Blender Exporting and Importing Questions

[Deezy Abruzzo]

Hi,

IM trying to export some mesh shorts that i made

I was trying to find some info on the net specific to clothes and my blender version with no luck so I figured I'd ask the forum (again):matte-motes-dont-cry:

Im using Blender 2.64 with the sl support collada exporter built in. Here are my questions/problems

Do I apply the amature modifier before I export?

Do I select the armature and the shorts for export?

In the Collada Export screen, What boxes do i tick or untick?

How do i make sure the scale is right when i import.  (Sometimes its too small or too big)

 

As for the SL Mesh Import... The mesh shorts are not attaching to my body correctly. I click Add and it goes to my wrist or upper body and it obviously does not move along my bones.

Good grief this is a pain. Fix one thing and another problem arises.  I'm such a noob

 

Your help, as always is much appreciated. Sorry if I missed the answer somewhere in this forum. ( I did look)

 

Deez

 

 

[Codewarrior Congrejo]

OK lets go through your questions:

Do I apply the armature modifier before I export?

For static meshes yes .But rigged pants are meant to be moving.

Do I select the armature and the shorts for export?
Generally you only need to export the armature as well when you changed bonepositions (i.e.. When you are making a full avatarmesh and moving the bones in position to fit your new avatarmesh) in this case SL can receive the info for repositioning the bones. But if it's untouched you don't need to export it along. (the weightinformation will take care of defining where its attached to)

In the Collada Export screen, What boxes do I tick or untick?
Helpful is the 'selection only' option to really just export the object/s you have selected.
I usually also check the deform bones only, and the export for Secondlife option.

Edit: in addition you can use the Presets Gaia mentioned here. These contain the mainly needed settings.

How do I make sure the scale is right when I import.  (Sometimes its too small or too big)

There are several ways to avoid having any weird scales on your object:

- to keep it conform to the rig /skeleton and avatarmesh avoid scaling in objectmode. (unless you scale them all together for smaller avatars etc)

- Move the object itself to position 0,0,0 and rotation 0,0,0 and do all changes on position and scaling of the mesh only in editmode. (that helps keeping them in a size according to the skeleton and other meshparts)

- Set your units in blender to metric to have a better grasp of the size (Properties - Scene - Units: Metric)
- And make sure the object scale is 1,1,1 when being metric (when in blenderunits then its 2,2,2)

- always use one of the default avatar files that you can download (i.e.. here : http://blog.machinimatrix.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/avatar-workbench-265.blend ) and edit your clothing item to fit this avatar. (or use an avatar export when you want to make it for a certain shaped avatarmesh) you anyways need the armature and an avatarmesh to 'test' your clothing item and check in posemode if it behaves correctly etc.

- when keeping this workflow your mesh should always have the exact right size.

As for the SL Mesh Import... The mesh shorts are not attaching to my body correctly. I click Add and it goes to my wrist or upper body and it obviously does not move along my bones.

- Did you just copy the weights from the default avatar to your shorts  without any further editing? (just copying alone isn't enough - it will always need some extra work on the weights to make it work correctly. Test as much as you can in posemode to ensure all vertices are moving correctly when the armature is being posed.

- Did you move any of the bones ? Then you might have to export the armature along with the shorts (but in case of some pants I can't see why you would want change any of the bone positions.

- did you make sure to select the include skinweights in the meshupload? (it needs this to be enabled in order to get the boneweights in along with the model -  you can find it in the last tab of the upload window)

- does the mesh contain all needed weight/vertice groups (corresponding to the main bones)? (see the first tutorial series below to find out which weight/vertice groups are needed, and where problems could appear)

For a general 'how to' maybe have a look at these tutorial series here again (because it's too much to type the whole workflow and things that have to be taken care of or can go wrong : ))

• Second Life Rigged Clothing Series: Part 1 -6 
• and Gaia's Tutorial Series http://www.youtube.com/user/gaiaclary/videos?view=0

Some of them are for their product avastar but they teach you also general knowledge of what you need to know.

Hope this helped you, Cheers! Code

 

[Gaia Clary]

When you export to Collada, then you find the operator presets on top of all the settings. In the majority of all cases the two presets "Second Life Rigged" and "Second Life Static" will set the collada exporter just right for your prupose. Actually i recommend that you always use these 2 presets if you export for Second Life. ALl other settings mostly make sense when you intend to export to other game engines or other 3D applications.

Regarding "apply Armature modifier": You do not want to do this, except you want to export a static mesh in the current pose.

Note that enabling "Apply modifiers" in the Collada exporter is safe. This option "knows" that the armature modifier (besides some others) should NOT be applied. However modifiers like "Mirror" or "subdivision" will be applied to the exported meshes.

[Coby Foden]

---

Codewarrior Congrejo wrote:

 

- By clicking 'add' you mean add to an attachment spot, or 'wear'? - wearing is the correct choice when it's mesh. since the weights will define where it attaches to.

---

Since many new users might be reading this too, some clarification for the terms "Attach to", "Wear" and "Add":

Attach to

- with this we define to what attachment point the item will be attached on the avatar

- even though in rigged clothes this does not define where the rigged item appears, the rigged item needs to be attached to some attachment point

Wear

- will attach an item to an attachment point

- if there was already something in the same attachment point, "Wear" will replace it with newly attached item

Add

- will attach an item to an attachment point

- if there was already something in the same attachment point "Add" will not remove it - it just adds the new item in the same point with the earlier item

 

One can use either "Wear" or "Add" - even for rigged mesh items.

 

So whether you use "Wear" or "Add" in rigged mesh clothes, the attachment point does not define where the garment appears on the body - the rigging takes care of it.

For example, we can attach rigged mesh pants to our nose, or left ear, or mouth, or any other attachment point, and the pants will always appear exactly on the right place on the body - i.e. on the place where they where rigged to, not on the nose, not on the ear..

 

[Rahkis Andel]

At least one is -- myself. Thanks for the clarification.

[Codewarrior Congrejo]

@ coby: thanks for poking that in. (edited OP)

[Deezy Abruzzo]

Thank you so much for your knowledge, time, and effort. I think i did scale in object mode ;|  I fixed it i think and i will be trying the export and upload again soon... ( crosses fingers)

 

- does the mesh contain all needed weight/vertice groups (corresponding to the main bones)? (see the first tutorial series below to find out which weight/vertice groups are needed, and where problems could appear)

By this i think you mean adding vertices groups mleftfoot and mrightfoot...  Yep accomplished.

[Deezy Abruzzo]

Ms. Clary,

Thank you for showing me that drop down box. I totally looked over that one. Also, thank you for all your contributions in the rhealm of creating mesh for SL. Without you I would have given up on this long ago.

 

Cheers

[Deezy Abruzzo]

WOOHOO! It worked thank you thank you.

My mesh has tears in them tho lol.  I did something wrong. Go figure :matte-motes-big-grin-squint:

I think i  flipped the norms, recalculated too much and screwed it up. The insides are petruding through the front at the crotch.  I'll read up on it.

 

Thanks again to all that helped.

 

[Rahkis Andel]

- never scale the mesh in 'object' mode.

I'd amend that to "Understand what it means to use transformation tools in object mode versus edit mode." Not only is scaling (or translating or rotating) in object mode okay, it's got some really great uses.

Let's say I am making a house and I just finished the walls, but now my doorways are just bare portals.

I want to make doorframes for all the open doorways, and I know that all of the doorways are exactly the same dimensions...so why bother modeling 3 separate doorframes? Let's just model 1!

Okay, so I have one doorframe, and it is in it's own object, so I can just keep duplicating it at will to fill the other doorways...but I want to do one better. I want to give each new doorframe object an exact duplicate of the original's mesh data...

I use (Shift + D) to duplicate the selected object and looking at my toolshelf in the context sensitive tool parameters, I make sure "linked" is checked.

Now I have a new Doorframe object with mesh data that is linked to the original. I do it again to make the third doorframe...Now I just need to move them into position. Might as well do it in edit mode since object mode transformations are a no-no, right?

Woah, that's not right...When I select one, all of them are selected...what if I go back to object mode?

There we go; now I can select the individual objects and move them without moving the others -- That's weird -- When I'm in edit mode all my changes apply to all linked mesh data but not while in object mode? Oh well, so while in object mode I move/rotate all the doors as necessary to get them into position and...oops. I realize that I wanted the doorways taller.

Of course I'm a 9ft tall runway model, how could I have forgotten? Oh crap...That means I have to adjust all of the doors individually, now! That's like, at least 5 or six more button presses! I'm way too lazy for that.

Wait...In edit mode, everything I select in one is selected in all, right? So If I select all the top vertices of one doorframe and drag them up...

Okay, this is officially awesome.

To recap, moving vertices in edit mode affects an object's mesh data. performing transformations on an entire object simply affects it's transform properties -- equivalent to using a modifier. As soon as you use (ctrl + a) and apply any transformation, the change is applied to the mesh data. You can inversely zero out any transform values an object has in the object panel. Doing this will ensure the object goes right back to looking like it's mesh data tells it that it should.

And yes, exporting this house to Second Life would result in the doors being oriented just as you'd expect, so no worries there, either.

When I was starting out in Blender, the whole object vs/ it's mesh data concept really threw me and it throws everyone I know starting out, so I hope this is explaination is explanitory enough.

Farewell!

[Deezy Abruzzo]

Rhakis,

Thats a great explaination. I think I will have to read it a few more times to wrap my head around it all. Blender has my brain fried atm but I'm sure your post will help me in the long run.

Kudos

[Codewarrior Congrejo]

Heya, thanks for your input on that matter.

For houses and static meshes etc I wouldn't mind fiddling with its object-location/translation/rotation.

But for rigged meshes and work with armatures (which was the subject of the question here)  I rather keep that workflow of not altering the object's L,R,T.

The general scale of the skeleton is important in order to work correctly or even upload in SL. Rotation of the skeleton and its mesh (which needs for SL to be facing towards X - opposed to blender's x facing right) in Object mode can be done as long as they are rotated as such in their local position. (Exception on scale: wanting to make a tiny avatar and change the whole scale of the whole skeleton and mesh)

But switching back and forth in changing the object scale and orientation and then again the mesh's scale in editmode can lead to very bothersome outcomes in terms of rigging and skinning. Especially when those parts already have been parented and weights assigned.

It might be just me but for workflow on these things I prefer to stick with this method in order to have them work out perfectly with the skeleton and rigged avatar mesh:

- create a new (lets say box or polygon etc) move it to the origin / center (which is also where the center of the skeleton has to be) in object mode. Make sure its scale is the same as the skeleton, and bring rotation and location all to zero.

- and from here on switching into editmode and shape / shrink / rotate etc the mesh to fit into the right position and sizing, and begin the subdividing and building of the mesh.

This way I am ensuring that the general translations and scales will always work well with the whole rigg.
(sure you can still apply rotation etc with CTRL+A or move the origin point later again to the center. But it keeps it easier when you keep the workflow clean and not have to rethink that later on for all the parts, plus reduces the appearance of common issues)

Cheers, Code

[Rahkis Andel]

I agree with you completely, no worries.

I just prefer a complete answer over an easy one. I saw this as a highly misunderstood subject and it would be easy to take the easy answer without looking deeper and being no clearer for it.

[Codewarrior Congrejo]

And i don't mind the input at all , so no worries either. =)

(hencing i changed the text in my former post to make it a bit more clear - and to avoid misunderstandings so that newcomers don't think .. omg object scale is bad bad bad! )

And yes object mode versus editmode is a subject that buffles a lot people. And i bet they appreciate your tutorial and explanation on it. : )

[luxaras]

Hi ppl
sorry
I did not want to create another topic...so... I took this.
Maybe someone can help me about something I'm doing wrong.

Every time I try to edit the mesh, it does this:

Also when I move the camera, the mesh jumps up.
Appear like a ghost on top of the mesh.
Always, I do all the correct rituals before importing to SL.
I'm using blender 2.69/2.70.....default avatr bones or created bones....

Exported collada with armature cuz always i need to edit the bones.....:matte-motes-big-grin:

Leveraging the ride...
How do you fix this?

Thx....:matte-motes-big-grin:

 

 

@Edit

Solved!!!

Thx to myself....