MESH? ? ?

[Panzy]

Can someone please explain to me simply what is mesh? How is it different from sculpties

how do you make it? Blender, maya, etc... how do you learn to use it?

is it possible to rip mesh data off another game, and upload it into SL?

send me anything that teaches this for beginners, I know how to build  in SL but it seems no one does that any more and I can't figure out how to use any of these programs, I have not found any good tutorials.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

You're asking for a simple answer where the subject is not simple.  There is just not an easy way to learn how to create a mesh object to upload and use in SL.  You're not talking about something you can pick up with just a little tutorial reading or watching or having someone explain what's all involved.  A mesh is a 3D model.  Just like those animated movies in the theaters.  The creators of those models generally have a few years of education behind them.....not counting the experience they've gotten on the years.  You can start here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_modeling

After you read through that Google "3D modeling tutorials"........there are several.  But if you don't understand the basics any tutorial is just going to leave you scratching your head wondering WTF are they talking about.  If you are truly interested in learning then I"m sure you can accomplish that.  But it won't be learned here in these forums or even in-world.  It's a whole industry in itself. 

 

You might want to download Blender.......it's free and will do the trick for you.  If you have lots of cash Maya is one the best known 3D modeling programs (Poser is another).  But none of the well known programs are cheap.

 

[Lindal Kidd]

People DO build using the in world tools.  But sculpties and mesh are simply better for some things.

A sculpty is a regular prim that has a special texture applied to it to deform it into an organic shape in the user's viewer.  This "sculpt map" uses color values to represent the 3 dimensional positions of points on the sculpty.  It's a viewer-side process, so the downside of sculpties is that most of them have to be phantom...or else you would interact not with the shape you see, but the original sphere object.

There are some in world tools that make it easy to create and use sculpties.  Check out "Prim Generator" on the Marketplace.

A mesh object is a "true" mesh shape, not the pseudo-shape of a sculpty.  It's made up of a large number of triangular polygons.  Like sculpties, mesh objects are made in a 3D modeling program outside of Second Life.  Some popular ones are Blender, Maya, and LightWave 3D.  Blender is free, and there are in world tools and tutorials to help you use it to get objects into SL.  Visit JASS Island to check some out.

EDIT:  To add to Peggy's reply about it not being a simple matter to learn these 3D creation tools...I have LightWave, and I also have about eight big fat books of tutorials for it.  These programs are like Photoshop...huge software systems with hundreds of buttons, menus, and choices.  If you know what you are doing, you can create magic -- but it's like learning to play a huge cathedral organ with four banks of keys.  To become an expert, you have to use the software, and use it every day, always exploring new parts of it and joining a community of fellow users to learn from them, too.

[Rolig Loon]

If you can make a sculpty, you can probably make a mesh object too.  In some ways, it's actually easier because you don't have to live with all the origami-like constraints of sculpty building.  It is very hard to make an efficient mesh object, though, and you'll end up with a huge PE if you can't do it.  As Peggy says, install Blender (free) and start doing all their tutorials on line.  It will take you a solid month to start getting the hang of it, but it can be done.  Lots of other people have. Even me. Meanwhile, regular prim building is not dead.  We're going to be using our basic SL building tools from now to the end of time.

[Faubio Alter]

The basic difference between sculpts and meshes is the level of detail (LOD) meshes can create. Mesh create a higher LOD then sculpts but not by much. Adding textures to meshes is difficult and can not be done in an effective way inworld they are done with third party software offline or online and not in SL.

Yes, it is possible to up load mesh items to SL from online sources. I would not recommend you steal them though. LOL