Where do you guys get your ideas?

I'm not really a creative person, so I just try to find an image of what I want to build and try to build it in SL or I get a model from the google 3d warehouse and try to build it in SL. So, where do you guys get your ideas?

Good question. I'll be curious to see what everybody has to say on this subject.

For me, a large portion of my professional work involves replication of RL items, which of course doesn't really require "idea-getting". That's not to say it's not creative, though. There's a lot of creative problem-solving that goes into replication, especially given SL's extensive limitations, and I usually find that process to be very enjoyable mental exercise.

For non-replica stuff, all I can say is inspiration is everywhere, if you look for it. I think the key, really, is to hold on to your child-like imagination as much as you can. Remember when you were a kid and you needed an aircraft carrier for your GI Joes, so you grabbed an old coffee can and a shoe box and you made it work? Same deal. I'm looking around my desk right now, and I see all kinds of possibilities. My speakers could easily be space ships. My Logitech mouse looks like it could be a great basis for a post-modern amphitheater. My two USB hubs look like maybe a the exhaust system for a hyper-futuristic car. My Linksys wireless router looks, with a bit of modification, like it would make for a great city skyscraper.

Sometimes, though, ideas come seemingly from nowhere at all. They just appear in my head all by themselves. Other times, they come in dreams.

Often, I'll just "doodle" in 3D, and see where the shapes take me. Some of my best architecture has been done that way.

beer n boredom

really tho, "doodling" in 3d to see where the shape takes me

real life stuff i would like to try and make

stuff i see that takes an alter ego, ie i used to work in a car parts where house, lots of steampunk inspiration there

even sometimes dreams

So you guys just randomly build a cube and start messing around with it without thinking and rezzing other stuff and etc....?

Actually, that helped me build a tank that comes from a cartoon or something and a death ray or artillery gun.

I get inspiration from RL and SL. I play with prims and see what shapes I can make, sometimes that inspires me to make an object, sometimes I find a script in the library and I think, oh i can use that to make a 'thingy' LOL. Occasionally I'll build an object someone asks for or specifically for a SL competition.

Recently I try to build things that are more surreal, I don't see the need to build things that exist in RL, this is SL one should use there imagination and build fantastic builds that wouldn't be possible in RL.

Well a lot from my own experiences for sure. Lost memories, childhood dreams that didn't come true for me. But childhood aside, as a professional designer I have learned that limits are the biggest source of inspiration. And SL has many limitations. I really try and make these problems work to my benefit. Structurally anyway. But most comes from my imagination. it has gotten to the point where if I can see it in my mind I can build it in Secondlife. But it's sort of like the design world. There's the version you imagine, the one that you try and make, and the one you end up with. It's all about compromise, and we are all our worst critics.

Many of my recent projects have been to replicate real buildings and places within SL for clients. Like I am currently building a college campus that was built in the late 1700's through the 1800's. So I do research. I get as many photos as I can from the actual site, and do other on-line research to find out as much as I can about the site or about similar sites. In one case, I was lucky enough to find architectural blueprints on-line - the building had been documented for the National Register of Historic Places. Other projects may start with a theme or a general concept, like "Japanese Castle", and I'll start my background research from there.

The real challenge is in translating what I see in those photos into what can be done in SL, while keeping prim counts as low as I can. Making the special textures that I need, building challenging shapes...

I take a similar approach with other projects. If I was going to design a car, I'd look at a lot of photos and models of various types of cars. I'd study what I saw, how the various shapes blend from one to another, and consider how that could be built up within the limited tools that SL offers. What can be done with normal prims? What will have to be done with a Sculpty? What simply doesn't appear to be possible, or will require more prims than it is worth?

I gave up taking mind altering substances several months ago, then tobacco, now i don't have much inspiration. I stare at cubes till they morph into exotic shapes all by themselves or I just go back and redo old stuff. I want to build a futuristic tower but it just don't work anymore, I can't come up with anything much that's very interesting or new. It used to "just happen".

I need something.....

Mostly my sense of humour. One day I thought it would be funny to lose my head, so I did a shape and an AO. Another day I thought it would be fun to dance around around a big fire with a gas can, so I made a big fire and a gas can. One time I thought it would be fun to stick to the wall, so I did up one of those things.

Mostly odd little personal things born of the spirit of making my own fun.

But I did make a few bigger things that I thought would be cool. My big pano things and my studio. Also my ballroom dancing thing.

Things that I want or find funny.

Oh wow everywhere, anywhere and everything inspires my builds in SL. My mind has seriously been altered since learning to build here. I can no longer look at things in magazines, things on the interwebs, buildings, trees, in Target looking at home decor, you name it, there is not much in RL that I don't measure and consider the shape that I could use to recreate it.

I am however limited to the tools that SL has to offer and my Photoshop for the textures. Sadly, I'll never learn to do sculpties.

One approach is to build something you are passionate about, something from real life perhaps? could be planes or trains, sewing kits, cakes, or a memory from a beach holiday.

Check this out for total inspiration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxVDVggLqsA&feature=related

Totally beautiful art, on so many levels....

I make whatever my wife tells me to make...

I steal ideas like everyone else... Actually, I am on the road quite a bit during the day and if I see something in RL that strikes my fancy, I take a pic with my phone. I do a lot of country driving, therefore, I am good at barns, silos, corn cribs, cows...

Someone PLEASE tell me you know what a Mail Pouch Barn is! I built one and NO ONE KNOWS what it is supposed to be!

I hang around in a post apocalyptic sim so I get a lot of inspiration (steal ideas from) from End of the World movies, bad 80s Sci Fi and Superfund sites. I do builds to relax or help out someone else's project, so it's all over the map as far as specific ideas. Often I'll do a one off object as a proof of concept and forget about it, or have someone else's concept to go off of. I have a little scrap heap born of such things and other curious salvage from the blasted and sundered wastelands that you can find in my Profile's Picks section.

I also animate a bit when I think of a cool movement cycle or see an iconic action move, but get pretty frustrated with SL's animation system. I don't wanna have to stress over getting an animation to run right when I'm relaxing in SL. That's what I do for my day job.

Otherwise it's whatever the customer wants within the time alloted and the budget indicated.

Reading this thread, somehow i get the idea a lot of us see things in RL and think "I wonder how many prims that is?"

Heh, that is definitely what I do, Dekka ^_^ But then I'm just an amateur with an inclination toward neatness and an obsession for learning the true power of prims.

That's where I get mine. There's this place in Schenectady. I send off a check for $15, they send me back a six pack of ideas.

Okay, seriously - I get them from synthesis. I see the non-obvious relationships between two completely dissimilar disciplines or objects or situations, and try to pull the similarities into a unified concept. It's fun, it's easy, and it's not cheating. Most creative thought has its foundation in SOMETHING.

My ideas breed like rabbits. I've been remodelling a 1930s sim recently and I found a great steam locomotive. What's a locomotive without a depot, though? So I built a depot. And a depot without furniture, luggage, and a public phone? I built those. Once it's in place, of course, there will be terraforming to do, and that creates places for walls, streetlights, newsstands, ..... The scene sort of unfolds itself and I build to keep up with it. When it gets too primmy, I stop.

amen to that

i start with a rough idea and expand from there, look to the prim, become one with it and it shall show you the way

google image search works really well too

-Crunch

Since most of my work is "fantasy" based, I just imagine what I would like to see or explore. If I'm building a house, it really comes down to what kind of space I'd like to live in. If I'm building out an area of the Gardens, it is very much where the moment takes me and I'll get an image of something in my head - then figure out how to get as close to it as possible using the SL toolset.

For example, in The Botanical Gardens there is a city built into the sides of the cliffs along the river. The idea for that came from watching the remake of "The Time Machine" and the cliff homes where the Eloi lived. Then I found another image which changed the architecture into something more resembling temples built into the cliffs, then from there my mind wandered to images of Angkor Wat (Cambodia) with the roots intertwining through the buildings. The build is still unfinished (more work to do on textures and the tree roots) but that is a fairly typical build process for me - combining images of things that intrigue me into something resembling architecture.

You can't control creativity, you have to keep your thinking mind quiet long enough for the creativity to come out to play.

Creativity is a game your brain plays with the universe.

You can't "get" ideas, as they are like fish. When going fishing, it's best to let the fish come to the bait, instead of wasting time and energy trying to shove the bait into the fish's mouth...

What Pratyeka said!!

I also keep "idea" folders where I save images of things that I happen across when surfing or whatever. Things where I see a great shape, even if I have no use for it at the time. Or a great landscape, piece of furniture, house design...anything at all that makes me go "oooh, that's cool." Stuff like that can provide huge amounts of inspiration -- even when you aren't really looking for it

They jump into my head from the ether


http://www.secondscripter.com

Oh, the ancient "where does one get ideas?" question. I think any creative endeavor gets this question (in another life, I hear it frequently in regard to writing). One is always tempted to answer "Mail Order" or, more truthfully, "Too Much Tea" because imagination is just something that happens, really. Having an overdeveloped internal life is usually more of a curse than anything else.

But there are two things I think help me.

One is to foster the ideas. There is always time for self-critique and editing later. Don't immediately dismiss your thoughts, even though they may be purely awful. No one has to see your roughs. Similarly, don't think "WHY am I wasting time on this?". If you are having fun, it is not wasted time, so long as all your pets remain well fed (MUST keep the day job, you know). Today's nonsense is tomorrow's well crafted nonsense. Just do remember to edit/keep working on it!

The other thing is not to let your ideas slip away. Several have mentioned notebooks/sketchpads, but use what works for you. Me, I have enough clutter in the purse as it is, so I just carry bundled 3x5 cards (which double as my day planner) and a small soft-bound memobook for more concrete ideas (consignment to one or the other is purely arbitrary). But what works for you. The truth is that brilliant little idea will wander off once the hurly burly of the day is done. And do take some quality time with your own imagination. Sit at a cafe for an hour, just people watching, drinking tea and taking notes. It's a bit like leaving the puppy offleash. She'll start off with just ambling about sniffing at things, but sooner or later she'll chase something.

But again, whatever you do, have fun! SL is one big playground. Make what turns your fancy, and you will not be wrong.

What everyone has said.

I walk a lot in rl and I look at houses, fences, posts, in store windows...everywhere and certain designs will catch my eye. I rush home, log in, and try to create it here. Then once I create it, I wonder in what kind of senario would this fit and build the place around it.

If I see something really fantastic, I'll snap a couple of photos with my phone to refresh my memory when I get home.

Sometimes, I dream about where I'd like to go with my boyfriend and build "fantasy rooms" so I can take him there. Right now, I'm sitting on a picnic blanket high in the mountains where an eagle is soaring overhead. If I walk down the stairs that have been cut into the rock, there is a hot spring for bathing. Or, if I feel adventurous, I could go caving in here too.

Other times, just a shape will pop into my head. So I go into my workshop, make it, and then think of ways I could use it.

I also visit sl sculpture gardens and architecture sims to see what other people are doing and I usually find some inspiration there too. Just imitating what someone else has done can be stimulating and you wind up with a design that is all your own.