Lesson Objective:

1. Learn what an art mesh is.

2. Learn how to automatically and manually add meshes.

3. Learn how to add and alter preset meshes.

Lesson Quests:

Quest 1: Learn what an art mesh is.

Quest 2: Make an automatic art mesh & learn to add and alter presets.

Quest 3: Make a manual art mesh.

Quest 4: Additional things to consider about meshes.

Quest 5: Temporarily auto mesh the Lua model.

Quest 1: What is an Art Mesh?

An Art Mesh is a single layer or art piece of the model. You create a mesh on top of that art piece that can be deformed, bent, or moved. This is what we refer to when we say "Art Mesh".

This is an Art Piece: Eyelash_Main_Left

If we add a mesh to the art piece, it will become an Art Mesh.

These structures allow us to move individual points to deform, bend, and move the Art Mesh.

As you can see above, a mesh was created out of neatly organized points. It can also be described as a structure of polygons.

Each of these dots is connected to the art piece, and moving any of the points will move the art piece.

Above, you can see that dragging three of these points down, deformed the shape of the Eyelash.

This is exactly how the Live2D Process works.

We move different points of an Art Mesh to create a desired motion.

There are two methods to creating Art Meshes:

1. Automatically Generate them

2. Manually make them

Quest 2: Automatically Generate an Art Mesh

Select an art piece from your Parts or Deformer Window. Let's do the top art piece in the Lua model: Eyebrow_Left.

Once selected, we will press the "Automatic Mesh Generator" button at the top of our program in our tools bar.

Upon pressing this button, the following window will appear:

By pressing the drop down under "Preset" you will have 3 options:

1. Standard

2. Deformation (Little)

3. Deformation (Heavy)

Selecting either of these three options will automatically create a mesh on your selected art piece.

Altering the Settings and Adding a Preset:

The Settings at the bottom of this window can be altered to change different aspects of the mesh.

It's best to play around with these settings and see how it affects the generated art mesh.

A decent example for evenly distributed meshes is as follows:

Additionally, you can save a custom preset for your changed settings by pressing "Add..." under the preset drop down.

The following window will pop up asking you to save a name for this new preset.

Quest 3: Manually Make an Art Mesh

Select an art piece from your Parts or Deformer Window. Let's do the top art piece in the Lua model: Eyebrow_Left.

Once selected, we will press the "Manual Mesh Edit" button at the top of our program in our tools bar.

Upon pressing the button, the following window will appear:

You are now in mesh editing mode, and here we can use a set of mesh editing tools to manually create an Art Mesh.

Let's look at our Tool Details Window to get a better understanding of the tools.

1 - Pointer & Lasso Selection Tool

Pointer tool is a regular mouse, it allows you to click, select, and move points of your Art Mesh.

Lasso tool allows you to click and drag to create a selection of points of your Art Mesh.

2 - Add Point & Delete Point Tool

Add & Delete Point tools allow you to add or remove points of your Art Mesh.

3 - Eraser Tool

Eraser Tool allows you to erase points of your Art Mesh.

To resize your Eraser tool brush, hold down your "B" key on keyboard, and the Left click of your mouse, then slide your cursor left and right across the screen. You will see your eraser brush size change.

4 - Add Vertices & Stroke Mesh-Mapping Tool

The Add Vertices tool adds points between closed polygons, (Points that form a closed shape)

The Stroke Mesh-Mapping tool allows you to draw lines with your cursor to create structured meshes. (Below)

Within your Tool Details window, you can change the settings to make the structures more or less dense (by amount of dots)

or as 1, 2, or 3 vertices in width. (Below)

You may also click and drag the green points of an existing stroke mesh structure, to adjust the curvature of your line. (Below)

You can also change the width of your structure by holding control on your keyboard, and left clicking to drag the yellow circle inwards or outwards. (Below)

5 - Auto Generate Mesh

Is the exact same auto generation button from Option #1.

Quest 4: Things to Consider While Meshing

1. Art Pieces that are not fully covered by the area of a mesh will get cut out.

2. Keeping Polygons as close together in size will result in consistent deforming.

3. If you want to protect the shape of an edge, consider lining it with a set of points, then building your Art Mesh from there.

4. Making very dense Art Meshes will cause the model to be heavier and harder to run. Sometimes heavier meshes also work worse. Find a good middle ground.

Quest 5: Temporarily Auto Mesh the Lua Model

Select all the art pieces within the deformer tab by clicking the top most piece, scrolling down, holding shift and then clicking the bottom most piece.

Once all the parts are selected, hit the auto mesh button again, and generate a "Standard" preset mesh on all the parts for now.

We will manually adjust or mesh the art meshes for the more important parts as we go to rig each one.

End of "Creating Effective Artmeshes"

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