wanting to learn how to make skins and shapes with blender

[SAGEofTHEsixPATHS]

i assume this is where i needed to post this but wasnt 100% sure.

so like the title says i want to learn how to make skins and shapes using blender.
more exactly i wanted to know if there is a genral youtube video/channel that can watch and learn all i need to know. if not second best would be something on the web that goes through all the steps needed to make a avater skin and shape.
so if anyone can help point me to the right direction that would be great.

the goal is to be able to use them for my self and maybe sell some on sl market if i can. (added this if it matters or not :)

[Chic Aeon]

If you are talking about a mesh body, then you probably need to know that this is one of THE most difficult things to make. Hence their high cost.  It takes the pros a VERY long time to get things perfect or close to it, then there are huds to devise or have someone else make, so it is not a beginning project and that seems from the tone of your post to be where you are.

 

So if you have not worked a lot in Blender, start with some basic tutorials. Learn how to make other things like furniture and then move on. There are plenty of tutorials on how to model heads out there but I haven't seen a lot on modeling bodies -- of course I wasn't looking either LOL.. There is MUCH to consider so you need to understand how the basic SL avatar body works etc.

 

Typically skins are made in graphics software like photoshop.  Traditional SL avatar shapes are made inworld using the built in software in the viewers.

 

Good luck.

[Nalates Urriah]

Chic's advice is good.

BUT: On SHAPES...

Blender doesn't make shapes that one can import to SL. It is a trick getting shapes out of SL for use in Blender. See: http://blog.nalates.net/2013/04/23/second-life-shape-export/

The shape of the avatars is controlled by parameters, settings. The viewer has a shape parameters exporter. See the article for the menu drill down and information on where the XML file gets written.

Blender has no native XML shape parameter importer. Third parties have made XML converters for Blender. All that I have tested have problems, except for AvaStar. The article explains how to work around XML issues and get things correctly sized in Blender so the export and work correcly for SL.

HOWEVER... this isn't the problem that one may imagine. Whatever item you make can conform, to some degree, to whatever shape an avatar has. You must make "FITTED" mesh using the collision bones. Simple rigged mesh uses the animation or basic skeleton's bones. Mesh respnds to the shape settings in different ways depend on which bones you rig to.

A good YouTube channel for learning about these things is Gaia Clary's.

Hang in there...

 

[SAGEofTHEsixPATHS]

alright well nice to know the diffenice. id like to be able to make both shape and mesh bodies. it seems mesh bodies you can do more with then a shape. but for basic purpose to get close to the shape i want might just want to start with a shape and move on to blender to make mesh bodies after i pracitce.

[SAGEofTHEsixPATHS]

yeah one thing i kept seeing as i was looking this up was xml and avastar which i figured id need no matter what the answer to my question would be. i did watch one video that showed me how to rig the body i want to the sl body/shape and it showed me how to export it. so i do plan on looking at things that will give me more info on that part of things.