Help..Itching to Create

Hey. I'm super new to SL. I've made some eyes to sell. thats fine. Sort of learned how to save them under the right format.

What is the specifics on what the hair, eyes, pants, etc? I mean. What type of files are they saved as? Are they all the same?..

Sorry. I have zillions of questions, and am itching to get things rolling, and my wing collection needs to get out as well.

thanks. carr

Most textures for clothing are saved as .tga

Eyes were one of the first things I sold in SL. I made a custom set for myself, then for friends, and eventually sold them on SL Boutique and in my mall stores.

There are two ways to sell eyes - as a texture. or as already textured eyes. A texture is just a .tga file, at 256 x 256 or 512 x 512 resolution.

Realisticly, the larger file sizes are silly for eyes, unless you expect them to be used in head-shot closeups. At normal interaction ranges, no one will see a difference between a 512 and a 256 texture, except that the 256 loads 4 times faster.

Most eyes are sold pre-textured. Add the texture to your avatar's eyes, adjust them as needed with the appearance sliders, and do a 'Save Outfit', making sure the checkbox for eyes is checked. Then go to the folder for that outfit, copy the eyes that are in it, and give it a recognizable name, like "Eyes - Crystal Blue". Repeat that process for each color variation. Those eyes from the outfit folder are what you sell. All a user has to do to install them is to drag the eyes to their avatar.

Note that the above works only for avatars that use the original avatar's head's eyes. Eyes for furries and other forms that use full-prim heads use animated textures on the prims, since the actual avatar eyes are covered by the prim 'head mask'.

For wings, you make prim wings, texture them, and make copies. Position them on your avatar first, then detach them, and copies made of that set will 'remember' the attachment position details. A friendly hint - try using something other than flat prims for your wings. I have a lovely set that are textured on cut and hollowed cylanders. Gives them a graceful curve, while remaining low prim.

alright that all sounds pretty straight forward. so i make the wings and eyes etc. then test them out on my Avatar in SL? Or am I going to need the 3d programs ontop of Photoshop?...It's got to sound dumb. but I'm new to 3d imaging etc.

All items in Second Life besides the terrain and the avatar base are built out of primatives (prims) with the in world building tools.

There are several resources in world you can check out to learn about building (search words: building, sandbox), as well as a sub forum like this one!

its like putting a decal on a peice of plexi glass and strapping it to your back (for wings)