eye/sun glasses help or tutorial

I am wanting to make some glasses and in doing so I am linking two or more prims together to make the shape of the one side of the frame, my question or problem is how do I fill the frame to make the glass part? if it was a simple shape or made from a single prim I could do it but since it is not how is this done. Any help or pointing to a good tutorial would be much appreciated. Thank you.

I hope what I am asking makes sense.

all depends on the shape of the lens frames...

ovals and rectangles, you just make with the same shape as the frame piece...

complicated shapes like stars... 3 choices,
1) use multiple cut prims for each lens, sandwich the shapes together in much the same way you make your lens frame, then fill with an extra prim if neccesary
2) do the above, but instead of having separate lens frame prims, use textures to draw frames onto the edges
3) use a simple shape like a rectangle or oval, and texture it with the shape you want including the lens frames

you can also try sculpties, but that will have it's own issues like LOD and matching textures to the shape

Thank you for the advice. And yes I am making shapes that reflect realwold glasses so they do not always come in a nice oval or simple shape. I found that when I fill them in which I sorted started to do I get overlap lines when I start to make them transparent or butt them up against one another so I may have to go with the whole importing a texture which in itself can be a pain.

I am surprised that I can not find a tutorial anywhere on the web.

Thanks again.

I'm not surprised. What you are searching for is highly specialized.

In my wanderings, there are two general categories of glasses. Simple shapes made solely with prims and the alpha ones.

To do non-simple (non-square, non-oval) glasses with just prims is going to take some doing. Even something like an egg-shape can be an exercise.

I haven't done any alpha glasses, but shouldn't be too hard. Take a snapshot of a head straight-on and draw away.

There is a third option that I haven't seen on the grid yet (except for the ones that I made for myself). Sculpties.

Each method has pros and cons which lead to certain questions. What method(s) are you comfortable with? Where are you willing to compromise?

heh main reason I didn't go into scupties (and probably why you don't see them) is level of detail or LOD... at the size you are going to see sculpty glasses, it's probably not worth it... I'm guessings amorphous blob at normal distances with mismatched texture... untill you zoom in.

you're stuck for most seams even if you don't overlap prims with prim building methods.

personally your best option, if you really want good frames, would be to build the frame separate, then selet the least extrusive shape or oval or rectangle that covers all areas, and make that part using an alpha'd texture, and prim-paper (sphere with dimples at .49 and .51, z size of .01 ... can be converted to box) that will at least remove edge problems....

beware of the alpha sorting glitch and alpha'd prim hair

PS egg shape? got it in 2 pieces half oval, half circle =)

Tesla's outstanding sculpty shoes are about the same size as eyeglasses, roughly speaking...and they appear quite detailed.

it was a guess =) I'll have to check em out...

and yay for sculpty shoes, maybe we'll see +mod shoes now? or can you still copy the shape of a sculpty from one prim to another?

Thanks everyone for your reply, it looks like I am going to make the frames using prims and then for the lenses use the method of bringing in an alpha. I tend to be critical of details that you probably would never see or notice.

Thanks again for your help.