Building, texturing and artistry?

Can you be a builder and not a texturer?
Can you be a texturer and not an artist?

These things seem to go together. (I'm talking about quality here)
Unless you work with a team you have to create everything. Or buy it, which means it's not original or creative. And can be very expensive.
Added question: Do some texturers buy packs from 3d modelling web sites to use? Is this legal?

I am not an artist although I can 'do' images and creations in an image app. I can take photos, of walls and windows and household items for example, and chop 'em up and make nice pieces in the image app and I can create similar from scratch but I'm never going to be an artist, no matter how much I learn or try.

This was brought on when I visited Kennedy House at Republic Bay in Plush Altstadt. Seems a very nice build. Please point me to the BEST of the best you have seen.

I want to feel even more inadequate.

You can build and not texture. The texture is for a defined picture in your head. If your skills are building structures then go for it. People will then be able to texture it the way they want to.

Suggestion: Mix "Blank" and "default" textures so you can see what you are doing and the division between items. That "blank" is so white everything blurs together.

Absolutely, you can. A better question is can you be a complete builder without also being a texturer. To that I'd have to say no.

Some people disagree with me, of course, and to some degree they're right. One can be a very good builder without ever texturing (take a look at Starax Statosky's awesome scultpures some time for a great example of how excellent work can be done without texturing), but in my opinion, a builder who cannot texture, no matter how good he or she may be at the actual sculpting aspect, is very incomplete.

Michelangelo would never have been the sculptor he was had he never learned to draw or paint. By the same token, a 3D modeler who doesn't learn to texture will never realize his or her full potential. This is especially true in an environment like SL, a place in which the amount of 3D resources available for any one project is always very scarce, but 2D resources are pretty much unlimited.


By definition, no. A texturer IS an artist, as is a builder, a musician, a seamstress, a chef, an architect, or anyone who does anything creative. If you create, you make art, period.



Yes. I don't myself, but many do.



It depends on the license for the purchased textures. If the customer has bought the right to use the textures commercially, then by all means, they can use them for anything in SL they want. If they only have limited rights to the textures, then their options for what they can do in SL (or anywhere else) with the textures are subject to the applicable limitations.

It's just like buying music or movies or other IP. You can go out and buy your favorite DVD, and you can play it whenever you want for whomever you want in your own home. You can't put it up on a giant screen in a public arena though unless you've bought the right to do that, which is not a right that generally comes with a standard personal-use purchase. Movie theaters pay royalties for that privilidge.

Yes and yes though, as you noted below, it's often very beneficial to the build quality if the builder is also a texture artist; or, failing that, at least a texturer



Depending on the license agreement that comes with purchase, it can be legal or not. I'm not familiar enough with Renderosity and familiar sites to answer the question directly; as to the "Do some texturers buy stuff" - one of my sources of raw material to make textures of is http://sxc.hu - downloads are free, some images come with usage restriction. It's really a treasure trove.



I started out in SL with only the most minimal knowledge of GIMP - I could crop an image after 10min of fumbling with the menus. SL gave me the motivation I needed to learn using that program, learn the basics of digital image manipulation etc. I'm still a far cry from "texture artist", but I would say that learning to make or at least manipulate my own textures has strongly increased my build quality.

Taking your example for the household item - making a prim into a washing machine from photos you took yourself might not look like an impressive feat - but I've seen so many textures of similar items that were badly cropped, not aligned, had some stray alpha marks etc., that a well-done washing machine is something to be proud of.

Or, if you think about houses and shops and other architectural structures: texturing them with the generic brick, roof, wood texture will look nice enough, but still be somewhat flat. Adding a little shadow along the edges might not sound much like art, but it will make the house appear more 3D, less flat. Now add a little bit of grime on the bottom, maybe a bit of moss on the wall or adding a photosourced stone trim - et voila, a bit of patience with the clone tool has turned a generic brick wall into a lived-in, real brick wall. Those are rather simple texture manipulations that can greatly enhance a build.



Two builds I visit every time I want to feel inadequate (and gather some inspiration) are the sim Sanctum Sanctorum, and castle Ulrichsburg on the sim Frisch.

@Jackal Ennui, Thanks for the links: Sanctum Sanctorum took a long time to load but was worth the wait. It's very detailed and looks quite original. I like originality.
Some new work going on there too which gave me some insights. It seems, you can build whatever, beautifully, with pixel accuracy but in the end, the job is only as good as your textures.

The castle Ulrichsburg on the sim Frisch was a lot tamer by comparison and after exploring for a short time I realised what it was.
@Martin McConnell. Thanks for the input. I was making adjacent pieces blue/red/green etc, I think am through the beginner stage and looking to get some inspiration to do more advanced work. I have plenty of time and that is free for me.



Any more inspirational sites?

Should I have warned you that it's a (public) orientation island? Doesn't distract much from the build though (except for the chat parrot). I understand it looks a lot tamer compared to Sanctum; I like that place very much because it is the only SL castle I've found so far that really reminds me of old european castles & ruins (no surprise there, afaik it's been modelled on an actual RL castle), most of the other castles I've seen were of the Disney / fairytale / square court with 4 towers variety.

Another sim I'd definitely recommend a visit to would be Nakama - the whole sim has been designed in an anime / comicbook style, with four different themes (my favorite being the "traditional" part, with hot bath & more). Imho it's a brilliant example of how well a radical departure from photorealistic style can work in SL, and even if one is not an anime fan, I think it's well worth the visit simply to admire the technical quality.