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Basics for Mesh clothing creation!


veragr
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Hi everyone... I want to learn to create clothing for sl avatar but I don't know from where to begin.

I already dowloaded  Blender and ZBrush but I didn't found useful tutorials for clothing creation. Anyone can suggest good tutotials for mesh clothing?

 

I have a few questions:

How to import female avatar to this software and where I can find mesh avatar to import?

What is the most suitable software for cloth creation?

  Thanks in advance

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A quick question which I feel is vital to ask first off: Have you worked with / created mesh before?

The reason I ask is that if you are totally new to mesh creation, you really MUST learn the overall workflow involved with mesh creation in general before you even consider creating mesh clothing. You would be doing yourself a huge disservice if you don't, and setting yourself up for a world of frustration.

Mesh is a BIG topic. I'm definitely NOT saying this to scare you off at all - it's just important to make that clear from the outset. Mesh creation is something that requires certain skillsets before contemplating advanced things like mesh clothing for SL avatars. If you don't learn the basics beforehand, you will just be banging your head against a brick wall.

However - once you learn the essential workflows of mesh creation, it WILL open up vast opportunities for creativity... not only for SL, but for many, many other areas. The general mesh skills you will learn are universal across the field of 3D, so it will open up wide avenues to explore in the long term. Definitely worth persevering with the initial learning curve.

Blender is definitely a good program to start out with. There are many forum regulars here who use it, so any SL related Blender questions posted here will be quickly answered. Also, there is a vast number of Blender tutorials out there covering pretty much any topic possible - it's just a matter of finding them. Plus Blender will pretty much do anything you need in regards to creating mesh for SL. (I must point out that personally, I am NOT a Blender user as of yet (although I plan on converting to it in the near future, having reached the practical limits of my current modeling program)).

Off the top of my head, a couple of good beginner Blender tutorial sites you could begin with are: The Gryllus Blender Course and Canned Mushrooms. There are plenty of clothing tutorials out there as well, which other forum regulars here can point you towards - although as I said, you need to know the mesh essential basics before attempting advanced projects like that.

A general list of the workflow steps you will need to learn to be proficient in mesh creation:

1: Creating mesh shapes - Working with primitives, polygons, vertices etc to create your shapes.
2: UV-mapping your meshes - Creating maps so that your 3D shapes can accept 2D images for texturing.
3: Material mapping - Defining separate areas on your mesh (similar concept to how faces on a standard SL prim work).
4: Rigging (for clothing) - Defining a "skeleton" for your mesh, so that it can attach to the SL avatar.

Please, don't let yourself be put off or daunted by this - it's NOT as scary as it looks. But it IS critical to learn these basic skillsets. The learning curve can be steep at first, but it is definitely worth sticking with it and coming to grips with everything - the creative potential that will be unlocked is vast once you do so.

And by all means, ask any questions you need to here on the forums. There are plenty of regulars here who are happy to offer advice.

:matte-motes-smile:

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Thanks a lot of your reply and advices :)

No I haven't worked with mesh software yet...just a beginner. So I try to find from where to begin.  

I believe that creating mesh must be not so difficult as it seems because there are a lot of people there in SL that create mesh clothing...also I am an easy learner so it will not take me much time.

I will see the tutorials definitely but the question still remain...there are any ready mesh avatars that I can use? or I must create my own full avatar in blender?

Thanks again for your reply!

 

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veragr wrote:

Hi everyone... I want to learn to create clothing for sl avatar but I don't know from where to begin.

I already dowloaded  Blender and ZBrush but I didn't found useful tutorials for clothing creation. Anyone can suggest good tutotials for mesh clothing?

 

I have a few questions:

How to import female avatar to this software and where I can find mesh avatar to import?

What is the most suitable software for cloth creation?

  Thanks in advance

You asked "How to import female avatar to this software and where I can find mesh avatar to import?":

I explain a couple of different ways of doing it in the first two videos of this SL mesh clothing series:

A good SL mesh and Blender resource is Machinimatrix: http://blog.machinimatrix.org/category/mesh/

 

As for must suitable software, that is subjective. It depends on what program you want to work with. I use Blender for modeling and retopology, Zbrush for detailing and texturing, Photoshop for texturing and Marvelous Designer for conceptuals. But, you could do all you needed to do with just Blender and Gimp if you wanted to.

If you are new to mesh and Blender, I'd suggest these two playlists to start out:

They are comprehensive and take you step by step through the process like a class. They are not clothing specific, but they will teach you the fundamentals.

I haven't noticed a ton of clothing specific tutorials for Blender. I will make a series specifically on modeling clothes in Blender for SL. Hopefully, I'll get the first one out this week. But, here is one I came across a year ago. Keep in mind he just presents one way of modeling clothing. There are many different techniques. You'll probably want to reduce the polycount on any models using this method by deleting edge loops once it is done. (You can learn how to do that in the modeling series from Canned Mushroom I posted above).

http://vimeo.com/14437630

 

Zbrush Clothing Tutorials:

Keep in mind that if you make the clothing in Zbrush, you'll need to retoplogize it later to make a reasonable model to skin and bring into SL.

 

Blender Topology/ Retoplogy Tutorials:

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veragr wrote:

I believe that creating mesh
must be not so difficult
as it seems because there are a lot of people there in SL that create mesh clothing...also I am an easy learner so it will not take me much time.

 

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt but woah lol it is hard to grasp but once you do get's easier.

I tried on blender.. gave up... tried again on blender gave up.. tried on auto desk.. gave up tried again gave up but then I really knuckled down and got a big bunch of links open and my own notepad and pen out taking notes and step by step stuff and it is getting easier.

Most tutorials are in Blender and there are many different versions of blender with different tutorials on different versions so it's difficult to keep up and translate.

I recommend using autodesk maya or studio max for creating the mesh, then if you want to rig to your avatar for clothing then take it over to blender to do that as you can rig it quite easily in there when you get the right files.

Best of Luck to you!

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  • 4 months later...

I found difficult to work with Blender for me Zbrush is a lot easier, but by reading your explanation I got the feeling that modelling, retopology and the conceptuals which seem crucial to create mesh clothing cannot be done only using Zbrush.

 Note that I have just started using Zbrush and I have no idea what I am talking about.

But for what I could understand in order to create mesh clothing for Second Life you have to use blender or have to learn how to use the other programs to complement Zbrush right? 

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  • 1 month later...

I would suggest to start making smaller objects so you can figure out what you can do and what the program limmits. I suggest going to the test grid, or having a hefty capital to start off with too for uploads and tests. Good luck with the venture, it is tough to get into, but once you do it all comes together and makes sense for other things.

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  • 6 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

When I started making mesh clothes I wanted to make tight fitting dresses. I've run into a bunch of problems the tutorials were not explaining. Most of the problems are unique to Second Life clothes making.

In May 2012 I wrote Second Life Mesh Clothes Blender 2.6 Setup 2012 Tutorial to share what I learned. I keep it updated with the latest information I learn. If there is any confusion about which file has the DEFAULT AVATAR SHAPE this tutorial should clear that up. Also if you are wanting to export custom shapes from SL, this explains how to do it.

The most recent problem I've figured out is getting the custom shapes into Blender or other 3D modeling programs without distortion. I cover that in: Second Life Shape Export.

If you are unframiliar with the Mesh Deformer and standard size clothes, the first link deals with those. You can follow developement of the Mesh Deformer using this link: Second Life Mesh Deformer Status.

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  • 1 year later...

is it just to make animations.  I noticed people have created all kinds of things.  My problem is that on sl you almost have 

to be on top of the item to see the whole drawing.

 

I am new to blender and to working in 3 D  but you can teach an old dog new tricks so I am willing to learn

 

I will be working on blender in linux and would love someone to suggest how to really get started so that I understand what I am doing.  I drew a line in blender and saw it had nothing to do with the 3-D box

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Let me google that for you.

The reason why you have to be pretty much on top of an object is because of the dynamic Level Of Detail system used in Second Life. And the relation between LOD and Land Impact, plus a certain amount of laziness of the creator to bother with creating these lower detail meshes properly. It has been discussed several times in various threads on this forum.

There are ways to push the LOD switch distances farther out with the Viewers Debug Settings, but I leave it to someone else to teach you how to do so. :matte-motes-smile:

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  • 1 year later...
  • 6 months later...

iam new as well but i did learn some stuff but i was wondering where do i get  UV-mapping for different meshes

i have the niramyth but i got that one i got the avatar i was wondering if i can get all the mesh UVs for free with out having to buy the avatars?

 

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  • 1 year later...

i'm becoming interested in creating objects/clothing for second life . I've had blender for quite some time but am new to the program (had it but never really used it). it's a bit overwhelming to be honest . I don't really know were to start either . I've watched tutorials but they aren't as helpful as I hoped. they give you instructions on what to do to create a basic objects but don't explain why they are using the tool . I don't know . I want to fully understand the tools and I'm not sure if i should buy a dvd or something as close to a class as possible. I guess the way i see if is if i'm going to invest this much time into something i want to make sure I'm heading in the right direction and using the right Programs . Could anyone help me out here?  plus, it's helpful being able to read or watch directions while working in Blender. i'm also pretty new to second life so I have alot to learn 

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It’s pretty much is a learn as you go type of thing. Unless you actually take classes for it. Just take your time and learn how to model first.

I would recommend Haven Ditko’s mesh clothing videos on YouTube. She used to do classes at Builders Brewery years ago. To me she does the best step by step instructions on how to do mesh clothing in blender and you come away with basic blender knowledge.

I also find when watching tutorials it’s best to slow them down to .75 or half speed. Often they do little things that they don’t say, but you can catch them at slower speeds.

Also keep in mind tutorials use different versions of blender so some features are different or have different names!

Edited by janetosilio
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1 hour ago, janetosilio said:

It’s pretty much is a learn as you go type of thing. Unless you actually take classes for it. Just take your time and learn how to model first.

I would recommend Haven Ditko’s mesh clothing videos on YouTube. She used to do classes at Builders Brewery years ago. To me she does the best step by step instructions on how to do mesh clothing in blender and you come away with basic blender knowledge.

I also find when watching tutorials it’s best to slow them down to .75 or half speed. Often they do little things that they don’t say, but you can catch them at slower speeds.

Also keep in mind tutorials use different versions of blender so some features are different or have different names!

I’m curious, does mesh clothing resize at all? (Is that “fitmesh”, just resizes with Avatar sliders?)

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43 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I’m curious, does mesh clothing resize at all? (Is that “fitmesh”, just resizes with Avatar sliders?)

yus, fitmesh reacts to sliders and is a specialized version of rigged mesh (which if not also fitmesh only adjusts to bones placement, so very few sliders...) but fitmesh can be rigged for different avis, there is both classic and meshbody fitmesh...

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1 minute ago, Fionalein said:

yus, fitmesh reacts to sliders and is a specialized version of rigged mesh (which if not also fitmesh only adjusts to bones placement, so very few sliders...) but fitmesh can be rigged for different avis, there is both classic and meshbody fitmesh...

Whaaa..? Classic (non-mesh) avatars can wear fitmesh?

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On 1/13/2015 at 6:46 PM, DavelovesSusie Writer said:

is it just to make animations.  I noticed people have created all kinds of things.  My problem is that on sl you almost have 

to be on top of the item to see the whole drawing.

That's not SL's fault it's because a lot of creators don't make level of detail models so they can boast a lower LI/complexity and do less work on a given mesh.

The result is that as soon as the object is far enough to switch to a lower resolution model? Well there is nothing to show (a single triangle per material usually since it's the minimum)

However, there is an easy solution to this problem, ask a refund, shop somewhere else and spread the word about this creator's shoddy work.

Edited by Kyrah Abattoir
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