Error when uploading mesh shoes

[Melysange]

Hi everyone,

 

I need your help because i have a problem when i try to upload a mesh. I have a single mesh shoe (for my avatar's left foot) that i would like to duplicate to make it fit the right foot, i think i figured out how to do it, i select my shoe in Blender, then i press ctrl+m+x and it flips my shoe to make it fit my other foot. Until now it all seems perfect, though my problem shows up once in sl when i upload my mesh. i can upload the Left shoe perfectly, though i can't manage to upload the Right shoe (the one that i mirrored) a message comes up and says (i had to translate that cause my viewer is french but basically it says): "Error: problem with analysing the file .dae; check out the journal for more informations"

What does it mean? have i done something wrong? because i tried with other simple mesh shoe, i can upload them but when i "flip" them like i did with the shoes i want to upload, i have this error message again.. I don't know what do do, is there another way to mirror mesh ?

If needed i could post a screenshot of the message i receive in sl if ever it helps :)  

 

Thanx in advance :D

 

Melysange

[Chic Aeon]

Normally you would use the MODIFY FUNCTION > Mirror.

 

I have made shoes this way but not sure if you can mirror AFTER you have made the shoe. Most mirror modify tutorials always have you mirroring as a step close to the beginning.

 Edited to add screenshot. I am using an older version of Blender but it will likely be somewhat in the same place if you are using the newest (on my list to install that - long list).

 

[Melysange]

Hello, thank you for replying

 

So i tried your method and applied a mirror modifier on my mesh foot, it does copy the foot but it looks wrong because it actually merges the mirror version with the original foot and i can't separate them  

 

 

Is there another way somehow to make a copy of the foot/shoe and flip it? 

[jordanit0]

If you shift + s and snap the cursor to center then set your origin of the object to 3d cursor.  Then use the mirror mod and that should fix that problem in your pic. 

[Melysange]

Yaaay it worked thank you jordanit0, i now have a mirrored foot though how can i do to separate it from the other foot? cause i can't seem to find a way to do so, both feet are linked, i can't select just one and erase the other one

[jordanit0]

go into edit mode then wireframe and select one of the feet press p and then click selection that will make them two meshes, each will have the same materials, uv map, textures and where ever else you had on them. 

[Melysange]

Ok i did that but, after wireframing, the feet are still linked, if i click on 1 foot, it highlights the second one too and if i press P, blender gets glitchy suddenly and my screen becomes grey, do you have an idea why? i can't do anything i need to close and restart it

 

that's my screen after pressing P on the foot:

 

 

Thank you very much for your help by the way, i am feeling closer to the end now  

[jordanit0]

No sorry should have explained better you get into wireframe by pressing Z, so once you have applied the mirror mod go into edit mode press z to go into wireframe and select one of the feet and press p then click selection and your mesh now becomes two.

[jordanit0]

You need to make sure you are in edit mode when pressing p in object it mode it does something can't remember what though. If you are not in edit mode (press tab) as if you select the mesh in object mode it will select both as they are one object. But when in edit mode you can select one of them.

[Melysange]

Well actually, when i get in wireframe mode, the feet turn transparent and black, like a black net, i can see the mesh so i guess it's good, but how can i select a foot? because i can't click on it and if i do click on the foot render (on the menu on the right) it puts me back into the object mode

[Drongle McMahon]

Not sure if this is what the problem is, but...

The mirror modifier doesn't really create the mirrored geometry until you nexplicitly apply it by clicking the "Apply" button in the modifier panel. When it's applied, the modifier panel disappears. Until then, the 3D view just displays it as it will appear when it is applied. If you click the icon that makes it active in edit mode, then it even seems thast you can edit the mirrored version, but you can't, as it is just editing the original. You wil see all changes made to either also occur on the other. Since there is no real mirrored geometry, you can't separate it (e,g, by using P). You have to apply the modifier first. After that, the mirrored geometry is actually generate, so that you can select it (all its vertices, In Edit mode) and separate it by using P (or Mesh->Vertices->Separate:Selection from the menu - the menus are a very good way to discover functionality and usually tell you the keyboard shortcuts if you want to learn them).

[Melysange]

Hi Drongle McMahon,

 

This is confusing me a little bit now, if i get it right, i need to apply the mirror modifier when i am creating the shoe/foot, if i apply it when the mesh is done like i did, i can't mirror it properly because it links the 2 feet together that is right? If yes then it means i have to recreate the shoe bit by bit and apply the mirror from the start?

Can i mirror mesh more easily on another program or is Blender the best tool for it yet?

[jordanit0]

OK ive taken some pictures to show one way of doing it. 

Ive used a shoe that is finished and used the mirror mod.

 

Pic 1 shows the shoe mirrored without the mirror mod applied.

 Pic 2 shoe in edit mode without mirror mod applied can only select one shoe as the mirror mod has not been applied

Pic 3 with mirror mod applied, in edit mode you can now select both of them.

Pic 4 I have selected one of the shoes so i can seperate them.

Pic 5 in edit mode with the one shoe selected i have press p and clicked on selection now making them into to seperate pieces.

As you can see in the last pic i now have one called Aurora.Platform.Heels.left and the other piece is called Aurora.Platform.Heels.left.001

You can add the mirror mod when you like be it at the start of making the shoe/foot whatever or when you are done creating.

I hope that is a bit easier to understand. 

 

EDIT 

making it less confusing. 

[Melysange]

Thank you for the screenshots, it helps a lot! 

I did like you wrote and took example on your pictures, but i am stuck on the 4th picture.. i am sure it's very easy to do but, how do you select one shoe? I did it with simple feet just to test, here is what i got:

I have applied the mirror modifier and i am in Edit mode but i don't know how to select 1 foot like you do on the 4th picture.. If i just click on the "foot" layer on the top right of my screen, nothing happens, I tried also to hold the C key and brush the foot i want but then Blender froze for some reason

[Drongle McMahon]

"So you do not need to apply the mirror mod before you have finished your mesh"

I'm not sure what you mean there. You can apply it whenever you like. Before you apply it, changes made to one of the mirrored parts will always happen in both (which is the whole point of using the modifier). After applying it. they will not. Before applying it, you cannot separate the two parts ito separate objects. After applying it you can. Whether you apply it before or after finishing it is entirely up to you. If you want the shoes to be exact mirror images, then you cannot make any more changes aster you apply the modifier. If you want some differences that are not mirrored, then you have to apply the modifier before making those changes.

[jordanit0]

Well what I do is when in edit mode I press z to get wireframe up, then press b (box selection tool) and drag the box over the part I want to separate.  

Or you could do the same instead of pressing b you could press c.  All that wireframe does is makes it easier to select parts that you wouldnt see without having to move around the mesh.

 

Im really not sure why when you press c blender would freeze up never had that problem before.

[jordanit0]

Sorry I was meaning as in they asked "This is confusing me a little bit now, if i get it right, i need to apply the mirror modifier when i am creating the shoe/foot, if i apply it when the mesh is done like i did, i can't mirror it properly because it links the 2 feet together that is right? "

So i was just meaning if they have a finished mesh they want to mirror they can still use the mirror mod, they dont need to start over. 

 

EDIT 

read back over what i said i do see how it can be confusing I just meant that you can use the mirror mod when you like. 

 

Ill change my post to make it less confusing

[Melysange]

Ok i just did it it works i now have separated feet! i did press b and selected the foot, this is awesome, now i am going to test and see if i can upload it in sl.. fingers crossed ^^

[Drongle McMahon]

Perhaps I need to distinguish more clearly between adding the modifier and applying it. When you add the modifier (to the object's modifier stack), everything you have done up till then gets mirrored. So does every modification you make, whichever of the two mirrored things you make the chanfes to. Adding the modifier is not the same as applying it. You apply it when you click the "Apply" button in the panel in the stack (it can also be applied temporarily during collada export). When you do that, it's effects are carried out, instead of just being displayed as a preview, and the modifier disappears from the stack. From then on. changes in either part will not be mirrored. BVefore applying it, you can't separate the mirrored part into a separate object, because it isn't really there - it's just being previewed. After applying the modifier, it is really there and therefore you can separate it. Because "Apply" is used by the relevant button, the term "Apply" is used to indicate this final application of the effects of the modifier. So adding it to the stack without clicking "Apply" is not applying it. I hope that's clearer.

I guess it's a pity they chose "Apply" for the button, as intuitively it could equally reasonably by used for adding the modifier to the stack. "Finalise" or something might have been more clear.

[jordanit0]

Im glad you have got it to work  

 

And I have learnt from this thread I need to be a little more clear and less confusing in what im saying.  

We live and learn.  

[Melysange]

Thank you for your help guys you've been awesome i am so excited now it's like a whole new world is getting opened to me haha

Next step: test how to rigg mesh! 

 

Edit: By the way i was wondering, when in world, is it possible to upload mesh model temporarily for free, just to test and see if it looks right? i know we could do that before with templates but i am not sure we can do same with mesh, and it would be a nice feature because lately i've spent a few lindens uploading mesh but it didn't look right in the end so i kinda wasted my lindens

[jordanit0]

You can use the beta grid aditi you may need to go into preferances in your viewer and allow it to connect to the grid. 

On the beta grid you will need to take the mesh upload quiz again. 

https://secondlife.aditi.lindenlab.com/my/account/ip/tutorial.php?

 

Its free to upload in a sense as you get i think 5k of lindens to upload with.  But when you get close to running out it should get topped up. 

You cant transfer anything you have uploaded to the beta grid to main grid you will need to upload it again on the main grid.

[Melysange]

Ok this is exactly what i needed! it will save me my real lindens ^^ i am going to try it asap, thanx again

[Dree Eames]

I'm jumping in to this thread a little late, but I want to point out a few things for clarity.

Mirror Modifier: If you uncheck "merge" in the options of the merge modifier your duplicated geometry won't connect even if the copy sits on top of the original.  And if by some chance you have the two objects overlapping, once you apply the modifier you can then  select P (in edit mode) and choose the option "seperate by parts".  This will quickly make each part it's own object and you can select one or the other either in the 3d edit screen or from the items list and move it away from the overlapping copy.  The slight drawback to this methoid is if you have many unconnected parts in a mesh.  Each would become it's own object and you may have to rejoin (ctl j)  all those parts that got turned into their own object back into the mesh group they belong to.

But even with the modifier active you can still offset the object's center to avoid overlapping the geomoetry. It's best to take care to place the object's center in a spot away from the geometry or exactly aligned to an edgeloop you want to connect the mirrored copy to when you use the mirror modifier.   Again place your cursor off set from the geometry where you want to place the objects center point, select the object, press shift ctrl alt c and sent the object's center to the cursor.  

There was actually no problem with your first method of mirroring geometry.  However when you do this, either by duplicating an object and scaling the duplicate -1 (negative 1) or using the shortcut CTL M X, your copy is inside out.  So when you uploaded your error was most likely due to flipped normals.  Easy to fix with the shortcut CTL N in edit mode..  

If you mirrored your Mesh in Object mode,  it will appear to have accurately flipped normals, but it will still upload with an error message.  That is because the loc/rot/scale (ctl a) hasn't been reset.  When you reset the mirrored object you will see the faces go darker grey....the face normals are facing in the wrong direction and you need to return to edit mode, select the faces and flip them.

[Melysange]

Thank you for the update Dree, this is quite a lot of informations to deal with and try to remember at a time but i will definitly not forget it.. there are so many things we can do with Blender and it's features, it's amazing ^^