This video will show you how to examine the UVs of your Mesh Studio mesh in Blender. Now you don't have to...really. Come back. I didn't mean to scare ya! :)
When I talk with you guys inworld, I get a better sense of where my information fails to impart stuff correctly or gives a false impression. First and foremost, you never have to use a 3D program to use Mesh Studio if you do not want to. You CAN use one, and it gives you a broader tool set to work with your meshes made with Mesh Studio. I will be looking at how to teach you to work with MS when you don't want to learn a 3D program, though. When I show Blender in this blog it will be to illustrate something about mesh in general or specifically for use with Mesh Studio meshes and Second life. :)
You can just look at the video to see them and hopefully get a little understanding of what happens to the uvs, and thus the textures, so you know what you might expect when you attempt to texture a mesh from Mesh Studio that you made with the Object2JoinedMesh script.
I'm using the lectern from a previous post as it was created with this script and is one solid, inseparable mesh. The textures are basically layered on top of each other and the way that works is what is on top of another uv part will texture the same as any above or below. However, the UVs are not necessarily in scale to each other because we're using all manner of prims, sizes, cuts, torture and this affects how they lay out. Being able to examine the UVs gives you better insight into how you can best use textures on the mesh.
Above and beyond that, however, is the ability to rearrange the UVs. While I will show different ways you can do this in coming posts, I'm starting with the fastest/easiest: Smart UV Project (as in projection). Even this method can be finessed more than I show in the video. So bear with me as I try to show you bit by bit so that the written and video tutorials are in manageable chunks than one big wallop to the head.
I do try to show things you need to do what I'm presenting to you in Blender, but we can't take up time to show the basics of getting around in and editing in Blender. However, I have a page on Blender information where I have listed a variety of information and links on where to learn the basics and more in Blender. You can download the latest version of Blender at Blender.org.
The one thing I didn't cover in the video, but ran through quickly, I'll elucidate a bit better here:
Once you assign a texture to your model in Blender, to see the texture on your model, you can go into the Properties Bar (toggle with the letter N) and checkmark the Textured Solid button under Shading.
The other thing to keep in mind is that if you do choose to change the UVs, you need to create a new DAE file and this time from the 3D program you are working within. For Blender, I recommend saving a .blend file of your mesh so you can easily go back and edit more if you need to in future. As I mentioned in the video, you should try to save all associated files: blend, dae, textures, at the same directory level. It's wise practice to create a folder for each project and since Mesh Studio has one for your dae if you open the zip, you could consider using that one for storing all the files you make for your mesh.
To export the .dae, select your mesh object, either in object mode or in edit (with all verts selected) and go to the File menu in Blender to select Export and then Collada(default)(.dae).
When it opens the file browser, you want to navigate to your directory, where you're putting your mesh's files, and then before saving, you want to check the areas I'm indicating in the following image:
You can then upload this new DAE file in the same manner that you upload the ones generated by Mesh Studio.
I hope you are enjoying these posts. Please leave comments or questions.
Happy Meshing!
~ele
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