On the Way to Getting 3D Printed
After chatting with Hal9k Andalso of the Fabjectory 3D printing service, we met up in Second Life and Hal snapped some shots of my avatar to prep for a 3D printing session. What this really means is that I stood on a pose stand while he ripped OpenGL and texture data out of the Second Life client using OGLE (Eyebeam’s OpenGL Extractor). Hal sent along some cool shots of the avatar model outside SL, in some 3D modeling software that’s being used to clearn stuff up before the actual printing commences. (Click the image above for a larger version on Flickr.) “This is a bit of an experiment of us as we’ve never even attempted Prim hair before (and might never again),” Hal9k writes. “Your sunglasses were an unfortunate casualty as well as I couldn’t get something that looked ok for them.” No worries, I’ll just keep wee Walker out of the light.
Feeds
I found normal mesh hair to be a problem because so much of it isn’t watertight (and most of it is badly mangled). I’m surprised prim hair is giving them problems. I’ve had excellent results with prims.
Prim hair usually passes the watertight test, but a lot of it is so complicated that it wont really print right in the 3D printer. This looks simple enough, but some other hair I have seen is crazy.
It’s a subtle difference, but the it’s not so much prim vs not prim, but fine standalone prim details vs. large prims.
In the particular case of your hair, every strand came in as a separate mesh, so each had to be textured. I then went through as many as possible and “embedded” them into your head (so that the end of the strand wasn’t exposed), which helps give the finished model strength.
At the size we’re printing these, I’m not entirely convinced that doing a “normal” set of hair with the same texture wouldn’t have given you better results and a figure you’d be happier with.
The situation changes somewhat for ladies (or guys) with long flowing locks, in those cases I’d recommend switching out the fine corkskrew prims for larger solid prims that mimic the shape of the avatar’s day to day look (one ponytail in the back, two the sides, etc.). Textures print really well and that ends to compensate for the lack of fine corkskrew prims, etc.
I actually wrote up a set of avatar preparation guidelines at:
http://www.fabjectory.com/index.php/secondlife-avatar-preparation/
that some people might find useful.
Thanks!