One of my favorite builds in the UWA flagship Challenge was the design I made in January of this year. Besides the winning design the part I enjoyed the most was the use of lights and lighting/shadow effects throughout the build. From outside lighting of the build to shadows and sunbeams streaming through the upper floor windows,
The use of lights and lighting/shadow effects can take a build to an other level of complexity. Using the settings in the build/edit box in SL allows for many different effects. As with all things less is more with lighting effects.
There is nothing worse than a build that is over exposed with lights or even worse GLOW set to a maximum brightness effect. It looks like crap plain and simple to any one who has a good graphics card and their shaders turned on. GLOW IS NOT GOOD set to max bright, please all glow whores read this and understand we do talk about how bad your art and builds looked with the over kill of glow on them!
In the edit/build menu the "features" tab allows you to set the effects for light on prims, You can control the intensity, radius and fall off along with the color you want the prim to be. This will allow you to have a multitude of light effects from color to distance and brightness a light can be seen in world. The "texture" tab also allows you to make a prim full bright and finally the glow setting can be found here.
One of the best ways to get a good feel of how lights are working in a build is to walk through it and see how they look as you pass by them. I have always been an advocate of walking the build and getting a feel for how it flows over just camming it.
So take your time and make sure it feels and looks right and remember less is more when using lights in your build.
Good Building
Nyx
Monday, May 17, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Is it really what we see?
Lots of time what one envisions and what comes out in the final version while building in Second Life can be either a gift or a challenge to say the least. I for one am the type of builder that tends to do a lot of research and planning of the build before I begin. This does help me do the actual construction of the build in a fairly fast period of time. Yet, along the way even the best laid plans of mice and builders often go asunder. The one thing you want to do has to be changed to fit right and a new factor comes into play.
Often a new take or direction in a build design can work out if it is not allowed to change the over all concept to much. Often a new twist to the plot adds a new and exciting element into a construction.
I'll be honest as a less experienced builder, I have had a change in a build cover the whole gambit from minor tweaks in the build to total redo of concept and design. But as time and experience came into play it makes more sense to accept the small change as that alone. Let it be a small change and continue with the build as planned originally.
But, as with all things unexpected it is fun to look at it in a different light and see where it can take you if you have the time to give it a little room to develop.
I do know some builders who claim they never plan or know what they are going to build or do, Sadly most of them it appears exactly like that, not a well laid out design or concept, That's not to say that spontaneity isn't a good thing. It's a great thing, just not every one pulls it off as well as they imagine they have.
So make a plan and use it to guide you when you hit the bumps in the build and see where they may go when adding a positive element to your build.
Good Building
Nyx
Often a new take or direction in a build design can work out if it is not allowed to change the over all concept to much. Often a new twist to the plot adds a new and exciting element into a construction.
I'll be honest as a less experienced builder, I have had a change in a build cover the whole gambit from minor tweaks in the build to total redo of concept and design. But as time and experience came into play it makes more sense to accept the small change as that alone. Let it be a small change and continue with the build as planned originally.
But, as with all things unexpected it is fun to look at it in a different light and see where it can take you if you have the time to give it a little room to develop.
I do know some builders who claim they never plan or know what they are going to build or do, Sadly most of them it appears exactly like that, not a well laid out design or concept, That's not to say that spontaneity isn't a good thing. It's a great thing, just not every one pulls it off as well as they imagine they have.
So make a plan and use it to guide you when you hit the bumps in the build and see where they may go when adding a positive element to your build.
Good Building
Nyx
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
How Twisted Can You Get?
What's the most amount of sides (faces to a prim) you can make from a regulation SL prim not a sculpty??
Totally Twisted
Nyx
Totally Twisted
Nyx
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
A Whiter Shade of Pale
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
Only in our minds and SL can songs, dreams, or thoughts become vivid creations that interact with us as easily as a song floats through our thoughts and colors bind and blend with emotions.
As with a great song, a great build depends on the subtle nuances one applies to it, allowing it to be appreciated on many many levels. The difference of just a few degrees can be so great when applied properly to a build. So when building its important to remember the following areas where different shadings can be applied.
1- Color & Tint: Sorro Nishi advises to do the tinting out of SL off world in the program you use to create your textures. This keeps them from degrading as you change them in world. I also advise keeping one copy an original color base so you can go in several directions and not have the base color effect different tints.
when tinting in SL its advise able to use the Color under cursor controller.
2- Shadows: making and using shadows greatly improves the look and feel of your build. Multiple shadows and highlights gives a very realistic look and feel. One of my favorite tricks to do is to make multiple shadows from one source that has several lights hitting one object. Or taking and making shadows different lengths to match the design of the building architecture.
3- Highlights: such as sunbeams or lights from an outside or different source are a great effect to use.
4- SL light settings: one of my favorite builds was for the UWA Flagship challenge where I took and set every single light source to the proper radius and distance so when you walked in to the area the light would shine you could then see it.
5- Multi Layering of textures and prims: can add a truly wonderful effect when Incorporated into a build, a couple of masters at this are DB Bailey and Patch Thibaud, just visit Cetus the sim DB & Patch create on and be prepared to be amazed.
6- Mirroring: of floors walls or even ceilings does make a simple looks take on a dazzling feel, so don't just think stores and ballroom floors can only have a mirror look to it. One of the coolest mirror effects I ever saw was in a vamp castle with the effect dropped down about 30 meters it looked like you were staring in to the abyss.
7- Bias Settings: on a Prim or on a Texture will add a bit to the look you have. You do have to keep in mind with this that the less is more is better effect does come into play.
8- Edit section (Features): will allow you to make prims wiggle and move and let lights do wonderful things. Ill get into this in detail on a later blog, but please go experiment with it. Also the Mapping, Shining and Bumpiness settings in the Texture section on edit have some wonderful effects.
So when the ceiling flies away remember so can you by changing the effects, looks and settings of your builds in SL. Have fun experiment and enjoy.
Good Building
Nyx
As the ceiling flew away
Only in our minds and SL can songs, dreams, or thoughts become vivid creations that interact with us as easily as a song floats through our thoughts and colors bind and blend with emotions.
As with a great song, a great build depends on the subtle nuances one applies to it, allowing it to be appreciated on many many levels. The difference of just a few degrees can be so great when applied properly to a build. So when building its important to remember the following areas where different shadings can be applied.
1- Color & Tint: Sorro Nishi advises to do the tinting out of SL off world in the program you use to create your textures. This keeps them from degrading as you change them in world. I also advise keeping one copy an original color base so you can go in several directions and not have the base color effect different tints.
when tinting in SL its advise able to use the Color under cursor controller.
2- Shadows: making and using shadows greatly improves the look and feel of your build. Multiple shadows and highlights gives a very realistic look and feel. One of my favorite tricks to do is to make multiple shadows from one source that has several lights hitting one object. Or taking and making shadows different lengths to match the design of the building architecture.
3- Highlights: such as sunbeams or lights from an outside or different source are a great effect to use.
4- SL light settings: one of my favorite builds was for the UWA Flagship challenge where I took and set every single light source to the proper radius and distance so when you walked in to the area the light would shine you could then see it.
5- Multi Layering of textures and prims: can add a truly wonderful effect when Incorporated into a build, a couple of masters at this are DB Bailey and Patch Thibaud, just visit Cetus the sim DB & Patch create on and be prepared to be amazed.
6- Mirroring: of floors walls or even ceilings does make a simple looks take on a dazzling feel, so don't just think stores and ballroom floors can only have a mirror look to it. One of the coolest mirror effects I ever saw was in a vamp castle with the effect dropped down about 30 meters it looked like you were staring in to the abyss.
7- Bias Settings: on a Prim or on a Texture will add a bit to the look you have. You do have to keep in mind with this that the less is more is better effect does come into play.
8- Edit section (Features): will allow you to make prims wiggle and move and let lights do wonderful things. Ill get into this in detail on a later blog, but please go experiment with it. Also the Mapping, Shining and Bumpiness settings in the Texture section on edit have some wonderful effects.
So when the ceiling flies away remember so can you by changing the effects, looks and settings of your builds in SL. Have fun experiment and enjoy.
Good Building
Nyx
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Is it what your really seeing?
Perspective is one of the most unique and challenging aspects of building in SL for all types of builders. Be they an artist or architectural style builder, novice or experienced at their trade it’s the one common challenging denominator we all must take a good look at now and then. If you where to Wiki it you find the simple definition of perspective as:
Perspective (from Latin perspicere, to see through) in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface (such as paper), of an image as it is seen by the eye. The two most characteristic features of perspective are that objects are drawn:
Smaller as their distance from the observer increases
Foreshortened: the size of an object's dimensions along the line of sight are relatively shorter than dimensions across the line of sight
Well since we are in a 3D environment and our collective views are all a little different based on the settings we chose for our personal viewers. Perspective is truly in the eye of the beholder. One of the ways of truly looking at the SL world in a perspective based view is to do the following. Press the Shift - CTRL and then the R key. This will give you what is called the Wireframe view of SL, where all the outlines of the shapes are shown only. (pressing the same keys again restores the regular view of SL) If you follow back from the front of an object out to its distant view point where it all appears to meet, you get a feel for the perspective of the field of view.
This I have found is very helpful when building a large concept build on a small space size, Dusty Canning made a fabulous panorama a few months ago with trains and planes and all sorts of things and the perspective was extremely well done on the build. So for those who do not have the math figured or can't just eye ball it a simple “wireframe” view and a straight edge held along the edge lines of the front of view prims to the vanishing point where they all appear to intersect and you can get a fairly good feel for what the perspective will be from to back and down to up. Once again you must take into account the SL effect when doing perspective in SL, the view point is up and behind your avatar and all things must be built of that sight line if your going to be able to see the build with out camming up and around continuously while in world.
You can also use changes in the visual perspective to make effects that can be dramatic when building, when I have a smaller height building I will sometimes use multiple prims for the upper sections of the build and make small changes on the texture settings as the prims get higher. This gives the illusion of a greater height than what it would be with just a straight texture set on a larger single prim. Simply by adding prims to the face of a prim can give a great perception of depth to any type build you are creating. The use of effects from Trompe-l'œil to forced perspective are as old as art and buildings have been made. So experiment and give your view a new perspective as you build.
Good Building
Nyx
Perspective (from Latin perspicere, to see through) in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface (such as paper), of an image as it is seen by the eye. The two most characteristic features of perspective are that objects are drawn:
Smaller as their distance from the observer increases
Foreshortened: the size of an object's dimensions along the line of sight are relatively shorter than dimensions across the line of sight
Well since we are in a 3D environment and our collective views are all a little different based on the settings we chose for our personal viewers. Perspective is truly in the eye of the beholder. One of the ways of truly looking at the SL world in a perspective based view is to do the following. Press the Shift - CTRL and then the R key. This will give you what is called the Wireframe view of SL, where all the outlines of the shapes are shown only. (pressing the same keys again restores the regular view of SL) If you follow back from the front of an object out to its distant view point where it all appears to meet, you get a feel for the perspective of the field of view.
This I have found is very helpful when building a large concept build on a small space size, Dusty Canning made a fabulous panorama a few months ago with trains and planes and all sorts of things and the perspective was extremely well done on the build. So for those who do not have the math figured or can't just eye ball it a simple “wireframe” view and a straight edge held along the edge lines of the front of view prims to the vanishing point where they all appear to intersect and you can get a fairly good feel for what the perspective will be from to back and down to up. Once again you must take into account the SL effect when doing perspective in SL, the view point is up and behind your avatar and all things must be built of that sight line if your going to be able to see the build with out camming up and around continuously while in world.
You can also use changes in the visual perspective to make effects that can be dramatic when building, when I have a smaller height building I will sometimes use multiple prims for the upper sections of the build and make small changes on the texture settings as the prims get higher. This gives the illusion of a greater height than what it would be with just a straight texture set on a larger single prim. Simply by adding prims to the face of a prim can give a great perception of depth to any type build you are creating. The use of effects from Trompe-l'œil to forced perspective are as old as art and buildings have been made. So experiment and give your view a new perspective as you build.
Good Building
Nyx
Saturday, April 24, 2010
What You Know About What You Don't Know
As in everything in life there's a lot you just don't know about something you do believe you know a bit about. The same holds true for what we do in SL. When I first entered the UWA Flagship Challenge I considered myself a proficient build at the upper level of the skill side of the curve. I believed my competencies where solid and I had a strong occupational fit with the outline of what the challenge was based on. Well if you have read any of my past blogs you will see that several times I have stressed the importance of research for any build you are doing. Well after having spoken about all the research I have done about Australia, it's history, it's culture and it's peoples I felt I had covered all the bases in what I would need to be successful in the Challenge. I spent a solid month of researching the materials, geography, history and culture of Western Australia before I made a single prim or texture and have done additional research on every build after that for the challenge.
So now I look back at it a half a year later and I realize that I had done a fair job but not a complete one by any stretch of the imagination. Being an American I will admit that sometimes we do have a centralist view of the world (it revolves around us) mentality. But, I will admit I did recognize this and did take the approach of I will look learn and discover what Western Australia is really about as well as I can as I sit here in Boston and do my research. Well the funny thing is here I am in a UWA Flagship Challenge that is based on designing an SL Architectural Designed concept to be used as a baseline for a Real Life Building to be constructed at the University sometime in the future. I can talk to you about architectural concepts, materials, designs and architects. Yet, as I look back in the hours and days of research I have done the only real knowledge I had of Australian architecture was of pictures and design concepts I had seen. I had not taken the time to look into the minds of the individuals who had created these masterpieces and what drove them and directed them to envision and create what they had seen in their minds eye.
So I will humbly I admit that the world of Australian Architects and their stories is one I am just finally starting to learn about so to the list of individuals I admire and learn from I like to add the names of, Cottier, Edmond, Corrigan, Hassell, Fitzpatrick, Grounds, Seidler, Murcutt. To name just a few of the many many there are to still discover.
So as the saying goes you don't know what you don't know, holds true, I for one am going to make a dent in that and learn a few new things.
Just do a google or yahoo search on the names above and dig and drill into the endless supply of information and links to many many other WA & Australian Architects that will amaze and expand your view of designs and concepts. For they have for me.
Good Building and Good Researching
Nyx
So now I look back at it a half a year later and I realize that I had done a fair job but not a complete one by any stretch of the imagination. Being an American I will admit that sometimes we do have a centralist view of the world (it revolves around us) mentality. But, I will admit I did recognize this and did take the approach of I will look learn and discover what Western Australia is really about as well as I can as I sit here in Boston and do my research. Well the funny thing is here I am in a UWA Flagship Challenge that is based on designing an SL Architectural Designed concept to be used as a baseline for a Real Life Building to be constructed at the University sometime in the future. I can talk to you about architectural concepts, materials, designs and architects. Yet, as I look back in the hours and days of research I have done the only real knowledge I had of Australian architecture was of pictures and design concepts I had seen. I had not taken the time to look into the minds of the individuals who had created these masterpieces and what drove them and directed them to envision and create what they had seen in their minds eye.
So I will humbly I admit that the world of Australian Architects and their stories is one I am just finally starting to learn about so to the list of individuals I admire and learn from I like to add the names of, Cottier, Edmond, Corrigan, Hassell, Fitzpatrick, Grounds, Seidler, Murcutt. To name just a few of the many many there are to still discover.
So as the saying goes you don't know what you don't know, holds true, I for one am going to make a dent in that and learn a few new things.
Just do a google or yahoo search on the names above and dig and drill into the endless supply of information and links to many many other WA & Australian Architects that will amaze and expand your view of designs and concepts. For they have for me.
Good Building and Good Researching
Nyx
Monday, April 19, 2010
Euclid would have been a builder in SL
With the aid of a straightedge and a compass all pure geometry or building problems can be solved. The principals of geometry are constantly used when building in Second Life, be it an art creation or architectural based fabrication. The key to building a tight and proper build is to utilize the tools available to you when you fabricate a structure. In SL the use of the compass and grid lines is good for a beginning to advanced builder to use when constructing . As a novice it helps you to align your building properly and avoid later issues of off centered and odd size prims that can cause continuity and texturing challenges in the build. As an advanced builder when building with off angled and biased aligned structures, the challenge is fitting the build together properly.
I am at the point in my building experience where odd angles or no right angles at all in the build no longer pose a challenge. This is how a good builder becomes an extraordinary one, by taking their craft to the next skill level that not many builders in SL have achieved. One of the individuals I have meet through the UWA Flagship Challenge is Mcarp Mavendorf we have spent many a time discussing the different processes and techniques used to create different designs and specific sections of technically difficult builds. His use of geometry and the application of it has allowed him to create vaulted ceilings that are masterpieces not often seen in SL. Yes there are the occasional barrel vaulted ceilings the two and three section corbel and groin vaults that at first look and seem very nice but under examination are just patch jobs of prims and textures placed up to give an illusion. Mind you some look very good and achieve the effect of what the builder was trying to achieve. Yet when it comes down to a solid, geometrical solid true 4 arch rib and fan vaults nothing comes close to the math applied in his ceilings.
How does one create a form like this in SL, simple using the tools available to you! Have you as a builder really taken the time to fully explore the resources available in the simple build editor of the Emerald or SL viewers? The viewer can give you the two basic tools needed to create any thing you can imagine in SL.
One a straightedge with the use of the grid lines, snap line and so on. Two the compass will allow you to dissect a circle to create any curve you can envision or need in a build. All you are building with in SL when using basic prims, not sculpties is basic geometrical shapes and all geometry can be solved with those two tools.
The first tool in SL the straightedge is a simple one to master, as a novice builder I personally used it and prim grids to layout the basic floor plan of the builds I was creating. This was for several reasons, one to make sure I did not go over the size of the footprint was creating, two to keep things square and sized properly with perspectives and finally to get a grasp of how many potential prims I may use on the build. As a novice builder prim counts where very important I the creations I developed. I came at the process that I could make it for less prims and better textures than others where using for the same style build. I used prim grids on all axis of the builds vertical and horizontal so I understood how the build would fill the 3D space I was creating.
The other tool that a lot of builders do not utilize is the compass and the degrees it allows you to cut and slice prims in to with its help. Most individuals have a clue to the basic points of a compass - 360 degrees - 180 - 90 - 45 and so on. But the challenges is when prims are flipped or turned 45 or 90 degrees ad the numbers are not the norms as most know them. So 270 or 315 and so on start to appear on the compass, well my advise would be to take some time to review the compass and learn the reciprocals that will occur when prims are not aligned all the same.
The next step in this process is understanding the changes of degrees and angles when tapers and slices are used when building. I have been able to develop 11 sided prims with the use of the tools available to you when building. Now these are not the common prims that are used every day when building, but it is very cool to have a prim shape that makes individuals think you used a sculpty when in reality its just you twisting a prim hard. When I first started building I use to spend a lot of time twisting prims to just see what I would come up with. I have actually saved a few of the early ones in inventory and occasionally pull one out if I remember it and feel it would look good on a build. (One of the earlier blog post has some info and settings o some cool nano prim twists)
So in wrapping up my advice to all builders no matter what level you are at is to learn the tools you have available and practice with them it all helps you become better at what you do. As the saying goes the whole is greater than the parts .. when done correctly.
Good Building
Nyx
I am at the point in my building experience where odd angles or no right angles at all in the build no longer pose a challenge. This is how a good builder becomes an extraordinary one, by taking their craft to the next skill level that not many builders in SL have achieved. One of the individuals I have meet through the UWA Flagship Challenge is Mcarp Mavendorf we have spent many a time discussing the different processes and techniques used to create different designs and specific sections of technically difficult builds. His use of geometry and the application of it has allowed him to create vaulted ceilings that are masterpieces not often seen in SL. Yes there are the occasional barrel vaulted ceilings the two and three section corbel and groin vaults that at first look and seem very nice but under examination are just patch jobs of prims and textures placed up to give an illusion. Mind you some look very good and achieve the effect of what the builder was trying to achieve. Yet when it comes down to a solid, geometrical solid true 4 arch rib and fan vaults nothing comes close to the math applied in his ceilings.
How does one create a form like this in SL, simple using the tools available to you! Have you as a builder really taken the time to fully explore the resources available in the simple build editor of the Emerald or SL viewers? The viewer can give you the two basic tools needed to create any thing you can imagine in SL.
One a straightedge with the use of the grid lines, snap line and so on. Two the compass will allow you to dissect a circle to create any curve you can envision or need in a build. All you are building with in SL when using basic prims, not sculpties is basic geometrical shapes and all geometry can be solved with those two tools.
The first tool in SL the straightedge is a simple one to master, as a novice builder I personally used it and prim grids to layout the basic floor plan of the builds I was creating. This was for several reasons, one to make sure I did not go over the size of the footprint was creating, two to keep things square and sized properly with perspectives and finally to get a grasp of how many potential prims I may use on the build. As a novice builder prim counts where very important I the creations I developed. I came at the process that I could make it for less prims and better textures than others where using for the same style build. I used prim grids on all axis of the builds vertical and horizontal so I understood how the build would fill the 3D space I was creating.
The other tool that a lot of builders do not utilize is the compass and the degrees it allows you to cut and slice prims in to with its help. Most individuals have a clue to the basic points of a compass - 360 degrees - 180 - 90 - 45 and so on. But the challenges is when prims are flipped or turned 45 or 90 degrees ad the numbers are not the norms as most know them. So 270 or 315 and so on start to appear on the compass, well my advise would be to take some time to review the compass and learn the reciprocals that will occur when prims are not aligned all the same.
The next step in this process is understanding the changes of degrees and angles when tapers and slices are used when building. I have been able to develop 11 sided prims with the use of the tools available to you when building. Now these are not the common prims that are used every day when building, but it is very cool to have a prim shape that makes individuals think you used a sculpty when in reality its just you twisting a prim hard. When I first started building I use to spend a lot of time twisting prims to just see what I would come up with. I have actually saved a few of the early ones in inventory and occasionally pull one out if I remember it and feel it would look good on a build. (One of the earlier blog post has some info and settings o some cool nano prim twists)
So in wrapping up my advice to all builders no matter what level you are at is to learn the tools you have available and practice with them it all helps you become better at what you do. As the saying goes the whole is greater than the parts .. when done correctly.
Good Building
Nyx
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