Spinell

Fixed the sleeves! Took a bit of moving around, but I made it. Now I need to fix some small details on the chest and jacket with the weights. I'll probably paint it carefully.

Ok, after a bit of testing, here's what I've found out: I selected the mesh and then the SL skelleton and tried two types of parenting: Empty groups and Automatic weights. Empty group is what I always used which usually gave me no troubles and worked great, but here, the mesh goes invisible when I try to upload the weights. AUtomatic does the job... just not a good job. The weights, especially the arms, get weird. Here's a quick snapshot of what I got in blender (mesh with the auto weights):

Thought that it. Just wanted to make sure before I started deleting. Thanks! So, I deleted all materials and it still isn't showing up. When I go ito texture mode, the materials applied are still there. I checked the UV map just in case, but there was no image there. How do I get rid of the textures?

Hello everyone. I'm trying to slowly get back to using blender, so I downloaded some free models to practice some modeling and see if I still remembered a few tricks. Then I wanted to try and upload the model to SL to see how it looked. It's mesh clothing, so I parented the mesh, did interpolation 2 and saved collada for SL. However, in the uploader, when I tick the option to upload the weights, the meshs dissapears. Even after I upload it, it rezzes fine on the field, but when I put it on, there's nothing. I went back to blender and noticed that the model actually came with material information: 26 materials actually. Could this be the reason why it's not showing in SL? (If I remember correctly, you can only have 8 materials, right?)

Hey everyone. Came back to mesh building to try and make some halloween goodies for my shop, but it's been a while and I've rn into a problem I can't quite identify. I was hoping you guys could spot it for me: I'm not sure if this is because of the solidify or if I messed up the rigging, but I don't know what the problem is. Help? As always, I'm using blender 2.63

Hi everyone, haven't been where in quite a while. School time's been taking over my mesh creation time. I need to ask one question though. Started working on my first winter outfit, a design like this: http://pinterest.com/pin/130393351680933625/ It's been going very well, but now I need to work on the details and I'm at a loss at how I'm going to make the fur. I've never done fur before. What's the best way to do this? Should I just use textures to fake it? Should I use some sort of sculpting brush? should I use particles? I'm trying to keep the poly count as low as possible, since I want to be able to upload this onto SL and sell it. Any suggestions from fur enthusiasts out there is very welcomed. ;) I'm in blender 2.63

I have the standard sizing package, but I didn't think any of the sizes were relatable to models. Rather than streatching it out myself with little rhime or reason (sounds unprofessional) I wanted to instead get some measurements for the "model body type", apply them in SL then extrat the model onto blender and work from there. That would get me a better starting base.

Oh really? How funny, I thought the people who would normally go for costum shapes would be models because they would want to look more realistic or with smoother curves.

I'm not quite sure this is the right forum to post this, so it might be moved, but anyways: I want to make for the first time an haute couture mesh dress for my store and for events and such. The target is basically models, people who would like to wear and look good in this type of very tight, very tall clothing. Problem is, I never met a model in SL. I believe most people who model in SL buy custom mesh shapes, but I was wondering if anyone knew more or less what were the measurements, in terms of SL default avatar sliders, to make an avatar with the basic similar shape as a model. I'm mostly looking for measurements in term of: +height (particularly leg size) +general body mass +waist size +bust size +arm size and mass Also, if anyone could give me aditional information on a SL model's body shape or event any shopping preferences (hair, skins, etc) that would be fantastic. Thank you all very much!

I've been getting a little bored so I was thinking of doing something different. I wanted to try making an haute couure gown, in a modern-victorian design, to atract some models to my shop. But I'm running into a little bit of a problem: when make my mesh clothes I usually ither use the avatar workbench or the standard size blender file, that I got from the marketplace somewhere. I don't really like the idea of building my dress onto these shapes... I was wondering if: *there was some sort of body mesh for blender that I could get that the general proportions of a model: marticularly the height and body fat. *If first option is not available, then perhaps an avatar model that I could modify, by sliders, likte what we do inside SL, to more or less shape the model into the proportions I need. Also accepting more suggestions. There are just the ones I came up with.

Hi there everyone. It's been a while since I've been here, my mesh advantures have been going well. ;) But I need a little bit of guidence on this one: I want to make a sort of elastic effect. When you have a piece of fabric and you put an elastic on it and pull it to bring the fabric in that direction. I need to recreate that in mesh. I know the explanation is a bit difficult, so I found another example: http://www.floatproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/kitchen-curtain-designs-2012.jpg basially, the fabric is being pulled evenly to the top, which doesn't move. I think this is made using some combination of proportional editing and vertex gruops, but I'm not sure how.

Thank you very much for the opinions! They're really useful for me. Amethyst, you mentioned details like buttons and seams. What more would you like to see rendered as a 3D object and not a texture?

Czari, I have taken that lesson at Caledon, but it didn't help. The part on promotion is too vague and the lesson focuses more on the menus on the Merchant Home. Emma, thanks for the tips, but I'm still clueless on how to get into a hunt. Where do "hunt makers" GO when they want to "recruit" merchants to be a part of the hunt? I belong to the Builder's Brewery group and I never seen anyone recruiting for a hunt. Other than, nice tips. Keep'em comming, I truly apreciate the help.

Hi everyone. I have a reletively enw shop in the marketplace, still no in-world shop until I get some more money rolling. But I know it's possible to do "promotion" for your shop inworld. However, I'm a little lost on this. I really don't know what my options for Promotion are. The only thing I can think of, other than hanging some promo pictures on rented boarda around some sims, is to enter in one of those hunts. But, I have no idea how to enter whenever I hear about a hunt, it's already going on. Also, like I said, I have no in-world store. So, I wanted to ask for some guidence: what are the ways to promote a shop in SL? Thanks for all the support! ;)

I'm a mesh creator, a clothes mesh creator, and while I can very easily identify what a "bad mesh" is... I want to know what do the costumers, the buyers and the requesters mean when they say they're looking for "high quality" meshes. What, for a buyer who doesn't MAKE mesh, does the phrase "good quality mesh" mean? From a tecnical point, I know how to make good quality mehes, but I'm sure that my idea of this is very different from that of a buyer. Tell me what you think: what do YOU mean when you say you're looking for a "good quality mesh"? What re your expectations? What do you expect fromt he product?

Keep in touch.

I'll make it. IM Spinell in SL and I'll give it to you. You want it unrigged?

Hum, I have a few questions on this: +What's a SLAV pluggin? +What viewer are you using? +What did you mean by "works for shapes made by me"? Oh, and thanks for the help, nonetheless.

Hum, I'm very interested int his. I had seen a video about particle hair on youtube and had wondered if ti was possible to put that in SL, but dismissed the idea since MESH hair in SL doesn't look like that, so I thought it impossible. Whenever you have more info on this, please post it up, Drongle. I'd love to learn if it's possible to get this into SL. I had been thinking I would like to do a fur muff for a winter collection later on and wanted a "fur" look for the mesh. This might be interesting.

Same here. There's always something that needs some extra detail, or fix the weighting or sort out a bug. Other than that, I chat with friends, usually as I'm building and I want some company. I ocasionally visit/explore victorian and steampunk sims, because I love victorian. I also used to roleplay, but didn't like it how it plays out in SL, so I kinda quit. Or it could have just been the tight community I was in... But there, those are some suggestions.

The one I made for the girl? Sure. Hum, not sure if I can post the pics here, so tell me if there's a problem. Also, these are from blender, untextured, so sorry if it looks a little crappy. ^.^'

Hey everyone. I befriended someone in SL! She's very nice and got very interested in the meshes I make and sort of wants me as a "personal tailor" of sorts. So, what I wanted to do was give her a simple set of instructions on how she could extract her avatar model from SL onto a file format that I could use in blender, so she can give that to me and I could make the meshes to fit her body perfectly. I have the model of my avatar from SL to use in blender whenever I want, but at the time, the research I had done had got me me only one way to do this, and that was by using the phonix viewer, if I remember correctl. She's not using phoenix, but I'm SURE there's other ways to extract the model out of SL, so I can use it in blender. Anyone know? The simpler the better, since she doesn't understand a lot about mesh (though, she DOES have blender actually).

Thaks very much for the tip.

Hi everyone. My mesh adventures have been going well, as I haven't been bothering you guys so much anymore. XD But I did want a suggestion. Sometimes, I end up building a certain detail in my mesh that requires that both faces, inside and outside, be visible in SL, mostly for texturing purposes. I have been avoiding the solify modifier, but even that doesn't quite solve the problem, since I only need another set of faces in that specific detail, not on the whole mesh. So I wanted to know what's the best and easiest way to fix the problem? Usually what I do is mae a duplicae of the selected faces and then connect the vertices to the original or fill in any necessary gaps, but I figured I'd ask for some more... professional opinions. ;)

I want to tell you a story, something that happened to me yesturday. I was on SL, doing my thing, when I see someone on the Builder's Brwery group chat asking about mesh. I make mesh, so I jumped into the conversation. She was telling us how she really liked a certain mesh top on the marketplace but how it was incredibly expensive, 3000L$, and if anyone knew why that was so and if there was something similar on the market for less. I asked to see this amazing mesh top and she IMed me the link: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/MESH-Couture-Top-Style-1-Rigged/3264031 My eyes poped out, my ehad exploded, I was outraged. WHAT?! A measly, undecorated, simple corset top for 3k?! Are you insane?! This is basic mesh clothes building! I told her I couldn't believe what I was seing and she told me she really liked the top, but didn't want to spend so much on it. She also told me she was trying to put together a wedding gown for her SL wedding and wanted to do it in mesh because the regular fashion wedding gowns have not changed from 3 years ago. She knows, she checked 3 years ago for a wedding gown. She checked again now, and they were all the same. She told me how SL fashion had basically hit a wall and that mesh could be the steppping stone to greater things, but that everything that was mesh was either the same template painted in different textures, or originals that were insanely overpriced. I told her I was so angry at this that and that this was such basic modeling that I would do one for her, exactly like that, is she payed me the uploadd costs. Took me 30 minutes to make it, tweek it and balance out the alpha mask, but other than that, it was an exact copy, preatty much. I told her if she wanted me to texture it or if she wanted t d it herself and she said it would be wonderful to do it herself, so I have her the outline of the top along with the shadows. Next, since I knew about mesh, she wanted to ask me why the heck was the skirt she bought, to be the bottom part of her wedding dress, was acting strangly. I asked to see it, she TPed me to her place and OH MY GOD! I was again horrified: the skirt had a cone shape with a bit of tail on the back, kin of pooling over the ground. Problem was, when she moved, the skirt lifted up, following the movement of her foot. It looked atrocious! I asked how much she paid for it and she said about 1000L$. And guess what? Not only as it horribly textured, but it came with no alpha mask. I don't have the link for this one to show you, but I garantee you it was a rip-off. I said f*ck it, I already made you the top, I'll make you a decent skirt to go with it and you can even chose the design. She said she wanted a victorian-esk look and I specialize in victorian What was actually wrong with the skirt was something we mesh creators call "weighting". For mesh clothes, this basically means the way the mesh moves with the avatar's body. In the case of a long skirt, it can't mov with the feet, or else it's a disaster and looks awful. This one took me more time, because of the weighting, but eventually, after 1-3 hours, I made her a long skirt with a bustle, three bottom layers of ruffles and a pearl linning on the top ruffle. The weighting could have been a little better, but the girl said she absolutely loved it and thought it was fantastic. Again, I gave her the texture, the shadows and a proper alpha mask to properly hide it and I even had to tweek the corset to fit perfectly with the skirt, but it took only minutes. She gladly payed some L" for my trouble, I won't say how much but it was way less than the 3k she was willing to blow on such a simple mesh. I wanted to share this story with you from my point of view, as a new mesh cretor, just starting out, trying desperatly to make high-quality products and then watching something so simple being completely exploited and then something that was basically broken and unwearable, in my opinion, that got a free pass just because it was MESH and it's a novelty. MESH is not over-rated. MESH is nto an enemy. If you think mesh doesn't fit well and looks terrible compared to slap-on textures and prim skirts, it's probably because the mesh wasn't made properly. If you think mesh is too expensive to be accessible, it's because you're looking at someone who's selling mesh at an outragously expensive rpice because it's a novelty. Keep a keen eye out and always. ALWAYS try the DEMOs before buying any mesh. If you think it doesn't move like it should, don't buy it. Contact the seller or talk to mesh creators to get their opinion on the matter. If you think the price is too high for smething that seems so simple, don't buy it. Contact the creator and ask them what is the reason for such a high price. Just a few tips that might save you 3k. And I apologise for the massive wall of text