building, scripting, animations tutorials

If I wanted to start building new objects, design scripts, animations, HUDs etc. where should I look for a good 'user guide' to tell me how to do it ??

There are various tutorials available on the interweb, eg. youtube, mermaids diaries, tutorials within SL itself.

But is there a single book (I dont ming paying for a good one) or a pdf file which acts as an introductory guide to all these things.?

Thanks

Oxy

I recommend

"Creating your World" by Aimee Weber,Kimberly Rufus-Bach and Richard Platel. (for building)

"Introduction to Linden Scripting Language for Second Life" and "Scripting Recipes for Second Life" both by Jeff Heaton. The former if you have no computer programming experience, the latter if you have.

All available from Amazon.

...plus the usual advice. YouTube, Google, the Wikis, in-world classes, getting freebies and taking them apart.

You can work in a sandbox, but maybe you will need some land so that you can work on your stuff in peace.

And by all means, do try those inworld resources. The Ivory Tower of Primitives handles a lot on Prims, The Texture Tutorial gives a pretty comprehensive presentation on those, and the Particle Laboratory touches on all things particle.