Teeglepets and Avastar FLA

FLA (Fix Legacy Armature) is the new magic button in Avastar 3.6.6. It is designed to fix… legacy armatures. I mean, it’s right in the name.

If you have an old, pre-279 armature, this magic button may just fix alllll your problems. (Or not.)

I had issues with using this on the original Teegle Horse Avatar (but the old method should still work), but I think the Teeglepets are okay. There’s a little weirdness, but… just read on. If you have another devkit model, just follow the steps. And see if it works!

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Freezing Shape Sliders Technique

I (and at least one other person) have asked about having a button in Avastar to ‘freeze’ the shape sliders as the new default rest pose/shape. So far, that’s not a thing, though. Helping someone with their head scaling led me to discover this technique!

Note: This is for Blender 3.6.x and Avastar 3.6.6+ I don’t know if it will work with other versions. (Definitely not 2.79, because of the script. If you snap bones manually, you can use this in 2.79. I think. Sorry, fellow luddites, I haven’t tested it.)

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Updating the Teeglepet 2.1 Rigs to 2.79

 Writing this down, because it’s flaky. Once you get the Rig to 2.79, you SHOULD be able to open it in Blender/Avastar 3.6+ and not have to touch anything ever again! (If it flakes, report it in the Avastar Discord, please!)

Sorry, guys. We just found out that this ‘magic fix’ button is actually a ‘undo the rig update’ button :(

https://gyazo.com/7ec89228675bd194cfca41421e1cc7b2

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BOM vs SLUVs Myths & Methods

There’s a lot of confusion about what BOM is and how it works. It IS confusing, when you first start, but once you get everything straight, it’s super easy! Know These Things:

BOM does not equal SLUVS
(making your mesh BOM will not magically grant you SLUVs)
SLUVs do not equal BOM
(using SLUVs will not automatically make your mesh BOM)
BOM does not require scripting to use

(you can use the object editing texture tab)
BOM doesn’t need mesh

(you can use it on a prim or even a sculptie)
BOM DOES need to be worn

(it won’t work for anything rezzed)
Alphas erase BOM

(you can’t wear an avatar hider alpha with it)

BOM is a Process

BOM is not a texture. BOM is not a UV layout. SLUVs are related to BOM, but they are not intrinsically linked to BOM.

You can use SLUVs with BOM, obviously. You can ALSO use your own UVs, or any UVs. Or all UVs.

See below for how to understand and use BOM. (Warning, do not read when hungry!)

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Blender Snap Bones Script 279/293

I wrote this (with help from ChatGPT) to fix all the agonizing crap going wrong with my Kodkod head. Basically, the Blender – Avastar – Second Life combo is a stress inducer. You know what I mean!

I have passed this script to a few people, because it is basically the most reliable way to update your Avastar rig… by not updating your rig, but by loading a new Avastar rig and snapping its bones to where you have already carefully and painstakingly edited your rig’s bones to be.

There’s a version for 279 of Blender, and one written in 293. As far as I know, that should still work in Blender 300-360. Someday, I’ll update myself to 360, but not today.

WARNING: the 279 version is refusing to work today. I swear, it worked before. Try at your own risk.

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More Adventures in Updating Old Avastar Rigs

Flush with success of updating the 202 Teegle Horse Avatar, I thought I’d tackle the 247 Water Horse Anipet update. How could it possibly be harder than a 202 rig? (Universe’s reply: “BWAHAHHAHA!”)

Read on to find out about “Check for Joint Edits” instead of “Keep Joint Edits,” how to keep your rig sane (and matching it just the way you had it!), and Dirty, Dirty Rigs.

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Updating the Teegle Horse Avatar devKit

The Teegle Horse Avatar was created in Avastar 2.0.20, and was never able to be updated, because SOMETHING changed between 202 and 261 that made the mesh export differently, and the front end was always off. You’d think it would be the difference between White Stickman and Orange Stickman, but no, not so easy!
Then I got the idea to save the Shape of the 202 THA, when that worked wonders for fixing my Jockey rider file shape and size. But it was even MORE arcane than that! Nevertheless, I managed to stumble upon the One Correct Formula.

Note: Hopefully this will help some other ancient devkits. Give this method a try! (See also: Further Adventures! and now also: Teeglepets and Avastar FLA)

The original THA (in white) vs the test upload (purple). Worn as avatar (front) and as standing animesh (back).
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Avastar Green Bone With Joints Method

I used to call this the “Troll” method, because the example tutorial used a… well, I thought it was a troll, but I think it was a gladiator? There also used to be one I called the “Horse” method, and it used blue bone editing, but this method is no longer desirable. No, not even for quads and other crazy non-humans.


I used to edit bones in edit mode… but you had to make sure you edited BOTH sets of bones at the same time or they would get out of synch, and then you’d have to use the synchronize tools… though these days, if you make sure you ONLY edit the POSE bones, everything should be fine. Should.

I recommend this method, because it is more error-proof.

This method works in all versions of Avastar (or at least 2.79 and up).


Terms:

Green Bones/Pose Bones — the default colour of (most) pose bones in the avastar rig is green. Some of them aren’t. You can recognize these bones by name, because they have normal names. Like HandRight or HipLeft.

Blue Bones/Deform Bones — the default colour of the deform bones are blue and purple. Their names all begin with a lowercase “m” and match the Animation Bone name. ie: mHandRight. You should never have to see/touch/edit these bones. Unless you’re weight painting. Then you use them.

What you need to understand is, the Blue bones glom onto the Green bones. So when you move (edit) the Green ones, the Blue will automatically follow. But not the other way around.

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My Journey Down the Blender IK Rabbit Hole

When rigging my “Horse Project,” I ran into all kinds of problems and strangeness and headache/heartache trying to deal with Inverse Kinematics, and ended up doing a deep dive into IK, FK, IK/FK switches, drivers, driver expressions, blender RNA…!

Here’s the tl;dr summary:
Blender’s IK sucks.

Blender's IK only works well under two specific circumstances:
* A 2-chain uni-directional limb (ie: elbow or knee).
* A multi-chain omnidirectional limb (ie: tentacle, rope, etc).

If you’re trying to make, say, a 5-jointed rotation-limited horse leg… good luck!

Keep reading to find out how to control IK settings (and where all the scattered controls ARE), how to properly create IK constraints and avoid Circular Dependence (this is the devil), what and where the IK solvers are, how to understand and create/edit Drivers and IK/FK switches, and most importantly… how to avoid using Blender IK altogether! Be Brave!

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Bloodsong’s Weight Painting Instructions

First and foremost, understand this: No one can teach you how to weight paint. There’s no A-B-C and magically it’s done method. It’s a long and painful process, and you just have to work through it. Here are some tools and how to use them.

There are four phases:

1: Creating Weights
2: Testing & Adjusting Weights
3: Editing the Mesh to Work Better with Weights
4: Refining (repeat steps 2-3)


Rules to Weight By:

Rule #1: Never, Ever, Just Paint Weights on the Model.
   Overspray is a thing. A bad thing.
   Always have vertex masking mode on, and the vertices you want to affect selected.
Rule #2: Normalize, Normalize, Normalize!
  Turn on Auto-Normalize for the painting tool(s).
  After doing a Levels/Smooth operation, do a Normalize All operation.

PS: Also see...
https://bloodsongtermagant.wordpress.com/2021/02/24/blender-2-9-fixing-zero-weight-colour/
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