Making MakeHuman Avatars for Opensimulator and Second Life

[MealeaYing]

Hya everyone!
Hows life?

This is a tutorial I made for someone in the newbie section of this forum who asked how to go from MakeHuman to Blender to Second Life. There could be some discussion there but that remains to be seen.
I did this going into Opensimulator but the process is exactly the same as going into SL and is not all that hard once you get the hang of it.

Im using version MakeHuman 1.0 alpha 7 and judging by the nightly release I got yesterday I will be sticking with it for a while, but thats neither here nor there.
Also I used Blender v.2.68 r58537 though I don't think anyone needs to worry about the r part.
The viewer Im using is Singularity, I dont think the version matters to much but if it does its available at http://www.singularityviewer.org/

As I said the process is the same for Opensim and SL, the only real difference is that in SL its going to cost you money, possibly a lot of it.

Oh yah: I later learned you do NOT need to do the blender step but its a very very very good thing to be able to do, if you can have your model in Blender you can modify it even more and that is never a bad thing right? Anyhow this means you can do what you like in MakeHuman and go right into your world directly.

1) Do whatever you like in Make Human, meaning go nuts with the shape, it shouldn't be an issue.
2) Hit the FILES TAB at the top.
3) Hit the EXPORT TAB just below that in the second row.
4) In the menu on the LEFT select Collada (.Dae).
5) In the menu on the right turn on: Rotate 90 X
6) In the menu on the right turn on:Rotate 90 Z
7) Turn off Helper Geometry (if its on).
8) Set the measurement to Meter (if you set it to DecaMeter the results can be... interesting, in SL they could get you banned)
9) Turn Use SecondLife Rig.
10) In the text box in the middle Give your file a glorious and easy to remember name (my first successful one was something unfit for print with a version number of like 30 or so...)
11) Now hit the EXPORT Button next to the text box you just put the name in. Make Human will tell you where it put your file.
12) Have a nice stiff drink, Blender is next.

Ok, thats the Make Human side, the Blender side is next, it involves VERY LITTLE fussing about! I know, this is a bit shocking isn't it?
This is the one and only case where Blender is easy... unless you want to make a cube...

1) Ok, Open Blender!
2) In the File Menu under Import select Collada (.dae).
3) Find the file you saved and open it.
4) Your figure should appear right in the middle looking a bit small, don't worry, this is good. Dont screw with it.
5) You didn't screw with it right? Ok good! You can screw with it later, I had problems when I did so that why I say not to.
6) In the file menu go into Export and select Collada (.dae) again.
7) Now this is important, look on the left for where it says EXPORT COLLADA (you may need to scroll) Under that it will say Operator Presets, select Second Life Rigged.
8) Under Armature Options turn OFF Deform Bones Only.
9) Leave the rest of it the way it is.
10) Name your new file something clever and witty.
11) Figure out where you want to put it, somewhere easy to find is smart (I know this because I was stupid a lot).
12) Make another drink or you will get hung over before you are finished.
13) Hit the Export Button twice (I don't know why you need to do it twice but thats how it is for me).

Now you are just about ready to import it into the grid of your choice.
So, here we reach a point where I have to say that I don't use SL or any of their v.2 or v.3 type viewers and that what I do use is called the Singularity Viewer (I mentioned this above and provided a link), I think, but do not know that the mesh import stuff is the same in most of these viewers, Im almost positive but almost is not the same as fact.

1) Anyhow fire up your viewer.
2) Open the mesh import window (This IS different in each viewer, in singularity you do this in the File Menu logically).
3) Select the file you exported from Blender.
4) At the top you should see a thing that says "This Model Represents:" Set the box (where it says Choose One) beneath that to Avatar Shape.
5) In the Upload Options tab turn on Include Skin Weight and Include Joint Positions.
6) Hit the Calculate Weights and Fee button and wait for a LONGISH time. Eventually that button will turn into UPLOAD.
7) Hit the UPLOAD Button.
8) And wait some more....
9) Your figure will appear in your inventory.[/list]

Now, as soon as you rez it you will notice that it has no textures, this is ok, all you need to do is upload them. In the case of hair if you have hair on your figure, and I don't recommend this, it will create problems with the alphas you use to hide your avatar, but say you do have them, you will need to convert the hair texture to something compatible with SL or Opensim, I use Targa (.tga) personally but thats up to you. If you do use Targa make sure its set to 32 bit and that compression is off.
Once you upload your figures texture you simply drag it onto your figure from your inventory, if it looks like only part of it is on there just do it again in the screwy looking part.
Once you do all that take it your figure back into your inventory.

Next is getting it onto your self, this part is funny, in order to be gorgeous one must become invisible. In other words the beloved SL avatar must go.

1) Take off ALL of your clothing and attachments or things could get confusing, if anyone looks at you funny poke them in the eye and tell them to get lost.
2) This is another place where viewers vary, in mine I right click on my self and hit Edit Appearance in the pie menu, if yours is different shake your fist at the sky and curse yourself hoarse.
3) Now go into the Physics section and select all the little boxes in there you should see your self vanish bit by bit.
4) Now that you are invisible go into your inventory and right click on your textured avatar and under Attach To: select Root.

You should now walk around jump and stuff like that, if you detatched your AO you should reattach it, it SHOULD work flawlessly. Now would be a good time to start another drink in celebration of the fact that you are now stunning and far more life like.
Look down:
YOU HAVE TOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I hope that I have not left anything out and that this works for you, it took a lot of work to figure out and I don't want anyone to have the same problems doing this that I did.
Also if anything is wrong PLEASE let me know ok?

Cheers!
Mealea

[duststorm]

For reference, this is a branch-off from this thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9632

[bigmac]

When using Alpha 1.07 ... Blender is not needed at all. Simply upload your saved mesh avatar from the makeHuman export folder using your viewers mesh uploader.

[duststorm]

Simply upload your saved mesh avatar from the makeHuman export folder using your viewers mesh uploader.

Exported as Collada DAE, with the SL rig, I presume. Also the orientations and scale need to be set correctly, if I'm not mistaken.

[MealeaYing]

When using Alpha 1.07 ... Blender is not needed at all. Simply upload your saved mesh avatar from the makeHuman export folder using your viewers mesh uploader.

I mentioned that actually up at the top, but the original post I responded to was about using Blender in the middle so consider the Blender bit a sort of bonus tutorial.
The best thing about this part is it gives you the opportunity to weld the genitals (there are cracks you can see through, OUCH!) which look a bit odd inworld, I don't think that possible right in MakeHuman.
Actually I don't know how to do this in Blender yet so Im sort of half joking.

[MealeaYing]

Simply upload your saved mesh avatar from the makeHuman export folder using your viewers mesh uploader.

Exported as Collada DAE, with the SL rig, I presume. Also the orientations and scale need to be set correctly, if I'm not mistaken.

Yes the orientation and rig are crucial see steps 5 and 6 for the rotation....
The format bit is step 4
And the rig part is step 9.....

Did I miss something?

[duststorm]

I don't think that possible right in MakeHuman.

Not currently, but maybe in the future.

[MealeaYing]

Something I noticed that I should let people know about is that inworld you seem to hover in the air a bit....
This is annoying unless you have one heck of a pair of heels or platform shoes that would do Disco Stu proud.
The setting I found to work is under the Upload Options tab and is the Z Offset (Raise or lower avatar) settings set to -0.2, if you go too far down your feet push into the ground and your knees buckle and it looks hidious and very painful.
I did this without changing the default height in MakeHuman (if I remember correctly), andI haven't tested doing other heights as this is taking a lot of time to do these things and I have a small herd of abandoned attempts accumulating in my inventory...


Hope this is helpful!

Cheers!
Mealea

[duststorm]

Something I noticed that I should let people know about is that inworld you seem to hover in the air a bit....

Interesting. This might indicate a bug.
Do you get this when directly exporting from MH to Collada (DAE) and importing that file directly in SL?

I created an issue on the tracker to remind me to verify this.

[dadix]

You can't import direct to Opensim because the viewer always crushes. We must import first in Blender , than use the special Blender Export option to have another .dae file. The .dae file exported from Blender is working to upload in Viewer.
I use Opensim (on Osgrid) and the viewer is Kokua [url]http://wiki.kokuaviewer.org/wiki/Kokua/Downloads
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