How did you get started creating mesh for SL?

[takemasaa]

It's all a bit overwhelming and I've looked everywhere for guides, but there's a billion guides and I don't even know where to begin. Creating the mesh object and textures isn't the issue for me... I'm good on that front. It's more stuff like, how the heck do I rig properly? (I did rig something, but something went wrong in the process as it isn't being detected as rigged in the uploader on SL). Where do I get dev kits without having a shop already established? What is the post-rigging process? Every guide says to go get Avastar and I'd be willing to make the purchase if I knew for certain this is something I could digest, but as a starting point, man this is rough. I'm not sure what is my misunderstanding since I've been going without much guidance at all due to just how overwhelming it is to find information..

Those who learned mesh for SL all started somewhere, so I'm just wondering where people started, how they got started.. I don't expect to learn over night, and it's definitely a complicated thing to learn, but I'm at a loss for where I can even make baby steps in learning how to do all of this, especially rigging, getting model dev kits and then using those model dev kits, post-rigging fixes, etc.

[Lelani Carver]

It was very easy signing up for a Star Mesh Body dev kit. The Blender School group run classes in Discord and inworld, and have YouTube videos covering basics, clothing creation, and using dev kits.

[takemasaa]

2 hours ago, Lelani Carver said:

It was very easy signing up for a Star Mesh Body dev kit. The Blender School group run classes in Discord and inworld, and have YouTube videos covering basics, clothing creation, and using dev kits.

The Blender School hadn't popped up for me in my searches somehow, so thanks! I'll check it out. I do love in-world classes. I'll also look for some lesser known mesh bodies or ones that are easier to get... Never heard of that one you listed. Seems like Maitreya is pretty strict about the person already having a shop of ~10 mesh items, and Legacy requires a mesh made with their classic body (hell, I don't even know how to get that one), so I'm out of luck with the big name bodies T_T

[Quarrel Kukulcan]

A jump start of years of experience dabbling half-butted in Blender before returning to SL after a decade-long haitus and discovering it had mesh uploads now.

Lots of forum scanning.

Experimentation. (Make an beta grid account! Learn to use local textures!)

[Janet Voxel]

I got started because a friend of mine who built kept telling me I should get into it. He kept saying mesh was the future. They had free courses at builders brewery. I remember taking a few courses with Haven Ditko on how to model and rig clothing in blender. I think it was 2.49 that’s how long ago it was.

I think you can still find her tutorials on YouTube. They’re pretty dated, but the concepts are still good.

[BinBash]

On 6/25/2023 at 5:09 AM, takemasaa said:

It's all a bit overwhelming and I've looked everywhere for guides

I can toss you my newest Blender School kit, it'll help you get started in a good direction.  We affectionately named it Nit-Wits which is right to the point, very basic stuff.  Along with that I'll hand you other courses for when you're ready to learn advanced techniques.

Just contact me in-world, I'm BinBash Resident

Good luck in your adventures, it can be frustrating but incredibly rewarding once you've established a work-flow.

[Thecla]

I've heard a lot of "oh you need to use <program> to do that, much easier than Blender" more times than I can count. But I have spoken to numerous content creators that I respect who basically use Blender for their entire workflow, including rigging, with superb results. I think there is some benefit to learn the Blender workflow and get comfortable with it before you buy and learn another product for that.

One issue with Blender is that there are literally a dozen different workflows for doing any given thing...like texturing, and it is difficult to know in advance which workflow that you've seen in half a dozen tutorials will work best for your specific project. I just consider it part of the learning process...when you have some comfort level with different workflows, it gives you a better view of the landscape of alternatives and what workflow to use for what project.

[atyid]

I recommend you start with something easy to rig, like hairpins, nails, rings, anything which won't use multiple bones, or unrigged accessories or trinkets.

The Second Life beta grid is made to test your products. If you don't feel confident in it you can ask friends to beta test or hire testers.

Legacy is an easy body to get a dev kit for. They will give you the dev kit for Mesh Body Classic first, to make a piece for and upload to Marketplace, and then give you the dev kit for their new Legacy body.

Utilizator has free dev kits, if you're happy to make items for furries August Heads and Apricot Paws have free dev kits. Anime and furry communities don't have super strict rules, you get the dev kit when you purchase the product, some you don't need to buy anything.

With dev kits you can do rigging without Avastar. Here's a super basic guide. I recommend you don't transfer weights and go into Object Data Properties > select the bone you want to rig to > Weight Paint. Doing it by hand has better results.

Good luck, feel free to contact me if you want any help!

[Quarrel Kukulcan]

9 hours ago, atyid said:

With dev kits you can do rigging without Avastar. Here's a super basic guide.

You can rig in vanilla Blender, but your mesh will deform in SL if you rig to Fitted Mesh (ALL_CAPS) bones unless you use an SL-supporting add-on or you use an armature that has extra custom properties and you export with an extra checkbox checked. There might be dev kits out there that happen to have that special data in their armatures, but I wouldn't put money on them all having it.

There is also the option of rigging only to basic and Bento bones, but then your clothes will ignore many body shape sliders and will be bad at matching the wearer's measurements.

Quote

I recommend you don't transfer weights and go into Object Data Properties > select the bone you want to rig to > Weight Paint. Doing it by hand has better results.

You can get cleaner weighting that way, but if it's too different from how the body is weighted, your clothes won't flex exactly the same way as the body and parts will clip through when the wearer moves. (This may not be an issue if the body has enough alpha control. YMMV.)