prim avatar

prim avatar skinning guide.

v3.0by - heatherhawn

prerequisites;

Shape with desired proportions; set all the fat & muscle sliders to 0
Full body alpha
Pose stand; with T-Pose

Preferences > Advanced > Show Developer Menu ✓

this will open up some options that assist in fitting.

Build Mode > Edit Axis at Root ✓

part 1. rigging.

this step is about positioning prims on the relevant joints.
this is so that when attaching sections of ur avatar, theres an easy visual marker to follow !
also it ensures that the proportions stay in check .

p1.1

u can use any shape for joints.
but Prisms make it easier to tell when sections are rotated the wrong way.

Rez a Prism >
set Taper to : 1.0 - 1.0
set Transparency to : 2% < this ensures the positioning Gizmo is visible

select Pose Stand
Copy Position

select Prism
Paste Position

p1.2 spine

were almost ready to start skinning !
first though, we must enable a rendering feature that is the crux of prim avatar creation,
at least for me.

Developer >

Avatar >

Show Bones

all of ur avatars bones should now be visible , and whats that ?
theres little dots on the joints & ends of every bone ?( dots not a proper term for this but im gonna be using it . )

move the Prism directly up into the bottom Dot of the Pelvis bone,

there is a Groin bone that could be mistaken as the Pelvis, just know that the Groin bone is disconnected from any other Bones.

great !
one bone down, with only 4 left on the spine !
hold shift while moving to copy

move a new Prism up into the next Dot, & be sure to keep it centered on all Axes !

repeat this for the rest of the spine, & ignore the tippy top bone.

now, its a good idea to name these Prims to match their Bones.

from Top to Bottom, we have ;

avatar Head
avatar Neck
avatar Chest
avatar Spine
avatar Pelvis

THATS THE SPINE DONE !!! thank goodness.

p1.3 arms

now, the Arms.
arms are actually the simplest to set in place, as after u have a prim in place for the Shoulder, its a straight path to the Hand

move a new Prism onto the end Dot of the Shoulder Bone

left or right,, pick ur poison. we will mirror these later.

repeat down the length of the arm, and u should now have 4 prims in place !

this is how I prefer to name these, starting with the Shoulder ;

avatar Shoulder
avatar Arm Upper
avatar Arm Lower
avatar Hand

also add L or R to the names.ARM(s) DONE !!!

p1.4 legs

finally, its time for the Legs.
the worst bones for prim avatars.
BUT. i have a strange solution to help . . .
if u have been following this guide, u may be thinking that u should just start with the end Dot of the upper leg . . .
WRONG !!!
doing it that way i find creates some inconsistent knees, so . .

position a Prism at the Knee joint, & name it >

avatar Leg Upper

duplicate that Prism without changing it's Pos

u can just Shift+Drag and CTRL+Z for this

name it >

avatar Leg Lower

its advisable to resize this prim slightly
i find that keeping both of these on the same joint makes fitting A LOT easier, but understand that they will still be separate attachments at the end.

continue down the Leg to the next Dot, and stop there. name it >

avatar Foot

ALL BONES, DONE .now u can start designing ur avatar !
u can align/straighten out the joints that curve a bit for easier designing.
i personally do this, but it will introduce slight inconsistencies when worn.
if u would like to see all the usable bones not covered in the guide, click here

mirroring.

not necessary to do at this stage, but i recommend it for first-timers.

FURWARE > my preferred, very fast to use

ROSAL > better for flexis

link the limbs & pelvis prims together, with pelvis as the Root.
manual - create a duplicate & rotate Z-180°
scripted - create a duplicate & drop script inside

if mirrored manually, u will have to re-align these new prims.

dont forget to rotate the prism so it faces the same direction as the original side

unlink so u can delete the extra pelvis prim we used as a Pivot Point.

part 1.5. design

this guide does not cover aesthetics at all, but this would be the stage where U prim something other than the base !
or not! u could just connect the dots with cylinders . its up to u.

part 2. fitting.

welcome to the final step . . . the time for prims to join with flesh has arrived.

p2.1 attaching

segment ur avatar into various separate Linksets,
ensuring that all the Base Prims we placed in p.1 are used as Root Prims in their respective Linksets.

with everything now linked, individually go to each segment & Take Copy.

in Inventory >
Search : avatar

all of ur segments should be there, now its time to attach them .

to avoid any confusion, use there is a list of the names we set & the attachment points they line up with. --->

Prim Names

Head
Neck
Chest
Spine
Pelvis
Shoulder
Arm Upper
Arm Lower
Hand
Leg Upper
Leg Lower
Foot

Attachments

Skull
Neck
Chest
Right/Left Pec
Pelvis
Shoulder
Upper Arm
Forearm
Hand
Upper Leg
Lower Leg
Foot

p2.2 fitting

all thats left now is lining up the segments !
everything is gonna be rotated the wrong way, but thats ok.

start with the Positioning, using the same method from p.1 used when creating the base :]

positioning refresher :

Developer > Avatar > Show Bones

move Segments precisely into the same Dots they were at before

great!

now for rotation.
enable snapping & rotate in 90° increments, until mostly lined up.

if the Root Prims werent fiddled with, u may get a perfect fit from this.

if the fit is not perfect, u can scroll wheel the rotation values until
everything is lined up.

hold keys to change the increments
alt, ctrl, or shift.

part 3. finish.

PLEASE save ur avatar as an outfit, and then take off the outfit.
Second Life does not always save changes u make to attachment,
re-attaching acts as a manual save .

congratulations !!
u are now a certified PRIMLORD !!!

any complaints about the guide, please yell them at me !!

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