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[Table of Contents]

Tandy's Quest

This is part 1 - How to make a tiny avatar: The previous part is About Tandy

Okay, lets get your new tiny uploaded!

Download the zip file and extract the contents to a folder on your hard disk.

This zip file contains four mesh bodies, a set of sculpts for flicker and flexible wings, a color-changeable dress, a magic wand, and a scripts for her magic bubble, AO, and all other bits and pieces. I've included a bonus mesh house and a bonus mesh rat avatar. There are dozens of textures for clothing and dresses, 3 types of wings, and much more to play with during your Quest.

(Remember that you can click any image on this web site to zoom in to see it in greater detail).

Log into Second Life or Open Sim and get to a sandbox. You will be using up about 250 prims to make Tandy.

Select File -> Upload -> Model. I am using Phoenix and FireStorm viewers for this tutorial, and your layout may differ.

Select the quarter-sized.dae file if you want a reasonably sized tiny avatar. There are also half-sized, full, and really tiny 25mm tall that are hard-to-make clothes and hair for sizes. If you wish to make the smallest, be aware that you will need excellent camera control and a pose stand, and lots of patience to make hair and skirts! You will need to really work hard to get the hair and dresses to fit. Quarter size is a reasonable height to start with.

Level of Detail

The Level Of Detail settings are estimates based on the complexity of a mesh when viewed at a distance. By entering 0 for the 3 settings, the number of prim equivalents is greatly reduced. But no one can see you when they step back far away.

Setting them all to the same as 'High' will cost a lot of prims, but give you perfect views at any distance.

Enter a name for Tandy, such as 'Tandy, quarter-sized,' then pick Avatar from the pulldown in the Level of Detail Tab

There are several other optional settings you need to know about I also circled in red.

You can set the Medium, Low, and Lowest numbers to zero if you want to minimize lag. But others will not see you at all when you walk further away. I recommend you leave these at the default. You can also increaser these numbers and can be seen at greater distances. Tandy will not count against your prims in-world, so the suggested numbers should be good.

Physics

There is also a physics tab. I suggest you set this to Lowest setting to control lag.

Upload:

Select the Upload Options tab

Set the "Include Skin Weight" and the "Include Joint Positions" checkboxes.

Each avatar needs a different Z offset setting.

The offsets shown here worked for me.

If your avatar sinks into the ground, bends the legs, or is floating in the air, there is a fix for this.

Use one of these items for Second Life Z-Offsets:

Avatar Size	Offset
Tiny:	-0.1311 **
Quarter-Sized	-0.2320
Half-Sized	-0.0675
Full-Sized	0.00

** not sure about this one yet - needs more testing

Use one of these items for Open Sim Z-Offsets:

Avatar Size	Offset
Tiny:	-0.9000
Quarter-Sized	-0.8000
Half-Sized	-0.53
Full-Sized	0.00

Press "Calculate Fees".

When done, click Upload.

Your item will appear in inventory under Objects. Drag onto the ground (Rez) the mesh. It will look full sized and all white. Don't worry about this, as the bones that make it tiny are not activated when it is rezzed in world. Those small bones will take over when we are done and make it a small fairy.

Find the copy in inventory and right click and wear it. It makes no difference where you wear it. The default will be the right hand. It is okay to wear it on an unused attachment point, such as lips.

EEEEP

You will still see pieces of your regular avatar. You will scream and thought you broke it (I did). You will probably look like a blob. You just have fairy disease!

This was me:

We will need to get rid of the blob. First, take off all prims that you are wearing.

Go into edit appearance again,(you did save your old appearance, right?) and select the Alpha button on the bottom left:

Pick Yes to the dialog

Click all the check boxes on the right side and your regular avatar will disappear.

Click Save As, and give it the name "Tandy Alpha Layer" and then click Ok

You should look like this tiny avatar next to the full sized avatar. This is the quarter sized with a standard 0.5 meter box.

Floating too high or too low

If you are loading her into another virtual world and your feet later become collapsed , or you float above the ground, you will need to fix it by changing the offset and re-upload it. This can happen when you switch virtual worlds.

What we will do is to reload the avatar with a zero (0.00) offset. Wear it, and you will be floating in air.

Now rez a prim and set it to "Phantom" so that you can stand inside it. Place it under you. Make the prim the correct height, to where it just touches the feet. Now get the Z axis height of the prim from the editor. Reload the avatar once again, and set the Z offset to that number, with a negative sign.

Part 2 - Make Tandy a Twin