n0minous

@OptimoMaximo I realize now that I should've said auto-retopology instead of retopology in my initial post that you quoted, which probably caused a misunderstanding. I also didn't realize that remesh was a term that was commonly used nowadays as a synonym for auto-retopology, which I was mainly arguing. I was wrong about this since I haven't used remeshing tools for a long time. I completely agree with what you're saying though that manual retopology is most accurate for creating clean low poly models, yes. Hopefully we're straight now lol.

@OptimoMaximo The author of ZRemesher and Quad Remesher also calls it auto-retopology in discourse and I think "remesh" is more of a brand name that's used in context of his tools. Mainly cuz it rolls off the tongue better lol. Retopology is more correct historically and I think we're arguing semantics at this point. Yup, I'm familiar with the dynamesh to ZRemesher workflow for adding fine details. The scope of ZRemesher and Quad Remesher seems to have been extended to hard surface retopo in recent years: http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/topology/zremesher/ https://polycount.com/discussion/208030/quadremesher-new-auto-retopo-plugin-for-maya-3dsmax/p1 Again, they're not quite there yet compared to retopo'ing manually in traditional poly modeling software. You can see ppl being excited about progress being made in this area much like auto UV unwrapping tools. I wouldn't be surprised if their algorithms become advanced enough to use in production (with minimal cleanup) within the next decade or two.

I'm pretty sure they mean games like beYou, zombie sims, etc. I might be wrong ofc. 🤷‍♂️

I agree, but I'm not sure whether ZBrush should be included in the list since it has ZRemesher for retopology and ZModeler for polygon modeling. I know that it can't compare to traditional poly modeling software, but it's something. If someone is dedicated enough to 3D sculpting to buy ZBrush (no small investment), it's pretty much a given that they'll learn the high to low poly pipeline if their goal is game asset creation. Especially since most beginner 3D artists are trying to break into the video game/film industries and have CGI-centric communities like ZBrushCentral, polycount, and Artstation to learn from more experienced artists, but I digress. This is a nice PSA for realtime content creators who don't pay much attention to optimizing 3D models, textures, etc. I'm curious how many creators actually visit the SL forums though. Since SL's performance is highly dependent on the creation of optimized assets, I think Linden Lab should make a better effort to reach out to beginner/intermediate content creators. Can't they leverage their SL Youtube channel and invite experienced content creators for interviews to offer advice? The ppl who need the most help are those who don't ever read this and similar threads imo.

You can learn most of the SL content creation pipeline by searching through the knowledge base, wiki, and forum. I started by reading mesh/texture/physics model-related articles on the knowledge base and wiki first, had a lot of questions, and searched the forums for answers. When searching the forum, I suggest using the "find results that contain all of my search term words" option. I also suggest taking notes in a word processor since there's a lot of SL-specific info that might be hard to memorize at first and so you can avoid searching for the same thing repeatedly.

@Darksteelhorse Yeah, those seem to be internal lines using the fold settings.

@Kyrah Abattoir I don't have any experience creating hair cards and I just wanted the OP to know the importance of searching forums for info since many solutions can be found by digging. I was a bit too hasty in finding a good solution this time, though. By delving more, I was able to find a goldmine and it seems that using alpha blending only for the tips of hair that require translucency is best in order to minimize sorting issues: Ofc creating hair cards that both avoid sorting issues and create the illusion of volume can take a long time to master. I didn't mean to say that you can just layer cards on top of each other willy-nilly and I apologize if it sounded that way.

Yw, you could try using alpha blending and alpha masking for different layers of hair or reordering the vertex indices as recommended in this thread . If you haven't already, I suggest using the forum's search function since a lot of solutions to common questions are available.

I think Double Sided only works in Blender though or at least collada doesn't seem to support exporting double sided materials. Also, aren't SL's backfaces always transparent? I might be wrong since I've only researched forum posts from like 2012. @Carrie Galaga This post describes duplicating a plane and flipping the normals so that the texture appears on both sides. Idk if you have to move them apart to avoid Z-fighting, but he doesn't seem to for leaves.

Try searching for "blender 2.8 bake normals from high poly to low poly" on Youtube and you should get plenty of results. This page on the polycount wiki contains a lot of detailed info concerning texture baking. It's not Blender-specific, but the info there is pretty much universal across 3D modeling software. The shading artifacts could be caused by any number of things. To control shading on the low poly model, I enable shade smooth in object mode, enable autosmooth in the properties editor > object data properties tab > normals, and increase the angle to 180'. Then I select edges in edit mode and use mark sharp in order to place sharp edges exactly where I want them instead of relying on lower autosmooth values to place them for me. You should be able to find plenty of tutorials on this on Youtube too. Concerning the recommended tri count, it's hard to tell since you haven't mentioned your art style (realistic vs. stylized) or the size of the avatar you're creating clothing for (gnome, human, or giant). You generally make certain areas of a model more or less dense depending on how close you think the in-game camera will normally view them. That way, you can minimize faceting on the model's silhouette if you're going for a realistic art style. You typically use less tris when creating stylized art, but again, it depends on a lot of factors. It's a juggling act between making the model look good from certain distances, optimizing the tri count, and repeating until you're satisfied. That's general advice and I'm sure more experienced SL creators can offer some SL-specific advice.

Thank you, I usually make hard surface objects like weapons and props, but I'm also interested in creating clothes. I'm having trouble deciding what to create for SL since there's so much freedom. All the cool stuff I could think of requires scripting, rigging, and/or animating lol.

I was able to upload a very similar model and it rezzes as expected on the beta grid: It would probably be fastest to solve if you can upload your blend file here for us to test.

Thanks @Skell Dagger! Love your blog btw, I learned a lot about BoM, appliers, etc. from it. I'm kicking myself for missing that free Catwa Freya unisex head lol. The hair is called 85(SNR) from DP Yumyum. I'm mainly proud of the face shape since I got pretty close to recreating one of my favorite singers, Mika Nakashima. SL's sliders are pretty easy to use now and the default head shape seems to be important for recreating faces.

I saw the recent necro in the men's thread, but I'll bite. I'm male and also a prospective content creator who's considering using a female model for product ads. I'm also a penny-pincher, so I'm considering buying just a female head/body for an androgynous male avatar as well for normal use. Haven't purchased the head (Lelutka Fleur) yet since I'm waiting to demo Lelutka Ryn. I'll call this post a social experiment as well since I haven't seen any demo head/body pics yet. 😂 I'm too proud of her to resist not posting lol.

Ah, sorry I meant to say that I've considered 3D modeling (I guess "meshing" is the term used here) accessories a bit larger than I normally would, not becoming a fashion model. 😅