Mesh clothes continued ... getting things into SL

Well, I was able to get my .dae file into SL finally. (The mesh viewer only has the "Upload Model" dropdown choice under the Build Menu I discovered. The upload menu options in the inventory window doesn't give you that option.) Of course once I uploaded the model v1 things didn't go quite as planned. My jacket popped up in world in 5 separate pieces, with parts missing here and there. Back to C4D for more tweaking.

First thing I learned ... your object needs to be connected into one piece. That means, even though I'm able to work on the jacket as body, sleeves, lapels, and coattails, using symmetry to give me matching right and left halves, it all needs to be connected before exporting it to DAE. no problem. (And I did expect this would be the case, but I had to test the theory.)

Second thing I learned ... there is only one side to a polygon, and in SL the other side is invisible. This is fine as well, it just means that whatever is visible to the world needs to have a facing side. I had already planned for this, and built my collars, cuffs, and coattails with multiple sides (and thickness). However I forgot to check which side was facing out. In the 3D world, this is called "normals". I was surprised to discover that even though I had created my collar by extruding the jacket, for some reasons my normals ended up flipped the wrong way. Have to remember to keep an eye on this in the future. However, this was also an easy fix. it just required a close inspection of all of the polygons in my model to make sure the normals were all facing out, and flipping those that weren't.

Right! looking all spiny, fingers crossed ... let's import that puppy into Second Life!

 

BAM! We've got a mesh model, looking very much like my C4D model! *doing the happy dance*
Step one complete and highly successful. hooray.

Next step: unwrapping the model and figuring out how to texture this jacket. For this I'll be using BodyPaint within C4D for the UV unwrapping, from there I'll move to photoshop to do the intricate detailing that I love so much. :D

Stay tuned. The journey continues!

=^.^= blakopal =^.^=

Uncharted Territory: SL Mesh Clothes ... take 1

Well, it's looking like this whole mesh thing will be coming to Second Life pretty soon, so I've decided to dip my toe into the water to see how things go. Even though by day I am a motion graphics designer, and 3D modeling software is one of my regular tools, trying to take the jump from the old ways of making clothes in SL to the mesh way of doing things is a bit daunting. Mind you, it's a HUGE improvement, and once I have an understanding of how it works, I'll be able to create even more fabulous things, with FAR LESS frustration than trying to squash and pull balls to make shoes and collars. (Talk about ridiculous! Oy.)

After having mastered my own workflow to make SL clothing – using flat textures created in photoshop for system clothes, and torturing SL shapes in Cinema 4D to make sculpted parts like collars and cuffs – it has taken a bit of reprogramming to wrap my head around how I wanted to approach mesh clothing creation. I've been inspired by examples I've seen via friends on youTube and twitter ... especially seeing things like sleeves that bend with your arm, or a suit jacket that bends with you as you move. (Hooray!!) So I decided to spend some time creating an article of clothing. For my first test I decided to do a men's jacket. Cinema 4D is the 3D program I have been using for years, and with the current version (R12), they have added Collada export, which is the format needed to get things into Second Life. I am not going to even attempt to go into how I got my jacket to look like a jacket. Lets just say I've spent quite a few hours, having fun figuring out how I wanted to get the style I wanted. I did work around a standard SL Avatar shape (which is available online on .OBJ format, which C4D can use). I've also been working on my 11" MacBook Air ... don't let anyone tell you it's too small!

Here's a render showing how it looks in C4D without any textures applied.

It's sort-of a Regency style cutaway jacket with a standing collar that folds over and wide lapels which also fold over. The sleeves have a slight 'puff' at the shoulder, and the tails are split at the back. Not bad for a first attempt at modeling clothes in C4D.

Once I got the model created I was able to export it into a Collada .DAE file. Unfortunately my days progress has stalled there. I'm still trying to work out how to import it into SL. (My first attempt didn't give me any options to upload the model, despite using the current Mesh Beta Viewer. More tests will follow later tonight and I'll offer more insight once I am able to make some progress.

At least I am feeling more comfortable about the modeling process. That's a big step forward. :D

=^.^= blakopal =^.^=