Talented 3D designer wanting to join SL

[ChoiceRider]

She tells me about wanting to understand how to apply her expertise in 3D game design to the creation of SL clothing. What are the steps she should take, courses in mesh/fitmesh creation? I know there is advanced software for this posses, but I fail to recall where I had discovered them. Anyone care to help this gal? She is most sincere.

Thanks for considering these questions.

P.S. Any creator willing to be a contact with salutation for this outside creator, please supply name. I will be happy to forward it.

[Tazzie Tuque]

The first thing she would need to do, is get into SL and create an avatar of course.  After that it is a matter of convincing the body makers to give her the packages to use to rig mesh to their specific bodies.  She would have to apply for the kits.  Any good 3D software will work to make the clothing but to rig it properly and upload it to SL in the correct format will be important.  It could be a long process if she is new and not known in SL.  If she is creating without being actually in SL, I doubt she would get too far with that as both Market Place and or having a store to conduct business would require her to be a member of the SL community in order for her to get the kits, files and models she would need to make the clothing.  If any creator already in SL, was to give her those kits and files, that would be against the TOS and be subject to DMC.  The owner of such items must be the original owner, these things cannot be passed on to anyone else.  IF she were to become a part of SL the software most used to rig, is Marvelous Designer.. She could create in any 3D program but then to rig and weight she would probably need something like that, and it must be uploaded to SL in .dae format rigged and weighted.  There are tons of videos on Youtube designed to help people through the learning curve.  She just needs to search.

[ChoiceRider]

That is the kind of advanced advice she is looking for, thank you.

[HunniHope]

MD is not for rigging. It can be used for modelling/designing the meshes in question but then needs to be transferred to another 3d programme such as Maya or Blender. In conjunction with those, the use of avastar (Mayastar for maya users ) for the rigging/weighting process would be advantageous, not compulsory but it does make life easier. Meshes made in MD will likely need retopo work and all meshes should be optimized with SL in mind as it is unlike other 3D games

[Cackle Amore]

There's the Avastar plugin for Blender, though not required, it certainly helps a lot, and some dev kits for the many avatars around SL might be made with it as well. Then there's the other question of what mesh body she'll settle on as a foundation to built stuff on, from the animes, to the furries, to the current standard human ones.

The human side of mesh body devs seem to be pickier on giving out dev kits from the impression I've gotten, while the anime and furry side tend to just have dev kits sitting there up for grabs. So, unless she's got some portfolio sitting about to "wow!" the human side of mesh bodies, she'd probably be better off starting with the anime/furry half for starting up a clothing store as, like I said, tends to be more welcoming with handing out dev kits to anyone that asks.

Edited June 25, 2019 by Digit Gears