Migrate any SL Compatible Rig to Avastar

Purpose

Move a mesh from Avatar workbench (or any other SL compatible rig) to Avastar

Main Workflow

This is the most basic process for moving any SL compatible Rig to Avastar with unmodified Joints Offsets. A typical usage case is when you have created Mesh attachments by using the Avatar Workbench or the original (historical) avatar.blend

Migrate Simple attachment from Workbench to Avastar

Load your basic SL compatible mesh and its associated Armature into the scene.
Take care that your armature is in rest pose (optional).
Select your Custom Mesh.
Ensure that your Armature is not selected.

Open the Tool shelf and there open the Avastar Tab.
Locate the Transfer Tool in the Tools panel.
Ensure that Dummies option is set to Keep
Keep Transfer Joints deselected. (See also alternative workflow below).
Click Convert to Avastar Rig.

The conversion takes a few seconds. When it is done, then:

The workbench Armature has been replaced by an Avastar Armature
The Workbench Character has been replaced by an Avastar Character.
Your custom mesh has been bound to the Avastar Armature.
Your Custom mesh has been adjusted to the Avastar Character.

Note: Avastar is rotated by 90° compared to the Workbench character. This is of great importance when you want to use any mirror tools while weight painting or posing. However, you do not need to bother with that at all. Avastar will always export your meshes compatible to SL.

Note: The weights of your mesh have not been touched! If your object was correctly weighted before, then it should still work exactly as before, when you pose the Avastar Armature, or when you tweak the weights by Weight Painting.

Alternate Workflow

This is the process for moving an SL compatible Rig to Avastar with modified Joint offsets. A typical usage case is when you have edited the skeleton in the Avatar Workbench or in of the original avatar.blend to create a non human character. Then you want your edited skeleton to migrate over to Avastar as well. Here is how you do that:

Migrate Non Human character from Workbench to Avastar

Load your basic SL compatible Non Human character (or attachment) and its associated Armature into the scene.
Take care that your armature is in rest pose (optional).
Select your Custom Mesh.

Open the Tool shelf and there open the Avastar Tab.
Locate the Transfer Tool in the Tools panel.
Ensure that Dummies option is set to Keep
Keep Transfer Joints deselected. (See also alternative workflow below).
Click Convert to Avastar Rig

Open the Tool shelf and there open the Avastar Tab.
Locate the Transfer Tool in the Tools panel.
Ensure that Dummies option is set to Delete (or Hide)
Select the Transfer Joints option. (See also alternative workflow below).
Click Convert to Avastar Rig

The conversion takes a few seconds. When it is done, then:

The workbench Armature has been replaced by an Avastar Armature
The original Avastar Character has been remmoved
Your custom mesh has been bound to the Avastar Armature.
Your Custom mesh has been adjusted to the Avastar Character

Also note that if you plan to use IK with your Custom mesh, then you might need to adjust Avastar’s IK Bones manually. Also Bone rolls are transferred as they are defined ion the source Armature.