>>> The Carrara Second Life Rig <<<
It took a lot of time, patience and Windows Task Manager clicks to get the Second Life Avatar Rig in Carrara..... Crash after Crash after hopeless crash, only to crash again. I tried file format after file format, exporting from Blender to this, to that and back again, but nonetheless, here it is...
With this rig, we can begin exploring exporting full weight rigged avatars, direct in Carrara...
Sounds too good and easy to be true, and yeah, it is =/
I have since attached a mesh to the rig, but I am having 2 problems, maybe someone else can help join in on the experimenting fun. One problem is the size of the avatar. Seems like no matter what I do, the avatar loads in Second Life way too big. I tried all scene size options, but nothing works. Another issue (I believe this to be VERY minor) is that once loaded, the avatar comes in at a very reduced resolution. I fault that to my inexperience w/ the upload UI.
Trying to gather the proper information on the process is dreadful. The SL Wiki is a "Mesh", LOL. not to mention very few are even trying to develop a workflow using Carrara. To make that worse, those who are are NOT communicating or collaborating their efforts. This Blog is my attempt to remedy that.....
I found 2 very useful links. One elaborates the process as needed for the 3D Studio Max Community, and one just points out some do's and dont's w/ regards to SL Avatar Mesh creation in general.
One thing I did notice is the size/units reference in the exported Collada file. Something needs fixing in there, but I think that can be edited in a text editor after export from Carrara. Another thing is that I haven't found a way to keep the figure/avatar from rezzing with the figure 1/2 way embedded in the ground at the wait level. I believe that is because I haven't found a way to set neither the actual Mesh or the Avatar rig in Carrara to an exact 0,0,0 coodinate. By default, objects hot point is their center. I can "edit" the hot point, but it doesn't seem to be recognized in Second Life. This is the mesh "reset" that is done in Max which is referred to early on in their process.
Maybe what the Carrara Community needs is a Second Life specific Collada file exporter (Uh oh, I smell a poll, LOL =). Between the sizing issue, the LOD's (but again, thats most likely my fault =P), and the coodinates needing to be set to 0,0,0, we really are "almost" there... The rig works quite nice in Carrara actually (it's rigging system is simple, sweet and VERY powerful =), as shown by the render, but I'd really like for the export to work "flawlessly" in Second Life...
Not much longer now, keep your fingers crossed =D
The mesh in carrara should be scaled down to:
ReplyDeleteX=0.15 y=0.04 z=0.16
Thats the dimension when i import the standard SL-avatar mesh :)
Would be great to hear your workflow/process... Admittedly, I have not made any attempts in quite some time, things may have been changed, but I'd be happy to take up the task again... I've had NO success with custom rigs in Carrara, and am not fond at all of Blender =/
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