Question - Making Plants, flowers ect

Hiya's

I've seen in secondlife 2 prim flowers, plants ect using textures, I've tried so many times to create these but can't seem to figure it out, The flowers (for example) always look offsided.

Is there a specific way to match them up?

Nat

I'm not sure about this, and I can't find the right thread in the forums, but
from memory (search the forums for a real answer), I seem to remember there's a trick to this. YOu upload two textures of the same plant. One is the mirror image of the other. Flip it before you upload it. Then you use those two textures at right angles on two prims.

Anyone else recall this?

You don't need to upload a mirrored version. You can make a mirrored version for the back side by checking the "Flip Horizontal" ckeckbox on the texture trab, in edit mode.

The thing to remember when making 2-prim or 3-prim plants and flowers is that you're using the alpha-sort bug in your favor. Whichever face of a plant texture plane is most flat-on to you is the one you usually see clearly. But the results are spotty at best, shift as you move, and sometimes you just have to play with it, especiallt to get the trunk or main stem aligned

The plants and trees I have made so far worked best with 3 prims, not two. I made a flat prim with edges 100% aplha, and with front and back as mirror images of each other. (In fact, on my good ones I make them in a 3D app external to SL, and capture actual front and back views, with two camera positions). If possible, textures that are roughly symmetrical left to right work best.

Duplicate the prim by a shift-drag, then select undo, so it snaps nack to the original location. Rotate the prim 60 degrees on the Z-axis. Repeat, selecting the prim that was in the original rotation, and this tiime rotate it -60 degrees. This should get you three planes intersecting equally, looking like an asterisk if viewed from above. Group them, and you have a simple plant.

Remember that most people will not look at one side and then run around and look at the back in a critical manner. So generally you can use the same texture, un-flipped, on all sides, as long as it is roughly symmetrical left to right.