Open Loft is an Open Source sculpting tool for use in Second Life. It consists of a series of scripts and objects that enable you to create sculpted prims in world.
It is available free from Xstreet SL and it is Open Source, so can be modified and redistributed under the terms of the GPLv3.
The creator Falados Kapuskas has developed several Open Source tools and scripts for translations, animations, building and more. All of the items are available free and are all on the Xstreet SL website.
MakeHuman is a software application that generates 3D humanoids; similar to Poser or DAZ Studio. It is written in C++ and Aqsis is necessary to produce a render. The MakeHuman team work towards correctness both in programming (using common file formats) and anatomy. MakeHuman makes extensive use of university research in accurately modelling the human form.
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[/stag_one_third][stag_two_third_last]There was one problem I had installing Makehuman and that was with Aqsis.
The MakeHuman project uses Aqsis to produce realistic renderings of the human body.
I stuffed around trying to compile from source then found that the problem was a bug with Ubuntu Hardy, Aqsis fix on Ubuntu Hardy.[/stag_two_third_last][/stag_columns]
What I found really interesting was when you import your model to blender, I did this using the collada import plugin. I’ll try to explain a little using the screenshot below.
By default the skeleton and armature are placed inside the body, I moved them out of the body to show you. Im sure having the armature already set up will save a lot of time, armature is kind of skeletal structure used for animation. Watch Super3boy’s 20th Blender Tutorial(Using Armatures) on youtube for a good introduction to armatures. The other at the back is the human skeleton. The other thing you can’t see here is the skin, I still have a lot to learn and texturing/skinning the meshes looks difficult. On top of all the 3d stuff theres so much I’m learning about the human body.
The other thing I’m enjoying about learning Blender this time around is the community at blenderartists.org. The way the more experienced guys explain things, the terminology they use is really helping me along and of course being able to use some of their source files is incredibly useful.