Unit 2 Blog

Part 1:  All About Building -

Most of the readings were refreshers for me.  I have discovered most of these tasks through trial and error, class instruction, or classes I have taken at the Builders Brewery in Second Life.  I find that while the articles were informative, they can become quite confusing without the SL viewer open and checking it out first hand.  Dr. Curtis mentions watching Torley Linden's YouTube tutorials.  I have learned a great many skills from Torley.  This most important being the camera movement quick keys.  Holding down Ctrl & Alt at the same time will turn your cursor into a magnifying class.  With that magnifying glass, you can hold down the left button on the mouse will pin the pointer in place and you can use the mouse to move to a better camera angle to build. This saves countless hours of frustration when trying to build an object.

The use of sculpted prims intrigue me.  I hope to do some of that either in this course or on my own.  One can do so much more with sculpted prims.  It can make things look lifelike.

The Building Dreams Contest and the Architecture and Design in Virtual Worlds topics taught me that real life is coming to SL in the form of designing and rendering real homes and buildings in SL.  Architects can build their designs and see them first hand before ever turning a shovel of dirt.  Owners can tour their future building and make critical changes before construction begins.  They can also have views of their home they would never get in real life. 
  
Part 2:  Personal Builds

Problem A:  Path/Cut Technique & 2 Colors or Textures (3 Prim +extras)

Problem A: Tent

 I first created a box and hollowed the inside out.  I then use the path/cut to make into a tent shape.  I flipped the object over and made it the proper proportions.  I then added a ribbed cotton texture to the tent and colored the outside safety orange and then inside gray. I added the poles and linked it together.  I finally made a sleeping bag with camo texture and ball with a sleeping script in it.  Once I sat on the sleeping ball, I had to align it to the right position on the sleeping bag.  For an added bonus, I completed the seen with a campfire that I found for free and modified it by adding a smoke script.  I then made a stargazing mat to put along side it.


Problem B:  Hollowed & 2 Colors or Textures (3 Prim)

Problem B: The Hamster Tube

I made a cylinder and hollowed it out.  I then applied the steel wire texture on the outside.  It made it look like a wire trash can.  I experimented with it by putting a fire texture in it.  I couldn't come up with away to get two textures or colors in there.  So I scrapped the fire idea and enlarged the cylinder.  It looked to me like a hamster tube.  I toyed with the idea of making it all into some kind of theme but scrapped that idea for this unit.  I change the interior color to an orange, sticking with the hamster tube concept.  I made it big enough to walk through.  I also adjusted the transparency.  I then duplicated it twice and linked it together.


Problem C:  Twist & Transparency (7 Prim)

Problem C: Milkshake

I started off with a rotating transparent Christmas tree.  It was very basic and I was not real happy with it but it was done.  I was working on this idea for Problem G but is really served no purpose but to be decoration or advertising.  So I scrapped the tree and modified this to fit the criteria for C.  I started with a cylinder that I hollowed out.  I added an Icy Glass texture to the tube.  I then duplicated the tube and eliminated the hollow, flattened it and made it the bottom of the glass.  I linked the glass together.  I then created the shake with another cylinder inside the glass.  I kept the plywood texture and tweaked the color to look chocolatey.  I then added the whipped cream by twisting a pyramid shape.  I made the cherry by creating a red ball.  I made the stem by tapering and stretching a square and giving it a twist.  I changed the color of the stem and moved it into place on the cherry.  I then shrunk the cherry down as I created it above scale.  I added it to the whipped cream.  I then created another cylinder, hollowed it out, and stretched it.  I made the tube red to be the straw and moved it into place.  I then adjusted the transparency of the straw.  I finally linked it all together and reduced it down further.


Problem D:  Taper & Glow/Full Bright (3 Prim)

Project D: :Lightbulb

Hey, I've got and idea!  I did have some big monstrosity of a bridge built for this problem but again, I was not satisfied with the result.  I decided to go simple and refined.  I first created a cylinder.  I gave the bottom a taper.  I then created a ball and proportioned it and placed it on top of the tapered cylinder.  I adjusted the proportions of the cylinder until it looked right with the ball to make a lightbulb.  I added color, glow, and linked them together.  I then created another cylinder added a stripped texture and rotated the texture to simulate the threads.  I then moved it into place and adjusted the proportions until everything matched up.  I then linked it together.


Problem E:  Top Shear & Phantom (18 Prim)

Problem E:  Jawa Transport

OK so I'm a geek!  I rezzed a box and top sheered it.  The only shape it reminded me of was the Jawa Transport on Star Wars!  I thought and thought and that is the only thing I could see.  So that is what I made.  I made the tracks out of eight half cylinders and connected the to for boxes.  I then added the black windows across the too with more half cylinders.  I then found textures for the tracks and the sides.  I found a YouTube video of the sequence with the transport on it.  I copied the embed code and created a new piece of plywood.  I added the media to the selected side.  I then phantomed everything.


Problem F:  Slice + 2 prim (3 Prim)

Problem F:  The Thrown of Cheese

I could not help myself.  From the first time I made a path/cut, I had to make cheese!  It had to be done.  I created to cylinders.  The first I used as the base and sliced the bottom of it.  I then duplicated it and path/cut the second.  I imported a swiss cheese texture and applied it to the wheels.  I added a ball with a sitting script and positioned it properly.  I then linked them together.


Problem G:  Incorporating Four Skills, 5 Prim, and a Purpose (20 Prim)

Problem G: Bed of Enchantment

Oh my!  A four poster from outer space!  On this, I just did what came to mind.  I started with the mattress, which is a thick piece of plywood.  I added the blue satin texture.  I then created one post base.  I duplicated that, lengthened and twisted it.  I made the textures transparent blue and purple.  I also added glow and light.  I added a sphere to the top.  I gave it a silver texture.  I then used and online particle script generator to write a script to place in the ball.  I Duplicated that post three times for the other corners.  I then made four planks for the bed frame.  I could have used a hollow box for this but wasn't worried about prim counts at the time.  I duplicated the plank at the head and tapered it to make a headboard.  I added to balls with sleep scripts on the bed and moved them into place.  As a final touch, my son Christopher said that I was missing a teddy bear, so I created a texture and uploaded it so that my avatar would not be lonely.  Obviously this would be used for adding decor to a virtual dwelling.