3D Animator new too Second Life

Hello all, and how is everyone

My name is Rhyder and in game its Rhyder Flintoff,i have just registered and I am downloading the software and will install and play tonight. But I was wondering if anyone could give me a basic rundown of how to import models and textures to SL. I use 3DS Max, character studio and Photoshop (Here is a link to my website www.kgid.co.uk/rhyder.htm). I just want to learn and if anyone wants some help with modeling or making anything please give me a shout.

You can't import models. Well, not in a useful way. SL does not work with vertices, it works with parametric objects that we call primitives. They're based on extrusion. Both linear and rotational extrusion are supported, but only for a few cases, where the number of sides is 3, 4 or "infinite". There's a number of transforms you can apply on them, such as shear, twist, skew, etc.
There's a script in the forums, made by Jeffrey Gomez that will import meshes but you have a limited budget of primitives, proportional to your land, and it's very wasteful to try and mimic meshes with multiple triangular prims, plus on top of that the shading works on a per prim basis which makes for very odd looking objects.
Look in the section called Script Library if you really want it. Some scripts also let you generate complex shapes with multiple primitives, such as Xylor Bayskelf's XyObject, Cadroe Murphy's RingMaker, Shapemaker and THX.
Oh, and we don't have boolean operations or mirroring, and each primitive can only be scaled up to 10x10x10 meters since large objects would mess with the physics engine.
As for uploading textures, that's possible, but costs L$10 per texture. You should only upload textures with sizes in powers of two, since anything else will be stretched and lose quality.
They don't have to be the same size: 128x256, 256x256, 512x256, all are supported up to insanely large sizes. It's generally frowned upon to have very large textures up as it takes too long to download, and uses too much memory/bandwidth etc.

To import textures, simply go to the file menu and Upload Texture. It has to be in BMP, TGA, or JPG format, and it is automatically converted to JPEG 2000 before being sent to the servers.

The process is similar for samples and BVH animation files.

To upload models, first, build a time machine. It's best if you use a lot of brass and mahogany, or a De Lorean (as the stainless steel construction helps the flux dispersal... err, anyway). Then travel several years into the future. Second Life cannot import 3d models yet. Everything in-world (except the default avatars and the landscape, which are built-in) is made using in-world tools.

There is a script that can sort of upload a model, by converting each polygon to a primitive, but that technique is limited.

thx guys

also once i get my head around using the in game software, how would i go about selling stuff? also what do people want or should i offer my skills. i have a keen interest of making money.

If you have your own land, you can put up a Vendor, which you can buy, get for free, or script yourself. Hiro Pendragon has a good free one at his store.

If you don't own land, you can rent it from people who do.

You can also post your items on one of the market sites (e.g., slexchange.com and slboutique.com)

As for what people want to buy ... well, that's the trick, isn't it? Women's Clothing and Mature items are probably the top sellers in SL. Beyond that, 'll have to get back to you

Hi Rhyder, welcome to SecondLife




Practise making objects in 3DS Max using JUST the primitives, no meshes. You can stretch them and distort them but no boolean operations.

Would you call 3DS Max, Character Studio or Photoshop games?

lol, 3ds max can be more fun then a game at times, and if i can make boat loads of money off it i would love too, i will logon and play around with SL this weekend, hope to see a few of you then


also what are the texture diminsions 320*320 or 640*680 or greater or lower????

If you had actually read my post you would have found the answer there

sorry i remembered as i posted, i have problem of typing before it think

./knees and asks for forgiveness

*WAVES HANDS MADLY!* I Don't Want More Barbie Clothes in Whips and Chains for gawd sakes!

Prim's are cool,... even better...SHINY Prims

Clothes don't come in shiny, clothes comes in Pink and Grey [Period]