Any helpful tips to start off please?

I've been searching through the forums and finding it hard to come up with tips on editing the avatar and building attachable objects more complicated than blocks and spheres with a twist or bits knocked out.

I was wondering if there was anywhere in particular I could go looking for them or if someone was willing to show me a thing or two,
Like how to make a sword or have a halo over overhead, maybe a set of wings or something else like those that attach to an avatar and aren't just cubes or spheres or triangles.

And how do you get a texture to work right, how do you make an animated texture?
How do you get those particle things, like smoke and fire or sparks going...?

Actually, Id settle for someone helping me make something more complicated than a cube.

A really WICKED helpful place to learn about building is the Ivory Tower of Primitives in Noyo.

Also, it might be helpful to go to Yadni's junkyeard and buy some of the mostly free things like wings, etc and so you can see how they were made.

Sometimes there are classes offered in world as well - just keep an eye on the events calendar.

for building, i would start at the ivory tower. it's a giant building tutorial. it should teach you the basics of building in SL, so you can do more than just a box.

as for textures, it really depends on the object you're applying one to. you have to play around with the repeats per face to get it right. one thing i wish someone had told me when i first started is how to do multiple textures. you'll need a transparency texture for the object (i think there is one posted somewhere on the forums). then click the "select texture" option in the edit menu. from there, click on the side of the object that you want to apply the texture to. this way, you can apply a different texture to each side of the object.

i don't know much about scripts, so someone else will have to take that one.

thanks very much

ahh thank you both so much, that had just what I needed

Ok, new problem.

I’ve started messing about with things, and I began building a mask.

not its not looking to bad, I’ve only got part of the face covered, however if I try attacking it to the avatar it always rotates 90 degrees so it looks like its staring at the ceiling.
Now I tried attaching bits of the mask to the particular parts of my avatar, the nose, chin and skull and so on, but I ran into the same problem.
I can’t seem to find a way to rotate the objects while there attached. All the menus for rotation and stretching or skewing are blocked but if I unattached them from my avatar, I’m starting to have this odd problem where if I add or take anything from the rotation on the X axis it returns it to 0 and adds the same number to the Z axis instead...
This dose not look so great...

Any advice on how to work around it?

Mybe I missed something in those little help cards

i would recommend linking all the prims for the mask before attaching it. once they're all linked into one object, attach it where you want it. then you'll have to positon it. you can't use the editor box to position it once it's attached. you'll have to use the arrows that appear on the object to move it on the x,y,z axes. hold down the control button to rotate the object on the axes.

hope that helps!

The Particles Laboratory in Teal(202,50) is a very helpful ressource for a better understanding of particles.

Yay! Thanks!
I'll keep an eye out for those arose they were probably hidden inside the head.
Anyway, I've made myself a nice new bit of facial ornamentation that should be interesting to get working.

And thanks again for all the help
I'm sure these questions have probably been asked before.
Probably more than once.
or perhaps everyone else is just better at finding the answers.

Thanks again.

If you didnt find the transparency texture there is a free one at my shop on the wall. There are also 8 additional Free (not 1L$) Linden texture boxes that are not included in your library that might help you also.

Textures Unlimited, Clyde 128,128 or there abouts.. :=)