I want to build things!!!! Help!

Ok, so I'm definatly a noob to SL, but I am learning about it quickly. I want to be able to build things so I can make some money. I have been messing around with a ton of things over the past few weeks but It's really hard to find information and tutorials that give helpful advice to me for the things I want to build. I have quite a few of the common programs that are used to build and texture. UV Mapper Pro, Wings 3d, GIMP, and Blender. I did find a tutorial that successfully helped me make a PR skin of myself. I have no experience in 3d imaging or anything of the sort. However, I am a very quick learner. I just need some guidance and I can do it. This stuff is really complicated.LOL. Anyways, I guess I might be looking for someone that could maybe voluntarily help me figure out how to build and texture some specific projects that I have in mind. Like some guitars and cars. If you would like to help me I would appreciate any information and/or links to any general building/texturing sites.

Hey Brian,
You'll probably get a lot of good advice shortly from much better advisors than I, but I would have to ask- Have you spent much time in-world using the SL building tools? I would think that might be a recommended starting point, unless you've mastered it already.

BTW- Where did you find the tutorial on building a skin to resemble yourself? Are you using it as your avvie?
Just curious.

Regards....

No, I haven't really spent much time trying to build anything in world. It's kind of tricky business. lol. I've been trying to learn how SL works before I start to get really into the building. Here's the link to the tutorial on the PR skin.

/109/e1/246059/1.html

Check it out. It's pretty easy.

If you're looking to build in SL, you should get in world and start playing with the in world building tools. SL's 3D tools have their limitations compared to external 3d programs, and the way to learn building in SL is to get in world and do it. Find people who build, ask questions, and bear in mind texturing is 50 percent of building.

Check out the Ivory Tower of Prims

Hiya,

You could also try browsing through the events listings under 'education'. There are many great classes to take on a wide variety of subjects..well worth a look... You may find something that would interest you...

Learning to build things in SL is not thing what you can learn in overnight or what someone else can just teach you. Sure you can do a lot copying others work. I have spend hundreds of hours learning animation, prims and sculptie programs and i have still much to learn. I have attented to so many courses which i still like to do since you sometimes might get ideas how to do things differently. Now if i look someone else creation i can pretty much create very similar prim shape (if its not one of the most very complex forms what you dont see much) but that doesnt help.

To make money in SL you have to have unique idea and vision of your products. I say it takes several months to know which fits you and what is your thing.

Always remember that there are no easy money in SL. Competion is hard and many people are doing excactly same thing as you and many are big names and very talented architects, texture or graphic gurus or scultie artist.

The best way to learn is simply by doing. You can read all the information in the world, but you won't absorb it without some experience to draw on. You need to be able to put the information into proper context in your mind, or 99% of it will just go in one ear and out the other.

So go in-world, press the Build button, and play, play, play. Take a look at how some existing objects are put together. See what you can do to piece together similar objects yourself. Don't be concerned with whether your initial efforts are masterpieces or not. Chances are your stuff is gonna look pretty unrefined in the beginning. That's fine. Just keep going. Your technique will improve over time.

As has already been suggested, the Ivory Tower of Prims is a good place to gain a basic understanding of how prims work. But remember, theory without practice is nothing. So practice, practice, practice.

Thanks for the link- there's a lot of study material there!

BTW- I don't if there has been much mention of where to build for a newcomer who does not own or have access to private land. Use the Search button and just enter sandbox, and you should see plenty enough choices to start with. In most sandboxes, auto return is set to clean the area of objects on a regular basis- ofter 3 ro 5 hours. That gives you reasonable time to experiment, and save your work in your inventory, so you can continue working with it.

Thanks for all the tips everyone. I guess I'll have to just keep working on it and maybe I'll find my niche.

I agree with Chosen, rebuild something that you can get full perms on. a chair, furniture, anything. take it apart, recreate each piece, learn what kinds of objects were used and how they were cut, twisted, skinned, everything. The advantage of using a full permission example is you can look at all the dimensions, cuts, texture stretchings, etc on every piece in the assembly. You'll learn a lot.