Questions About Abstract Textures

Recently I've been creating sets of abstract textures. They're essentially designs I've pulled from RL work I've created. I edit them to make them seamless/repeating and do various effects and color schemes. The thing is I don't really have much use myself for them so I'm feeling a bit of a compulsion to try selling them. So, now for the questions:

What sorts of uses would people have for these? (I know I'm asking for info sight-unseen; I can drop a sample on anyone interested in advising.) My guess is they'd make decent floor, wall and funky furniture textures. I also considered just selling them as art for the discerning wall. They'd make cool clothing but I presume just selling them as textures they won't be usable that way.

What resolution is best/most desirable/popular? I've been saving them at 512x512 and they look really good up close. Would separate sets of 512 vs. 256, etc. be worth offering in light of the above-mentioned applications?

Thanks for any info and advice you'd like to share.

I love textures like the ones you describe. I have used them to texture the shell of a giant racing snail and to texture a Ball Dancer (rotating textured ball that is large enuf to dance on). Could also use them as accents on furniture, trim on clothing, etc.

My partner has used textures like that for the walls of the dance room in his house. Textures are very adaptable and can be edited to be used for all sorts of things that don't seem obvious at first. I find worn wall textures look like suede when used on furniture for example.

Any unique texture is fun to have so I recommend putting them up for sale. Have fun.

I would recommend that you leave the creativity up to your customers when it comes to how to use the texture.

When I first started in SL it was as an artist.
A single image sometimes took me all day to make and then I was lucky to get 300L for it.

So I decided to create textures for sale instead. Yet I continued to create from an artist's
viewpoint.

From a standard texture viewpoint you can guess the market in pretty standard ways.
But from an artistic texture viewpoint it is pretty much impossible to guess the market.
So if you just create what you honestly like and that would look pretty cool no matter where you put it then your on the right track.

My customers have come up with some very ingenious ways to use my textures that I would never have thought of.

These days I do more targeted texture creations for particular things along with art textures.
But if you make compelling artistic textures, people will buy them simply because they like
them. Some of my customers come to look at my textures to get ideas on what to make.

The thing to remember is that every single object in SL has some kind of surface which
of course needs a texture

Thanks for the feedback, Dnali and Infiniview. I understand now better how to advertise these. I was leaning toward calling them "Fab Floors" but that would be too limiting. Instead I'll just describe what they are and not necessarily what they could be. Giant racing snail? See? I wouldn't have thought of that. Yup, best to leave it to the creativity of my customers! Thanks again!

They look like good, strong hands, don't they?

I may just have to make a Stupid Bat now.

My snail can out race your bat!!!

All I can say is: Fear my flying ant...

Hmm. Seems maybe no one got my reference. Silly me & my 80's movies.


The "good, strong hands":



The Sleepy Bat (Oops, looks like I said "Stupid Bat" earlier instead of "Sleepy Bat". D'Oh!):



The Racing Snail:




Any of this ring a bell? Anyone?



Oh, and Bodhisatva, I most definitely do fear your flying ant.

80s? When was that?

We should all fear the ant. It has no steering.

The 80's were a blur.

Never Ending Story

My favourite movie. I watched it at least once a year when I was a kid. I'd be very happy to watch it again!

I guess I'm going to have to see this movie! I remember the song. Is this where the concept of racing snails comes from?

Now, to get sort of back on topic: How do I need to set permissions on the textures when selling them? I would like them to be available to builders who want to use them for themselves and for objects they would be selling. I was looking at the properties settings last night but it was late, I was tired and it didn't seem completely obvious to me.

EDIT: Never mind. I found a good explanation here

/109/ed/162481/1.html