Is Avastar-2 still good?

[Rohsie]

G'day fellow Citizens! I'm wanting to learn Blender to steer away from other creators Full perm  Mesh stuff and use addons for SL like Avastar & Sparkle, as I read they're useful for creating stuff for SL. Is that right? or are there any other great addons to use? I read somewhere that there'll be a new Avastar soon, so I think I'd hold off in buying it til then. I haven't seen any updates about this, anyone know anything? Also, do texture artists use Adobe Illustrator to make textures? I have Photoshop CS5.1 only. Thanks for reading & any feedback would be welcomed

[OptimoMaximo]

Hi! Avastar is going through an update to work on the latest Blender version, the 2.8 series, as the scripting API has changed and the previous releases won't work anymore, unless you want to work on the 2.7 series blender. 

As far as textures are concerned, I think that a vector graphics program such as illustrator is not widely used, since the upload able formats are raster images anyway, and most creators work on image editing softwares similar to photoshop, so you'd be good to go with your software in that regard.

[Da5id Weatherwax]

if you purchase avastar now, you will get the version for blender 2.7 as the "current" download but you will get access to the experimental/unstable version for blender 2.8. In addition, folks who purchase avastar now will get extra time on their support subscription. Having been participating in the testing and tracking its progress on the avastar discord I have to say I, personally, am confident that for a purchase now you will get the "ready for production in 2.8"  version with bonus time left over, so you wont lose out buying now - but that is, I must emphasize, only my opinion based on how the testing has been going and the speed with which Gaia fixes any issue that we have discovered. It's not any kind of official prediction, which would be folly to make even if I had the right to do so, which I do not.

[Ulfilas Graves]

I don't see any reason why you can't use Illustrator to create artwork. It will need to be exported as a non vector format though

[OptimoMaximo]

18 hours ago, Ulfilas Graves said:

I don't see any reason why you can't use Illustrator to create artwork. It will need to be exported as a non vector format though

The OP states they have photoshop only and wondering if they had to get illustrator. As I noted in my reply above, many use PS and images in SL can only be raster formats. 

[Wulfie Reanimator]

I bought Avastar for a friend of mine and the 2.8 version seemed like a giant weight off their shoulders in comparison to 2.7.

[Sara Nova]

I already bought it a while ago but my support expired. Is there a way I can renew my support for less than the cost of buying a new copy?

[Jordy Amore]

On 4/17/2020 at 12:09 PM, Sara Nova said:

I already bought it a while ago but my support expired. Is there a way I can renew my support for less than the cost of buying a new copy?

Hey Sara,

Yes, from what I can see, support renewal is half-price and covers a full year.