Avastar is a professional Blender add-on by Avalab for creating avatars, Animesh characters, clothing, animations, and other rigged content for Second Life and OpenSim. It extends Blender with a shared understanding of the target character-creation system for avatars and custom rigged mesh: the skeleton, shape, weights, poses, animations, and export settings belong to one connected workflow.
This platform-specific foundation is the main reason to use Avastar. Creators do not have to assemble every Second Life convention from scratch or treat rigging, fitting, and export as unrelated tasks. Avastar does not replace Blender or artistic and technical skill; it provides the specialized environment in which those skills can be applied to Second Life content.
Who is Avastar for?
Avastar is intended for creators of avatars, clothing, attachments, animations, and other rigged content. It is also used for developer-kit workflows, non-human characters, and Animesh projects.
It is most useful when a Blender project must conform to the Second Life avatar system rather than remain a general-purpose 3D model. Beginners can use Avastar as a structured entry into this work, but still need to learn Blender fundamentals such as meshes, armatures, modifiers, transforms, weights, and animation. The Avastar documentation cannot provide a comprehensive introduction to Blender content creation itself.
What Avastar adds to Blender
A platform-aware rig and shape foundation
Avastar provides prepared Second Life-compatible characters and supports the full Second Life skeleton, including legacy deform bones, attachment bones, volume bones used for Fitted Mesh, and Bento bones. It works within the fixed Second Life bone hierarchy while allowing appearance shapes, control bones, and custom joint positions to be managed in the same Blender scene.
This foundation can be used for standard avatars, custom characters, developer kits, clothing, attachments, and Animesh preparation.
Fitting, binding, and deformation tools
Avastar connects shape and rig information to the practical work of fitting and skinning a mesh. Its tools cover binding, weight transfer, copying, mirroring, inspection, cleanup, Fitted Mesh weighting, bind pose, and joint-position workflows.
The tools support the process, but they do not generate a perfect mesh automatically. Creators still need to inspect deformation, refine weights, and test the result in representative poses and shapes.
Animation and export workflows
Avastar provides posing and animation tools for its armatures, BVH import and export, and Second Life .anim export. Animation priorities, per-bone priorities, translations, and bulk export are available where the selected format supports them.
For rigged content, Avastar provides native Collada export, simplified glTF export, and platform-specific preparation for avatars, clothing, attachments, custom characters, and Animesh. Its export settings and checks are designed to catch common inconsistencies before the content is uploaded.
Compatibility and target platforms
Blender versions
Avastar releases are built for specific Blender generations, but one Avastar release often supports two or three Blender versions. Creators should verify compatibility before updating Blender or installing an older Avastar package. The release notes and the personal download area identify the appropriate combinations.
Second Life
Avastar covers the Second Life system avatar and skeleton, Bento bones, Fitted Mesh, appearance shapes, attachment points, custom joint positions, rigged-mesh export, Animesh preparation, and .anim and BVH animation workflows.
Successful upload still depends on the Blender scene, mesh construction, transforms, weights, export choices, viewer behavior, and the current Second Life upload rules.
OpenSim
Avastar supports compatible OpenSim workflows for avatar rigs, appearance shapes, rigged-mesh export, and skeletal animation. Exact behavior can vary between grids and viewers, especially where a platform implements Second Life features differently or on a different schedule. Creators should verify the requirements of their target grid before production.
Typical workflow
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Install an Avastar release that matches the supported Blender version.
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Create an Avastar character, choose the required skeleton, and set or import the target shape.
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Create or import the avatar, clothing, attachment, or developer-kit mesh.
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Fit and bind the mesh, then create, transfer, and refine its weights.
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Inspect deformation through representative poses and appearance changes.
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Prepare joint positions, bind pose, animation, materials, and export settings as required.
- Export, test in the target viewer or grid, and correct any remaining issues.