Mesh rigging.

[Herpes Melodie]

Heya everyone,

I'm thinking about playing with the whole rigging idea but have no clue of where to start. I'm using Maya and have zero experience when it comes to animation.

I'm about to do some tuts about how and what rigging exactly is and how it works, but I was wondering which things I need to watch out when specifically rigging models for SL. (I have been looking on Wiki and the forums for information about this, but couldn't find any.)

If somebody could give me a short summary, I'd be happy. And do I need to start with downloading .obj files by looking for them in-world somewhere in the menu, or the 'bot' file from wiki? 

[Maxwell Graf]

Once you get the rigged skeleton into maya with the default avatar obj. (or any mesh object) There are a couple of very simple steps to get your going:

1. Make sure you are in the animation panel, and have the animation shelf selected.

2. Position your mesh obj. so that it is as close to your avatar skeleton as possible, scaling where needed. If you are importing the default mesh shape, the zero point should place it exactly where it needs to be over the skeleton.

3. Select your mesh obj. or avatar mesh obj.

4. Select your skeleton from the center hip joint (this is the main or "parent" joint for the entire skeleton, and defines the zero position for any animation) Once selected, the entire skeleton should show as selected.

5. Go to the SKIN menu at the top of the maya interface. Select MENU > SOFT BINDING (rigid bind will not work with SL) The options box for Soft Bind is where you will go later on as you learn to adjust weights and rigging properties.

6. Once you have selected SOFT BIND your avatar skeleton and the mesh avatar should both show as selected, with the skeleton bones showing a variety of colors.

7. While both are still selected, EXPORT them as collada DAE file. You will need to have the collada plugin installed and running for this to work. Make sure that your UV mapping and any adjustments to the UV map have been done PRIOR to skinning the object to the skeleton.

8. Open SL and import, then rez the item on the ground. At this point, most likely it is very small, unless you accounted for the scaling from maya to SL.

9. Import your texture for the mesh, place it on the item, and take it back into inventory.

10. Wear the item by choosing it in your inventory, or selecting add to your current outfit.

This is only the most basic steps to get your started, but should allow you to have a working, rigged item to wear on your avatar. You will most likely need to wear an alpha underneath the item so that it will not show through. You may also create a custom alpha texture to apply to the various alpha segments that you check if you edit the alpha clothing item while worn.

Good luck!

[Catwise Yoshikawa]

I did download a default rigged avatar somewhere months ago, but I don't rememeber where I got it ^^' Anyway I just found this in wiki http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh/Rigged_mesh

[Herpes Melodie]

Thanks Max, this will be helpful!

Catwise, the wiki link appears empty to me

[Catwise Yoshikawa]

ops, not sure what happened, I just edited link ^^

[Teqi Falta]

hi, how to ."Make sure that your UV mapping and any adjustments to the UV map have been done PRIOR to skinning the object to the skeleton."

i made an uv map for the mesh but what means "to have done PRIOR to skinning the object to the skeleton"

[Chosen Few]

---

Teqi Falta wrote:

but what means "to have 

done

 

PRIOR

 to 

skinning

 the 

object

 to the 

skeleton"

---

It means complete the model itself before you bind it to the skeleton.  Model it and UV map it, then bind it.  Don't try to bind it first, and then UV it afterward.  That will really mess things up.