Textures in the SL World

Recently, I was having a conversation with an other Builder in SL about different types of builds and why some people focus on one particular design style and usually just produce that format and variations of it only. We discussed the reasons why, some where as simple as they have a market for that particular type of build, they have mastered that style, or its what they like and enjoy building. Finally after several different reasons where brought up one that I had never considered was mentioned. It's the only type of textures they have in their tool box.

Well being a certified "Texture Whore" it had never crossed my mind that a lack of textures could limit the type of builds one could make. So I asked around and found this is a little more common than I had imagined. So what I would like to discuss is ways to get around this issue and allow individuals to produce a wider variety of build styles with even a limited amount of textures.

The first place to look for textures is to do a search in the SL search box "Free Textures" it came up with a response of over 5000 hits. Now will all 5000 of them be the best free textures on the grid not likely but it will give you a starting place to begin looking and searching for textures.

There are also some great texture makers in SL that have stores and do specials and discounts on textures as promotions. Some stores sell singles and others just sets. So by exploring a few stores you will see a range of style qualities and prices. Procuring a good basic build set of textures, doors, walls, windows, floor, roof and so on will go a long way in allowing you to build various styles.

The other place to increase your texture collection is to make them yourself by using one of the many programs available to create textures such as Photoshop or Gimp. Each has its strong points and cost factors, but learning how to use even the demo free versions of these programs will increase your texture abilities and collection.

The other way to increase your texture stock is to use them in ways most people would not consider. I have a build partner that I have done a lot of builds with and she was always amazed at how I would use a texture that was made for a particular thing in a totally different way. By stretching and tweaking a texture you can create allot of variations from a small supply of textures.