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Hi everyone!
Some of you may remember the questionnaire we did a few months back relating to both of our avatar companies on SL.
We very carefully took on board what was said, and what people wanted from next-gen avatars. We set about making an avatar each, but often working on each others.
The result is that we have two (almost) finished avatars, which are cross compatible and incorporate many of the old features people are used to plus a whole lot of new things as well. (The Raawr avi will be previewed in a few weeks - it's not quite ready to show yet)
Three key points have been coming up often, so I'd like to quickly address them.
1) The UV maps are not the same as the old SL body. - We decided that trying to use a 12 year old UV unwrap was simply a bad idea. If anyone has ever worked with the SL UVs you know they are awful. I mean truly truly awful (not even symmetrical). So.. our UV maps (as you can see in the small diagram) are designed with much more texture space in mind, and most importantly they are designed to let people be REALLY creative without worrying too much about troublesome seams. If you want to draw a stripe on the side? You can. And it will line up.
2)Clothing
As with all full 3D bods out there, you'll need to try demos and experiment with 3rd party clothing. This is a fit-mesh avatar, so you will have some control over things when it comes to fitting. I have also been in contact with a well known clothing brand, and we're working together to try to bring some clothing on or shortly after the time of release.
There will also me a development kit, including a blend file needed for people to make their own gear and resell as they wish. (I might have a crack at that too!)
3)Modding
As you can see the avatar has been designed with modding in mind but I need to point out something that should be really really obvious.
If you don't like the UV system, or if you prefer the old SL body - or whatever reason, but you still want to take key components like the head and ears and tail, for example.. Then DO! You can! While we don't make individual parts specifically per say (after all we make full avatars) - the avatar is completely modular, made up of many parts which you can deconstruct and then reconstruct as you wish. Feel free to consider it a 'head with a free body' if you wish!
For the final avatar there will be a separate head included that is self contained, especially for this purpose. - You will find our head UV layouts very similar to our other mesh avatars.
Other than those points which I wanted to address plainly - feel free to ask about anything and give comments!
Thanks to all of you for supporting Oken and myself all these years - it really means a lot to be appreciated for all the months of hard work put into each creation.)
-Flower ♥
Some of you may remember the questionnaire we did a few months back relating to both of our avatar companies on SL.
We very carefully took on board what was said, and what people wanted from next-gen avatars. We set about making an avatar each, but often working on each others.
The result is that we have two (almost) finished avatars, which are cross compatible and incorporate many of the old features people are used to plus a whole lot of new things as well. (The Raawr avi will be previewed in a few weeks - it's not quite ready to show yet)
Three key points have been coming up often, so I'd like to quickly address them.
1) The UV maps are not the same as the old SL body. - We decided that trying to use a 12 year old UV unwrap was simply a bad idea. If anyone has ever worked with the SL UVs you know they are awful. I mean truly truly awful (not even symmetrical). So.. our UV maps (as you can see in the small diagram) are designed with much more texture space in mind, and most importantly they are designed to let people be REALLY creative without worrying too much about troublesome seams. If you want to draw a stripe on the side? You can. And it will line up.
2)Clothing
As with all full 3D bods out there, you'll need to try demos and experiment with 3rd party clothing. This is a fit-mesh avatar, so you will have some control over things when it comes to fitting. I have also been in contact with a well known clothing brand, and we're working together to try to bring some clothing on or shortly after the time of release.
There will also me a development kit, including a blend file needed for people to make their own gear and resell as they wish. (I might have a crack at that too!)
3)Modding
As you can see the avatar has been designed with modding in mind but I need to point out something that should be really really obvious.
If you don't like the UV system, or if you prefer the old SL body - or whatever reason, but you still want to take key components like the head and ears and tail, for example.. Then DO! You can! While we don't make individual parts specifically per say (after all we make full avatars) - the avatar is completely modular, made up of many parts which you can deconstruct and then reconstruct as you wish. Feel free to consider it a 'head with a free body' if you wish!
For the final avatar there will be a separate head included that is self contained, especially for this purpose. - You will find our head UV layouts very similar to our other mesh avatars.
Other than those points which I wanted to address plainly - feel free to ask about anything and give comments!
Thanks to all of you for supporting Oken and myself all these years - it really means a lot to be appreciated for all the months of hard work put into each creation.)
-Flower ♥
Category All / All
Species Red Panda
Size 1920 x 1027px
File Size 1.17 MB
Oh yes! We'll also be providing various things to help with this even further, like shading maps and in some cases the textures for the fluff.
We also provide free vendor spots for any people wishing to sell their mods for our avatars on our main sims.
I'll also happily answer any ims regarding this, and help wherever I can
We also provide free vendor spots for any people wishing to sell their mods for our avatars on our main sims.
I'll also happily answer any ims regarding this, and help wherever I can
That UV map looks super user-friendly! I'm glad you opted to use something besides the crummy LL template (I really don't like that UV map, it feels so clunky and awkward to work on)
Also it's really nice to hear it's fitmesh, will give people the ability to look different from others with the same avatar and also gives more chance of fitting clothes
Pretty excited, I'm looking forward to the release : D
Can't wait to try texturing it
Also it's really nice to hear it's fitmesh, will give people the ability to look different from others with the same avatar and also gives more chance of fitting clothes
Pretty excited, I'm looking forward to the release : D
Can't wait to try texturing it
The seams aren't terrible in the standard second life model to be honest, they were just trying to keep texture density even with the exception of the face. Utilizing as much space as possible is basically the defacto standard. Unfortunately, the user experience, and the friendliness towards modding avatars, is sort've incompatible with that workflow.
The technique I used back when I bothered to mod was this one here http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featu.....ure_seams_.php
I guess I'm just shooting the breeze, I always like talking to other modelers.
The technique I used back when I bothered to mod was this one here http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featu.....ure_seams_.php
I guess I'm just shooting the breeze, I always like talking to other modelers.
oh sure! - http://blog.machinimatrix.org/ (the program you need to search is Avastar)- we use this. Then join the blender avastar group in sl.
Hey mika! I am! Oken and me are a couple. He's the brains, I'm the.. .. other one.
No in all seriousness, we both still have separate companies, and this has been a massive undertaking where we found ourselves both working on the others avatars. The companies will never join, but the expertise of both people and ideas of both will be put into use for both companies.
This is just a bit of cross advertising
No in all seriousness, we both still have separate companies, and this has been a massive undertaking where we found ourselves both working on the others avatars. The companies will never join, but the expertise of both people and ideas of both will be put into use for both companies.
This is just a bit of cross advertising
You're not supposed to develop your own platform, you work for a platform.
So you should make SL body versions if you want to be compatible for the platform you work for.
Trying to make the excuse that the SL body uvw is impossible is just lazy. Simply start from scratch. You seem to forget that Mesh bodies are still a crippled thing in second life.
So you should make SL body versions if you want to be compatible for the platform you work for.
Trying to make the excuse that the SL body uvw is impossible is just lazy. Simply start from scratch. You seem to forget that Mesh bodies are still a crippled thing in second life.
-We are making furry avatar. the default body is not adapted for that in multiple ways. we need to change the face, we need to change legs, we need to add ears on the top, add a tail, claws. Furries are inherantly NOT compatible with the SL body.
-Open the "avatar" section in your second life viewer. Go in vampire; check out the werewolf, zombies, the demon. Do they look compatible with SL body to you ? They aren't, they use UVs and topology that are different from the original SL body.
-SL body is dated from aproximatly 2003. it's 13 fucking years old !
-Mesh bodies ( all of them! ) are already not compatible with SL's layered clothes system, or alpha masking, they need their own mesh clothes either. Why do you think it should be different for UVs ?
-Open the "avatar" section in your second life viewer. Go in vampire; check out the werewolf, zombies, the demon. Do they look compatible with SL body to you ? They aren't, they use UVs and topology that are different from the original SL body.
-SL body is dated from aproximatly 2003. it's 13 fucking years old !
-Mesh bodies ( all of them! ) are already not compatible with SL's layered clothes system, or alpha masking, they need their own mesh clothes either. Why do you think it should be different for UVs ?
Hey Mat - As Oken says, to make these avis compliant it's a quick fix (about 30 minutes in blender) and there will be a small update from us once Bento reaches the public viewer if this is needed. What you receive out of the initial box shouldn't stop working because LL is not going to 'nerf' content already uploaded - they just block certain 'workarounds' in the future.
What we will do, is change our methods of creation for future avis to bring you best avatars we possibly can with the new methods available to us.
What we will do, is change our methods of creation for future avis to bring you best avatars we possibly can with the new methods available to us.
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