Help me im noobie!

umm i wanna make characters for second life. i dont know what program to use. i have poser 6 i dont know if thats good i also have photoshop cs2 and 3ds max 8. and a couple others. and if anyone could give me a good tutorial site or somthing. i dont know where to post this. so sorry if it is in the wrong place.

ps i have windows xp cause i know there are mac tutorials...


thanks.

Richie aka Petter Griffis

is this not the right place any suggestions on where i should post this?

What exactly do you mean by "character"? An avatar consists of several things:

1. a shape
These are edited in world by adjusting the sliders (and the male/female setting) in "appearance" mode (accessible from the menu bar or the pie menu). You can also buy shapes or get them as freebies. Actually you can buy or find all of these elements...

2. a skin (optional)
A skin consists of the skin color settings and, optionally, textures (i.e. flat images) that are applied to (wrapped around) the shape. These are created in an image editor like Photoshop. You can start with templates you download from the second life site, but other people have made better templates available for download. Making realistic looking human skin is hard! When you are done, you import it into Second Life.

3. tattoos (optional) Some tattoos are just clothing that is transparent except for the tattoo part, and some are textures (again, mostly transparent) that you can create with an image editor and apply in appearance mode. There is currently only one layer (in three parts - head, upper boy, lower body) so you can't apply a tattoo texture if you are wearing a skin that is in effect a full-body tattoo.

3. hair
This can be created with the appearance mode sliders, or you can set them to bald (its easier to just use an existing bald hair) and wear prim hair, which is an attachment (see below)

4. eyes
You can create these with the appearance sliders, or use an image editor like Photoshop to make your own based on a template. Or you can make attachments (see below) that cover the default eyes. These attachments often include a script to make them blink or change color.

5. clothes (optional)
These are also images made in Photoshop or a similar program, based on templates, and imported.

6. attachments (optional)
These are objects created in world using the same building tools used for other objects that are made of prims. Then you attach them to specific points on your avatar, and adjust their position and rotation relative to the avatar. If you use a small or skinny shape and bigger attachments, you may not see anything but the attachments, which is how some non-human avatars are made.

When you have everything set up the way you like, go into appearance mode and click "save outfit" and you can save all these things to one folder.

You can create animations for SL with Poser though.

Right, you can also have custom animations. These are created in something like Poser or avimator and imported. Then you need a script (or scripted object) called an animation overrider to make them replace the standard walk, run, fly etc. animations.

For any type of imaging paint shop pro Cheap and works well for skins or textures for a build!

ahh thanks

ok say i have this char. he look good i got the skin a stuff all on him i just need something to top it off and make it sell so he really looks good. so if i were to make a tail i would joust life take a cylinder and mess with it? and i guess the hard party would be making the head. ok maybe ill find some tutorials in SL thanks people