Newb Intro, quick questions

Howdy,

Just wanted to introduce myself to the creative community here (I was born yesterday ). I'm an all-around artsy type and am interested in learning about SL skinning and texturing as well as meeting folks already skinning objects in SL.

I've done a little bit of skinning with other games, and you can find some samples of my work here if you're curious
http://www.secretlair.com/gallery/index.php?cat=9

During my trial period at SL I am hoping to gather enough information to convince me to purchase a year membership.

I'll throw these questions out to anyone who might wish to give their opinions:

What is the most rewarding aspect of skinning/texturing?

What is the most challenging aspect of skinning/texturing?

Getting seams to line up.

Getting seams to line up.

Thanks for the reply-- Is the seams issue due to inadequate templates, the fact that adjustable bodies bends textures in unexpected ways, or some other reason? There is no external model viewing tool for SL, correct?

It's mainly because the textures themselves do not always have the most rational layouts. Fronts and backs and tops and bottoms do not connect in exactly straight lines or with the same scaling even. The way the textures lay on the bodies is a lesser issue.

We don't have an offline editor but you can preview a texture on its appropriate body part (and even on inappropriate body parts) on upload without paying to go all the way.

I should add that once you get a little experience you'll be able to make your own template and you'll have a feel for how things work so this issue won't drive you completely insane, or some kind soul might give you their own custom template. In the meantime look for Linen-made "canonical templates". They show the actual mesh rather than the general areas. With a simple alpha channel operation you can seperate the mesh grid from the background and lay it over whatever you're working on.

Interesting work Zero welcome to SL and "Skinning" here is bout as simple as it gets for right now 4 basic templates the rest is your Imagination and a prayer. Based on what I saw you will do well here.

Shadow

Yesterday I had the fortune of finding a fashion show and a "show and tell" where a bulk of the material consisted of avatars/outfits. Gave me a decent picture of what can be done with custom textures and modelling. I might take a stab at some painting today. Fortunately most of my creations have been "monsters" so far-- lining up seams shouldn't be a major issue since the 2 monsters I've done are both "naked."

Anyone know where I can get a good set of fangs as a wearable object?

For fangs, talk to most anyone with the last name "Phaeton".

Awesome, thanks for the info!

Inside the files of SL there is one called Head_color.tga I believe, that's where the mouth is you can use this as a base to create fangs. What I did was I made a TGA file with fangs only using the head_color as foundation, then I placed the texture with alpha channel on a simple box prim, attach it to tour mouth and make the necesary adjustments...