Buy Avastar-1
for US$ 22

Installation

abstract: I show you how you can install Avastar on blender-2.63 (or newer). We provide a short video which shows the installation process step by step. Further down you find the related text document.

Step 1: Preparations

 Where can i find the software ?

Install Blender: Ensure you have blender-2.61 or newer installed (we recommend Blender 2.66a).

Purchase Avastar: If you already have purchased Avastar, you will find all released updates of the software in your Machinimatrix Download folder (see next step).
  • You get Blender from its download link
  • you can purchase Avastar from Second Life via the JASS-shop
  • Alternatively you can purchase Avastar via Paypal (see left side of this page).  

Step 2: Download

Where is my download ?
Download the Avastar zip file from your Machinimatrix Download Folder.

  • Important: Do not unpack the zip file! Unpacking the zip file will result in installation failures!

Your Download is in your Machinimatrix Download Folder. You get an access link immediately after purchasing the product. You lost the link ? check here how to get it back.

Some hints

The filename explained
  • Hint: Many users have reported that the zip file becomes unzipped during download. Please either ensure that your downloaded file does NOT get unzipped, or zip it again after download completed. Blender needs(!) the zipped file. All attempts to install the unzipped files will fail.
  • Hint: We sometimes provide a few product releases in parallel. These releases are kept available for the case where you find something broken in the newest product release. The older releases are collected in a the subfolder “the-archive” within your Download Folder
  • Hint: We sometimes provide peek preview releases which introduce work in progress like new features or bug fixes. These test releases are collected in the subfolder “testversions” within your Download Folder.

avastar-m-vvv-rrr_blender-B-bb.zip

  • avastar: the product name
  • m: the major product release
  • vvv: The product type  (dev,beta,rc,rel)
  • rrr: The product revision number
  • B-bb: the smallest supported Blender version

Usually you only need to download the zip file with the highest available revision number. 

Only if you encounter a bug in Avastar you should consider to switch back to an older Avastar release by installing that over your current release (there is no need to uninstall first!)

Step 3: Install

  
  • Start blender
  • Navigate to File -> User Preferences:

Important: This guide describes the official installation processfor Blender Addons. If you use any other installation strategy you are completely on your own behalf. We can not support you when it comes to broken functionality!

If you fail to install as described here, first check the FAQ and only if that does not help then please report back to us.

Hint: The most common problem occurs when your username or the path to your application data contains special characters. In these cases the easiest way to go is adding a separate user with standard US characters (ASCII), then instal blender for that user.
  • Proceed to the “Add-Ons” Tab (1)
  • At the Bottom of the Tab locate and click “Install from File…” (2)

    addon_install
  • A file selector opens.
  • Navigate to where you have stored the avastar-m-vvv-rrr_blender-B-bb.zip file
  • Select the zip file (1)
  • Click “Install from File…” (2)

    select_addon_package
  • Select the zip file and Press the “Install Add-On…” button
  • Back in the Add-Ons Tab type “avastar” into the search field(1).
    As you type you will see that the list of displayed modules shrinks and quickly you can find the Avastar-module

    addon_description
  • If the Avastar Addon Panel (2) is collapsed, then please expand it now to see the Addon details. Please take a closer look! You find important information here.

NOTE: You find a link to the Avastar Documentation and to the Bug tracker here. And since Blender 2.66 you can set Addon preferences for your convenience.

Important: Please make use of the documentation! This will save you (and us) a lot of time!
  • To enable the Addon you must check the checkmark at the top right corner of the panel(3)
 NOTE: If you can not enable Avastar at this stage, then please ensure that the path to your Blender application folder only contains ASCII characters (the US alphabet). Blender still has issues with UTF-8 in the path name. Please also check the FAQ
  • In the last step you save your settings as your new default settings(4)
  

Step 4: Verify your Installation
You can verify that Avastar has been successfully installed by navigating to the new Avastar menu entry in the Add section. Please ensure that you are in Object mode as that is the only mode from where you can add new Avastar characters.

When you click on Avastar, a new Avastar mesh character will open up for you.

Welcome to Avastar

  
Congratulations! Now after you have succesfully installed Avastar, you may want to proceed with the Create a Character Tutorial. But Please be patient with yourself. Note: The whole world of rigging and animating is certainly one of the most complex task of 3D design. Please do not expect to get good meshes and perfect animations within 10 minutes. You have to get used to the tools first. Otherwise you will end up in a big mess!

20 comments to Installation

1 2
  • Deb
    May 25, 2013 at 11:17 pm · Reply

    Is there a Avastar version for Mac OSX?

  • Joe
    May 25, 2013 at 5:23 am · Reply

    I’m really sorry I bought this. I have spent hours and hours trying to figure it out and it’s only worse than before. I thought this was suppose to make working with Blender easier. This is all a nightmare and I give up. The tutorials are very difficult to follow and I am just wasting my time. To the creator of Avastar, Enjoy the $22. It was money poorly spent. All I get is errors all the time. I can’t seem to get a rigged item to export correctly.

    • Gaia Clary
      May 25, 2013 at 7:32 am · Reply

      Hi;

      I am sorry to hear that you have so many problems with Avastar. The tool should work out of the box with no problems granted it is correctly installed and granted that your Blender version is supported.

      However, if you encounter an error, then there are a couple of possible reasons for this:

      - A true bug in Avastar
      We always are very interested to get bug reports.
      Please check here how to do that:

      http://blog.machinimatrix.org/support/

      - compatibility between Blender version and Avastar version
      In general we only support the 4 most recent Blender versions.
      We always use the most recent blender for developing, so in general
      it should always be safe to use the current officially distributed Blender

      - Broken Blender installation
      In some cases Blender itself is broken, either during installation or its
      application data may have become corrupted. This happens occasionally but that
      is not related to our products.

      - Failure on computer hardware
      In some rare cases we have seen that hardware problems like
      broken memory cards for example cause Blender and other applications to
      behave unreliable.

      Please also note that you have the right to get a working software or a full refund shallit be impossible for us to deliver the promised functionality. This is stated in the license policy:

      http://blog.machinimatrix.org/copyright-notice/

      You also have a full money back guarantee for 30 days in the case you do not like the product.

    • Gaia Clary
      May 25, 2013 at 7:36 am · Reply

      Please can you tell me which tutorials you are using and where you have problems with them ? I am currently reworking all documentation for the final Avastar release so i am very interested for any feedback that helps me to improve the docs.

      And as i mentioned before, we are very interested to get bug reports so that we can fix Avastar in the case there is something broken. Until today we have always fixed serious bugs as soon as we got aware of them. But we have no chance to fix anything when we do not get notified.

  • idongsr
    May 23, 2013 at 3:01 am · Reply

    don’t have paypal, can I pay through credit card?

    • Gaia Clary
      May 23, 2013 at 6:24 am · Reply

      in some countries paypal allows to pay by credit card even if you do not have a paypal account. maybe you can just try to purchase and see if paypal offers you that option ?

  • Magi
    January 18, 2013 at 5:39 pm · Reply

    can you give me the link of menu of Avastar please

  • Magi
    January 17, 2013 at 8:04 pm · Reply

    can someone tell me how can i install blender 2.60

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