Okay....Blender v in-world builder?

I will be blunt. I have an inferioirty comlex that exceeds Stalins...


I look around and I see people with buildings and prims which have a grandeur and splendor that rivals the Sistine Chapel. Wondering if people could answer these three questions:

1) One to build something that is sellable and aesethitically pleasing, does one need to be a graphic designer, or similar expert? What matters more, talent/time and dilligence?

2) What is more effective for those clean, professional prims, Blender or in-world tools?

3) How hard is it to actually learn how to build? I dont mean Ctl+4, but something semi-decent, not just a blob.

Thanks guys!

I don't really have an answer, other than to say, "Visit the Ivory Tower of Primitives for enlightenment." But I do want to send some kudos your way for thinking out loud lately. You're asking the questions many of us have had.

I have learned everything so far from reading the f1 help, advice from my peers, experimenting, the Knowledge Database, and forums. Also, while in world, if you go into the events tab and type in education, you will find LOTS of freebie classes for building, scripting, animation, etc. Find a friend in world who has experience, ask them for advice, and build along with them.

For scripting basics, check out the Linden Script Language Wiki http://rpgstats.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Here's a link to the Knowledge Base http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/

Here is a link to the f1 help page. http://secondlife.com/app/help/index.php

Here is a link to the Building section of the forums. /8/1.html

Good Luck!

Jeff Gomez and friends built a tool for Blender that simulates the in-world tools. It's quite nice. Since you are apparently familiar with Blender, it may work well for you. It is in the building forum.

Where your time might be equally well spent is mastering Photoshop or the other programs to create textures. Some of us will pay a pretty penny for good textures. I personally have spent in the ball park of 3k on textures in the past two weeks as an investment for my building. That will stop once I get friendly with Paint Shop Pro, but I haven't had the time or inclination.... yet.

I know several very talented builders whose sole "education" in building is the Ivory Tower of Primitives, and cannot recommend it enough.

Blender is more capable than the in-world tools in so many ways, but is not something you would use in SL so there is no fair comparison to be made.

With a lot of those architectural wonders you are referring to, in many cases scripts are used that by use of mathematical formulas create Sistine like buildings algorithmically.

My answers to your questions...

1) One to build something that is sellable and aesethitically pleasing, does one need to be a graphic designer, or similar expert? What matters more, talent/time and dilligence?
I have several friends who are successful designers of Second Life clothing, buildings, and scripted items. None of the individuals I'm thinking of have any professional experience in clothing design or architecture. They simply make things they thought would be cool. Your most important assets are going to be: Imagination, Determination, and Time. Come up with something fun and new. Be willing to give it a few tries til you get it right. (Assuming you have the time to do all this.)

Oh... I'll also note that my successful designer acquaintences and friends are all pretty good with Photoshop. The ability to make and tweak your own textures is a great asset that can set your work apart from others'. Again, that's just something you pick up with time and determination.

3) How hard is it to actually learn how to build? I dont mean Ctl+4, but something semi-decent, not just a blob.
It's not very hard; just a matter of research, experimentation, and time/effort. Scour the forums, google for tutorials (there are many), search the LSL Wiki (there's tons of great info about designing in SL there- it's not just a database of LSL functions), examine freebie items and scripts that you find in-world. You can learn a whole lot by just inspecting what others before you have done.

And here's something that's not obvious when you're just starting out: A lot of the real 'art' of building in Second Life is learning how to work around the limitations. Spend enough time building and you'll learn all about link sets, alpha texture oddities, and the fragility of LSL... and your appreciation for builders who overcome them will only grow over time.

When I started playing SL i didnt have any graphic design or 3D buiding experience. I am pretty much completely self taught and spent my first week firing questions to a friend whilst playing with the build tools. I then formed an image in my mind of a building I wanted to create and set about building it on my piece of first land. I spent 2 months on that build and it didnt turn out anything like my original idea but I learned a shed load about what prims could do and how to use textures to minimise the use of prims. In the 3rd month I moved to a 1024sqm plot and started building a new 3 storey building. Again I spent about 2 months, changing and tweaking it, banging my head on the screen on occasion but ultimately ended up with a build I was proud of. I thought i would try to sell it so I stuck it up on SLX and low and behold I started selling a few copies a week. That was it, I got the bug and moved on to the next build. Still building now and thats pretty much all I do in SL. I have sold thousands of prefabs and made thousands of US dollars Never visited the ivory tower or any other school, basically I get an idea and work with the tools until I can create it. I think the key is that you really need to like building and have a lot of patience. Personally I think you just need to get stuck in and have a go. The learning curve is steep but this is rewarded by a rapid improvement in skill during the early stages.

Contact Cadroe Murphy for some very cool tools (tools that facilitate those "algo" builds mentioned previously in another post).

1) One to build something that is sellable and aesethitically pleasing, does one need to be a graphic designer, or similar expert? What matters more, talent/time and dilligence?

A: I What you Need in that line is Only "An Eye" Just the Ability to think and Visualize in Three dimensions. I gave My Girl alex the same lessons I received, with emphasis on the same points, and she now makes between $500 and $2K lindens a Day selling her Product. and this from a Girl who told me she could Never build anything. With this building tool, i would say Dilligence, and Vision are the Most Important things.


2) What is more effective for those clean, professional prims, Blender or in-world tools?

A: I've seen Pure Magnificence executed with the SL system, and Utter Cr*p done with Blender, and Vice Versa. The Magic is Not in your Tools, it's in yourself.


3) How hard is it to actually learn how to build? I dont mean Ctl+4, but something semi-decent, not just a blob.

A: In Half an Hour i can have you Building Furniture, or Ornaments. In two to Four Hours i can teach you Most of what you Need to Build anything you can Visualize. It is NOT Hard at all. Each build i do gets More Complex, More precise, and Faster because Each time i Build i solve a New Problem, or try a New Technique
After a short while you will walk down a RL street, and see Objects, and ask yourself, "How many Prims to make that?" Your mind will begin breaking things down into thier Prim parts. No, it isn't hard at all.

All you Really Need is a Good Teacher.

Angel.

Taking some classes in building might work for you, New Citizens Inc. has lots of classes so I would assume you might find some on building. Also you might try using the search function at secondlife.com to search for building and builders and build - I'm not sure exactly what it searches but it can find groups better than the inworld world search does.

There's an open join group called Builders of Second Life that can answer particular questions on building.

In the absence of inspiration, while practicing, you might try the Peter Keating school of design: pull up Google images, search for pictures of buildings, isolate several aspects of buildings that you like, and create a mishmosh of a building based on those aspects. Also you could get the free buildings, vehicles, etc. one can find around and starting from scratch copy and make variations of them just by looking at them. As your skill at working the building interface improves hopefully you will get some ideas of your own which will then be much easier to implement with the skills you have learn making practice copies.

For making so-called buildings that are intended for functional use, such as for a store, remember that you are designing for a virtual world, not the real world. You may not want a roof because it blocks access from the air; windows that aren't phantom also block access and don't help keep out the wind and rain and such functions. Using lots of prims may be easy and make a really neat looking construction but it also slows down loading and rendering and prim allotment is scarce so potential customers will appreciate designs that produce an effect with minimal prim usage.

How hard you find making something you are comfortable with that others find worthy depends on your skills, abilities, patience with the many problems SL presents with bugs and packet loss poor design decisions, etc. and on how picky you are.

I suffered a momentary funk yesterday. Due to RL obligations, I couldn't go inworld and work on my newest build, so I had too much time to brood about being a newbie builder in a field crowded with enormously imaginative and creative people. In comparsion to what I could see after just a brief browse through SL Exchange, my house seemed so conventional and dull.

But then my enthusiasm resurfaced. First off, I'm still learning, at my own pace, so it's hardly a fair comparison to make and mostly, I just ENJOY it. So even if I never build anything that sells, I'll still have a parcel of land filled to bursting with my own houses. Building is what I like to do in SL, so I'm just going to keep doing it.

Building is confusing to start with but now I'd consider myself competent, having mastered most of the procedures of shaping, linking, texturing etc. I taught myself, and read from knowledge base and asked a few questions in 'help'. After 4 months I reckon I could build the Forth Bridge and the train to go across it but since I haven't even scratched the surface of scripting yet someone else would have to make the train move!!!!!