Mesh templates for Second Life fashion

Today's article is about mesh templates and Second Life fashion. It's not a "how to" but more of a "what to look for". We'll start with a fashion shot:
This particular dress is "BD Morgan 10-colors HUD" and I honestly have NO idea where I got it. I think it came from one of the many special SL fashion events I go to (like C88) but who knows? Anywho, I'm sure I didn't pay more than $99L.

The included HUD basically changes out the textures on the dress for 10 color variations of this sort of floral pattern. It is actually quite nice when you look up close. Good detail and there's a shadowing to the flowers that makes them look embroidered or woven-in vs. simply colored.

Want the dress in blue, teal or black? Just click the HUD and the magic happens.

Now for the fun part. Go onto the SL Marketplace and do a simple search for "Morgan Dress" without the quotes. You'll find maybe close to a hundred variations on BD Morgan. Some are sold as single colors, some have different textures for top & bottom, some have HUDs and some even add a fabric neckband. ALL FROM DIFFERENT CREATORS! And all at prices that are all over the block -- from $99L for a HUD-driven 5-color version to single colors for $149 to as much as $399L for yet another 10-color HUD version.

Above is one example of a single color from Black Rose for $99L. The creator has made their own sort of stripey texture and added some banding under the bodice and at the bottom hem.

So how does this happen oh mesh newbie? The answer is templates! And here's the grandmother of all these variations! The seller offers the dress in 5 standard sizes plus fitted sizes for the most popular mesh bodies including Maitreya, Slink, Belleza and TMP. That's a total of 12 meshes in all plus all the UV and Shadow maps and original DAE/OBJ files for popping into a 3D package all for $1300L. Not bad.

Now since the source files are full perms (you actually download them separately outside of SL), it's possible for content like this to get shared (aka ripped off). I have no idea if that's happening with Morgan but it's certainly possible.

The question you may ask though is why use a template? Why don't creators make their own from scratch? Well as a recovering designer myself, I can tell you it's really really really hard to do mesh. OMG. Unless you are super skilled at 3D work (using Blender or Maya or something), your learning curve to do something even as simple looking as Morgan is going to be really steep. It's not at all like making appliers for t-shirts. And then consider that there are 12 meshes for 12 size variations and riggings supplied with Morgan. That means you have to have Slink, Maitreya, TMP, Belleza and the FIVE standard size models in your 3D program to get them tweaked correctly.

So that's why you'll see many designers focusing their skills on texturing and adding value to something like Morgan rather than try to design them from scratch. Now some designers DO make their own meshes. Shoe-oriented companies (like my favorite KC Couture) mostly due their own meshes as do mesh body creators. But others, like another fave of mine, Inga Wind, do some really amazing textures on mesh templates. Often designers like Inga will create an outfit complete with shoes, accessories and jewelry to add value to what starts as a template mesh.

Now as to the HUDs to change colors/textures, those are fairly easy to come by. There are lots of full perms scripted HUDs on SLM that you can buy, load with your own textures (full perms) and target the mesh template. Since many mesh templates have "faces", the HUD can also target a specific part of the mesh to change say the shoestrings or buckles or bows or whatever might be available. Note that this discussion on templates doesn't just apply to fashion. It can be for almost anything rendered in SL including buildings, vehicles, plants, furniture, etc. 

Is this sort of info worthwhile to you or is it too basic? Let me know!

GUIDE: Getting Small - Petite & Micro Avatars

Cupcake outfit by ValaDation

I saw this group notice for what looked like a totally cute outfit called Cupcake from ValaDation designed for Petite and Micro avatars. My first reaction -- ME WANT! And I want it now!! LOL. Being a fashionista and a part-time designer means I can be fairly critical about outfits and clothing in Second Life. But Cupcake just begged to be bought! How adorkable is this?

BUT, that meant I had to put on my micro avatar which I haven't done for awhile. Which then led to this blog article since I thought, hmmmmm, there's probably a few people who don't know about this stuff. So I figgered, why not do a mini-tutorial on this stuff?

Disclaimer first!! I am not a technology expert. So my explanations may fall short for some who think in terms of bits, bytes and 3D planar surfaces (whatever that means). This is also by no means a COMPLETE article on all things petite and micro. There are a LOT of ins and outs to being being teeny.

It's all about "rigged" mesh

By now most of you who venture into Second Life are familiar with mesh clothing, objects and body parts like hair. In it's simplest terms, mesh works kinda like sculpted prims. The difference is mesh can be more detailed for the same number of "triangles" or vertices. Don't ask me how. It's all geek to me. I just think of mesh as having vastly more detail than prims or sculpties.

The next step is "rigged" mesh. This means that the mesh can be worn and it will follow the movements of your avatars "skeleton." Your base avatar in Second Life has always been a rigged mesh object but what Linden Lab did was give you the ability to wear completely new meshes that aren't stuck in the standard male and female forms.

To do this generally requires a few common steps. Those familiar with wearing mesh clothing know that you often have to "tweak" your body shape to fit the mesh. Generally though, going petite or micro starts by hiding the entire body (via wearable alpha masks) to make it completely transparent. The next step is to wear an underlying body shape mesh. This can either be a fully textured "skin" of a particular look and shape OR it can be a blank canvas shape onto which other textures are drawn. More on this later.
 
The next step is wearing any mesh clothing, accessories and other attachments that will complete the look. We're not going to go into all the variations of mesh avatars. The rest of this article will be about "Petites" and "Micros".

Mesh avatars are not necessarily tinies

Quick clarification. Mesh avatars are not the same as prim-based tinies which use avatar deformers (animations), prim attachments, invisi-prims and other tricks to make the avatar small. While you can have tiny mesh avatars, most people think of tinies as small animals, dragons, robots, cartoon characters, etc. We are talking about specific types of humanoid micro mesh avatars here.

Snickers next to 1/2 meter standard cube

Size: Mesh mini people

So first thing. My avatar in the photo is only about .5 meters tall in Second Life. That's really small. To give you an idea, here's a photo of me next to a standard rezzed plywood box.

So what did I do to get this small and cute? In my case, I put on a complete "Magic Mesh Pixie" avatar from Eleven (11) Design.

(11) Design aka Devious Noyes is the developer and producer of a particular line of avatars people generally referred to as "Micros". (I'll talk about "Petites" below.) This particular girly consists of:

• Invisible Avatar alpha* - (11) Design
• Micro mesh body shape* - (11) Design
• Magic Mesh pixie body for skin layer* - (11) Design
• Skin Tan Frex - (11) Design
• Magic Mesh pixie clothing layer* - (11) Design
• Prim eyeballs - (11) Design
• Clothing "painted" on mesh clothing layer - ValaDation
• Prim or sculpted shoes - ValaDation
• Prim hair - Truth

So let's break it down. The alpha makes your whole body invisible. The shape is simply to make the mesh conform in general to the rigging of the body mesh. IT DOES NOT SHRINK THE AVATAR. In fact if you look at the settings for the shape, the height is set to 50. The most important part though is the Magic Mesh pixie body. This rigged mesh IS pixie sized. Since the alpha hides your normal avatar, all you see is the pixie body. The skin is then "painted" onto the pixie body (more on this below).

Next is the clothing mesh layer which simply lays on top of the body mesh. Then the outfit is painted onto it. The prim eyeballs are needed because your normal eyes can't be moved or shrunk to pixie size. So separate eyes are added. And finally you have the accessories including hair, shoes or whatever else your mini-person might need.

Except for the mesh stuff, all of these items attach to your avatar just as you'd wear an outfit. However there are a few twists and turns as you can tell by my reference to "painting" outfits. :)

Magic Mesh Micro / Pixie

All (11) Design's pixies are supplied in two forms. One uses fixed skin/body and clothing layers (referred to as "non-Magic Mesh"). This is similar in concept to regular skins and mesh clothing only the body shape and skin are combined and you cannot change them other than swapping it out for a different skin/body layer.

(11) Design also provides a Magic Mesh body/skin layer and a Magic Mesh clothing layer. These are scripted meshes worn the same way as the fixed layers with a huge difference. They contain no textures for skin or clothing. Instead, the skin or clothing are "painted" on the mesh using a "Magic Ring" system.

While it sounds complicated (and frankly it is), there are major benefits. Designers only need to supply their skins and clothing textures in a special package that is "read" by the Magic Ring system and applied to the appropriate mesh! They don't have to actually texture the skin/body or clothing mesh itself. Once you learn and get used to the system, it makes a lot of sense. Additionally, it cuts down on the work that designers have to do AND it also means that outfits a designer may create for a different avatar system (like Petites) can simply be tweaked a bit and they'll work on Micros.

Yabusaka Petite

The other and more popular system (mostly because it was introduced first), is Yabasuka Loon's "Petite". While the scale is the same height as Devious Noyes' Micro/Pixie, the body shapes are different. The Yabusaka petite system works just like 11 Design's non-Magic Mesh. You wear the appropriate layers of mesh as needed to make the complete avatar.

Petite vs. Micro / Pixie

Because all petite and micro / pixie clothing is rigged mesh and must fit the underlying EXACTLY, the shape you get is what you are stuck with. No tweaking sliders, making your boobs, hips or pecs bigger. And, while some accessories and vehicles and things will work with both systems, clothing and skins for Petites can only be used on Petites. Likewise for Micro / Pixie.

So why did I focus above on 11 Design's system? First, it's what I own. All I have is a Petite demo which is no good for showing you how things really look. Second, after looking at the body shapes up close on some friends, I found the Yabusaka Petite shapes, both male and female, to be too "waif-like". The females shapes are very straight through the hips and "pouty" while the male shapes just look a bit skinny to me. Both systems have their detractors and proponents. To each his own.

Fallen Gods example of Yabasuka style Petite avatars

Another reason I went with the Micro / Pixie system was price! For $750L you can get a complete starter avatar pack with 4 skins, 7 hair colors, 5 eye colors and 6 complete outfits including 2 fairies and a lingerie set. Most of the Petite avatars I've seen are about $1900L for something that really only has one variation and generally no clothing included.

I can't speak to the male versions of either Petite or Micro / Pixie but both female types are "anatomically correct". :)

How it all comes together

Since the Magic Ring system is so unique, I'm going to show you step-by-step photo sequence of how it comes together to make a mini-me!

Basic Snickers

Start with your regular avatar. You need to remove ALL attachments and clothing FIRST. I should have taken off my hair but I look scary without it.

Micro / pixie shape applied

Next we apply the default micro / pixie shape. You'll notice there isn't a huge amount of difference. That's because the micro shape is basically an average avatar with sliders pretty much set to 50 across the board.

Mesh worn

Now the fun begins. Normally you'd wear the alpha first to hide your body but I chose to wear the basic micro mesh first to show what happens. Everything gets scrunched into what will eventually be a teeny person. Note that my boobs are now in my face lol.

Alpha worn, skin applied

Next up, wearing the alpha and applying the skin to the base mesh. Oopsie, my full-sized Damselfly hair is still there. This photo shows you the relative size of the final avatar using the same camera distance.

Take off original hair and add basic micro hair.

So here I'm wearing the basic hair that comes with the avatar along with the eyeballs. Both are simply attachments.

Magic Ring used to change outfits and skins

This shows what the Magic Ring looks like when it's changing outfits or skins. It appears briefly and a few seconds later, you have a new outfit or a new skin. In the above picture, I've put on the "light" colored skin quickly just by adding the Magic Mesh version. No waiting to rez, no taking it off then putting it back on.

Cupcake by ValaDation from front.

And next we "Add" the Magic Ring version of Cupcake to our micro pixie. You'll note that I'm wearing mesh tennis shoes too. Those aren't added to the outfit via Magic Ring. They are attached in the usual way (Worn). In this case, I had to use a Mesh Micro body without feet in order to allow for the kicks to display correctly.

Cupcake from back

Finished avatar looks good all the way around!

Even more variations

The one area in which the Yabasuka system shines is options. If you really want to trick out your Petite avatar, you can with everything from scripted hands (that grip) and heads (for moving mouths and blinking eyes) to a wide range of accessories tailored just for Petites. While the Micro / Pixie system will support these things, I just haven't seen any implementations out there. So yes, my micro face is stuck in a sort of neutral expression. Not a smile but not a frown.

It ain't easy being small

My world in mouselook

Size creates unique problems mostly with your camera controls. While mouselook produces the expected view of the world (see left photo), for some reason, the regular view is still elevated at just above eye level for a normal sized person. It makes zooming in and out on yourself for photos challenging. Most of the time I end up targeting my feet.

If you decide you want to stay more or less permanently as a micro person, you should probably edit your camera offsets in the Advanced / Debug Settings menu.

I've done this even for my normal sized avatar just to give me a better perspective on build sizes. Things will look a lot more impressive if you take the time to adjust your camera. Here's an article on how to do it.

What about AOs and poses and stuffs?

AOs, or Animation Overrides, will mostly work fine with micro mesh avatars. Unlike tinies that use deformers to move arms and legs out of the way, the movement you get with a mesh avatar is pretty much the same as you get with a full-sized one. The big difference will be seen with walking and running since you cover the same ground you would as a full-size avatar when, technically, you should be taking micro steps. But singles dances, pose, stands, etc. should work fine. You can see my model pose in the photos. Same positioning as a full-sized avatar.

Couples animations will not work right because of the avatar offsets involved. You might be able to adjust those assuming your pose set or AO allows you to but it may not be worth it unless you plan to stay permanently as a micro.

Links & resources

Anyway, I hope this all helps with your quest to be small! As usual, corrections, comments and questions are welcome.

SLURL to Eleven (11) Design for Micro / Pixie goodies

SLURL to Fallen Gods for Yabusaka Petites

SLURL to Petites Kingdom

Alpha-sorting (masking) in Second Life revisited

Recent comments in an open Second Life JIRA that I've been fairly involved with have caused me to take another look at how Second Life treats alpha (transparent) textures. Now this semi-geeky stuff gets pretty anal but it can make a huge difference in how things are rendered in SL. In my case, since I make clothing, I get annoyed that prim skirts with transparencies always fight each other where they overlap.

I wrote an article to explain the issue way back when: Alpha sorting and masking in Second Life.

So this time around, I thought I'd go into a viewer setting called "Automatic alpha masks" which is accessible off your Advanced menu (CTRL-ALT-D / Rendering). There are two choices, Automatic alpha masks (deferred) and Automatic alpha masks (non-deferred).

Basically, what these two do is tell the viewer to treat any alpha as either all 1-bit (deferred) or as a blend (non-deferred). The exact algorithm for detecting the alpha and the cut-offs are not published but you can kind of see the results in the photo above (this comes from SL Universe in a post by Inhandra)

While on the one hand, hair looks better with non-deferred and horrible with deferred, other prims show texture fighting against semi-transparent backgrounds.

BTW, these settings used to be called Fast Alphas but the nomenclature was changed to make the intent more obvious.

So the point of the JIRA mentioned above is that the alphas need to be controlled by the creator, not by an arbitrary setting that may or may not apply to the original creator's intent.

Just to get even more anal about this, I did some photos of my own to show the edging effects of various textures and settings (just thought I'd use a basic Torley Linden color scheme here). These should display as crossed circles just like my old article. I tried 3 different types of textures -- TGA with alpha, PNG with transparency and PNG-8 with 1-bit transparency. To see the effects up close, click the photo to view at full size. I tried this with 256x256 pixel textures and with 1024x1024.

Default viewer settings - 256x256 TGA, PNG and PNG-8 crossed circles.

Automatic alpha mask - Deferred.

Default viewer - PNG

Automatic alpha deferred - PNG

Default viewer - PNG 1024x1024

Automatic alpha deferred - PNG 1024x1024

Obviously the worst of the bunch was the PNG-8 with 1-bit alpha (transparency) which ends up with a white edge when rendered with Automatic alphas on (picture #2). And, to be fair, these hard geometric shapes render the best under automatic alphas. Regardless, there is a fair amount of down-sampling going on in all (thus the jaggies). The down-sampling was why the setting used to be called Fast Alpha -- the smaller images rendered faster. Not so much a factor with today's much better graphics cards.

More subtle images, such as deliberate drop shadows render very poorly with auto-masking. Here's a screen shot from JIRA MAINT-651 showing this effect:

Left - pre-upload, Center - no auto alpha, Right - deferred.

To throw yet ANOTHER monkey wrench into the mix (and exactly what is a monkey wrench??), Lighting and Shadows can break alphas even further depending on what form of masking is in use -- resulting in whole black areas.

So the real solution, which has so far been avoided by Linden Lab, is to allow the creator to upload textures as they choose and designate the alpha type on a per-face basis. Given that fixing the z-buffer sorting issues are probably not going to happen, this really is the second best approach. IMHO.

(Good lord I've become geeky in my 5 years on SL. Eeek!)

As always, corrections and comments are welcome.

UPDATE:

Because of the apparent confusion over the PNG-8 format, I'm adding a few piccies to show what's up with it. :)

First I made a pink circle using a shape with pink fill in Photoshop. Next I SAVED it for Web & Devices using PNG-8, No Dither, Transparency, No Transparency Dither, Matte: None, Colors 256. This brought the output file down to just two colors. Pink (well fuschia really) and transparent. Size of final file was 256x256 pixels.

PNG-8 Source Image (see text above)

PNG-8 texture placed on prim and viewed against black background. Viewer set to normal.

PNG-8 texture placed on prim and viewed against black background. Viewer set to auto alpha mask (non-deferred)

I'm not sure what to make of this except that the auto-masking setting seems to make the image slightly more artifacty. Regardless, nothing changes here. With the auto-mask on, the alphas don't fight each other. Turned off, they do. Which just shows that SL converts the uploaded image with true 1-bit transparency into it's usual messed up format that has to be interpolated to stop the alpha fighting.

BTW, if you're going to use PNG with transparency for clothes or whatever, matte your output into whatever the main color of item is. If it's red, use red as a matte. Blue use blue. Etc. Or use black. This will at least avoid some of the white halo effect. But it won't work quite as well as TGA with alpha blended using something like Solidify in Photoshop.

Second Life attachment points

New fashion release from Inga Wind shows limitations of SL avatar attachment points.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, Inga Wind is a friend and my fave designer. When I got her latest release, Cosette, I fell crazy in love with it simply based on the package photo!

When I put it on, I was blown away. How would you describe it? Professional? Yes. Perky? Very. German hofbrau? Kinda. Totally cute? Definitely!

The outfit includes everything you see in the photo. Skirt, top, glitch pants, belt, sleeve ruffles, shoes and a prim bow for the bodice. The total price is $350L or, $150L for her group members -- a total bargain!

However, in trying to do the photo shoot of the outfit for this blog post, I started going crazy because the belt would "dig" into the skirt with some of the fashion model poses that move your hips sideways. So, I started playing with the belt trying to see if I couldn't make it behave better with my hip-shifts!

After 15 minutes of fooling around, I moved the belt to the spine and the bow the "left pec". For my fashion shots, it all worked fine that way. In fact, I thought to myself, wow, this is how it should be.

So I went to see Inga in person to show her what I'd done. After turning on my AO and standing in front of her, she (very graciously) pointed out that now the bow was moving up and down the dress as I breathed! Ughh. Plus, when my AO switched to a different stand, the belt was now digging into my stomach which looked awful! I had solved one problem for my photo shoot but created two new ones that didn't work for normal wear. :P 

Bottom line, Inga HAD indeed picked the best attachment points in the first place. She has tried the different spots I had and what comes out of the box is the best you can do given the limitations of Second Life. Normally belts and skirts are linked together so they move as one. However, the outfit is designed so the belt rides higher, almost like a mini-corset. That means it can't be part of the skirt or it would move completely outside your body with any twisting or shifting motion. Sigh.

Anyway, it's a gorgeous outfit and only those terminally picky and slightly anal retentive people like me would ever notice this stuff. :P