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Horseman Schnook
Registered User
Join date: 22 Dec 2005
Posts: 4
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12-23-2005 23:12
What if a feature was to have a way of recording your prim shapes and place them in a folder or file that you can later retrieve. That way you don't have to kill a bunch of trees.  I just started learning the ropes. I too am a 3d artist. |
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Ceera Murakami
Texture Artist / Builder
Join date: 9 Sep 2005
Posts: 7,750
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12-25-2005 20:22
From: Horseman Schnook What if a feature was to have a way of recording your prim shapes and place them in a folder or file that you can later retrieve. That way you don't have to kill a bunch of trees. I just started learning the ropes. I too am a 3d artist. Well, you can certainly create sub-assemblies of usable shapes, and keep them in your inventory. I do that a lot when I build stuff. Just make and optionally texture the shape, and give it a rational name, then file it as you see fit in your Inventory. As a very simple example, consider making a 'Tree', using 3 planar prims at 60 degrees to each other, textured with a tree image that is alpha-masked to be transparent where the tree has no branches. I make one planar prim, and texture the two flat sides, while setting the thin edges to 100% alpha. Then I take that textured plane into inventory, and place it back out again twice, rotating one copy 60 degrees on the Z-axis, and the other -60 degrees. I overlap the three planes so their z-axies coincide, link them together, and I have my basic tree, which I name and take back into inventory. If I want to do nicer things at that point, like reversing some of the textures, or using three or even six different views of the tree for the six faces, it's easy to change at that point. By extension, if you figure out a clever way to make some part out of linked prims, like a drawer pull or a gear, you can certainly save that 'part' into inventory, to scale and alter as needed for later use. I'm just getting started as an SL builder myself, and I'm constantly having to fight myself over when to detail something with prims, and when to just use clever textures. Given that most of a builder's work doesn't get looked at all that closely, textures are often the better choice. For example, you could detail each of the drawer pulls and drawer fronts on a dresser using prims. But you can get an equally nice look, possibly even a better look, with a single flat prim surface and a photo-realistic surface texture that is carefully designed. And use a fraction of the prims! |