![crazy bump glossiness crazy bump glossiness](http://fuhresa.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/4/7/134793812/222513569_orig.jpg)
Seshat Czeret's Great Illustration of Second Life Skin and Clothing LayersĪlmost everything you see in Second Life depends on diffuse or texture maps to give the items a more life-like appearance, adding detail, and realism from the skins for our avatars to make-up, clothing, jewelry etc. This article is very useful to understand this layers order when creating tattoos, skins, system clothing and mesh avatar clothing, and skins. The layering system is also given consideration with mesh avatar bodies when appliers are created. While this article may seem ancient to many, it still accurately reflects the laying used of Classic SL Avatars today. If you interested, you can find a great article on SL Avatar layers by Seshat Czeret, published Apin her blog article "The Theory of Second Life Skin and Clothing Layers". I think that anyone creating clothing for classic Avatar bodies, as well as mesh bodies, should be aware of how Second Life's "clothing layering system works". And, in recent years with the introduction of "rigged" mesh clothing, mesh body creators also have implemented a special layering system for their bodies with what is generally referred to as "Appliers" Second Life has a unique way of texturing the default avatars in-world through a special layering system. Even though our avatars can move, they are still mesh, and just like the textureless cube or table, our avatars require special diffuse maps or "skin" textures to be applied to the our bodies.
![crazy bump glossiness crazy bump glossiness](https://immatureteddybear.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/nibbler_udefuse.png)
The greatest difference is our Avatars are "rigged" with a bone structure that allows our avatars to move (walk, fly, run, jump, stand, etc). My Second Life Home Exterior with Surrounding LandscapingĪvatars are also mesh and a bit different than our in-world cube. Without these diffuse maps placed on this cubes, cylinders, flat objects and more complicated imported mesh shapes, we would see nothing but wooden or dull grey imported shapes, like the deary cube or table above.
![crazy bump glossiness crazy bump glossiness](https://post.medicalnewstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/02/322995_1100-1100x628.jpg)
This first image is of my current house and it's surroundings. If you have never ventured in to Second Life before to see the world,or, had experience modeling scene in a 3D modeling package, here are two examples of turning plain objects into life-like objects by applying textures or diffuse maps to objects in-world. However, when we add a diffuse map or texture to the cube and the table, we turn these bland objects into something much more interesting and realistic. Second Life Cube on Top of a Blender Created Tableīoth objects, in the above image, are rather dull and boring despite how simple or complex their shape turns out to be in the end. It is similar to one of those grey or white cubes you when you start up Blender, although Blender allows you to shape or "torture" the primitive shape into more complex objects than Second Life building system. The Second Life's in-world building system provides a set of primitive shapes which are really SL's form of mesh. These 2D images can be anything from a solid color to photographs which wrap around mesh objects to add color and the illusion of detail rather than adding a bunch of geometry (lots of vertices, faces, and lines) to created mesh objects. Often, these terms are used interchangeably so don't let the different terms confuse you. Simply put, diffuse maps are flat 2D images, which in Second Life we call textures, albeit computer graphics and 3D modeling use the term diffuse maps. Most of you may already know what a diffuse maps are even though the name may throw you off a bit. If you would like precise, in-depth, technical information about the various maps, try searching the Internet and looking at some of the great explanations out there in various places or, Wikipedia has some really great articles which might be of interest to you and have posted a few links at the end of the article in the Resources section. For our purposes, I thought I would share a few of these maps with you. Most of my experience has been with texture images but, I have been learning about various maps and their uses in Blender Cycles. I want to spend a few minutes and share my simple explanations of the various maps you may hear tossws about in Second Life or, as it relates to 3D modeling. Many of you probably already have experience with at least some of the various types of maps in Blender or, Second Life but, for the beginner, all these maps can be very confusing.