MakeHuman to OpenSim using Avastar

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MakeHuman to OpenSim using Avastar

Postby Déesse » Wed Jul 01, 2015 12:14 pm

Avastar is an add-on for blender and it is NOT FREE. First of all: I'm not paid by Avastar, and I'm not part of the staff. But it is a very helpful tool which makes things easier. And I have learned a lot by the documentations and the videos made by Gaia Clary.

Attention please: Absolut beginners will possibly have difficulties!
Okay, let's start. This is what I use for this tutorial:

Versions used (on Windows 8.1):

MakeHuman 1.1 (nightly build, 30.06.2015) http://www.makehuman.org/content/download_nightlybuild.html
Blender 2.74
Avastar 1.5-8
Sculptris: http://sculptris.de.softonic.com/
Mesh templates for clothing by Damien Fate: download here: http://blog.damienfate.com/?p=956 or here: http://www.outworldz.com/secondlife/posts/mesh-templates/

MakeHuman → Avastar → Opensim Part 1

You remember the steps you have to follow before you export your MakeHuman character directly to OpenSim?

MH1.jpg


MH2.jpg


Okay. But now you might want to create or modify clothes or the avatar himself.

First import your MakeHuman-Avatar to blender.

Now

1. Select the armature
2. Press the Avastar-tab
3. Delete the dummie
4. Press: transfer joints
5. Convert to Avastar

The avatar will be rotated.

1blender1.jpg


Now create an object (add mesh, subdivide, apply material and texture). Never forget to apply rotation, location and scale.

1blender2.jpg


In the Avastar-tab change the armature from „classic“ to „fitted“. Select the armature and your object (shift), press „Bind to Armature“, wait a moment, done!

Select everything you want to export, the body, eyes, eyelashes, but not the armature. In the Avastar-Collada-tab (on the top) press the Collada-button. Everything else will be done for you by Avastar. Just name your new character, export and upload.

1blender3.jpg


1Blender07.jpg
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Re: MakeHuman to OpenSim using Avastar

Postby Déesse » Wed Jul 01, 2015 12:19 pm

MakeHuman → Avastar → Opensim, Part 2

Not happy with your avatar wearing a box?

Import one of the templates (by Damien Fate) to blender. Delete the armature. The dress will rotate, no problem. Export your dress as obj-file.

2blender1.jpg


Start blender again and import your MakeHuman-Avatar, convert to Avastar. Now import your obj-dress, rotate it, locate it and APPLY ROTATION AND LOCATION.

In sculpt-mode it is easy to edit the dress, well done you will not need any alpha-layers.

2blender2.jpg


The next step? Right! Change the armature to fitted mesh, select armature and dress, press „Bind to Armature“, wait a moment, export, upload...

2blender3.jpg
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Re: MakeHuman to OpenSim using Avastar

Postby Déesse » Wed Jul 01, 2015 12:28 pm

MakeHuman → Avastar → Opensim, Part 3

You want to edit your avatar? You can do that in blender, but I prefer Sculptris.

First import your MakeHuman-Avatar into blender, delete the eyeballs and everything else beside the body, export as obj-file. Now you import the obj-Avatar into Sculptris. In my example I added two spheres and modelled them. Save often and pay attention that you keep your mesh simple, because Sculptris is very sensitive and crashes easily. Change to „Paint-mode“. You can apply textures and even photos here. The finally exported texture works in blender and in Opensim too. You might change it to jpeg.

Changing to blender, first import your MakeHuman-Avatar (.dae), second the obj.Avatar. In blender you may have to adjust the location of your new avatar. Don't forget to APPLY!
The other steps you know already. Go to Avastar, change the armature to fitted (classic will work too), select the armature and the mesh-avatar, bind the armature to your new mesh, delete the old body, select all parts, export...upload...

3sculptris1.jpg


3sculptris2.jpg


Have fun and be creative!

3Sculptris5.jpg
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Re: MakeHuman to OpenSim using Avastar

Postby CursaCharisma » Thu Jul 02, 2015 8:22 am

This is amazing! I will try it out and let you know how it goes.

Thanks so much! :D
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Re: MakeHuman to OpenSim using Avastar

Postby Déesse » Sun Jul 05, 2015 5:33 pm

You will have noticed that Avastar 1.6 is available with some more sliders. For the moment I recommend to use Avastar 1.5 in connection with MakeHuman because it is more clear to use. When you use blender portable, it is no problem to have two blender-apps parallel.

And what do you think of giving your avatar a facial expression?

expression1.jpg


expressions2b.jpg
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Re: MakeHuman to OpenSim using Avastar

Postby SunTzu » Sun Oct 04, 2015 12:52 pm

Do you have to use AvaStar to bring MakeHuman avatars into OpenSim?

There is an OpenSim rig in the nightly unstable version 1.10 of MakeHuman for Mac. I have not had any luck yet in brining the avatars in as rigged mesh to my university's grid using that rig though. I can bring in the mesh, but have to manually apply textures as the viewer (tried with both Singularity and Firestorm) doesn't see the textures from the textures folder. And the mesh isn't rigged, so that is only useful for having static characters in the environment.

I purchased AvaStar months ago, but have been trying to get to familiar with Blender before using it. I've worked in Maya since 2005, so I find Blender a bit hard to adapt to the GUI even with Loki's suggested configuration for Blender.

Has anyone tried bringing MakeHuman avatars into OpenSim or Second Life using MayaStar? Would I just need the MayaStar Rigging System for Fitted Mesh & Regular Mesh (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Ma ... sh/5454253) or would it require any additional tools like the MayaFit Mesh Resizing System (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Ma ... em/5807255)?
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Re: MakeHuman to OpenSim using Avastar

Postby Déesse » Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:50 am

Do you have to use AvaStar to bring MakeHuman avatars into OpenSim?


No, please read the first post in this thread carefully and have a closer look at the illustrations.

There is an OpenSim rig in the nightly unstable version 1.10 of MakeHuman for Mac. I have not had any luck yet in brining the avatars in as rigged mesh to my university's grid using that rig though.


Try to find out when your skeleton gets lost. Do the bones show in the Makehuman-skeleton-window? Do you export as .dae? Have you set the hooks in the Opensim-upload window for the rig?

but have to manually apply textures as the viewer


No problem at all. The Makehuman-textures do not change, so you can create a texturefolder where you save any texture you can extract from the Makehuman-data-folders. Save them the same way inworld in your inventory and you will not have to upload them again and again. To add the textures manually is okay, because you can choose between different features like shininess. You know how to edit linked parts?
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Re: MakeHuman to OpenSim using Avastar

Postby NeoCortex » Tue Dec 22, 2015 6:54 pm

It seems i am missing some magic here... whenever i try to follow this (or similar) tutorials, that tell how flawless the makehuman -> avastar -> opensim conversion works i end up with misshaped avatars. The shoulders wont match, the legs are spread.

Is there a special (maybe older) version of the opensim skeleton you are using?

Also the t-pose doesnt match Blender's t-pose. I tried a workflow from the machinimatrix site to adapt "non-standard" shapes, i.e. positioning the avastar to match the Blender t-pose, snap to t-pose (i really do not know if i found the right thing there). It looks as if i have a MH shape following the avastar skeleton after that, but it still deforms inworld.

I see that the MH skeleton has some different positions for some bones. E.g. th mHip and mTorso bones are more positioned towards the back of the avatar.

About the import part: I am using Firestorm 4.7.5 on opensim 0.8.2, upload mesh as avatar shape, physics to lowest, include skin weight, include joint positions.

The result is that my shoulders are distorted and the legs are standing apart. When walk it looks bow legged.

The picture shows the rezzed avatar to the left (which looks as it should) and myself wearing the same model.
Attachments
Snapshot_002.png
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Re: MakeHuman to OpenSim using Avastar

Postby Déesse » Wed Dec 23, 2015 1:52 pm

Hello Neo and welcome! I think you are right with every step and the result looks fine. Yes, indeed, the final uploaded skeleton is different from the default SL-avatar. And you have to relog in case you want to return to your SL-avatar. But what you get is a more natural looking and moving body. BUT - you are right - not with the default walk. This is what I do: I upload my own walk (bvh), copy the uuid and (paste) replace the default walk in my opensim distribution (sorry, no access to my computer for the moment), maybe it's bin>data>animations.
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Re: MakeHuman to OpenSim using Avastar

Postby DZII » Tue May 17, 2016 2:40 am

How are you handling the High Tri count with defaults (Skin) from makehuman and when you export out from avastar ?
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