Release Notes

Customers

Find new updates in your download folder.

Open my Download Folder…

There you also find 2 additional subfolders:

The Archive contains all old updates (see listing below. just in case …)
Testversions contains new updates. These are development snapshots for upcoming releases.

Non Customers

Get your personal copy from the Jass-Shop in SL , or via Paypal (see right side of this page)

Avastar Download:

Open your Download Page
Open the Avastar Download page
Open the subfolder named the_archive
Lookup this file:
avastar-1.7-3_blender-2-77.zip

Sparkles Pro Download:

Open your Download Page
Open the Sparkles Download page
Open the subfolder named the_archive
Lookup this file:
sparkles-1.7-3_blender-2-77.zip

UpdateHistory

Changelog 1.7 Details

2017-01-25 Avastar-1.7-4 (fixes since 1.7-3)

fix: allow export of modified joints
new: added console output to show exported joints
fix: removed some avastar-2 properties from avastar-1
fix: avoid object mode switch while timeline scrubbing
new: major changes for sliders (now using pos and not pivot). 
new: updating tool tips for better reading

2016-11-11 Avastar-1.7-3 (fixes since 1.7-2)

2016-11-11 fix: avoid object mode switch while timeline scrubbing
2016-04-17 fix: added separate template startpages for avastar-1
2016-04-17 fix: Used wrong avatar definition file names for Avastar-1
2016-04-17 fix: Added missing info box for Collada exporter
2016-04-03 cmp: Allow Avastar to run on Blender 2.75 (needs more testing)
2016-04-01 imp: Alter to restpose now again selectable by user

2015-03-01 Avastar-1.7-2 (fixes since 1.7-1)

Fixed a few reported bugs
Improved the Rig Migration tool
Improved tool tips (using long tips now)
Added a popup box to warn about outdated Rigs in old blend files

Please note:

We apologize that we have no detailed changelog for
Avastar-1. We will add a changelog for Avastar-1.7-3
as soon as the Bento Project has finished.

The good news is that all bug fixes for Avastar-2
which also affect Avastar-1 are included here.
Also many improvements made for Avastar-2 have been
also ported to Avastar-1.7

2015-01-25 Avastar-1.7-1 (fixes since 1.7-0)

2016-01-25 13:27:05 +0100 compat: blender 2.77 api change (only affects blender newer then 2.76)
2016-01-22 12:24:09 +0100 fix: test for non avastar rig during collada export
                          improved error messages.
                          Fixed a possible problem with unweighted verts during export
2016-01-13 01:05:06 +0100 imp:(un)lock constraints panel now has selector for: 
                          [Selected, Same Group, Visible, Alli]
2016-01-10 18:44:33 +0100 imp: make separation between the Bone Constraint Pannel
                          and the Bone Deform Pannel more clear
2016-01-10 17:13:08 +0100 fix:UI jumping
2016-01-10 17:12:25 +0100 fix:bind with keep now auto enables fitted mesh bones when necessary
2016-01-10 17:11:53 +0100 revert:Alter to restpose now again selectable by user
2016-01-09 22:08:15 +0100 fix: add back Rig Display pannel with avastar mesh hide/unhide buttons
2016-01-09 00:14:46 +0100 fix:strange error in animation export
2016-01-08 23:03:14 +0100 fix:unlock bone locations
2016-01-07 22:30:31 +0100 fix:Documentation links
2016-01-03 02:35:56 +0100 imp:updatng Avastar always creates failure (blender restart needed).
                          This fix makes it a bit less troublesome (wip)
2016-01-03 02:35:03 +0100 fix: gracefull enable/disable of deform flag when control bone is missing

2015-12-29 Avastar-1.7-0

2015-12-29 fix: physics weights did not generate when generated the first time
2015-12-26 new: Added edge display toggle to rigging pannel
2015-12-23 new: Added more settings to the Skin Preset in the riggging panel
2015-12-22 fix: ALT-q deleted fitted mesh shape keys
2015-12-20 fix: suppress .blend when exporting to collada from a regular blend file
2015-12-19 imp: Added remove of non deforming groups to operator panel of delete weight groups
2015-12-11 fix: do not use constraint names to identify IK constraints in Avastar
2015-12-09 fix: preset for FK in bone visibility was not defined.
                Added automatic selection of all finger bones for bake IK to FK
2015-12-09 fix: fix avastar rig after load failed when no active object was selected
2015-12-08 new: Added Assets library (assigning materials to Avastar now works as expected)
2015-12-07 cleanup: Added new utility function to find skeleton definition file
2015-12-01 imp: Armature info panel layout

2015-11-25 fix: Fitted presets did not work correct when sliders are already enabled
2015-11-22 imp: Make Bone group display more consistent
2015-11-21 imp: buttons for enable/disable deforming bones (visual and deform flag)
2015-11-20 fix: be more forgiving in edit_object_change_handler, 
                just bail out when an error occurs
2015-11-17 add: warning for texture faces with more than 21844 triangles
2015-11-04 imp: removed constraints on number of animated bones in bvh/anim files
2015-11-01 imp: reports from Avastar to user now easier to read
2015-11-01 fix: cBone placement in SnapeBaseToRig defect,
                now better (thanks to Tapple Gao's patch)
2015-11-01 fix: Wrong physics weights generated, 
                very obvious on pants, not so obvious on dresses

2015-10-31 fix: Reset to default created mismatch on the Avatar Eyes
2015-10-31 imp: make rig more tolerant for manual bone changes
2015-10-30 fix: Normals modifier for avastar parts now works also with freeze
2015-10-30 fix: avastar in startup file called handler when no context exists yet
2015-10-29 new: bug report panel
2015-10-25 imp: scene update functions now only run twice per second
                was about 200 per second before
2015-10-25 fix: avoid blender crash during update rig for large objects (memory problems?)
2015-10-25 fix: Appearance slider inconsistencies
2015-10-24 fix: Weld Normals only works since Bledner 2.75 
                This is now reported in Tooltips
                and function is disabled on older blender versions
2015-10-24 imp: Unsupported options now only show up when enabled in Addon Properties
2015-10-23 fix: shape slider control elements now easier to use
2015-10-21 fix: 28811 anim,ation export breaks when Origin is keyframed
2015-10-20 fix: unintended freeze of Vertex weight Editor
                unclear if that is a bug in Blender or bad API usage
2015-10-18 fix: object changes not correctly detected when object had no weight groups
2015-10-18 imp: autoweld avastar parts using data_transfer modifier
2015-10-03 fix: preserve pose position (REST or POSE) during upgrade rig
2015-10-01 new: Allow More than 8 materials per object

2015-09-30 new: Added reset of fitting weights in edit mode
2015-09-25 fix: object mode after fitting in edit mode,
                missing update display after loading new Shape
2015-09-25 new: copy SL Bones to Control Bones (experimental operator)
2015-09-09 fix: reset shape did not reset the armature display
2015-09-07 fix: makehuman importer for MAC used wrong path delimiter

2015-08-23 imp: labels in UI, fix issue when active armature is located in hidden layer
2015-08-23 new: Reset Shape key to Basis. When in edit mode only selected verts are affected
2015-08-20 imp: Added no_mesh option to create Avastar (good for making custom avatars)
2015-08-11 imp: All main panels now are closed by default

2015-07-28 fix: Ensure visibility of collision volumes during fitting

Changelog 1.6 Details

2015-07-24 12:00:02 Avastar-1.6-69

69:fix Avastar exporter did always apply rot&scale and disregarded the rot&scale settings
68:imp Added quickinfo boxes for most important panels
67:imp new operator panel options in snap Control bones to Rig
   for volumes and attachment bones
   interesting for non human characters

66:fix ik pivot bone updates not propagated 
   into armature during animation

65:fix labels for foot pivots where exchanged (dopesheet labels)

64:(internal change) read skeleton data from avatar_skeleton.xml 
   to ensure keeping compatibility with SL Viewer.
   Also fixes a minor typo in the ankleBone location.

2015-07-13 22:24:05 Avastar-1.6-63

63:fix a potential problem that might show up during copy weights
    when non mesh objects are parented to the Rig

62:fix Smooth weights tool broke when object has an object scale/rotation

61:imp force armature update after loading shapes, avoids display-issues in the 3D View

60:imp smooth weight and adjust to shape now discard modifiers to avoid out-of-bounds errors

2015-07-11 19:07:45 Avastar-1.6-59

2015-07-11 19:07:45 fix:binding created wrong Shapekeys when 
                        objects have Scale & Rotation 
                        in Object mode
2015-07-10 23:01:05 imp:tool tip on the fitting panel
2015-07-08 18:21:29 fix:smooth by weight can not use operator
                        panel (needs more investigation),
                        using fixed values for now
2015-07-06 22:11:31 imp:vertex select mode for smooth by
                        weights now automatically enabled when
                        object in edit mode or weight_paint mode
                        with mask selection enabled
2015-07-06 17:58:03 new:smooth by weight operator
2015-07-05 15:20:46 fix:Generate physics depended on selected bones
2015-07-04 08:48:11 imp:weight distribution now only fixes weights
                        when weights allow to move vertex
                        to some place on the target mesh
2015-06-28 17:57:52 imp:restrict creation of corrective Shapekeys
                        if key with same name already exists
2015-06-28 16:21:08 imp:Corrective Shape keys now only available
                        for fitted mesh bone sliders
2015-06-27 23:00:07 imp:Added more user friendly support for
                        corrective keys
2015-06-25 21:19:53 imp:Added configurable stepsize to attach
                        slider algorithm
2015-06-24 17:43:28 fix:open blend file did not preserve original
                        object mode of active 0bject
2015-06-20 12:11:19 fix:switch from SL to shapekey destroyed the
                        neutral shapekey
2015-06-19 19:56:56 imp:Fitting bones select state display now
                        shows selected/active bone with different icons
2015-06-19 19:26:17 imp:generate weights automatic from selected bones, 
                        or if no bones selected, generate weights
                        for SL Base Bones
2015-06-19 12:07:51 fix:fitting sliders break weights after adjust
                        to shape was called once
2015-06-19 11:58:50 fix:ALT Q does not always keep active Group
2015-06-16 23:46:27 fix:behavior of fitting presets was not exactly
                        as expected
2015-06-16 10:59:43 imp:deform bone option now maintained mostly
                        automatic
2015-06-14 23:21:51 new:added delete operator for physics weights
2015-06-14 23:20:43 imp:physics sliders now only show when physics is setup
2015-06-14 00:33:25 fix:Sparkles weld normals created an error when 
                        one of the objects contained a disabled
                        Armature modifier
2015-06-14 00:32:03 new:Added bake to mesh with apply Shape Modifiers
2015-06-13 14:59:28 imp:behavior of physics sliders is now more predicatable 
                        (matches expectations better). Also clarified 
                        tool tips a bit
2015-06-11 19:16:33 fix:binding failed when attachment origin not at
                        avastar origin
2015-06-11 18:44:09 imp:Added new button for adjust to current shape 
                        (moved from weight control section into
                        fitted section)
2015-06-11 12:16:21 imp:Fitted slider section now only shows
                        Collision Volume Bones
2015-06-11 11:38:55 fix:When fitting sliders has NO weight group,
                        weights from an arbitrary weight map have
                        been displayed. now no weights are shown
2015-06-11 10:43:45 fix:Alter to Rest Pose did not work together 
                        with attach sliders option during binding
2015-06-10 21:52:57 fix:generate physics weights always forced mesh object
                        into weight paint mode
2015-06-10 21:51:52 imp:made pinch more pinchy
2015-06-10 21:50:48 fix:Sliders did not attach when active object
                        was armature during binding
2015-06-10 00:54:37 new:Added fitting only selected vertices 
                        (works in emode and weight paint mask selection mode
2015-06-09 14:25:35 fix:custom objects scaling was slightly offset 
                        from the system mesh scaling (becasue of wrong matrix usage)
2015-06-08 20:29:36 imp:upgrade to SL now auto detects rigging style, 
                        and has new option for enabling slilders after migration
2015-06-08 08:13:44 fix:avastar was broken due to recent change
                        (wrong order of script imports)
2015-06-07 18:48:40 new:added option to enable sliders right after binding
                        (can be customized in addon preferences)
2015-06-07 16:36:32 imp:Added help links to Panels
                        (can be suppressed in addon preferences)
2015-06-07 14:08:14 fix:Fitting selector now keeps active bone
                        and active weight group synchronized
2015-06-07 13:34:45 imp:simplified User interface
2015-06-07 11:44:40 imp:Added link to registration website
2015-06-07 00:08:36 fix:fixed Wrong order of calculation in fitting sliders
2015-06-06 23:11:32 imp:made warning about sliders not enabled more verbose
2015-06-06 23:00:05 new:allow more than 4 weights per vertex for export to SL
2015-06-06 22:59:31 imp:make the fitting presets perfrom faster. 
                        Also maintain removal of unnecessary vertex groups
2015-06-06 14:35:01 imp:Account data can now be added 
                        as permanent info (in addon preferences)
2015-06-05 15:16:47 imp:rephrased tool tip and button label 
                        of Auto Update Fitting Configuration
2015-06-05 15:05:43 imp:Removed convert to fitted/classic
                        in favor of new fitting presets
2015-06-05 14:18:33 new:Added fitting presets
2015-06-04 21:57:49 new:Avastar Added bake shape to mesh button
2015-06-04 21:56:43 fix:sparkles timeline copy failed
                        when fcurve contains no group

Brief instructions (applies only to sparkles pro users)

We have simplified the usage of Shape keys a bit. Here is a brief workflow:

Bind your mesh (with shape slider support as shown in the video)
Prepare the rigging panel (as in the video)
Open the fitting panel (as in the video)
Open the Appearance sliders panel

In the appearance sliders you now have one additional button for each slider. This extra button allows you to add a corrective Shapekey for a specific slider with one mouse klick.

Avastar names the new shape key such that it can be automatically controlled by the sliders.

Important: We currently support only one corrective Shapekey per slider.

Hint: First setup the slider configuration, then create one corrective shape key for each slider that you want to fix.

The updated Video will become available soon.

Example:

In the Appearance Sliders panel:

Click on the Shapekey button on the Belly Size row. Then you find a new Shape key in the Shape key panel named “big_belly_torso_104”. This is the official shape key that is recognized by Avastar for controlling the belly size.

You now can edit this shape key to your likes until it matches the shape as you want it to be.

When your shape key is finished, then you have to finalize the shape key (from within the Shape key operator menu)

Now the shape key is automatically controlled by Avastar.

Have fun,
Gaia

Older Avastar Releases

Avastar-1-5

Avastar 1.5 is out. This is mostly a usability release. We have made various little changes which all aim for more intuitive usage of the tools.

If you also have Sparkles Pro, then please always ensure that your Sparkles release matches to your Avastar release. Then you have a good chance that the tools work together.

Some Highlights of the Avastar-1.5 Release:

Visible improvements:

Updated Release Info panel for Avastar

When you open the Avastar Vertical Tab in the Tool Shelf, then you now find a panel named Avastar *.*.*
Inside the panel you now find a Update Section. From there you can check for updates and you can immediately download and install them (provided you have an account on our Website and you have registered your purchases on that account).

Note: This panel has previously been named Avastar Tools

Other improvements:

Improved Shapekey copy tool now also works reliably after editing
In previous releases Sparkle’s Shape Key copy tool added some extra data for Avastar, so that Avastar could automatically assign the copied Shape Keys to the correct Avastar Sliders. This extra data suppressed any changes that you made on your custom object shape keys after they where copied from a template (e.g. the Avastar meshes). This restriction no longer applies. You now can edit any shape key to your likes.
Note: Avastar recognizes which shape key shall be used with which Shape Slider by matching names. So all you need to ensure is: When you name your Custom Shape keys exact identical to the corresponding Shapekeys on the Avastar meshes, then Avastar will apply these keys automatically to your custom meshes!
Updated Avastar template files
The textured template and the animation template use the newest Avastar Armature.
Object Origins no longer move with Sliders
Since the beginning of Avastar the Object origin was influenced by some of the Shape sliders (i.e. the sliders which change the Avastar height). We have fixed that.
Upgrade Tool more robust.
While the tool still can not handle all ever possible situations, it now can handle at least some more situations than before.

Please help us to help you!

We are so dependent on your feedback. So please please please be so kind and report any inconveniences and bugs to our ticket system. This will help us to identify issues and fix them.

Avastar-1-4

Avastar 1.4.5 is out. The coolest feature of this Avastar release is its ability to support Custom shape keys. However this works best when you also have the Sparkles Tools installed.

Please always ensure that your Sparkles release matches to your Avastar release. Then you have a good chance that the tools work together.

Changelog since avastar-1.4 has been released:

Visible improvements:

New Release Info panel for Avastar

When you open the Avastar Vertical Tab in the Tool Shelf, then you now find a panel named Avastar *.*.*
Inside the panel you now find a new Button Check for Updates. When you click on this button, then your local Browser opens a page on our website from where you can see if we have published a new Release.

Note: This panel has previously been named Avastar Tools

New Release Info Panel for Sparkles

You find the corresponding Sparkles *.*.* Panel in the Tool Vertical Tab of the Tool Shelf.

Other improvements:

Improved shapekey copy tool now also works when sources and target origins differ.
We have seen that many users do not match the origin of their attachments with the origin of the Avastar character. Also it seems to be common that the object scaling and rotation is not applied. We decided to improve the Shape key copy tool to also work on scaled and rotated attachments with their origin at an arbitrary location.
Updated Avastar template files
Now the textured template and the animation template use the newest Avastar Armature.
Loading of xml shapes was broken in Avastar-1.4
Nothing to say here. It needed to be fixed, so it was fixed.

Avastar-1-3

Avastar-1.3 provides a few bug fixes and improvements

Here is the list of modifications since Avastar-1.2:

Imp: Internal cleaning up
Imp: Added toggle to switch from Vertex Mirror to topology mirror for copy weights from opposite side
Imp: Avastar Rotation Control now also works when Bone constraints are renamed by user
Fix: links from Blender Help to Website help pages
Fix: Shape export: gender male should be 1.0, not 0.1
Fix: seams where calculated wrong
Fix: The weight Source Selection was sometimes not properly recognized
Fix: allow Shape Sliders even when no Avastar meshes are present
Fix: Copy from one Avastar to another was blocked
Fix: Update_Tool(in place upgrade): Remove children from Target Armature when not present in source Armature

Avastar-1-2

Avastar-1.2

Avastar-1.2 is our new shining Blender Addon for character Creation and Animation. If you are already a customer, then you find Avastar-1.2 in your download folder.

Highlights:

Optimized for better and easier workflows
Support for Fitted Mesh.
Many improvements under the hood
Updated documentation

Note: Avastar-1.2 is the successor of Avastar-1.0. It runs on Blender 2.70 and newer.

Avastar-1-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id

After more than 2 years of development and testing Avastar-1.0 is finally available. Avastar is a tool-set made for Blender, it is designed to support the creation and animation of characters and attachments. It is optimized for Second life, but it also supports other similar products.

Avastar works for any Blender version starting from Blender 2.64, up to the most recent release.

Avastar is available from the JASS-Shop in second life or via Paypal (See left sidebar of this page).

Questions ?

Ask Gaia Clary in Second Life, or send email to gaia.clary@machinimatrix.org

Have Fun

Gaia & Magus & Domino

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Product Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Changeset from last development version:

Imp: Usability of Avatar Shape panel
Imp: Template Files no longer change the user interface
New: Cleanup button to remove transfered animation from target object
New: Retarget map guesser (works for BVH files from SL and Carnegie Mellon)
New: Indicator for extra materials generated by SL importer for large meshes ( > 21844 Tris )
Imp: improved Weight Edit panel layout, Renamed Panel to match similar rename in Blender
Fix: fix for situation where we have no active object
Change: replaced bmesh usage by using updated mesh (until better support for bmesh in panels is available).
New: Added ghost meshes to allow modifiers (shrinkwrap, mask , mirror) during rigging
New: Added weight group type selector for ‘[bones, other, all] weightgroups’ to the weight group editor
Rem: discard LOD estimate tool for Blender < 2.66, too many issues with bmesh
Imp: Optimized Layout of deform enable/disable button
Imp: added mode switch to weight preset. Now object goes to weight paint mode and armature to pose mode.
Imp: toolshelf organization: moved skeleton display options into the show bones tab

Highlights:

Avastar provides easy creation of characters based on Second Life Shapes
Shape-sliders for easy shape adjustments
Rigging of non human characters
Weighting to Collision volume bones and Advanced weight copy tools.
A mesh calculator for estimating your mesh costs.
An embedded Collada exporter, optimized for use with second Life.
Welding of boundary seams for seamless texturing of multi part creations.
An advanced rig for animation with blender tools,
Animation of eye movements,
Facial expression sliders (upload to Second Life not supported)
Animation of collision volumes and attachment points.
A Retarget tool optimized for transferring second Life animations.
Export as BVH and as dot-anim format.

Known bugs:

The Spine attachment bone has a wrong orientation. Thus attachment animations of the aSpine bone will turn the bone upside down. Only the aSpine bone is affected. For all other bones animations work just fine. No workaround known.

Important notes:

Although Avastar-1.0 is now released, please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate and fix new problems.

We have tested Avastar-1.0 on the 2.68 development version of Blender. However Avastar should also run on all Blender versions starting from 2.64 up to 2.68.

Avastar-1-RC5-834

After we found a few small issues i decided to go for another release candidate. The release of Avastar-1.0 by end o may is still very likely.

Changeset:

New: Advanced minimum supported Blender Release to 2.63
Imp: Clean Target weight groups before perform weight group copy.
Fix: Avoid Blender crash in Mesh Info
Imp: Added operator panel for weight copy functions
Imp: Download cost estimate (take flat shading and UV-map into account)
Imp: textured template: better light settings, added multi layer clothes
New: Added File Import option to create an Avastar with shape from file
Imp: Better button label for weld all boundaries option
Fix: Compatibility: Older Blender versions can not use bmesh API reliably

Highlights:

Bone weight Copy tools now have same options as Weight Copy during parenting
Download cost estimator much imroved (still not a precise tool!)
Fixed a few border cases where Avastar did not perform well.

Known bugs (not fixed for Avastar-1.0):

The Spine attachment bone has a wrong orientation. Thus attachment animations of the aSpine bone will turn the bone upside down. Only the aSpine bone is affected. For all other bones animations work just fine. No workaround known.

Todo’s(Avastar-1.0):

Finish the docs
Rework the videos

Todo’s (Avastar-1.1):

Add the Physics Weight calculator
Armature Copy tool (Avastar to SL-Avatar & SL-Avatar to Avastar)
Fix the Spine attachment bone

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Product Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Important notes:

It appears like Avastar now has only minor bugs. we re still very confident that we can release Avastar-1.0 by end of may 2013. However please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate new problems.

We have tested the new Avastar update on the development version of Blender. Avastar should now run on all Blender versions from 2.63 up to the upcoming 2.67a.

Avastar-1-RC4-821

Avastar-1-RC4-821 (fix for 812)

Important: In Avastar-812 there was a major bug and a compatibility issue with older releases. I just have fixed the known issues and replaced the download. Sorry for the inconvenience. This page still fully applies. So now hopefully this is indeed our final Release candidate for Avastar-1.0. There will be a few things to be cleaned up still, but hopefully no more bug fixes. We have added some more usability improvements and a normals welding option for the Collada exporter. More details see below.

Changeset:

Adjust: Blender Version recognition for 2.67
Fix: use bmesh API only for Blender > 2.66 (affects 817)
New: Added function to find duplicate vertices
Fix: Improved compatibility to older Blender versions (affects 812)
Imp: Moved Mesh Info into its own panel.
Imp: Toolshelf cleaned up
Imp: Make Avastar run more fluently when non Avastar rigs are used.
Imp: Added bone Preset buttons for Weighting andAnimating
Fix: Freeze did not work when armature was renamed.
Imp: Added dynamic display of statistic data when mesh is in edit mode
New: Added mesh calculator
Imp: Improved design of mesh info panel
New: Added materials check tool (wip)
Imp: Show freeze tool only when there is something to be frozen (sanitise toolshelf)
Imp: Added Eyetarget to its own layer and make it invisible by default
Imp: Moved Collada into own panel. Added Costs display and triangle count
Imp: Export speed is much faster (the normals exporter had a serious performance leak)
New: Added suport for progress bar
Imp: Collada exporter now warns for texture copy issues (failed copies no longer stop the export, but create a more informative warning popup)
Imp: Reject normalize of meshes with zero_weighted vertices
Fix: Copy weights failed for ngons
New: Added Avastar custom template file (experimental, minor changes expected)
New: Added welding of normals along adjacent object boundaries (to avoid visual seems on the Avastar character)
Fix: Mirror weight copy on bone level did not copy

Highlights:

Templates for improved quickstart
Complete rework of the Toolshelf buttons
Initial mesh LI calculator (work in progress)
Normal welding of boundary seams during Collada export

Unresolvable bugs (not fixed for Avastar-1.0):

The Spine attachment bone has a wrong orientation. Thus attachment animations of the aSpine bone will turn the bone upside down. Only the aSpine bone is affected. For all other bones animations work just fine. No workaround known.

Todo’s:

Finish the Download weights calculator
Add the Physics Weight calculator
Comple the Documentation
Review (and partially redo) the existing videos

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Product Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Important notes:

We believe that we have fixed all known issues (except the unresolvable bug as indicated above) with Avastar by now. However please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate new problems.

We have tested the new Avastar update on the development version of Blender. Avastar should now run on all Blender versions from 2.62 up to 2.66a.

Avastar-1-RC4-775

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id

Avastar-1-RC1-775

So here is our first Relese candidate for Avastar-1.0 We have fixed another few bugs and added many improvements regarding usability, like helper tools for non humanoid rigging and a more robust Collada exporter. The video gives you a first impression about how non human rigging works with Avastar. More details see below.

Changeset:

Fix: Collada Export of generated images fails after blender restart
Fix: mirror copy also copied bones from invisible layers
Imp: Simplified the mesh and armature control panels
Fix: bone draw_type selector pointed to wrong selection list
Imp: Always apply rotation&scale for meshes when exporting
New: Added “clean target groups” option to weight copy
Fix: Avoid jumping of mesh location when freezing
Fix: Inconsistency bug in blender data can lead to exceptions
Imp: Bone weight Copy tools where not available in all valid cases.
New: Added function to remove all Avastar shapes (convenience method for non human armatures)
New: Added SnapIKToRig option
Imp: Added new function for protect/unprotect editing of Structure bones
Fix: Removed Snap Rig to SL Bones (We actually do not want to edit the SL bones at all)
New: Added new operator for Snapping Control Bones to SL Bones. (Tool Shelf, edit mode)
New: Added new operator for Snapping SL Bones to Control Bones. (Tool Shelf, edit mode)
Fix: Freeze inplace now keeps parent/child relation with aramature. (Tool Shelf, Freeze tool)
Imp: Clean weight group: When vertex mask selection is active clean only selected verts.

Highlights:

New Helper tools for non human rigging
Improvements regarding export to Collada (more fail proof)

Unresolvable bugs (not fixed for Avastar-1.0):

The Spine attachment bone has a wrong orientation. Thus attachment animations of the aSpine bone will turn the bone upside down. Only the aSpine bone is affected. For all other bones animations work just fine. No workaround known.

Todo’s:

Completing the Documentation
Review (and partially redo) the existing videos

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Product Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Important notes:

We believe that we have fixed all known issues (except the unresolvable bugs as indicated above) with Avastar by now. However please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate new problems.

We have tested the new Avastar update on the development version of Blender. Avastar should now run on all Blender versions from 2.61 up to 2.66a.

Avastar-1-dev-744

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id

Avastar-1-dev-744

Hello. I have completely reworked the Weight Paint toolshelf. All essential weighting functions are now at one single place. I also added a couple of weight copy improvements which are mainly targeted to ease of usage. The Weighting Tools documentation page is work in progress.

Changeset:

Imp: Changed parenting to avoid vertex group clutter. Missing vgroups are handled during export
Imp: changed location constraints to local space (support unlock SL skeleton rotation)
Imp: Collected all basic weight functions into the tool shelf (when in Weight Paint mode) for quick editing
New: Added copy from bone, mirror copy, remove, and copy from rigged for vertex groups
Imp: Added a check for empty meshes to avoid an exception during weight copy
Fix: Avoid to copy image to itself on export (now a warning)
Fix: resolved an issue with python not recognizing a try/catch block in blender-2.61
Fix: mesh gets destroyed when attachment was named similar to an Avastar-mesh
Fix: a blender bug which otherwise results in an unclean remove of weight groups
New: Added ability to remove weights when freezing a mesh
Imp: Make access to Help pages more clear.
Fix: A wrong pointer to wrong help page

Highlights:

New Copy weight tools
Improvements regarding creation of rigged meshes

Known bugs:

The Spine attachment bone has a wrong orientation. Thus attachment animations of the aSpine bone will turn the bone upside down. Only the aSpine bone is affected. For all other bones animations work just fine. No workaround known.
The .bvh export is broken. Workaround: Use the much more versatile .anim export instead.

Todo’s:

Completing the Documentation
Review (and partially redo) the existing videos

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Product Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Important notes:

We believe that we have fixed most issues with Avastar by now. However please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate new problems. Special thanks to Darien Caldwell, Optimo Maximus and Eleanora Newell for invaluable remarks and finds.

We have tested the new Avastar update on the development version of Blender. Avastar should now run on all Blender 2.6 versions up to Blender 2.65a.

Avastar-1-dev-734

Hello. While creating the Collision Volume Tutorial i found some annoying issues. This update contains the fixes.

Changeset:

Imp: Added a new option for removing weights from mesh during freeze
Fix: A custom mesh distorts massively when its name started with one of the following String: (‘headMesh’, ‘hairMesh’, ‘upperBodyMesh’, ‘lowerBodyMesh’, ‘skirtMesh’, ‘eyelashMesh’, ‘eyeBallLeftMesh’, ‘eyeBallRightMesh’
Imp: The Basis Shape key may be renamed now.(For collision shape checking)
Fix: Solved an incompatibility with Blender 2.61 which broke Avastar shape sliders for that version.
New: Avastar Armature version changed to 2 for better recognition of old blend files.

Todo’s:

Completing the Documentation
Review (and partially redo) the existing videos

Highlights:

None

Known bugs:

The Spine attachment bone has a wrong orientation. Thus attachment animations of the aSpine bone will turn the bone upside down. Only the aSpine bone is affected. For all other bones animations work just fine. No workaround known.
The .bvh export is broken. Workaround: Use the much more versatile .anim export instead.

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Product Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Important notes:

We believe that we have fixed most issues with Avastar by now. However please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate new problems. Special thanks to Darien Caldwell, Optimo Maximus and Eleanora Newell for invaluable remarks and finds.

We have tested the new Avastar update on the development version of Blender. Avastar should now run on all Blender 2.6 versions up to Blender 2.65a.

Avastar-1-dev-726

Hello. This time only a small update related to Documentation: We have added Links to our Online Documentation into the Blender main Help menu. And we have improved the Label of the Help button in the Error Popup Window. It now indicates that you can get Avastar related help from there.

Note: There is no functional change in Avastar with this update. So you can skip this update if you prefer.

Changeset:

Imp: Added Links to Avastar Help Pages into the Blender Help Menu
Imp: Added “Avastar” to Help button label in Error Menu

Todo’s:

Completing the Documentation
Review (and partially redo) the existing videos

Highlights:

Get Help easier.

Please note that we have Online Help since Blender 2.64: For almost all Avastar functions you can right click on the function button and open the “Online Manual”. This will open your Web Browser and navigate to the corresponding Avastar Help Page.

Known bugs:

The Spine attachment bone has a wrong orientation. Thus attachment animations of the aSpine bone will turn the bone upside down. Only the aSpine bone is affected. For all other bones animations work just fine. No workaround known.
The .bvh export is broken. Workaround: Use the much more versatile .anim export instead.

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Product Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Important notes:

We believe that we have fixed most issues with Avastar by now. However please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate new problems. Special thanks to Darien Caldwell, Optimo Maximus and Eleanora Newell for invaluable remarks and finds.

We have tested the new Avastar update on the development version of Blender. Avastar should now run on all Blender 2.6 versions up to Blender 2.65a.

Avastar-1-dev-720

We have added experimental support for the Mesh Deformer:

Basically you setup your Avastar shape by using the Shape sliders as before.
You create your Attachment by using exactly the anticipated shape (No need to take care of Deformer constraints)
Upon exporting your mesh attachment you only set the new option “Include Deformer Shape”. This will generate an XML file besides the Collada file. This XML file can later be used by the SL Importer as “Custom deformer shape”. Note: This file is NOT meant as storage for the current Shape. It is ONLY(!) used for the Mesh deformer.

Changeset:

Fix: Compatibility issues with older Avastar Releases
Fix: section Shape reset did nothing.
New: Added option in exporter for creating normalized
Mesh Deformer Shapes.

Todo’s:

Completing the Documentation
Review (and partially redo) the existing videos

Highlights:

Added an experimental Support for the Mesh Deformer

Known bugs:

The Spine attachment bone has a wrong orientation. Thus attachment animations of the aSpine bone will turn the bone upside down. Only the aSpine bone is affected. For all other bones animations work just fine. No workaround known.
The .bvh export is broken. Workaround: Use the much more versatile .anim export instead.

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Jass Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Important notes:

We believe that we have fixed most issues with Avastar by now. However please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate new problems. Special thanks to Darien Caldwell, Optimo Maximus and Eleanora Newell for invaluable remarks and finds.

We have tested the new Avastar update on the development version of Blender. Avastar should now run on all Blender 2.6 versions up to Blender 2.65a.

Avastar-1-dev-713

We reworked the parenting and weighting tools. Basically these tools have been merged into one single tool. Our aim was to make the rigging process easier to understand. We also fixed a few bugs with recognition of zero weighted vertices. We still have not yet fixed a few known limitations (see below).

Changeset:

Imp: Modified bones marked with “M” instead of “*”
Fix: Wrong set of bones was marked as modified.
Imp: Ready for Blender 2.65
Imp: merge Weight Copy and Rigging into one panel
Imp: Check for zero weighted vertices now only reports if the sum of all vertex weights is zero.
New: Added a zero-weight checker to Collada exporter (to avoid exceptions)
Imp: Added counters to Rigging panel for parented/unparented meshes.
New: Added UnParent Operator (reverse of Parent to Armature).
Imp: Added checks to avoid reparenting/weighting already parented attachments
Fix: fixed jumping issue when a mesh is frozen and the object is not at the origin.
Fix: adjusted foot roll on left foot to take into account SL asymmetry

Highlights:

Simplified parenting and weighting panels
Added a Detach from armature function.

Known bugs:

There is a compatibility issue with Avastar releases prior to update 639. You will be able to open your old files and work with them as usual. But please do not touch the Shape sliders! As soon as you try to change your shape it will loose some of its bones. No workaround known.
The Spine attachment bone has a wrong orientation. Thus attachment animations of the aSpine bone will turn the bone upside down. Only the aSpine bone is affected. For all other bones animations work just fine. No workaround known.
The .bvh export is broken. Workaround: Use the much more versatile .anim export instead.

Oddities:

None

Todo’s:

Completing the Documentation
Review (and partially redo) the existing videos

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Jass Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Important notes:

We believe that we have fixed most issues with Avastar by now. However please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate new problems. Special thanks to Darien Caldwell, Optimo Maximus and Eleanora Newell for invaluable remarks and finds.

We have tested the new Avastar update on the development version of Blender. Avastar should now run on all Blender 2.6 versions.

Avastar-1-dev-694

This is primary a bugfix update. We have fixed all major known issues with Avastar. We also added some improvements to existing functions. But please read the Limitations section below. Sorry, this time we have no new Demo video for you.

Changeset:

IMP: Textbased shape export: Modified bones marked with “M”.
NEW: New Shape section: Bone Length Changing bones.
NEW: New Shape section: All Changed bones.
NEW: Added UNDO to reset shape sliders
FIX: Check tools now independent of order of selection.
IMP: Multiple meshes can be checked at once (not recommended though to do that)
FIX: Weight check mismatch when Collada exporter is called
FIX: Slider values did not reflect the exact shape for shape slider conversions
FIX: bake T pose had characters jumping up. Fixed global transform bug
IMP: throw an error if an attempt to export animation with more than 32 bones (SL limit).
FIX: Fixed a few issues with missing images during collada export (maybe that needs a cleanup)
FIX: Empty material slots no longer break the Collada export
FIX: wrong attachment id ( ‘aR Lower Leg’ appeared twice, ‘aL Lower Leg’ was missing
FIX: When meshes are moved to other layer directly after freeze, they got deleted instead moved.
IMP: After freeze: Now the frozen duplicate of the previously active object gets the new active object
IMP: Complete rewrite of motion transfer code
IMP: Added CUSTOM Material selection. Changed default material to NONE : Assigns Blender’s default ‘Material’ to all parts.
IMP: Added material setups for None, Female, Male, Custom, and template.
IMP: added option for “apply scale” both for mesh and animations. This means the armature object can be scaled and this scale be taken into account in the mesh and animations.
IMP: Now display unweighted/zero weights/more than four.
IMP: No longer traceback when Armature is in selection.

Highlights:

The Shape sliders now have Reset buttons for resetting a slider back to its default value, resetting a bone section and resetting the entire shape.
we have added 2 extra bone sections “Skeleton” and “Changed” which contain all skeleton changing sliders and all Changed sliders respectively.
The motion transfer code (for mocap) has been completely redone and is much more stable and forgiving now.

Known bugs:

There is a compatibility issue with Avastar releases prior to update 639. You will be able to open your old files and work with them as usual. But please do not touch the Shape sliders! As soon as you try to change your shape it will loose some of its bones.
The Spine attachment bone has a wrong orientation. Thus attachment animations of the aSpine bone will turn the bone upside down. Only the aSpine bone is affected. For all other bones animations work just fine.
The .bvh export is broken. We recommend to use the much more versatile .anim export instead.
IK: bending of the arms when starting from T-Pose has intentionally changed compared to previous Avastar versions. (fixed, available on next update)

Oddities:

The mFootLeft bone has a different bone roll as the mFootRight bone. This is probably a consequence from the slight asymmetry of the Second Life Skeleton. This asymmetry sums up along the leg bone chain and creates a bone roll of 12 degrees for mFootLeft. So the bone roll is indeed a property of the Second Life Avatar and it has no impact on the animations created by Avastar. However we have fixed this issue. The fix will be available in the next update and it will allow easier animation of the left foot and the left toe.

Todo’s:

Completing the Documentation
Review (and partially redo) the existing videos

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Jass Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Important notes:

We believe that we have fixed most issues with Avastar by now. However please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate new problems.

We have tested the new Avastar update on the development version of Blender. Avastar should now run on all Blender 2.6 versions.

Avastar-1-dev-636

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id

Avastar-1-dev-636

This is a minor update. The changes are mostly usability improvements. The main changes are improvement of error handling and addition of a context sensitive help.

For Blender 2.64 pre release:

You can open the Help for any Avastar function button by:

Right Mouse Button -> Online Manual

Your Online browser should pop up and guide you to the relevant Help page.

Changeset:

FIX: fixed an error message text in the exporter
FIX: Parent to armature now preserves child location regardless of Avastar location
IMP: Make Error messages for unweighted vertices more consistent uand less confusing
IMP: Added Warning and optional Online Help Button to message popup
IMP: Some functions would change the selection State after terminating. This has been fixed. (No more unexpected flickering on the 3D View when calling a function)
IMP: Weight utilities now only show up when they can be used.
IMP: Added message box to Bake T Pose (when unweitghted vertices are found)
IMP: Added reports to status line for all tool shelf operators.
IMP: Check for attempt to reparent an already parented mesh and added a detail message box.

Highlights:

Help messages are now context sensitive. Most message popups now contain a button to the correct Machinimatrix help pages.
We added an example startup file which has built in materials for new Avastar characters. Just Add -> Avastar will now create a skinned female Avastar character.

Limitations:

This update is not compatible to Avastar-500. The compatibility fix is still pending.

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Jass Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Important notes:

We believe that we have fixed most issues with Avastar by now. However please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate new problems.

We have tested the new Avastar update on the development version of Blender. Avastar should now run on all Blender 2.6 version.

Avastar-1-dev-625

Avastar-1-dev-625 (for Blender 2.60++):

This update contains many small changes and a few realy big new features. Well, maybe not soo big on first view, but big enough to get very excited. The video to the right is a reworked version of the Avastar-5-: Mesh Rigging tutorial showing how to use the SL bones for posing (new feature)

Please read the detailed descriptions in this article! Your workflow may be affected (no worries, it will become easier, read on).

Important Note:We found a bug that prevents already existing projects (made with earlier releases of Avastar) to export properly.

If you think something else is broken, then please send us an email together with a blend file that shows the particular problem and a short description ( mail to gaia.clary@machinimatrix.org )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id

The above tutorial shows how you can prepare the SL bones for weighting and posing. (The avatar.blend style)

Changeset:

The Change set is so huge, that we have dropped it from here. Please read on in the details section below

Known Bugs:

The Collada exporter accepts only Meshes for export. If you also selected the Armature while exporting, you get an error message:There are non-mesh objects selected for export.
Please only select meshes. If you want to export the joint locations
then check the ‘include joint positions’ option.The correct message is:There are non-mesh objects selected for export.
Please only select meshes.
Hint: The armature (Joint positions) is automatically exported.

Highlights:

Collada feature complete
Support for Collision Volumes
Custom Shape Sliders

CAUTION, Workflow change: Do not apply Rotation to the armature (except you know exactly what you do)!

Limitations:

Projects created with earlier versions of Avastar do not export with Avastar-625.
Sympthom: After upload your mesh character loks like a stick avatar.
Workaround:
– delete armature modifiers and armature
– create new Avastar and reassing meshes to the new Avastar.
Documentation is not yet complete. If you intend to experiment with the new Custom shape sliders then be prepared for some roughnesses. This feaure is not yet documented and it is still kind of experimental. Documentation will shortly be available.

Where is the Download ?

I lost my download link:
Please check in the FAQ.
I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Jass Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Important notes:
We are featruecomplete. So we are heading towards Avastar 1.0 now. So we do only Bugfixing and Documenatation from now on. Please help us getting this task done by sednign us your error reports (by email to mailto:gaia.clary@machinimatrix.org ). Every test case can help us to isolate new problems.	We have tested the new Avastar update on Blender 2.63a and made some brief tests on older releases too. Avastar should now run on all Blender 2.6 version. The support for Blender 2.5 has been dropped.

Update details

Avastar Collada

optimized for Second Life exports

Feature complete:

We have fixed all major issues with the Collada export. As you might know the Avastar -500 already contained a preliminary version of our own Collada exporter. We have meanwhile improved the exporter significantly. And it now provides everything needed for exporting your Meshes to Second Life (see feature list on the right side)

Easy to use:

On first sight the new export panel looks like we have dropped functionality. But actually we have removed complexity from the user interface and now Avastar does the job for you. The only necessary decision for you is from where Avastar will collect your textures (if you have any) You do that in the texture options.

And you wonder what this “SL Bone bug fix” thing is ? Well it is another issue we found. Aside from the normal bones which start with an “m” there are a bunch of other bones that can be used – the “attachment point” bones and around twenty “collision volume” bones. These can be weighted and animated (see below), however if you try and reposition them, or even position them in their default place, horrible things happen in SL. This option just removes those bones from the armature section of the exported collada file.

BTW: Avastar can be used to export static meshes. Just select your meshes and export them all together with your weighted character or alone. There is nothing to consider here. It just works.

You do not like the Avastar Collada exporter ? No problem, the Blender Collada exporter is also available for you (as part of the Blender 2.64 distribution) with many improvements and it works reliably for Second Life meshes.

Exports static meshes and rigged meshes
(limited to Avastar Rigs!)
Support for color-only (material color)
Alpha value (fully transparent/fully opaque)
Brightness (on/off)
Up to 8 textures per object (texture faces)
Export of UV textures
Export of material textures
Uses active UV-layout for export
Object names are sorted to support multiple LOD files
Exports only deforming weight groups.
On the Fly normalisation during Export to Collada.

Compatible with older Blender releases:

The Avastar Collada exporter works with any blender version starting from Blender 2.60 up to the most recent version. The export options have been cut down to a minimum. All critical export parameters are now calculated by Avastar:

Actually you just need to select the meshes which you want to export. Avastar detects on its own when it must export the armature.

Volume Bones

Recently a new idea popped up for making meshes more adjustable to the default Second Life Avatar: Volume Bones. Originally the volume bones are used to create a simple invisible collision mesh for calculating collisions of the avatar with its environment.

Weighted Volume Bones:

Red Poly (a Second Life resident) has pointed out that the volume bones in fact can be weighted to mesh. These are just ordinary bones and every SL avatar has them already. Avastar now has them too (see the red bones in the image on the right side) and you can use them in your own creations. Where they are really interesting is that they react to some of the shape sliders in SL (like the way mHead reacts to Head Size) which means you can create clothes and attachments that adapt to the character’s shape.

Simple workflow

To get to the point: Avastar now supports volume bones in a really nice way. As mentioned above the bones always follow the avatar shape sliders, and all the complexity in using these bones is taken care of automatically. We’ve added a function that allows you to see the effect the shape will have on your mesh inside blender so you can now model over a whole shape range (see below).

all 19 available Volume Bones are now supported.
the volume bones react to the shape sliders in Blender just like they do in Second Life.
The volume bones can be animated just like any bone

Enable volume bone weighting

The volume bones can be weighted just like the default SL bones:

Parent and Weight your own Mesh to the Avastar character (as always)
If your mesh has not yet any Shape keys, then create a Base shape key (Simply add a shape key, it will be named “Base”).
Add another Shape key and name it “bone_morph”. Avastar will use this shape key as the storage for the changes on the mesh due to the shape slider movements.
Set the shape key influence to 1.0
Select the Avastar rig, go to Pose mode and open the Bone properties section.
Select all volume bones at once. (assuming you have enabled their visibility before)
Press SHIFT +W -> Deform to enable the deform checkmark for all volume bones. You might need to do that twice. This toggle behaves like the ‘a’ toggle for select/deselect all vertices.
Go and add some weights to the volume bones (in weight paint mode)
And now your custom mesh will react to the Avastar Shape sliders. And when you wear it in Second Life and change your shape it will react in exactly the same way as it does in Blender.

We still need to specify how exactly the volume bones need to be weighted. That is currently a field for experimentation.

But please note that the weight painting of the volume bones is still up to the user (you!). We do not provide ready weighted volume bones (yet).

Skeleton editing

When you want to create non human characters, then you need to edit the skeleton. Until now it was very painful to do that with the Avastar skeleton due to a lot of built in constraints. The most apparent problem is that the Avastar skeleton uses the SL target bones and a similar set of bones, the “Avastar control bones”. The control bones and the SL bones must be kept in synchonisation all the time. Otherwise you will end up with very weird issues.

Now we provide some helpful tools. But beware. This is still a work in progress. The tools are still not easy to use and you need to be very careful and understand exactly what you do. but after some practicing you should be able to setup a non human mesh in a short time.

Function panel for Lock/Unlock skeleton Rotation
Dito for Lock/Unlock Location
Bake selected Bones as new rest pose

weighting

Sorry, we still do not provide the magic button “press here and all is well”. But we continue to improve our tools.

For example in previous releases the user had to know exactly what to do when preparing a mesh for weighting. We have now added a whole lot of extras which make Avastar much less restrictive. it now can handle many situations which previously was a huge source of confusion.

Weight adjustment tool now only appears in weight painting mode with a single vertex selected (so the values are live and can be adjusted immediately)
copy weights no longer normalises the weights
find unweighted now ignores non SL bones and bones set not to deform (avoids many issues seen on previous releases)
normalise all now ignores non SL bones and bones set not to deform
Normalisation of Weights only done on export to Collada. It’s quite useful to be able to weight paint several bones to 1.

Mesh

We now support 2 important features and we hope you will love them.

The very most impressive new feaure is that Avastar can be configured such that any bone length changing slider will not only influence the Avastar model, but also your attached meshes will get affected. That means, you have much less work to do when you have to adjust your mesh to specific Secondlife Shape configurations:

Just reshape the Avastar character and your mesh will follow all bone length changes. Note: This is exactly what also will happen in Second Life! This gives you some great benefits:

You can see in Blender how your mesh will react on the shape sliders.
You can optimize your weighting directly and with visual control. (work in progress, currently its not yet as user friendly as we want.)

Using this feature is almost trivial, you just have to do a couple of preparations:

Parent and Weight your own Mesh to the Avastar character (as always)
If your mesh has not yet any Shape keys, then create a Basis shape key (Simply add a shape key, it will be named “Basis”).
Add another Shape key and name it “bone_morph”. Avastar will use this shape key as the storage for the changes on the mesh due to the shape slider movements.
Set the shape key influence to 1.0

And now your custom mesh follows the bone length changing Shape sliders in Blender.

You always can remove the shape key again at any time (or set the key influence to 0) and your mesh snaps back to its original shape. This should help you tremendously when your custom meshes have to be designed for different shapes. Actually you even can switch between shaping the mesh and weighting it.

The other important feature is that now Avastar will handle non-deforming vertex groups. (XXX more to add)

Your custom meshes can now react on the Shape sliders in Blender
default material added to meshes when new Avatars created
mesh statistics reported (on console for now)
- Basic mesh data (polygons, modifiers, armatures, etc.)
- analysis of weight groups (zero weight / more than 4 weight groups etc)
bake T pose now ignores non SL bones and bones set not to deform
shape preview also ignores non deforming weight groups and normalises on the fly

other new features / improvements

Our feature set grows every day. As you can see we have been very busy to also improve many small details of Avastar. Here is a brief listing of all other changes since Avastar-500.

We plan to update Avastar until end of august. But because we have added so many changes all testing may still not find all issues. So please be patient with us and give us the time to get Avastar as good as possible. Testing has already started…

Shapes:

basic code in place using custom shape key “bone_morph”
deals with non deforming weight groups correctly
deals with unweighted / unnormalised vertices correctly
reacting correctly to normal bones like mHead as well as volume deform bones
reacting correctly to volume bones taking into account base rotation and scale
hidden mesh is now not updated for efficiency.
morph-only changes are now really fast. to be verified!
general speed improvements in the sliders
fixed some bugs with the torso muscles slide

General:

Main Help page available from Blender: Help -> Avastar
Context Sensitive Help for all Avastar functions (needs Blender 2.64)

Animation:

bone location animation enabled
increased the accuracy of exported animations. This will produce bigger files but it should capture much more of the subtle motion.

Armature:

Parent to armature button added besides T Pose bake button. (You only need T Pose bake if your armature is NOT in T-Pose when you paent a mesh to your armature!)
Bake bone pose – set default rest pose for selected bones only. this is needed to provide support for non human characters (to be documented)
foot pivot code changed to not depend on the mesh (now mesh keeps on ground in blender) Note: this has nothing to do with the z-offset in the Second Life importer.

Avastar-1-dev-500

Avastar-1-dev-500 (for Blender 2.60-2.63a):

NOTE: The Update is sheduled for June-4-2012

The next Avastar update will come with some major changes (Most changes in the program itself and some improvements in the GUI). We have tested mostly with Blender 2.63a and found it to work stable. However due to massive changes in the program we might have introduced new (unknown) bugs.

Please read the detailed descriptions in this article! Your workflow may be affected (no worries, it will become easier, read on).

Note: All work you made with Blender 2.59 or newer versions of Blender will also be working with the new Avastar!

If you think something is broken, then please send us an email together with a blend file that shows the particular problem and a short description ( mail to gaia.clary@machinimatrix.org )

Please take care to read the full article!

Here is the list of the most recent tutorials:

Avastar-1-dev-432

Avastar-1-dev-432 (ready for Blender 2.63):

Today we released another Avastar update. We tried our best to ensure that this Avastar release should work from Release 2.59 up to 2.63.

Here are the changes since the last update:

NEW: Armature now always exported when available (fixes a Blender issue)
NEW: added compatibility to Blender 2.63 API
NEW: fix for rotated UV faces (small errors in the exported UV Map)
NEW: partial fix for mesh distortions

New tutorials: Mesh attachments, rigging and Weighting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id

Here is the list of new tutorials:

Mesh Attachments ( Simple Dress)
Rigging (Prepare for Weighting)
Weighting (Tips&Tricks)

Important notes:

Currently Avastar has a few open issues with precision. We are still working on fixes. Please continue reporting any issues. Every test case can help us to isolate the problems.

it ispossible that the new update only works on Blender 2.63 and newer versions fo Blender. Please report if you find issues on Blender 2.59 up to Blender 2.62

Where is the Download ?

Please check in the FAQ.

Purchase questions

I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Jass Download folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in Second Life and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Avastar-1-dev-419

Avastar-1-dev-419:

Today we released another Avastar update. We tried our best to ensure that this Avastar release should work from Release 2.59 up to 2.62.

Here are the changes since the last update:

NEW: added Targetless IK posing system on all bones⁽¹⁾
NEW: Weight copy now has the option to use a continuous sub-mesh interpolation
NEW: Apply mirror modifier if it exists before mesh export
NEW: Scale applied before export of mesh⁽²⁾
IMP: Modifier aware mesh info panel
FIX: resetting distance constraint no longer necessary when scaling armature
FIX: fixed the visibility of motion transfer ui
GUI: moved expressions into object properties tab.
GUI: moved Hand posture into object properties tab.
GUI: moved animation export into render tab
GUI: bone names for weight adjust now searchable menu from vertex groups
FIX: fixed visual glitch with blender 2.62 with properties and default labels
FIX: fixed parenting with automatic weights⁽³⁾
IMP: improved the accuracy of the bvh loop calculation
FIX: squashed may other smaller bugs 🙂

New: Mesh Tools:

[PS-Youtube id=”P81l1NP3yck” w=”320″ h=”206″]

Purchase questions

I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Jass-Inventory folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

Third Beta (18-feb-2012)

Today we released another Avastar update. We tried our best to ensure that this Avastar release shouls work from Release 2.58 up to 2.62.

Here are the changes since the last update:

NEW: Bake T-pose fixed. Added parent to armature option and split off in ui to separate box
NEW: added a ‘find unweighted vertices’ button. Will report on status line and console and will drop into edit mode with unweighted vertices selected if they are found
NEW: added normalize weights button
NEW: added weight inspection and modification tool
NEW: Added mesh freeze tool with with hide option
NEW: Added Exporter Prefilter to allow SL compatible export of Avastar armatures and meshes, also works for Blender 2.62
NEW: Added “Avatar Center” attachment point with height adjustment during shape edit
IMP: Modified weight copy so that pose is taken into account (by first freezing meshes)
IMP: mesh visibility controls now in object mode for avatar selected
IMP: GUI cosmetic fixes
IMP: Make Avastar more robust against removal of elements (bones/shape keys).
FIX: fixed eye animations based on EyeTarget
FIX: Blender Python changes of Matrix implementation

New: Mesh Tools:

Purchase questions

I already purchased Avastar-1:
You find the new update in your Jass-Inventory folder.
I want to buy Avastar-1:
You can buy directly from Paypal (see left column of this page), or go to the Jass-Shop in and purchase from the Avastar-1 vendor.

2nd Beta (18-jan-2012)

This brings a host of bug fixes and UI improvements and two major new features:

Blender NLA editor support
Attachment point animations.

It’s expected that existing blend files should work fine with the new version (but the avatars will be missing the attachment points etc).

Migration from first Beta:

To copy an existing animation in a blend file to the new avatar use File->Append, locate the blend file, go into Actions and choose the action to append to the current file. You may need to re set the shape if you where using a custom one.

Avastar Home Page

Changes:

How the animation is exported has been redone. This should be largely invisible from the animators point of view except you can now use the NLA editor to stitch together or layer animations.
The attachment points have been added as bones and can be animated. To a lesser degree they can also be used to rig custom mesh (see docs)
Hair and skirt meshes are now hidden by default
Added non-animatable face morphs to UI (these can still be animated within Blender, just not SL)
Fixed shape key bug that resulted in the pants having cuffs and other glitches
Made the code more robust to changes in mesh and rig
Some other more minor bug fixes and UI tweaks

First Beta (24-dec-2011)

Initial release of Avastar.

Customers

Non Customers

Avastar Download:

Sparkles Pro Download:

UpdateHistory

Changelog 1.7 Details

2017-01-25 Avastar-1.7-4 (fixes since 1.7-3)

2016-11-11 Avastar-1.7-3 (fixes since 1.7-2)

2015-03-01 Avastar-1.7-2 (fixes since 1.7-1)

2015-01-25 Avastar-1.7-1 (fixes since 1.7-0)

2015-12-29 Avastar-1.7-0

Changelog 1.6 Details

2015-07-24 12:00:02 Avastar-1.6-69

2015-07-13 22:24:05 Avastar-1.6-63

2015-07-11 19:07:45 Avastar-1.6-59

Brief instructions (applies only to sparkles pro users)

Example:

Older Avastar Releases

Avastar-1-5

Some Highlights of the Avastar-1.5 Release:

Visible improvements:

Updated Release Info panel for Avastar

Other improvements:

Please help us to help you!

Avastar-1-4

Changelog since avastar-1.4 has been released:

Visible improvements:

New Release Info panel for Avastar

New Release Info Panel for Sparkles

Other improvements:

Avastar-1-3

Avastar-1-2

Avastar-1.2

Highlights:

Avastar-1-0

Questions ?

Where is the Download ?

Changeset from last development version:

Highlights:

Known bugs:

Important notes:

Avastar-1-RC5-834

Avastar-1-RC5-834

Changeset:

Highlights:

Known bugs (not fixed for Avastar-1.0):

Todo’s(Avastar-1.0):

Todo’s (Avastar-1.1):

More Questions ?

Where is the Download ?

Important notes:

Avastar-1-RC4-821

Avastar-1-RC4-821 (fix for 812)

Changeset:

Highlights:

Unresolvable bugs (not fixed for Avastar-1.0):

Todo’s:

More Questions ?

Where is the Download ?

Important notes:

Avastar-1-RC4-775

Avastar-1-RC1-775

Changeset:

Highlights:

Unresolvable bugs (not fixed for Avastar-1.0):

Todo’s:

More Questions ?

Where is the Download ?

Important notes:

Avastar-1-dev-744

Avastar-1-dev-744

Changeset:

Highlights:

Known bugs:

Todo’s:

More Questions ?

Where is the Download ?

Important notes:

Avastar-1-dev-734