Aquila Kytori

Hi Drongle Thank you for taking look at this . I tried your suggestion of 1: Source mesh object (Red anchor), Edit mode, Snap cursor to a vertice, select all, Mesh>Sort Elements>Cursor distance,and selecting vertice,Edge and Face. 2: Repeat above for the Object mesh (Yellow anchor) 3: Select Yellow then Red anchor mesh and Transfer UV map as before and the result did look alot better. But ................ in my original Transfert UV map borked UV's of the duplicated anchors ...... on close inspection I saw that each quad/tri in the UV unwrap was a separate island and now with your method i still have some tris and quads that should be part of a bigger island but are still separate islands, see image below. Tedious is much to short word to describe all the work that would be necessary to get the UVs of all the anchors neat and tidy! So tomorrow I will just have to finish the hand editing of those Uv's that I started editing this afternoon. Lesson learnt. When ever possible UV unwrap originals before duplicating. Edited to note: At least one time in my workflow this "wires and anchors mesh object" was joined to the "wings mesh object" which has an Edge Split modifier, perhaps somehow the 'wires and anchors mesh object" still contains a memory of this in its data ? This could explain why when this mesh is UV unwrapped using the Transfert UV map method all the tris and quads are separate islands?

My project in Blender (2.75a) at the moment is a bi-plane which is now all UV unwrapped except the wires and struts mesh object that support the two wings from the fuselage. This part of the mesh (1 mesh object with a mirror modifier ) contains multiple (20) duplicated copies (in Edit mode) of a part that anchors the wires to the wings/fuselage. What I’m trying to do is Unwrap and edit the Uv’s of one of the anchors then Transfer the UV mapping to all the others. Dree explained how to do this in this post: https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/Blender-mesh-texture-problem/m-p/2923670/highlight/true#M31326 message number 8: note 3 and a 1 minute video showing the the process can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gORp5LC9xZk So what I am doing is this : 1: Selecting the 3 parts that make up one anchor point , adding seams , Unwrapping and scaling and repositioning the resulting UV islands. 2: One by one I select each anchor point and make each one a separate mesh Object. (P to open Separate menu and then choose Selection). 3: I Shift select all those objects, selecting the one I UV manually unwrapped last. 4: With them all selected I open the Make Links menu with Ctrl+L and choose Transfer UV Maps. 5: With all the anchor objects still selected I Shift select the original mesh (the one the anchor points were separated from earlier) and use Ctrl+J to join them all back to one mesh object again. The result is that instead of all the anchors being unwrapped and mapped identically to the original one I manually unwrapped, only one of the anchors has been unwrapped and mapped correctly the rest have been unwrapped incorrectly. To illustrate this I have separated four of the anchors to a different .blend file and coloured them: Red, Blue, Yellow and green. The Red one is the one that was given seams and UV unwrapped and the resulting islands scaled and repositioned in the UV space. The Blue one got unwrapped scaled and positioned correctly. The Yellow and Green ones got unwrapped and scaled and positioned in the same space as the RED one but only partially unwrapped the same ! Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening and how to fix it ? I have tried applying Location, Scale, and Rotation even though this should not change anything because the Original Shift+D duplicating and dragging was all done in Edit mode. I have even tried giving each anchor the same seams as the original one but that didn’t change anything. I have tried exporting all the anchors to a .obj file then importing into a new .blend file. Didn’t change the result. If someone would like to take a look at it and try to figure out why the Transfer UV Maps is not working as expected I have uploaded a .blend file which only contains the four coloured anchors to here: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/37728 At the moment I have 2 options : 1: Delete all but one anchor point, unwrap that one and then use it to replace the ones I deleted. The difficultly with this is that there are 20 anchor points on each side of the air plane that have to be replaced and edited to get the correct rotations etc. I started doing this but its very difficult to get them in exactly the same position/rotation as before. 2: Add seams to all the anchors , Unwrap and manually (with help of snapping tool ) reposition all the islands. I started this as well but sooooo many islands to sort out I decided to take a break and ask here for a possible solution J HELP !

What I meant was this : In the first image, Bake A i'm baking both materials : In the second, Bake B, I have disconnected the Material 2 noodle connection to the Material Output node This could be another option open to Chic untill someone explains the correct way of doing it

Hi In the node setup of the materials that you don't want to bake out have you tried disconnecting the Material Output node? The result I get from doing that is the materials that have been disconnected bake out black and the one material that was left connected did seem to bake out quicker.

Hi Later you may want to use the "leather" material (node setup) again in a new project. One way (I don't know of another way) to do that is to Append that material into the new blender file. In the new Blender file and in Object mode: File > Append > navigate to where you saved the original Blender file which used the material you want to re-use > Left click on the Blender file > Material > Choose the material you want from the list of materials > then hit the Append from Library button. The material will now appear in the list of materials in the new Blender file.

Hi To follow on from Kwak's post here is a interesting TED talk on fashion and some other things that don't have copyright protection If i remember correctly I think it was Chosen Few who linked to this video in another of the copyright threads.

For 99% of UV islands that need straightening i find myself doing by hand as well

Thanks for getting this done, I tried to figure out editing normals in Blender a few weeks ago and got absolutely nowhere. Now i can try again one afternoon this week Have you seen/tried this updated Normal editing tool panel in the Blend4web addon yet ? https://www.blend4web.com/en/article/131 It looks a little bit easier to use than what the Blender devs came up with . And a Youtube Blend4web video showing some normal editing

Hi Its difficult to be sure but it looks like your mesh is all Quads so you could use the Follow Active Quad method from the UV Unwrapping menu. Here is a earlier thread from these forums that shows two ways of doing that : https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/That-magic-keystroke-thing/td-p/2319603 Message number 10 shows the long way and in message 12 Dree explains the quick way. I suggest you do it the quick way then scale it to fit your rectangle.

Hi Robin Talon wrote: This becomes a fun balancing act, doesn't it? Standing on one leg maybe fun idea to start with but can become tiring after a while, but that's when the real fun can begin You don't have to accept the default auto generated Medium, Low and Lowest LOD meshes. They often don't look very good. Try experimenting by making your own LOD meshes. and load them up in the LOD slots as you did the High LOD mesh. Also remember that parts that can only be seen from the inside of your building don't need to be seen from a long way off. Which could mean they can be eliminated completely from the lower Lod meshes. Just a note: all the materials you assigned to your High LOD mesh must appear somewhere in each of the lower LOD meshes. Here is a recent post that covers a little about creating lower LOD meshes and keeping any UV unwrapping intact across the lower LOD meshes. https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/Any-advice-on-ways-to-line-up-UV-islands-for-the-different-LODs/td-p/2935850

hi In Blender if you change the Units to Metric then 1 meter in Blender equal exactly 1 meter in SL. How to change the Units ? Check out message number 5 here: https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/LOD-models-Blender-workflow/m-p/1897967#M19379

Hi ResonantBlackBlood wrote: ...........I am wondering if there are any *free Blender Female Mesh model's I can use for making cloths because that's all I am lacking when using Blender. I found Avastar but it costs money, ........... You were so close to finding what you were searching for when you were at the Avastar/Machinimatrix website. Check out Avatar Workbench (free) here : http://blog.machinimatrix.org/avatar-workbench/ and read everything on that page

Ooops, seems like i'm a bit late with finishing this but hopefully it will be useful for some future project.......... Another method you could have used............. The Celtic cross is symmetrical abut two axis so is an ideal subject to use the Mirror modifier on. A background reference image should be set up to be centered to the center of the 3D editor. The mirror axis always passes through the objects Origin point and in Blender when you add a mesh primitive its origin will be where ever the 3D Cursor is located. So it it is important to have the 3D cursor at the center of the 3D view. Therefore start by doing that. Shft + S Cursor to Center : The Mirror modifier is so useful that if the above is too confusing then I urge you to check out video tutorials on using Blenders Mirror modifier and experiment with it .

Hi In orthographic view go into a view that is looking straight on at the front of your mesh. Select all the faces that make up the front of your mesh and then open the UV Unwrap menu and choose Project from View. Repeat for the back view and then for the edges. Then go to your UV Editor window and scale the UV islands so that the front UV unwrap is using as much UV space as possible without stretching in the Y axis then scale the back etc to fit the rest of the space.

Splatulated wrote: do i really have to start over from scratch keeping that cube around to make it all a 1 prim mesh object ? No, if you don't want to use the starting cube as the table top then just delete it. Normally the table top and base/legs would be all part of the same mesh object. The table top would be assigned one material in blender and the base a second material. Both would then be UV unwrapped. (WTF is that ! ? So many videos on youtube explaining what UV unwrapping is and why it is necessary) A SL cube can take 6 different materials/textures, one face could be given a yellow colour , one face a red colour, another face could be given an image texture and a fourth made transparent like in your table top, and a fith face set to glow...... Well the same thing can be done with mesh objects. A mesh object can have up to 8 material faces. A material face is any collection of faces on the mesh that have been assigned the same material. When rezzed in world you would edit the table (with two materials) and then select the table top the same way you would select an individual face of a SL prim cube and set it semi transparent, then select the base and give it the blue marble texture. Remember this is one of the many "crap" meshes you are making just to learn the basic skills. For one thing you are using far to many vertices in the circumferences of your Cylinders. When you first add a mesh primitive in Blender, in Object or Edit mode, before you do anything else hit the F6 key on your keyboard. A little menu will pop up where you can edit some of the primitives parameters. For a Cylinder the first parameter is the number of vertices in its circumference. The default value is 32 vertices. If you want to keep the LI of your mesh low then you should change this to between 12 and 8 for something the size of the tubes of your table base. Smaller the tube the less vertices it will need. Sometimes for very thin tube four vertices is enough. How can a tube with only 8 or even 4 vertices look round when rezzed in world ? You change the Shading type from Flat to Smooth. Also tubes using Smooth shading will have a lower LI than the same tubes with Flat shading. So that' another thing you need to ask Google about : Blender Flat and Smooth shading Nobody ever said there wasn't a lot to learn when first starting with mesh

I don't think your paying enough attention Splat ! You now have 12 mesh Objects in your scene. If you were to upload that to SL it would be like having 12 prims linked together. With SL prims that is necessary to get the complicated shape but with mesh the same shape can be achieved using a single mesh object. That's one of the reasons you start with a basic mesh primitive in Object mode then do everything else in Edit mode (adding legs to tables for example). But this is only learning the basics so i guess its fine for now. BTW you can join all those legs ect to be one mesh object : In Object mode select one of the leg parts and then holding down the Shft key select each of the other objects (or use the A key to select all of them together) then use Ctrl + J to Join them all together. (Or from the 3D window header open the Object menu and choose Join.) Snapping can be quite tricky sometimes So i would suggest you do a search for that with Google. Below is a screen shot of where you can enable the snapping tool, then you have to choose from the next little menu along what element, vertice, edge, face etc to snap to. ok , I have other things to do now Splat. Again I urge you to watch some beginners turorials. One last thing If you are not already i would suggest you work in Orhtographic view. Me/ shuts down PC and races for the door before splat has time to read the above and ask more questions Your well on your way to creating that "crap" you spoke about earlier in this thread. lol

First thing In Blender every mesh primitive you Add in Object mode will be a separate object. So if start with a cube and then add 4 Cylinders in Object mode you will have 5 separate mesh Objects. If you add those 4 Cylinders to your scene with a cube in Edit mode all 4 cylinders and the cube will be one mesh object. Which is what you want if you are creating a table. So start a new Blender file with the cube already in the 3D window. Then go into Edit mode to add the 4 Cylinders for the legs. (or better still add 1 Cylinder and create one of the four legs, then select all of that leg and use the keyboard shortcut Shft + D to drag a copy of it and move it to the position for the second leg). For scaling see my post above. Just to recap: if you are making one mesh object ( a table) once you have the first mesh primitive in your scene do all the rest of the meshing in Edit mode.

LMB = Left Mouse Button RMB = Right Mouse Button Blender is designed to be use with one hand on the keyboard and one on your mouse. but you don't have to use shortcut keys Below is a screen shot showing where to change from Object to Edit mode and alternative to using G, S and R But please please watch some turotials

Thats perhaps because you haven't looked at any video tutorials? lol Reopen a new Blender session so that you only have the cube in the 3D window. You will be in Object mode. Then use the TAB key to change to Edit mode. It is in Edit mode that you do all your modifications to that cube. A key to toggle select All/nothing. With all the cube selected use the S key to Scale, R key to Rotate, G key to move. X for X axis, Y for Y axis and Z for Z axis In combination: to Scale your cube along the Z axis its : S Z drag mouse, then LMB to validate the transformation. In Blender its RMB to select and LMB to validate.

Why are you using the Grease pencil ? lol Tab into Edit mode then use the A key to toggle Select All on and off until you have nothing is selected. Then use Ctrl + Tab to bring up the Mesh select mode menu and choose Face. Use the RMB to select a face. Pess E to extrude that face and drag the face outwards. Then validate the movement with the LMB. Repeat untill your Octopus has the correct number of legs

I to have very little artistic skills thats why I almost always start a project by collecting reference images. Lost of them. Sometimes even, these can be loaded directly as background images in Blender (plans for an aeroplane for example) and literally traced over with vertices. The vertice parts can then be assembled (as shown on the aeroplane plans) and and the spaces between filled in with connecting faces. and the result can be perfect. But to do that you need to learn the basics first, navigation around the 3D view, and how and when to use the handful of the most commonly used tools. In other words you start by making "crap" (which you don't sell lol ) and after piles of crap you will have the skills to create stuff other people will want to buy Don't be afraid of creating "crap" !

There are alot of 3D model libraries to be found on the Internet from where you could download a ready made mesh and open it in Blender. BUT 1: It would probably be against SL TOS to bring it into SL. Why? Basically you have to be have 100% IP rights (Intelectual property rights) to that mesh. You have to own all the rights to the mesh. The only way to guarantee that is if you made the mesh from scratch yourself. 2: The mesh probably would not be optimized for real time rendering. Which means when you brought it into SL the LI would be very high. (especially on an octopus table ) Anyways it has to be alot more satisfying to be able to create something in Blender yourself and then bring it into SL even if to start with it is only something quite basic like a chair or simple table. Like most things to learn the basics of blender you need the will and alot of practice. (and a notepad to jot down the shortcut keys). Use the SL beta grid to do your test uploads because there Uploads are free. And come back here to post a screen shot of your first mesh in SL. Tutorial number 5 from the link i posted above covers and intro to Blender Edit mode Splatulated wrote: is there an easy way to get an instant object that resembles or is an actual thing ? In the list of mesh primitives in Blender there is a Monkey head SHFT + A to Add a mesh to your scene and then at the bottom of the list is a Monkey

Hi Splat You are almost right To rotate around an object its : Hold down your Middle Mouse Buton/scroll wheel and then move the mouse. MMB and Drag You can find quite a good Blender for beginners tuorial series here : Just a note: There are two modes to working in the 3D window, Object Mode and Edit Mode. You add your original mesh Primitive in Object Mode then use the Tab key to toggle into Edit Mode. Its in this Edit Mode that you do all the modelling stuff like changing a cube primitive into a chair for example. The camera and the light in the 3d window view you wont need to worry about for a few days/weeks/months yet .

Hi I don't use Maya but the workflow has to be similar to Blender so i'm only mentioning this just in case its something you were not aware of ......... You didn't mention how you created those 6 UV tiles or anything about assigning materials. In Blender I would assign 6 different materials to the relevant faces and then UV unwrap each material one at a time. So for your case the faces of the mesh for each or those UV tiles has to have thier own material assigned to them. Select all the faces that make up the first UV tile and Assign them a material. (Lambert 1) Select all the faces that make up the seconf UV tiles and assign them a second material. (Lambert 2) Repeat for each UV tile. For SL one mesh object can have a maximum of 8 materials. I found this video tutorial on assigning materials to faces in Maya You have to do the same thing as was done to the sphere in the video at 3:45 . If this is what you were already doing ........ I would guess its a problem with the Collada exportor ? If you knew all this already .....well no harm done

Don't give up now ! Starting with a copy of the of the high LOD Wee jar (16 vertices in circumference) and with textured applied in Blender its just a case of selecting every second vertical loop and Dissolving it to get it down to the 8 vertice Lower LOD version. Then do the Dissolve on as many horizontal loops as possible. In the gif below I deleted the bottom of the jar and the faces that made up the lip of the lid. Note: in the gif you don't see the Delete menu popping up all the time because sometimes I used the keyboard shortcut keys for Repeat Last Action. When I started with Blender I remember I had a lot of problems understanding how to get a texture made in Gimp to appear on the mesh in the 3D Edit window. But really its a very simple process. In Edit mode you need to first select the mesh and then select the Texture, and that’s it. The Texture is now assigned to the mesh. You then change the Viewport Shading mode from Solid to Texture to be able to see it on the mesh. A quick way to select the texture is to simply open the UV/Image Editor and then Open the texture there. Once you have this high Lod mesh showing a texture, Tab into Object mode, and make a copy of it, Shft + D. Move the copy to a different layer, keyboard short cut M. The copy is the base for Creating your lower LOD mesh by Dissovling edges.