Hucci Akita Boots & Questions regarding “Liquid Mesh”
I’ve been playing around with the new Hucci Akita thigh high boots since yesterday. I’m kind of loving them a lot. They are rigged really well, as all Hucci products are. They slip onto my pre-tinted Slink mesh feet so it makes life so much easier. But I did notice a few things about them and I’m hoping you guys will be able to tell me what you think as well.
At first, I thought they were materials-ready because they were so nice and shiny, however when I tested them with my rotating lights, it didn’t look like they were materials-ready. They don’t reflect light the way my materials-ready top does. So I’m assuming they are not and the sexy shiny-ness is just baked on real well?
Next, I was playing around with my shape while wearing them and I noticed that they started to adjust along with my shape. Does that mean that these are rigged to the collision bones as well, like the “liquid mesh” Bax boots I blogged last week?
The vendor of these boots doesn’t state if they are materials-ready or rigged to collision bones so I’m not sure. I made a video to show you guys. Do you guys have these or can you grab a demo to see if I’m right or wrong?
Here’s the link on youtube so you can watch in full HD: http://youtu.be/-q9_ZciPBlw
I just did a quick video to show how I noticed the boots were changing with my shape and I also showed the folder with all the contents. Looks as if the designer has provided the boots in several different sizes. She has all of the standard sizing in there along with her own plus sizes that she makes for all her mesh products. I really like this approach!
Over the past week, I’ve noticed there has been much discussion about liquid mesh all over the blogosphere. I spoke to several people and read all the different posts about it and I’ve been told (and also believe it myself) that I don’t believe “liquid mesh” will ever be broken.
Before I go into explaining why I feel this way, I just want to correct myself because I’ve been told that the correct term is not “liquid mesh” that term was just coined by Redgrave when they released their adjustable mesh. This technique that is being referred to as “liquid mesh” involves rigging an item based on collision bones rather than the avatar’s actual skeleton, therefore making it adjustable for better fitting. Now the reason I don’t believe this kind of mesh will ever break (and I could be wrong about this) is because the lab would have to change the whole avatar, the same avatar they’ve had for 10 years now? I just don’t think it’s going to happen, and if it does happen, it won’t be happening anytime soon. Therefore, I am kind of glad that designers are adapting this method for a better fit. I do want to add though that I have tried a shirt that was made with this technique and it didn’t look as great as this kind of footwear does. So I’m guessing this method is best used for the leg and foot areas?
If you’ve been reading all the differing opinions about this over the past week, let me know what you think about it! Here are some questions for you guys:
- Have you tried any mesh that has been rigged to the collision bones?
- If yes, how do you feel about it? Do you like it? Yes or no? Why or why not?
- Would you consider purchasing items that were rigged this way?
- Do you feel the items made by using this technique will eventually be broken?
While I’m rambling on about technical stuff, I did want to add that Server-Side baking is going live today! If you’re not familiar with Project Sunshine and Server-Side baking, you can check out Mona Eberhardt’s detailed blog post for more information. I noticed that when I landed on this sim today, everything really rezzed fast, compared to how it rezzed the last time I went there. So I’m guessing it’s already live?
Anyhow, that’s enough technical stuff for me, it’s making me dizzy. 😛 I do find all of this fascinating though and I have learned so much in the past week about how complex our avatars are.
Credits:
*Skin: [PXL] JADE OL Bare Lips MEB C2 by Hart Larsson
*Hair: -dDx- Atlas (Brunette) by Kallisti Burns
*Top: bitch – Chain Maille Sleeved Doublet SMALL by Maxwell Graf
*Skirt: erratic / sally – zipperskirt / black (S) by Erratic Rain
*Mesh Hands: Slink Mesh Hands (av) Casual by Siddean Munro
*Mesh Feet: Slink Mesh Feet (Av) Toes S by Siddean Munro
*Jewelry: !SSD ~ Risq ~ Desclos Celtic set by Sax Shepherd
Goggles: 22769 ~ [unisex] The Engineer Black/Black by Paco Pooley (@ L’accessoires)
*Boots: ::HH:: Hucci Akita Leather Boots – Collection (S) by Eboni Khan
*Pose: ::WetCat:: Poses by wetcat Flux
Location: Ghostville
Ok.. i just shelled out for the BAX boots.. now these? whew.. they ARE SEXY…. got… to…. have….. drooling…..
I’ve bought the boots today too and didn’t notice they change size with sliders… just tried it! 😀
I first bought “Liquid mesh” when Redgrave released it’s girls jeans, which I instantly loved though they don’t work well with all shoes. I fell even more in love with the men jeans when they were released, because they fit girls very well and are what I would call real boyfriend type jeans! Again, they work with any kind of shoe, I like them best with flats or sneakers. They are my fav relaxed fit jeans ever!
I also own Redgrave’s liquid mesh Rider boots and love wearing them. I would always consider buying liquid mesh, but I would also always try a demo first (I always do).
I really hope it won’t get broken because I would cry for my jeans, I really would!
Gala, they really ARE sexy! I like them a lot.
Sisch, I haven’t really tried a lot of Redgrave stuff, but I’m definitely going to give the jeans a try now, that sounds really intriguing. And yes, I always demo too. Demoing is so important.
I’ve been noticing that many products seem to include the “5 Standard Sizes” and a “Deformer Size” of late. No explanation on the packaging and I’ve yet to buy one that explains it in an included note card. I’m guessing it would be “liquid mesh,” but I haven’t experimented.
Liquid Mesh has not worked out well *for me*. Like most mesh clothing, Demo first (like you said). It works very well for some people.
As to “… I don’t believe “liquid mesh” will ever be broken.”, they said the same about MegaPrims and Invisiprims. Just say’n.
i have “liquid/molten” meshes from redgrave, bax and egoisme and i just love them all. Even if the dresses from egoisme won’t fit the breast size, ramses meredith from egoisme explained me a bit about it i just posted it some days ago. 😉
I would always go on buying items that where made in this way after my chat with ramses, i’m sure that maybe linden would over work their avatars, but for this reasons all creators offer a great customer service and i think that they be aware of what will happend and will fix it if their meshes break.
The only thing that I have tried was “flexi mesh” which I am guessing is supposed to do the same thing. It was WAY too small for me so maybe it depends on body fat and such. Not sure. Mine was about 5 but yes Berry I DID finally give up and make subtle changes in my shape LOL and most things seem to fit better at 0. I evidently decided to live on salad for awhile.
I think there is certainly a likelihood that liquid mesh type products could become unusable in the future. But realistically many to most things lose their “style” after about a year. By then there is newness and we have moved on.
And so far as materials go — I have been adding them to my builds and they work best when there is LOTS of texture — like bricks and such or maybe a burnout velour sort of thing. For smooth things, materials are almost unnoticeable. I have noted this on products from various designers that are adding materials. Oftentimes you can’t really tell. In that case it seems better to me to just leave them off. Less load time.
I bought the Bax boots….they’re fantastic! I can’t imagine what the lab would change about the avatar, and they certainly would won’t break Liquid/Collision bone mesh on purpose.
I’ve bought a couple pairs of Redgrave’s Liquid Mesh jeans, and they fit my avatar nicely. Not all shoes will work with them, but that’s the same issue with all mesh jeans anyway. You just have to find shoes that look nice with them.
Goddamn, those boots are hot as hell, and if they’re offered in a ton of sizes AND Liquid Mesh, I’ll be grabbing a demo. Might even find a size that works on blokey legs 😉
I bought Redgrave’s original Liquid Mesh jeans, and they were one of the few pairs that fitted straight out of the box, which made a pleasant change. Usually the medium size of most things will work on Skell, but sometimes I need to go smaller (then tweak his shape) or even go larger (and tweak again before enduring quarterback shoulders).
There’s not a great deal else out there, though, that works for me as a non-normo male avatar. Whole ‘nother rant there, and I’ve already written it here: http://www.virtualbloke.com/2013/08/08/an-open-letter-to-mesh-clothing-designers/
As to the avatar, while I would love to see a more detailed SL avatar (esp. more vertices in the crotch, because I’m sick of streaky inner thighs), I don’t think LL will rework it anytime soon, for the simple reason that it could break the vast majority of existing content. Yes, we could cover ‘broken’ skins with mesh clothing, but what are we going to look like when we get naked?!
Here is my problem with the LL will never break this line of thinking. What seems to happen is a designer exploits something in SL for a purpose other than intended. We all go ohhhh and ahhh and buy in without much thought. Sometimes LL knows about these things and sometimes not. Either way they have meetings and such and eventually say we want to do XYZ, and then they start hearing a million reasons why they can’t because it will break this content and that. That either slows down or kills what they want to do. In this case, it could slow down or kill work on much needed changes to the avatar.
The word from the last tpv meeting was don’t design using the collision bones. That might mean any number of things, but the uproar around the removal of temp textures should be teaching us that these things can be broken.
On another note, I love how these boots look with the slink feet.
Sean, you make very good points. Now I wonder how many times that has happened. I guess we’ll wait and see what happens with all this then.
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Hi, all;
I first wanted to add a few words here about what Liquid mesh is, but as always i needed far more words than i first expected 🙂 So i have created a page on our own Blog which explains in more detail and “with easy words” what this is all about:
http://blog.machinimatrix.org/avastar/liquid-mesh/
BTW… I am actually very impressed about what can be made with Liquid Mesh, as we can see in the video above for example 🙂
cheers,
Gaia
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