shape keys, and then try to upload that to Maya. Maybe that works, maybe not, I have never tried it myself.
At the Content and Mesh Import User Group we got some new information on the problem and what it might take to fix it. Don’t get your hopes up. It looks like we are going to have to learn to work around the problem. But, At least we know what the problem is and can quit wasting time searching through viewer code.
Update: Ditko University’s in-world location closed May 28, 2014.
Somewhere in the information flowing past me I came across The Ditko University and the classes they teach. Their class schedule is here: Ditko Class Schedule. This item caught my eye: Blender Avastar Animations 101 by Haven Ditko.
I’ve done animations, but my animations (about 6) were done before I got Avastar. While I did a lot of work figuring out animation retargeting last year, I was having a tough time of it. Blender had problems at the time and I am a novice when it comes to animating. So, I wanted to check out this class and make sure I have a good understanding of the basics.
Early in Week 14 Gaia Clairy put a new video on YouTube. This is a bit of a revision to an earlier one and I think a clarification of the note card she sent to group members of Blender Avastar in-world. I reviewed that and published my understanding of her instructions in: AvaStar 1.1-1039 Released. … Read more