Documentation

[animate1978]

Been busy working on documentation for MB-Lab, so far it has been a learning experience being that I never used Sphinx before.

It is very much a WIP but you can see the progress so far here :

https://mb-lab.readthedocs.io/en/development/index.html

[blaisefaint]

FPC-Virtual has been making YouTube videos discussing MB-Lab:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTicudol9Dk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fN634AsvEo

I am somewhat confused, because apparently 1.71 is not yet available via Github, but is available via this page: https://blenderartists.org/t/mb-lab-1-7-1-release-for-blender-2-80/1138777/85

However, apparently the version of 1.71 demonstrated in the video is different from the version of 1.71 currently available now.

It looks like at one point you included clothing assets, but then you removed them and added them to a separate zip file (also available via https://github.com/animate1978/MB-Lab-DemoAssets), so people watching these videos might be confused. It might be good to post in the comments for FPC-Virtual clarifying this point. To get these assets to work, I had to append them and go into each individual blend file for them.

What I've read of the documentation looks good, and I'm looking forward to more on the clothing and hair. For example, the hair assets that come with MB-Lab 1.71 are actually saved in blend files in the assets subfolder of data, yet when I try to add assets for the clothes by clicking on the blend files in the unzipped folder of the demo assets, that does not work for me. What is the correct format for an asset to be loaded via the assets library?

[animate1978]

Yeah I completely overlooked the fact that there was no release for 1.7.1, mainly because it had a lot of bugs that I wanted to work out, so in the midst of that I never released it on GitHub, I just packed up my local repo once it was stable again and put it on my google drive. Now that it is stable again I think I should, probably tomorrow morning.

I did include the assets but caught some flak from it because the file size was so big, for me it was not a big deal I am used to downloading large files but in the end opted to remove them and just keep it focused to the addon. That does get me thinking though is to at least add shirt and pants, shoes as a basic demo for future releases? I guess that is what we tried to do here but it was too much I think, if it was trimmed down to a basic set to showcase what the proxy fitting does then it might get a better reception.

As for your last question that sounds like something I need to test.

[blaisefaint]

My suggestion on assets would be to include tights that fit the character, with a link to a demo on how easy it is to turn tights into jeans, shorts, long-sleeve shirts, short-sleeved shirts and so on.

I've been working on trying to make assets that work properly with MB-Lab. I followed the Alimayo Arango video referenced on the links page (https://github.com/animate1978/MB-Lab/wiki/Links -- it'd be good to label each link so people know ahead of time where they go), but I have not been satisfied with the results so far.

For example, the shrink wrap does not really work at all with skirts, and the inflate brush makes clothing meshes look weird (to my eyes).

I'm trying to get better at modelling, and recently learned about these ancient Pixar textures: https://www.blendernation.com/2017/02/28/pixar-releases-new-textures-library-creative-commons/

Also, I just tried downloading and installing the new release via Github. The github version did not work for me, but the version I downloaded via your Dropbox did. Weird (I understand that's why you released via Dropbox -- the instability of the Github releases).

[NumesSanguis]

Is it possible to have in Blender in our add-on tab a Download button for basic clothes?

[blaisefaint]

It's definitely possible (unless Blender forbids it), as MakeHumanCommunity does that now, with links to community assets.

[telnetr4]

Is it possible to have in Blender in our add-on tab a Download button for basic clothes?

It should be possible by using the Python requests library. Not sure if there's an easier way to do it.

EDIT: We'd also have to set up an asset repository. Could maybe be github-based.

[animate1978]

OK so now after a week or so of doing this I think it is ready to be merged from Development to master, it still needs work but the majority of it is there.

https://mb-lab.readthedocs.io/en/development/index.html

[blaisefaint]

This is fantastic!

You've done a great job helping end users to understand this complex tool.

Thank you very much.

[animate1978]

Documentation link has been added to wiki, think I can close this.