I've exported my avatar, now how do I open it in blender?

[Mysterics]

I wached a tutorial on exporting you avatar and opening it in blender but it had nothnig how to make blender actually support that kind of file.

The video showed the person going to file> import> Secondlife Avatar, but my blender has no such thing, a little help?

[Chic Aeon]

I think you need to ask in the MESH forum . And of course the first question is -- what version of Blender are you using?

[sven Homewood]

HOW did you export the shape? Via XML? Then you need the Avastar plugin to read the file and make actually the shape. If you used a 3rd party viewer, you might have saved an .obj (Wavefront) file that you can import to Blender without any plugins/additions to Blender. The Avastar plugin you can get here: http://blog.machinimatrix.org/

[Mysterics]

Blender 2.71.I can't really afford avastar,at least not when I'm only just starting to learn 3D modelling, but I don't think this person used it, unless I'm mistaken.

In which case do you know which veiwer I could use to export the avatar as .obj instead ?

[Callum Meriman]

You will need to buy a copy of Avastar to use your shape in Blender. It's worth it if you plan on trying to do animations or mesh.

 

Otherwise there is an option to export your shape as an Obj in Singularity, but it is NOT a rigged shape, so useless for rigged mesh.

[Sassy Romano]

Phoenix viewer had export to obj format but my answer today is "buy Avastar"

 

You may also want to look at the fee offering that Gaia has but I don't know if that supports xml shape import.

[Nalates Urriah]

There is more to this than most are telling you. See: http://blog.nalates.net/2013/04/23/second-life-shape-export/

Of the various XML import tools only AvaStar corrects for the distortion I mention in the article. You can check the size of the import using a cube in SL and Blender to check the height and arm and other attributes of the avatar.

Then when you go from Blender via Collada to SL, you need to make the opposite correction. Because few people understand how this works they either cannot make tight fitting clothes or the use AvaStar.

[Nalates Urriah]

The video is out of date. With new SL Viewers the XML file is written into:

C:\Users\[win_id_login]\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife\logs\[avatar_name]_####.xml

AvaStar does the only correct, scale/size-wise, XML import that I know of. But, it has been sometime since I checked the other XML importers.

You could get an OBJ export by using the Phoenix 1185. But, they block older FS viewers so you'll have to try that one to see if it will install and run. If it does, know that It also distorts the avatar and you'll have to make corrections.

If you are jammed up and really don't want to spend the money for AvaStar you can ask in the group if someone would import it for you and send you the blend file.