Maya to Second Life??

I am very new to second life and hardly know how to even use the program, but have been fooling around in it for a few days and am really impressed.

I have come across some avatars that look like animials (FURRIES) and its obvious they were created useing some other program. Is it possible to make 3D avatars in Maya and import them to Second Life? IF so, is there instructions on how to do so?

No, they are made of prims "worn" by the AV. They are made in SL. You can only import texture, sound, animation,,, no 3D object can be imported.

I'm sure the creators of the avs you saw would be very flattered that you thought that, but as Pratyeka said, all geometry in SL is made inworld. High quality furries are typically made by sculpting the inhuman body parts (face, tail, paws, etc) out of prims, and then texturing them very well.

Animation can play a big part also. Animation override scripts are often employed to make the avs move in more animalistic, less human ways. That can sometimes really fool the eye to great effect.

As a Maya user, you're probably well used to having the freedom to use unlimited resources to make whatever you want. As you get more experience in SL though, you'll find yourself mastering the ways of less-is-more, and your Maya models will thank you for it.

Trust me; I speak from experience here. Outside SL, I'm a Maya user myself, and as I often mention when these kinds of questions arise, within my first few months in SL, my poly counts per Maya model went way way down while the quality went way up, and my texturing skills improved a hundred fold.

Unlike in "real" modeling programs, resources in SL are quite scarce, so we all have to become expert problem solvers to make anything look good. What happens is little by little, SL gets into your brain and forces you to develop problem solving skills that programs like Maya spoil you too much to develop otherwise.

SL's modeling tools seem a bit silly and childish at first glance, but once you get into it, the experience it gives you of working with one hand tied behind your back will make you a much more clever modeler both inside SL and out.

My friend once upon a time showed us that even in ms paint you can retouch photos.

its really cool that you would think think that! but I can think of things far more impressive than the furrys.. which in most cases are a face.. and a painted body with maybe paws and a tail... (IMO) check out the Dominus Shadow if you REALLY wanna see a cool build.. and at 26 prims its just mind blowing!

Dude, you lost me in there

well Im arsed if Im going to edit out a silly double word typo..

Thanx for all your feedback guys.

Wow, I'm really impressed. I never learned how to texture things, and one day I really should teach myself that, but I guess I need to figure out how to modle things better in SL by useing many prims to get the looks that I want.