Developers Kit?~

[Lilliel]

Greetings, people..!

Since this question didn't seem to fit the 'Answers' topics, I believed this could be the most suitable place so to ask..!

 

So, allow me to. Let us say that there is a specifi mesh-shape seller which I admire. I've seen, recently, another resident making use of one of these mesh-shapes, which is, however, a custom one, that seems to mix the lower parts of a specific shape, and the upper ones of another.

 

Considering that this same seller offers one of those Developers Kit, I wonder... How does one can create these mixed/customized shapes? Is there any specific tools other than a possibly offered Developers Kit? And what skills does one need in order to make use of these Kits?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Lilliel]

Greetings, people..!

Since this question didn't seem to fit the 'Answers' topics, I believed this could be the most suitable place so to ask..!

 

So, allow me to. Let us say that there is a specifi mesh-shape seller which I admire. I've seen, recently, another resident making use of one of these mesh-shapes, which is, however, a custom one, that seems to mix the lower parts of a specific shape, and the upper ones of another.

 

Considering that this same seller offers one of those Developers Kit, I wonder... How does one can create these mixed/customized shapes? Is there any specific tools other than a possibly offered Developers Kit? And what skills does one need in order to make use of these Kits?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Dilbert Dilweg]

I assume you are talking about mesh kits?

Depending on what the seller provides in the kit will determine what you can or can not do.

Most kits give you the objects and then the UV maps. The UV maps are what you will need to use for Texturing the objects. So knowledge of Imaging programs like Gimp or Adobe photoshop is necessary. you can learn as you go. There are a lot of Youtube videos that can show you how it is done. If the kit seller provides the  mesh objects thru outside download then you will need Blender or any other 3D modeling program to create and or edit the shapes.

http://blender.org

[Nalates Urriah]

Developers tend to provide different things in their mesh kits. The idea of most kits is to allow you to upload the item and be listed as the CREATOR. In those kits for mesh items that usually means a Collada (.dae) file will be provided that you can upload to SL. If the file were of an avatar then the Collada file might have the head, upper body, and lower body parts. Or... the avatar might be made as a single part. It depends on the developer.

To mix an match different items the Collada files for those items would need to be imported into a 3D modeling program like Blender or 3D Max. The mixing and matching would happen in the modeling program. The result would be exported as a new Collada file.

So, this is going to require some knowledge of how the modeling program works and the oddities of Collada export/import for Second Life. You'll also probably need to be knowledgable enough about modeling to figure out what the developer was doing and how his creation works. If it is s imple item, this 'figuring out' should be no problem if needed at all.

The short explanation: You change the shape of an item by changing the Collada file in a modeling program.

 

Changing the color or design/pattern on an item is a matter of changing the texture SL uses to paint the item. Most developers provide a UVMap with their product. You will probably know these as a clothing template. Chip Midnight and Robin Sojourner  have popular version of the basic system templates. Those are UVMaps of the basic SL avatar.

You use the UVMaps provided in kits the same way you would a Midnight or Sojourner template, which typically is edited in GIMP or Photoshop.

 

[Lilliel]

Thanks immensely for all the helpful explanation, peeps!