Medhue Simoni

New things are coming in SL to address this very thing. Almost every week, on Thursdays, there is a content creation meeting that LL holds. Vir Linden is the lead for the group meeting. There is a beta viewer coming soon, that will allow avatar creators to utilize the texture baking system on their avatars. See, the default avatar has layers, like an onion, not like a parfait. On the default, we can have tattoo layers and underwear layers and all. Soon, we'll be able to do this with mesh avatars. So, appliers will no longer be needed. Of course, we don't have to do things exactly like the default, because this new baking system will be much more flexible.

I'm really not sure I can help. If you have Avastar, then why not bring the final bvh into Avastar and export it from there?

Oh how I love to be quoted out of context. I was speaking about the jelly tool and high avatar complexity. Reread my original quote that I'm responding to. I was making no assumptions besides the actual scenario that I was speaking of.

As we speak, LL is working on a mesh avatar texture baking system, built from the same 1 used on the default avatar. Now, of course, I do not expect creators to use this baking system like the default avatar, but find their own ways to use the baking system to their, and their customers benefit. So, every mesh on your avatar could potentially have many different layers for the customers to mix and match with. This baking system will almost eliminate the need to layer up avatars like onions.

(Traditional Ancient Old Chinese Word of Wisdom - poorly translated) I'm not sure. I mean, is not the point of dressing your avatar up to be seen by others? Well, if only half your avatar rezzes, or you are a jelly dolly, that defeats the whole point of wearing all that crap.

38, IMHO, is more than enough. For those reaching that limit and desperately wanting more, Whirly's suggestion is great. I'd also advise consumers to voice your frustrations directly to the creators. It also seems reasonable that creators will get smarter about how to bundle their packages. Ask creators that make whole outfits to combine them together, or allow you to with a version you can mod. It's probably also smart to limit your huds. Seems everything comes with a hud today. I love the jelly tool. That said, the jelly tool is not just a tool for me to keep you from destroying my SL, but also a tool to show you how much you are impacting everyone. If your avatar complexity is that high, then anyone that can actually see you, is paying a huge price just to see you, degrading both of your experiences together. I can understand if it is just you and your partner in the scene, but in a group you are just either causing everyone problems, or a generic jelly doll. What exactly is the point of being either of those? Hopefully, creators will get more efficient, and we can all have our way, with little to no impact on each other.

Best solution in this thread.

Avastar has a video on the topic of scaling avatars. I also have a video on the topic, with links to the Avastar video.

I pretty much agree with your lists, but I will talk a little about bento bones and animation for those. The standard skeleton has underlying animation that is always playing, but can be changed. Bento bones have no underlying animation that is always playing, hence it needs to be created. Why? Well, in SL, animations can blend into each other. So, if you were to play a smile, you can make it so that the smile gradually takes over the face. In order to do this tho, there needs to be an animation currently playing. Now, because bento bones have no underlying animations playing, when you make your own, you can make them whatever priority you like. So, starting at 0 or 1 is possible. Bento also introduces eye animation and blinking, which require some unique priorities. For example, blinks should be a high priority, but also not so high that you can't close your eyes without the blink interfering. All is really not lost with matching systems with bento facial expressions. There may be a way. I'm going to ask more questions again at the meeting this week.

https://www.youtube.com/user/medhue/videos I don't have a video on doing a full custom avatar yet, but I will eventually do a tutorial on the topic. In the meantime, maybe some of my others will help also.

Technically, only bvh files get optimized thru the import window. That said, you will save a bunch of data if you optimize your animation yourself. I have a video on the topic.

I would try Baking the animation in Blender before exporting it. Or Keyframing every bone you want in the animation, on every frame, and then see if your results are better.

This video is part of a playlist that I've created that include all my videos on Bento hands.

Yes, but it can only be perfect with those 2 exact body shapes.

Not a clue what is going on. I did read you talk about scaling tho. Make sure that after you scale a rigged mesh, that you apply that scale before exporting.

In Avastar, the COG bone moves the position of the avatar.

There are 2 modes in Avastar, 1 is for posing, and 1 is a LOCKED Rest pose. Maybe this is what you are dealing with.

Hmmm, I'm not really sure what you are talking about Loki. If you need some help, I could help you on Skype. Let me know and I'll IM you with my skype id.

Well, the reason I'm not for this, is because the current baking system doesn't do this now. It's 1 thing to get the current system to work on meshes, but it's a whole other project to get materials into the baking system. It would add another whole level of complexity to it all. And.... it would likely double or triple the development time, as well as introduce many more bugs to the whole system. Now, after the baking project has accomplished it's stated goal, then LL could create a NEW project to accomplish adding materials to it.

LL is doing the work, just not the work people like yourself want. Personally, I see no need, AT ALL, to include materials in the baking system. Theresa is just pointing out, that you don't have to except this, and you are perfectly welcome to try and make it happen, whether by writing the code yourself, or coming to the meeting and pleading your case. Again tho, personally, I have no need at all to ask LL to include materials, as there is nothing stopping me from adding the dang materials myself.

If you are going to make many animations, then you want Avastar. Blender allow could, but you don't get the .anim export option, which is crucial. Priority 4 is what I ususally use for sit. With .anim files, we can use up to 6 priorities too.

In Avastar, after your adjust the bones for your custom skeleton, you need to save the joint positions. You can do this by clicking the Convert to Bind pose option.

I really don't think creators are going to use it exactly like the default is used. With this system, we have way more flexibility than that. What I predict creators will do is use the baking system to add layers to clothing. The body will stay as mostly just skin, tattoos, freckles, scares, and such, that make sense with the materials on that body, or even on clothing. What this baking system will also bring, is a better way to hide meshes. So, instead of layers up the mesh to be able to alpha it, creators will go back to using a texture to alpha things, like the default does. As far as layers, I don't think layers will be eliminated entirely, but why even make a skin tight layer on a mesh body when you could just fricken model a pare of pants or a shirt, that will look many times better, and you can use the baking system on that also. I'll just end this with a rant about materials. They are not optional for a "quality" product. Almost everything should have both bump maps and specular maps. Now, yes, the baking system doesn't include materials, but the baking system also doesn't stop anyone from using them. Yes, too, that creators will need to think about how to use the baking system in the smartest way to get the best look with their materials.