Are the 'Standard Sizes' files still available?

[v2nguard Dismantled]

Hello. I'm rather new to secondlife and looking to create clothes. I'd like to someday get a devkit, but I know I have a lot of work set out ahead of me before I can do that. I have a lot of experience as an artist in general (in the past I've made a full-time living off 2D art and painting), and a handful of knowledge about 3D modeling - though nowhere near as vast. But I do very much know my way around blender, and I'm excited to learn the bits about modeling itself that I don't know yet. For the most part I am right now making furniture and accessories (though I haven't released anything on the market yet), but in between I'd like to just do some experimental things with clothes, at least for myself, for now. 

The block in the road here is that all resources have pointed me to the Standard Sizes found in the marketplace, but the dropbox link doesn't work anymore, and doesn't seem to have since sometime last year. Is there anywhere else I can find these? 

I've seen a few discussions where people have brought up fitmesh, but I'm a bit confused on that also. I wear the Maitreya body, and for the most part things that are labelled XS will fit me. I wouldn't be able to dream of getting the maitreya devkit right now (if ever? from some of the comments I've seen...), but I don't quite understand if the fitmesh will fit me (and I guess, someday, others) if I were to create on it, or if I would also still need the standard sizing avastar models as well. 

Thanks!

[Chic Aeon]

I don't want to be encouraging but it is a VERY long road to making clothing.

You can get the default avatar file here: http://blog.machinimatrix.org/avatar-workbench/

You can get an approximation of sizes here:  https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Standard-Sizing-Package-Updated-Male-Female/2894727

I don't think anyone was thrilled with standard sizing, but I do understand you have to start somewhere.

 

Along that "somewhere" road, you might want to look into Marvelous designer which is pretty much what most folks use to make clothes these days. Of course MD is just the first step in clothing creation for second life and for that most folks use Avastar.

BUT my best suggestion would be to zip over to Sansar, sign up and get a 45 day free trial (I am pretty sure that is still available) of MD. You can also get a shorter trial from the Marvelous Designer website. 

IF you make clothes in MD, Sansar does the rigging for you (the hardest part in my estimation) so you could PLAY and LEARN and even sell a few things while learning.

 

Good luck!!!

 

[v2nguard Dismantled]

Thank you very much!!! 

I do actually already have access to Marvelous Designer. A friend of mine is a modeler and was willing to let me use their subscription when they're not, at least until I figure out if I want to put more energy into the clothing side of things and need it more often.

I understand it's going to be a long road. I've already gone down quite a lot of those with art in general! So, even if never get to the end of it, I'm excited for the learning. Thank you so much!

[Kyrah Abattoir]

This is going to be an unpopular opinion but i'd strongly recommend not touching MD until you have acquired a strong skillset with Blender alone, there is a lot of ground to cover in the many tools that Blender provides.

[v2nguard Dismantled]

Thank you, but as I mentioned, I do already have what I believe is a good handle on blender's tools and functions. While I'm still learning, I understand the workflow of everything that others in this forum have suggested people learn, and have since before I came to secondlife. I have used blender in the past, just never professionally, and in addition to taking classes when I was younger, I am still doing research on blender, modeling, and creating assets for video games.

I don't mean to say I have nothing to learn, I know I do, but I also know a lot of people dive in head-first, and that is not what I'm doing. I am also not looking to make and market clothes right out the gate. Again, as I mentioned, I'm just looking to fiddle with it and get a feeling of what's involved in between my current work on objects, like when I'm taking a break.

Thank you!

[Kyrah Abattoir]

On the topic of standard sizes, a while ago Penny released the "Vitruvian shapes". Might be worth checking out too.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Vitruvian-Shapes-Full-Perm-Set-122/4426725

Edited February 18, 2019 by Kyrah Abattoir

[v2nguard Dismantled]

Thank you!

[arabellajones]

The problem with Standard Sizes is that they were an attempt to get around the problems that were solved with fitted mesh. They're from an era when people didn't know how to make mesh clothing that changed shape when the underlying body did. They're not a bad answer, just obsolete, but they also tend to over-emphasise the slightly caricatured body shapes common in Second Life.

I use Avastar, and with that you don't need to use standard sizes. But you do need to use the correct devkit, matching the clothes to the mesh avatar. That can lead to problems. There are some mesh avatars which have no easily accessible devkit: either it doesn't exist, or the body creator is very careful who is allowed to use it.

I've never tried Marvellous Designer, but the videos I have seen leave me feeling that it generates meshes with far more triangles than are needed. That pushes up the Complexity, partly from the number of vertices needed in the mesh, which needs more effort to render in the viewer, and a bigger file to deliver over the internet.

I make my meshes by hand, and rig them with Avastar. I have the devkit for my mesh body, and I think I get good results. I think it helps that I have some idea of the structure of sewing patterns, which influences my UV-mapping. That sweater is UV-mapped so that I could use a tiled texture for the normal map. The panels are lined up so the structure of the knitting comes out looking OK, not like the UV map of the classic avatar.

[Nextio]

I suggest skipping standard sizes altogether.  Start designing with Fitted Mesh if you want to design for classic avatars.  If you want to design for the latest mesh bodies, then go to their respective stores and find the dev kits for Maitreya, Belleza, Slink, Altamura, Ebody,  Signature, Tonic, etc.  Look for both female and male dev kits.   After that, look on youtube for tutorials, but make sure you find the updated tutorials, otherwise most tutorials will show you how to design for standard sizes.

If you're still confused, then look up Themightyginko tutorials.  Her channel is updated with the latest process.  She uses a very outdated Marvelous Designer version though, but it shouldn't be too difficult to follow along.

Edited March 11, 2019 by Nextio

[Janet Voxel]

Couple of things here. You absolutely can get dev kits for some bodies with no problem: eBody and Tonic (even sking, yeah I know)come to mind. Those creators wisely made those kits available for everyone. 

Sure you won’t be designing for the big three, but it’s enough to get your foot in the door as far as modeling, rigging, texturing a usable product. As your skills develop and you have your store, you can eventually get your kits for the big three. Most of them have a requirement that you have a store, which to me is like an entry level job requiring that you have 5 years experience. That’s just me though.

Marvelous Designer is a good tool to use. You absolutely have to retopo the mesh when you import it into blender though. That’s going to tack a half hour to an hour+ back on the time you saved using it to begin with. The later versions have a quad function. Version 8 is supposed to have a better quad function of all, but I haven’t messed with that one yet.

Definitely start with the kits you can get first though. There are more than enough to get you started.