Taarna's Mesh Wizardry

Many of us remember Taarna Welles as one of the few makers of good quality original mesh clothing, shoes and accessories in the first years of opensim, back when mesh was first coming in. 

One of the shops on Savvy

Bubblesz, Taarna's personal grid, still features her legacy build La Barronie from the olden days of Metropolis, and her more recent build, Savvy ,  features mens and womens clothing and footwear, a refreshing break from the aspiring crack whore outfits that make up so much of the apparel assets of our platform.

Ballerina stature on Savvy

More recently, Taarna has been working on a themed region called Domadun, adding yet another point of interest on this always interesting grid. You get a hint of the new region when you arrive on the Bubblesz Welcome sim... the portals are all decorated with a little witch's broom.

There's more than just clothing on Savvy. Step outside the medieval steampunk courtyard, and you'll find the woods full of charm.

The trees fungi and figures are all products of that sweet spot between experimentation and inspiration, like the witch and the crow, and the beautiful deer out in the woods. 

Taarna Welles: In 2019 I created custom animesh "objects" such as Paulus and a few animals and I learned how to make them the hard way.

So, what are we talking about in terms of learning, or in some case re-learning mesh programs? First up,

Blender 4.0 was a learning curve, because she was on Blender 2.8 and as any blenderologist will tell you, that excellent tool has morphed over the years. To texture mesh she favors Photoshop, Substance Painter, and ZBrush. Marvelous Designer, too, is useful for fabrics and clothing. She uses these tools, some free but many paid-for programs, to build up layers and create a lived-in effect. But then, there's a paring down phase in her work.

Taarna Welles: Some things you make are too complex so have to be simplified so they can be used inworld. Objects with a massive amount of detail would make too much lag, or in some cases, it would be very slow and difficult to upload them.

The winding path of Domadun

So, what is Domadun? It's a new region inspired by Hogwarts Legacy, which is one of those story-driven games with missions and problems to solve, and predetermined outcomes. The environments in the game are luscious like a movie, and after a while, Taarna found herself as interested in the textures as she was in the roleplay.

Taarna outside one of her original creations, a Hogwarts-inspired cottage.

Taarna Welles: On this region, which is not yet complete, I have been trying to create an illusion of the game, and I did that by taking a lot of screenshots. It's interesting in two levels to play the game and to look at the way the game is made. My reasoning was this - to make a game like HL, you will have a 'storyboard' in mind, so you need a lot of assets first; the houses, trees, rocks, and so many other pieces. It's best to have them ready before trying to put the landscape together. To the first thing I did was to create lots of assets basing them, or recreating them, by using images of the game, to keep the look, the colors, and feel of it all in harmony with the original. I also made a lot of landscape elements. When you go around opensim, you see the same old rocks over and over again, so I wanted something brand new you can't find elsewhere, and that also became part of the palette of colors for Domadun. It takes a lot of time, because I'm a perfectionist!

Rather than just having the same old rocks you see all over opensim, taarna wanted something original. The same with the trees; she bought an addon for Blender that lets her generate original looking trees. 

To frame the sim, there is a path running through it, but unlike the game on Steam, there are no missions to fulfil here. You're free to wander and discover here, with no pressure to reach another level. That said, in the original game, you had to pop 5 balloons to level up, by flying towards them with a witch  broom. It's such a central part of the look of the game, that Taarna has included them on her sim. The build also illustrates well the balance you have to find between trying to make every room and area walkable, and giving yourself terrible lag. It always has to be a compromise, and it's all a learning process. Not everything works out as planned.

Taarna Welles: Let me show you two disasters...

We walked over to a figure raking in a field of poppies and other plants. This 'disaster' is her recreation of Eucalypta, a figure from childhood memory of the 1960's Dutch TV show  'Paulus de Boskabouter' - what a great name. From photos like this one  she recreated the face, hands, legs. Comparing the two, you'll perhaps agree that it looks very similar indeed.

Taarna Welles: As an NPC it was not to bad, but to move on and make an animesh, with the new 3.0 Avastar program - it was a huge learning curve with lots of trial by error

Taarna (right) with two of her 'disasters'

Taarna Welles: And over here, is the second disaster... two animesh that I made, experimenting with two programs. More witches - because this is a Hogwarts themed place, so Witches are everywhere. Look closely at these two, The one dressed in brown, I made with Bento Buddy, and the one dressed in purple, I made using Avastar. The hands on the one made with Bento Buddy are not quite right, they are too large...

Well, people don't generally complain about large hands. Quite the reverse. 

The sim does of course include a few found assets from taarna's travels on the HG, and while she turns her hand to most things, she gets help with scripting - good to know she is a mortal like the rest of us! One of the nicest features is the subtlety of colors, the movement of the leaves and grass in the wind, and the way all parts come together so harmoniously.

Taarna Welles: There will be more here. I am planning on making a dark forest, with goblins, trolls, spiders, and wolves. For me this is a sandbox and a playground, an excuse for honing my skills and to some extent measuring my results against those of a professional team of model makers. the animesh is bringing the whole place to life. not a fan of npcs, if she can have animesh, because they give more freedom because I can make them do the thing I want. they're better for the sim, and makes lag.

subtle movement  in trees and grass is what she likes. 

Domadun's rocky shores

Taarna Welles: after all these years opensim is still a unique place for learning. There are no other sand boxes where you can do this is the same way as we can here. Even though it's old, and it costs time to make things, you are still in the community and can communicate and make friends, while being creative.

HG Addresses:

La Barronie             bubblesz.nl:8002:La Baronnie

Savvy                       bubblesz.nl:8002:Savvy
Domadun                bubblesz.nl:8002:Domadun