full body template?

how difficult would it be to have a basic full body template? I'm really unsure about all the techincal sides of it, but it would seem to be a bit easier for some drawing

Many have tried to do what you're asking about. None have succeeded. Unfortunately, since LL saw fit to create their UV maps with so many peculiarities (lots of wasted canvas space, adjacent sections that don't align well by size, really messed up slicing in some places, etc), it's not really possible to stitch all the maps together into one.

The best you can do would be something along the lines of what Robin Sojourner has mentioned she does for her own work, which is to create her own UV maps that are more sensible, and then use a quality 3D application (she uses Lightwave) to remap the textures to fit the Linden maps. I don't want to speak for Robin, so I'll defer to her to decide whether she wants to explain her technique in detail or not. All I will say is that from what I've seen, her method appears to work very well. However, it does require expensive professional tools, and knowledge of how to use them, so it's not something everyone will be able to do.

What we really need is full revamping of the avatar model in general. It hasn't changed in 3 years, and it was pretty flawed to begin with. I'd really like to see LL implement a brand new avatar with more sensible maps, a better skeleton, etc, and just grandfather the old one. Leave it in place so existing avatars don't break, but make a better one available for us to use.

If I understand correctly, you want to be able to draw the head, upper, and lower body inside a single file. That's very easy to do if that is your only requirement. However, if you require what Chosen is suggesting, it is better to abandon the use of the current templates and let a 3D application handle the mapping of the texture. For the simple approach, just take whatever template you are working with (default, Chips, Robin's, or your own) and increase the canvas size by 2. Leave the template layer information in one of the corners. Add the 2 remaining parts of the body into empty corners by draging and dropping layers from the other template files. You may want to drag out guides to aid in placement.

Of course, once you have completed a project using this new single template file, you will need to reverse the process and cut it back up into the 3 component body sections for uploading into SL. Proper placement will be crucial, so remember to save the original templates.

Hi kalik

If you want to know how I remapped the AV in LightWave, I'll be happy to explain what I do.

But, from your question, I think that you might be asking how easy it would be to put all three parts on a single template, and just use that one in SL.

The answer to that question is; it's impossible.

You see, the "Template" isn't a template at all. It's a map that tells SL what texture to place at each vertex point of the Avatar.

The points are arranged on U (horizontal) and V (vertical) axes. Just as points are described in X,Y,Z space to tell the computer where to draw the stuff you see in SL, points are described in U,V,W space to tell the computer what texture to put where. But we don't use the W axis in SL, so it's all UV.

Since the computer is looking for points on three different maps, we are confined to using them. You could put them all on one, but the computer would still read it as if it were those three, so your texture wouldn't look the way you expect.

That's why, as Chosen implied and Nam said, you can remap; but then you have to back out of that remap and put things back on the Linden map.

Sorry if you knew all that, and were asking for more of a technical solution. I wasn't sure, from your question, that you did.

Chosen, I agree with the redo of the avatar. I would perfer , hell, anything other than this. Poser 6 probaby would be the easiest for everyone involved. But what you be the best?

Has anyone seen the avatars in gears of war? Something similar to that would be great. A full body, A short skirt, a long skirt, and a head closer to what professional tools produce. (like facegen hint hint). Will it happen? Maybe.

Thunderclap, something on the order of the more advanced Poser/DAZ models would be fantastic (Victoria3 is a hottie), but as you said, I'd settle for just about anything. It's unlikely we could get a model as complex as those high end Poser/DAZ ones since we are talking about real time application here, and those models aren't really designed for that. (I can't believe I just said "high end" and "poser" in the same sentence.) I'd be willing to bet something similar, but scaled back could do nicely. In any case, we could definitely do better than what we've got now.

Really, the geometry in the current model isn't bad. It's the mapping that is the biggest problem. The morphs for animation are also pretty weak, so those could definitely use improvement. When I raise my arms, I really don't want to look like I'm dislocating my shoulders, for example. The skeleton could use some improvement, but it doesn't seem to be too bad as is. One thing I really would like to see added is a bunch of collision spheres throughout the body so hair and flexies don't continue to fall right through it. It really looks ridiculous every time that happens.

Oh, and speaking of hair, the poly based hair we've got now is atrocious. It's pretty sad when hair made of primitives looks better than "real" hair. In just the past few years, realistic hair simulation has jumped ahead several light years. The demand for it in movies like "The Incredibles" pushed the technology well beyond where it was when SL started, and it's now possible to simulate hair that actually looks like honest to goodness real hair without costing a ton of processing power. SL really should be using stuff like that. Screw messing around with stuff like Speedtree; I want speed hair.