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Gaia Clary

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Posts posted by Gaia Clary

    Avatar Squashed

    in Mesh

    Posted

    You do not need to remove weights before joining parts. Maybe you try to join parts while the sliders are enabled? This might lead to unexpected behavior (possibly)

     

    • Like 1

    Avastar Mesh Weights Issue

    in Mesh

    Posted

    Hi, Vanilla;

    Sparkles has not yet been adapted to Avastar-2 so it may or may not work in combination (we just did not yet test this) Right now you should use Avastar-1 when you want to use Sparkles as well. Note that for Avastar-2 we have added a "textured" template which contains an Avastar character with Quads. That might be useful as temporary workaround.

    Some general remarks (as it fits well to your post) :

    I know we should have less interface changes, more documentation, and all of that. And actually we are working on this stuff since quiet a while now.

    However most of our time is currently going into improving the functionality, make it work more reliable, and make it less sensitive to "user errors". And this costs an awful lot of time. Right now we do not want to publish yet another development release. we already had 23 of them. The next one will be a release candidate!

    Also the documentation has been postponed until the release candidate is out. We have done this for a reason: Documentation is as time consuming as programming the tools (if not even more). So since the tools are still changing, we wanted to avoid to rewrite the documents over and over again.

    So here is a very brief overview what we are doing right now for the user interface:

     

    • Added long tool tips wherever possible (with explanations for "what happens when this button is pressed")
    • Added "Basic", "Advanced" and "Expert" Views for the Panels
    • Added panel specific general documentation directly into Blender
    • Rearranged the panels to become less cluttered and...
    • Moved related functions into more logical places
    • Added a logging system so we can enable/disable the amount of log information that is written to the console

    Regarding the functionality many things have improved, but the basic stuff from Avastar-1 is still working as before.

    • Like 1

    Avastar Mesh Weights Issue

    in Mesh

    Posted

    Sari6t wrote:

    Hello,

     

    I've been making loads of stuff in Blender and using Avastar with out any issues for what I have been making until now. 

    Lately I've been working on more complex clothing, things with collars and sleeves lol. Yes thats complex for me. Anyway,

    two things that I've not seen. One is that when I select "Fully FItted" the garment and the bones POP up above the avatar. The slides all work pro[erly but now the sleeve openings are at my head. When I test on the Beta site its the same. If I use "Half Way" its fine.

     

    There was a bug with the fully fitted setting. I know it has been fixed in Avastar-2. It might also have been fixed in Avastar-1.7-3 (Please try if it works for you). As far as i remember the problem was that the Deform flag of the Collision Volume Bones was not handled correct when you move the Fitting sliders to the extreme values (0 and 100) 

    However there can be many reasons for unexpected behavior in Avastar and Blender. So it is possibly that your issue is indeed related to object scaling and rotation, or something completely different. These problems can typically only be solved by directly inspecting the models in the blend files.

    uploading a whole rigged mesh avatar with avastar Issues (Blender 2.78a)

    in Mesh

    Posted

    While your downgrade method might work its not the best idea to fiddle with addons that way. I strongly recommend that you do a serious Add-on cleanup. Please do this now and follow this to the letter:

     

    1. Open Blender and then open the user preferences -> Add-ons Tab
    2. Select the Avastar Addon
    3. Disable the Avastar Addon (Do not delete or remove it for now)
    4. Store user preferences
    5. Restart Blender and get back to the Avastar add-on panel
    6. Now Remove the Addon (There is a button to do a complete remove)
    7. Store user preferences
    8. Restart Blender
    9. Now Install the Avastar-1.7.3 Addon (the current release version)
    10. Enable the Addon
    11. Store user preferences
    12. Restart Blender
    13. Be Happy (hopefully)

    Remark: While it is not strictly necessary to restart Blender all the time, it is still the cleanest way to do it. Blender tends to throw errors at you when you disable/remove/install/enable the Avastar Addon in one go :matte-motes-sick:

    Regarding your dae file: Its empty. Avastar did not export anything. I wonder how that can happen. I must admit that i have never seen before that Avastar is even capable to export a collada file without any mesh in it. SO that is a novum :matte-motes-nerdy: 

    uploading a whole rigged mesh avatar with avastar Issues (Blender 2.78a)

    in Mesh

    Posted

    Hi;

    First i want to add some general remarks:

     

    • You do not need to have all 26 bones in the skeleton. Avastar takes care during export that the correct bone set is exported so that the SL importer accepts the collada file. So this can not be the reason for your trouble.
    • Editing Collada files is surely the best way to get into serious issues. Please please please... do not do that unless you know exactly what you do. Please...
    • The Rigging Display panel (or Rigging panel) is only good for display a subset of the Bones. It has no influence on what is actually exported. So i can ensure you that Avastar always exports the correct boneset (as noted above).

    Now lets see what could cause your issue:

     

    • It depends on which version of Avastar you use. Is it Avastar-1.7-3 (the recommended version) or Avastar-2.0-24 (the beta version for testing the Bento Bones) ? With Avastar-2.0-24 you might need to export to "SL Legacy" depending on the viewer that you use foir import.
    • Which viewer do you use? Did you try with the SL Default Viewer ? This should normally work for Files exported by Avastar (to SL Legacy if you use avastar-2.0-24). For Firestorm and other viewers upload can sometimes be an issue.
    • How many different Materials are on your Avatar? More than 8 materials might make an issue (although it should work nowadays)
    • How many faces (triangles) does your character have, and ...
    • And how are the triangles distributed over the used materials? Having more than ~21844 triangles on a Material is troublesome (should work but all so often it does not)
    • Then do you have mesh objects which are separated into small unconnected sub meshes? Like hair strains, mesh eye lids and such? Those can (not necessarily) make trouble as well.
    • One very odd issue can be if you have unintentionally duplicated parts of your mesh resulting in a bunch of duplicated vertices. The SL Importer does not at all like those meshes. -> Take care you have no duplicate verts in your meshes.
    • Another issue can happen when you have a bunch of super tiny small triangles in your mesh. This can make the SL Importer choke as well as it can get into trouble with the physics of the mesh (yes...)

    You see there are all so many possible issues that can cause trouble. However Avastar should warn you if your mesh has problems. Since obviously the tool did not complain in your case, i am very interested in taking a look into your blend file so i can understand what Avastar overlooked here.

    You could also make a test as follows:

     

    • Create a new Avastar character, select the head, upper body, and lower body
    • Export this mesh to collada and see what the SL Importer says to this one. This should always work. It never failed to our knowledge. If you get trouble then something is wrong with your viewer.

    If you decide to give us the chance to take a look at your blend file, then please do not hesitate to open a ticket in our ticket system or take a look at our support page where you find a bunch of options for getting help.

    Best way to assign weights?

    in Mesh

    Posted

    It is important that you get the initial weights from the Maitreya kit. Taking the weights from Avastar is a very bad idea because those weights are optimized for the System avatar.

    Even after you copied the weights from Maitreya you still have to tweak them significantly. Especially long skirts and dresses need to be tweeked a lot. We have some documentation for how to do this in principle:

    http://avastar.online/reference/create-an-attachment/

    As the document says:

     

    This topic is not difficult,
    it is only hard to explain.
     

    Project Bento Feedback Thread

    in Building and Texturing Forum

    Posted

    The tail coordinates are actually not important. It is more that Avastar-2.0-23 has a bug that causes fitted mesh to not work correctly. This bug becomes most apparent on the CHEST and NECK bones. We fixed the cause of this issue and it will be working again with the next update.

    Please remind that Avastar-2 is not even a beta software, it is in development still and we have started testing the fitted mesh part only a few days ago while working on our support for development kit integrations.

    All i can ask for is: keep patient, we will have this solved!

    Project Bento Feedback Thread

    in Building and Texturing Forum

    Posted

    Hi, Polysail;

    Thank you very much for your reply!

    So by "disassociate the skeletal hierarchy" do you mean
    "make all bones children of the root bone" ?

    About the "twist" case. The bone rotation along the local-y axis also
    happens (in blender) when you pose the model free in the 3D space.
    For example when i wanted to pose a model into an A pose with the
    arms slightly rotated forwards then the shoulder bones twist a bit:

     

    • bend the arm by 45 degree downwards,
    • bend the arm by 45 degree frontwards

    In Blender the left shoulder is now twisted a bit. When i can not
    transport this twist, then in Second Life i and up with this:

    

    In this image you see how the twist of the left shoulder in Blender creates
    a distortion in SL when the model is T-posed (left side of the image).
    And also the left hand is not treated as needed (it should have its palm
    facing downwards in T-Pose). So i rather think we should somehow get
    this twist supported, either by messing with the tool or by convincing
    Linden Lab to support it.

    However i still hope that this twist is allready supported and i just do not
    know how to setup the data correctly) :matte-motes-smitten:

    How do you make Giant Avatars Mesh with Physic using only Blender?

    in Mesh

    Posted

    Basically you:

    • select your rig in Object mode,
    • then scale it up to your likes.
    • Finally you apply scale
    • and export your mesh as usual.
    • When you import to SL you need to enable "with joint positions"

    Take care: i found that giants > 8 meters get issues with the Hover (they sink into the ground)

    This video is somewhat outdated, but it still applies when you do not work with Avastar:

     

    Project Bento Feedback Thread

    in Building and Texturing Forum

    Posted

    Hi, all;

    Sorry for this lengthy post. But its complicated and i try to explain
    what the issue is exactly so that maybe someone can give me
    some hints for how to solve this (or tell me its impossible to solve)...

    So here we go:

    Maya supports "Binding to Pose" which enables Maya users
    to work with characters in A-pose and even upload those
    A-posed characters to SL. The trick is to get the
    "inverse bind shape matrix" setup correctly and this apparently
    works with Second Life when it gets an export from Maya.

    Well, we wanted Blender to not stand behind and so we decided
    a while back to support "Binding to Pose" also for Blender (Avastar-2).

    Meanwhile we have added this feature to our tool (coming with the
    next update), but a few days ago i detected a hickup:
    When we rotate a pose bone (not the rig!) along its long axis
    (local Y-axis), then this rotation is not transported to Second Life:

    

     

    We know that for the Skeleton itself the SL Importer only takes care
    about the Joint locations. Bone rotations are fully ignored.
    However, is this also true for the inverse bind shape matrix?

    I tried for a couple of days to figure out if it is possible to transfer
    a mesh correctly when the pose bones (not the rig!) are rotated
    along their long axis. But for me it looks like the SL Importer also
    ignores the local Y-rotation in the inverse Bind shape matrix:

    

     

    If all works correct then the entire mesh should be shown in a perfect T-Pose
    when worn, with both palms down (hands flat). That is actually what the
    inverse bind shape stuff is supposed to do for us, isn't it? :matte-motes-sour:

    But this seems to work only for bone rotations around the local X-axis and
    Z-axis (see left arm). For local y-axis rotations i did not get it to work,
    the mesh remains as it is when rezzed (see right arm).

    So the question is: Is this impossible because the SL Importer ignores
    the local y-axis rotations in the inverse bind shape matrix or do i make
    something     wrong in our Collada Exporter?

    Maybe a friendly Maya user can give me some help?
    If you work with Maya and you know how to export an A-posed character
    for Second Life, then make this test:

    For the Skeleton:

    1. Take the Default Skeleton
    2. Pose one Shoulder by 45 degree along its long axis (see above)
    3. Pose the lower arm by 45 degree along its long axis
    4. Pose the other arm so that it goes to a 45 degree A pose

    For the Mesh:

    1. Take a T posed mesh (upper body is enough) which is not yet
      bound to the skeleton
    2. Rotate one arm such that the hand is rotated by 90 degree.
    3. Rotate the other arm so that it goes to an A pose
    4. bind the upper body to the posed skeleton (using "bind to pose",
      or whatever it is named in Maya)
    5. Export the Mesh to Collada
    6. Import to SL and check if the arm remains rotated when worn
      or if it returns back to its normal orientation.

    If both arms rotate back to their normal T-Pose orientation when worn,
    then please send me the dae file for inspection:

    my email is: gaia.clary@machinimatrix.org

    I appreciate any hint :matte-motes-sunglasses-1:

     

    • Like 1

    Avastar and blender for clothing. HELP

    in Mesh

    Posted

    Here are a couple of information pages for Avastar. Some of them contain supplementary video,
    but we recommend that you also take a look at the text parts:

    Should you find inconsistent or not understandable information,
    we are happy to get informed about this. Some documents are
    still "under construction" and might not yet contain the full information.

    Also watch out for the right side of the pages. There you find many
    additional pages (in a treeview) which might help you to find your
    way through Avastar.

    You may also want to try this:

    • Open Blender
    • Help -> Avastar   (here you should find many links to hopefully helpful pages)

    Furthermore you have 2 additional ways to get help

    • The SL Chat Group "Blender Avastar" seems to work best during
      US working hours, this chat is good for beginners.
    • The Machinimatrix Ticket system This is primary for reporting bugs,
      but we also give help to new people here. It may take a while until we
      respond though. But for sure tickets will never be forgotten! 

    I am very sorry for any inconveniences that you may have encountered.
    Please note that we always offer a full refund when a customer is not satisfied!

    Avastar 2.0.23 convert foreign kit

    in Mesh

    Posted

    We are aware of this issue and we are working on a full bind pose support. It is just VERY tricky to get this done in Blender. It was planned to be ready 3 weeks ago, but we are getting closer:

    

    Belleza and Manuel Bastioni both use A pose. We happen to have used Manuel's Rig for testing because we already have it integrated. But Belleza will work too as soon as we are done.

    In fact i hope that we are now on our last mile to get this working as desired. Then the shoulder issues should be gone or at least be less of an issue.

    Now you may ask when it will be ready... I can not tell, we are just hitting one oddity after the other and as long as we are not satisfied with the results it will not be released. All i can tell is: we are working on it and it will hopefully become awesome :matte-motes-sunglasses-1:

     

    Mesh Deform Avatar

    in Mesh

    Posted

    hi;

    I just want to remark that blender is supposed to export correclty. If it does not export the bones in the right way, then either

     

    • the skeleton is not oriented in the way SL wants it,
    • or you forgot to apply rotation before exporting,
    • or you missed to export with the Second Life Option enabled in the Exporter (yes blender has an option to export to "SL and similar")

    The point is: you need to know some technical bits about Blender and about SL to get things going the way you want. Avastar tries to keep you focused on your artwork... Well... it is also not as easy to use as we want but we improve still :)

    Dissolving edges in Blender 2.78

    in Mesh

    Posted

    It took me a moment, but here is a way how you can make this behave nicer. Below i added a screenshot from the User preferences window for easier navigation  :matte-motes-sunglasses-3:

     

    • Open the Input user preferences
    • Type "dissolve" into the search field
    • In the Mesh section open the Dissolve Selection that is assigned to CTRL X
    • The option Dissolve Verts is greyed out (see image) Ignore this and just ENABLE the option
    • Now the field is no longer greyed out.
    • DISABLE the option again. Now the option is no longer greyed out and it is disabled as before.
    • Save User Settings

    Now you can dissolve the edges by clicking CTRL X and the dissolve works as you want. This setting is permanent.
    [Edit]: And it looks like X -> Dissolve now also works as desired.

    

    Of course you can also modify the keyboard shortcut for CTRL Delete in the same way.

    Blender is not complicated, its just not easy to describe :matte-motes-evil:

     

    Dissolving edges in Blender 2.78

    in Mesh

    Posted

    its a bit tricky: The Dissolve function has options which get available in the operator redo panel right after you have called the operator:

     

    • Open the Tool Shelf
    • Scroll down to the bottom of the tool shelf.
    • Disable the option "Dissolve Verts"

    And all is good:

    

    Project Bento Feedback Thread

    in Building and Texturing Forum

    Posted

    • Select your Armature
    • In the footer menu bar of the 3D View change from "Pose Mode" to Object Mode"
    • In the properties bar (right side of the 3D View) check that rotation is set to 0,0,0 for x,y,z
    • Check that Scale is set to 1,1,1 for x,y,z
    • Select your Mesh head
    • In the properties bar (right side of the 3D View) check that rotation is set to 0,0,0 for x,y,z and scale is 1,1,1 for x,y,z

     

    Project Bento Feedback Thread

    in Building and Texturing Forum

    Posted

    Hi;

    I see an asymmetry in the Attachment points for the Upper Arms. Below is a snapshot from Aditi (with my Avatar on a T pose stand and Show Bones enabled). I have attached 2 small spheres to R Upper Arm and L Upper Arm:

    

    In blender the attachment points are also not symmetric. Here you can see that the L Upper Arm attachment point is farer away from the avatar center and lower in Z compared to the R Upper Arm:

    

    Now i was curious and took a look into the lad file. And there i found the attachment point entries indeed are not defined symmetric:

    <attachment_pointid="18"group="1"pie_slice="0"name="R Upper Arm"joint="mShoulderRight"location="ATTACH_RUARM"rotation="0 0 0"visible_in_first_person="true" />...<attachment_pointid="20"group="3"pie_slice="4"name="L Upper Arm"joint="mShoulderLeft"location="ATTACH_LUARM"rotation="0 0 0"visible_in_first_person="true" />

    Is this intentional? Or is this a known issue?

     

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