What clothing will work with a mesh avatar?

[Myra Wildmist]

I'm making a list, sort of. What clothes won't work with mesh avatars?

It seems a lot of shoes won't work, particularly if they shape your feet. So I guess this means the shoe shapers don't work with mesh, is that right?

Attachments seem to work fine. My hair does.

Also, textured clothing doesn't seem to work. Why is that?

Newb questions, but I'm trying to sort through all of this. Maybe we can put together a list of what won't work and what will.

Thanks for the help

[Lindal Kidd]

I don't think ANY traditional clothing (well, maybe prim attachments) will work with a Mesh avatar.  Remember, Mesh is a different, um, underpinning, a new way of defining your avatar shape.  The old clothing layer textures won't map to it, and foot shapers won't affect it.

I hope someone will explain why I'm wrong...because otherwise the people using mesh avatars are going to have a hard time shopping for clothes. 

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

I think a lot of it will depend on the alphas included and the lockdown of what shape you can use.  Also, if you wear a shirt with an alpha from one person, a skirt with an alpha from another.. Then a pair of boot with an alpha?? Um.. You can see the problem.

 Right now its the newest buzz word and everyone is hot for it, but when people start realizing what you "can't" do..... I think meshes for clothing "parts" wont be as popular as people think.

 however I can see full avatar meshes being so.  So you will buy (for a bazillion L$) the Cindy avatar or the Bob avatar/ Sorta like poser.Of course all this is just my opinion...

 

 I did see a great hoodie mesh that looked nice, I was impressed with the sleeves and their movement. Then I put my boots on and lost the alpha on the hoodie.. yuck.

I have noticed that the mesh clothing is plain and mostly in simple colors with very little detail. Maybe a fat logo splashed across a hoodie..

 

 

 

[Ishtara Rothschild]

Probably only clothes that were specifically designed for a particular mesh avatar as well as legacy prim hair and resizable prim shoes (with the exception of shoes that require a change of the avatar's heel shape, which only works with regular avatars).

Textured clothing doesn't show up because the regular avatar body is not visible when you're wearing a mesh avatar on top of it, and probably also an alpha layer. A mesh avatar is basically an attachment. You can't apply a clothing layer to an attachment, only textures. And even if you buy full perm clothing textures, you'd need to adjust them for a different UV map and bake them on top of the mesh avatar skin.

Sculpted clothes probably won't work either, since most of them are partially made of textured clothes (a textured jacket with sculpted sleeves, for example).

Even mesh clothing made for regular avatars might not work with a differently shaped mesh avatar (but mesh clothing also won't fit regular avatars that happen to be fuller or thinner than the Barbie shape that the clothes were designed for, so their use is pretty limited in any case). 

[Darren Scorpio]

Only mesh clothing will work with a mesh avatar (and prim clothing). Also probably the mesh clothing will have to be made specifically for that avatar.

[Myra Wildmist]

I have a mesh avatar I'm demoing.

Yep, there's a great, big alpha layer that turns me into the invisible girl. Then I start putting on body parts - feet, head, torso, hands. This is very different from the former way of doing things. Attachments seem to work. My shoes look horrible.

So texture clothing doesn't work, because the mesh avatar is essentially an attachment over the existing avatar?? So the mesh avatar doesn't really replace Linden's underlying avatar?

Thanks, everyone, for the info. This really helps.

 

[hibit Spad]

So,mething else to think about is that the mesh clothing witll probably not move with the mesh avatar.  So there is a chance the mesh avatar will poke through the mesh clothing.

[Coby Foden]

---

hibit Spad wrote:

So,mething else to think about is that the mesh clothing witll probably not move with the mesh avatar.  So there is a chance the mesh avatar will poke through the mesh clothing.

---

Mesh avatar is rigged to the avatar bones, so it moves with the bones. Mesh clothing is rigged to the avatar bones, so the clothes move with the bones too. When the clothes are made to fit the mesh avatar, the mesh avatar will not poke through the clothes.

If the clothes are not rigged to the bones, then the clothes will not move with the bones. So the movement of the clothes depends only on the fact that are the clothes rigged or not rigged.

[Coby Foden]

---

Tarina Sewell wrote:

 I did see a great hoodie mesh that looked nice, I was impressed with the sleeves and their movement. Then I put my boots on and lost the alpha on the hoodie.. yuck.

I have noticed that the mesh clothing is plain and mostly in simple colors with very little detail. Maybe a fat logo splashed across a hoodie.. 

---

You know, we can wear many alphas. If you "wear" alpha it replaces any alpha what you might have on. If you "add" alpha it does not replace existing alpha what you might have on. So, in your case you can have the hoodie alpha on and also the boots alpha on at the same time.

Good texturing is an art itself and it takes time and skill to do it properly. Mesh does not limit how detailed the texturing can be. Texturing can be very detailed with complicated colors and highlights and what not. It's just up to the designer what they are willing to do. For example, I made rigged short miniskirt, applied detailed texture on it and added some higlights on it. Looks nice and detailed detailed. As an added bonus, I made it to fit my own avatar shape, so I don't need to wear any alpha under it. Just normal pantie will do. :smileyhappy:

If Linden Lab develops mesh so that it conforms also to morph targets instead of just the bones as it does now, then the mesh clothing will really become very usefull as it will deform with all the the appearance sliders. Then one clothing item will fit all avatar shapes.

[Myra Wildmist]

---

Coby Foden wrote:

---

If Linden Lab develops mesh so that it conforms also to morph targets instead of just the bones as it does now, then the mesh clothing will really become very usefull as it will deform with all the the appearance sliders. Then one clothing item will fit all avatar shapes.

---

That will probably make all the difference in the world or the second world.

Right now, mesh is a bit limited, but stil nice for some things. I like my mesh dresses. However, my mesh t-shirt looks awful, because it was designed for an av with ridiculous dimensions. The hoodie I tried looked weird, too. It was nice the way it moved, but was about 2 sizes too big.

[Rage Riptide]

The quality of a mesh will depend entirely on the toplogy the creator uses. i.e. that shoulder. Made properly, it would bend nicely with little or no noticable texture deformation.

One must create with respect to animation in the mesh topology if it's gonna move at all, most especially in and around joint areas.  Something static... doesn't matter.

There's going to be an awful lot of bad mesh being made and sold in SL.

[DanielRavenNest Noe]

---

Ishtara Rothschild wrote:

You can't apply a clothing layer to an attachment, only textures. And even if you buy full perm clothing textures, you'd need to adjust them for a different UV map and bake them on top of the mesh avatar skin.

---

You certainly can apply a clothing layer to a mesh avatar which is designed for it, which my Tirion Designs one was.  I have fishnet stockings and makeup over the base skin layer in the latest version as examples.  My clothing layer uses the same UV map as the underlying skin.  It's an improvement over the standard avatar by having toes, separate arms, etc. Having an alternate clothing layer which uses the original (quite awful in spots) UV mapping to make use of the large amount of existing clothes is a good idea.  I will try to include that in a future version.  Thank you for the idea.

Every time someone says you can't do X with mesh avatars, that prompts me to find a way you can.  Your's and other's comments about "everyone looking like Barbie" gave me the idea of "mix and match" body components. The 8 main parts (Feet, Legs, Hips, Torso, Arms, Hands, Face, and Skull) would come in different shapes and sizes, but designed to fit seamlessly with adjacent parts.

Clothing being limited to the one designer who made the body shape has been solved by providing 3D templates to use in various 3D programs.  Those are simplified versions of the avatar model which can be used as "dress dummies" to fit the clothing around.  A better solution will be to have mesh attachments morph with the underlying appearance sliders, but we don't know when that will be available, if ever.

Got anything else that can't be done, so I can find a solution for it?  Shoes are on my to-do list with alternate foot shapes for heels (right now it's only set up for barefoot or flats).  I consider my avatar a "beta" version.  I know it isn't finished, but I wanted  animators, skin artists, and clothing makers to try out and give feedback.  What has surprised me the most is how many people have bought it to wear as is, in it's unfinished state.