A Simple Flock of Birds---or a Better Way?

It's occurred to me that the garden I'm building would benefit from a small flock of circling birds. My building skills are limited and my scripting skills are nonexistent but I have figured out how to use the rotation script I got when I was born and I'm getting better at making textures. I'm thinking of making a large, flat, transparent prim with a bird off to one edge and making it rotate. I could hang a few of these together and vary the rotation speeds to simulate a (probably fakey) flock. Any predictions of whether this is possible (can I make all but the bird image disappear completely--alpha trans all the edges) or any suggestions of a simple-enough-that-I-could-do-it alternative?

Hello Bodhisatva!

You can either build the birds using prims, or create birds using a texture (then yes, you'd create an alpha channel to ensure the edges around the bird was transparent).

Now if you put the rotation script in the bird itself, he'll just spin. You'd want it linked to an object that you'd like it to circle around.

Just make sure that the parent prim is the orb that you want the birds to circle. I don't remember how far away they can be from the parent and still linked. You can also mess with the rotation script to either speed up or slow down how fast your tweeties circle (don't want them getting dizzy!).

Clear as mud?

~Ari

yes that will work, you dont need a disk with bird on edge just a offset prim
like a small invisable prim last linked oppisit your bird will move the axis of rotation
or a path script with targets. the Machinima StarterKit! has a camera waypoint script
that could be mod to work in a loop.
-LW

Thank you, Arikinui and Lightwave! That'll work like a charm. I was able to get in for a while and mess with it. Brilliant solution that's given me ideas for other things.

The stock rotation script seems to be very simple. I've figured out that that first group of numbers is speed of rotation around each axis, right? What's the number after that? I'm afraid I don't have it open right now to be more specific in my question.

Lightwave, I got an email saying you were giving me an object. Thanks, though I don't know what it is. Apparently things aren't working quite right this evening so I wasn't able to receive it. I was, however, mildly amused to be walking around invisible but for my hat and boots.