Mesh clothes

[simmy2 Foden]

Can someone please explain why there are so many varieties of mesh hair BUT every second store is selling the same mesh clothing?

 

I love mesh clothes but at least with prim clothing there was variety...everyone didn't look like they had just stepped out of Pleasantville

[Amethyst Jetaime]

The designers are not making the mesh themselves, They are buying full perm mesh models that are already made and just texturing them. There are only a few creators that sell mesh models for clothes at this point so that's why you see the same thing all over, just textured different.  Hopefully this will change in the future as more designers learn to make mesh clothes, because you are right, at this point I don't see much creativity and I don't want to look like everyone else myself.

[Peony Sweetwater]

Throw into the mix the 'mesh deformer' project. Existing mesh clothing will not work with the deformer (or so I've been led to believe). So while I'm working to learn mesh and will put out mesh clothing in the future, spending many hours to create and upload something that could be defunct in (say) a month is unappealing.

 

[Suki Hirano]

Not many people are talented or patient enough to create their own mesh models. Thus they strive to make a quick buck by reselling other people's models with minimal changes. It's no different than those "business-in-a-box" crap several years ago except now you gotta open photoshop and spend about 5 minutes editing the color balance then making a few patterns using preset brushes. The good thing is usually these kit items are cheap, not over 100L, and often free. The bad thing is there will always be d-bags who attempt to sell these for stupid prices hoping people won't realize it's from a kit, and of course if too many kit items exist it deteriorates incentive to create original models.

If you want original mesh stuff, check out:

- Aoharu

- Coldlogic

- Ison

- Leezu (most her stuff are original, some kit stuff)

- Baiastice

[Spinell]

I want to tell you a story, something that happened to me yesturday.

I was on SL, doing my thing, when I see someone on the Builder's Brwery group chat asking about mesh. I make mesh, so I jumped into the conversation. She was telling us how she really liked a certain mesh top on the marketplace but how it was incredibly expensive, 3000L$, and if anyone knew why that was so and if there was something similar on the market for less.

I asked to see this amazing mesh top and she IMed me the link: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/MESH-Couture-Top-Style-1-Rigged/3264031

My eyes poped out, my ehad exploded, I was outraged. WHAT?! A measly, undecorated, simple corset top for 3k?! Are you insane?! This is basic mesh clothes building! I told her I couldn't believe what I was seing and she told me she really liked the top, but didn't want to spend so much on it. She also told me she was trying to put together a wedding gown for her SL wedding and wanted to do it in mesh because the regular fashion wedding gowns have not changed from 3 years ago. She knows, she checked 3 years ago for a wedding gown. She checked again now, and they were all the same.

She told me how SL fashion had basically hit a wall and that mesh could be the steppping stone to greater things, but that everything that was mesh was either the same template painted in different textures, or originals that were insanely overpriced.

I told her I was so angry at this that and that this was such basic modeling that I would do one for her, exactly like that, is she payed me the uploadd costs. Took me 30 minutes to make it, tweek it and balance out the alpha mask, but other than that, it was an exact copy, preatty much. I told her if she wanted me to texture it or if she wanted t d it herself and she said it would be wonderful to do it herself, so I have her the outline of the top along with the shadows.

Next, since I knew about mesh, she wanted to ask me why the heck was the skirt she bought, to be the bottom part of her wedding dress, was acting strangly. I asked to see it, she TPed me to her place and OH MY GOD! I was again horrified: the skirt had a cone shape with a bit of tail on the back, kin of pooling over the ground. Problem was, when she moved, the skirt lifted up, following the movement of her foot. It looked atrocious! I asked how much she paid for it and she said about 1000L$. And guess what? Not only as it horribly textured, but it came with no alpha mask.  I don't have the link for this one to show you, but I garantee you it was a rip-off.

I said f*ck it, I already made you the top, I'll make you a decent skirt to go with it and you can even chose the design. She said she wanted a victorian-esk look and I specialize in victorian   What was actually wrong with the skirt was something we mesh creators call "weighting". For mesh clothes, this basically means the way the mesh moves with the avatar's body. In the case of a long skirt, it can't mov with the feet, or else it's a disaster and looks awful.

This one took me more time, because of the weighting, but eventually, after 1-3 hours, I made her a long skirt with a bustle, three bottom layers of ruffles and a pearl linning on the top ruffle. The weighting could have been a little better, but the girl said she absolutely loved it and thought it was fantastic. Again, I gave her the texture, the shadows and a proper alpha mask to properly hide it and I even had to tweek the corset to fit perfectly with the skirt, but it took only minutes.

She gladly payed some L" for my trouble, I won't say how much but it was way less than the 3k she was willing to blow on such a simple mesh. I wanted to share this story with you from my point of view, as a new mesh cretor, just starting out, trying desperatly to make high-quality products and then watching something so simple being completely exploited and then something that was basically broken and unwearable, in my opinion, that got a free pass just because it was MESH and it's a novelty.

MESH is not over-rated. MESH is nto an enemy. If you think mesh doesn't fit well and looks terrible compared to slap-on textures and prim skirts, it's probably because the mesh wasn't made properly. If you think mesh is too expensive to be accessible, it's because you're looking at someone who's selling mesh at an outragously expensive rpice because it's a novelty.

Keep a keen eye out and always. ALWAYS try the DEMOs before buying any mesh. If you think it doesn't move like it should, don't buy it. Contact the seller or talk to mesh creators to get their opinion on the matter. If you think the price is too high for smething that seems so simple, don't buy it. Contact the creator and ask them what is the reason for such a high price.

Just a few tips that might save you 3k.

And I apologise for the massive wall of text

[UncommonTruth]

I'd love to see a pic of your finished dress :matte-motes-big-grin:

[Spinell]

The one I made for the girl?

Sure. Hum, not sure if I can post the pics here, so tell me if there's a problem.

Also, these are from blender, untextured, so sorry if it looks a little crappy. ^.^'

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

Someone should point out that the L$3000 top IS a full-permission top meant for other clothing makers to use as a base for their own work instead of being meant as an end-user product though.

[Suki Hirano]

$3000L for a fullperm simple corset with no textures is NO.

Go on renderosity, what simple corset is $12 USD? Not only that, SL "full perm" things do not come with the actual COL/OBJ model. All you get is a model with the creator's name on it. On Renderosity they actually sell you the files, WITH the textures and all the templates. It's essentially selling you all the ingredients of KFC instead of only selling you the chicken. Furthermore, SL kits can only be used in SL, while anything on Renderosity can be used for anywhere, including commercial games.

With those reasons, no fullperm kit should be $3000 on SL. Since it only has 1/3 of the features of an actual 3D kit featured on professional websites, it should be 1/3 the price, ie, at most $3-5, or around 750-1000L.

[Coby Foden]

Wow! A Foden. :matte-motes-big-grin:

I seldom see other Fodens inworld anymore, nor in the forums.  Good to see that not all are gone yet.  :smileywink:

[ShazneyValentine]

Great story, liked reading it.