SL -- my first build

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At the brown bag last week, when the other attendees were displaying their non-human avatars, they talked about having a party, and someone suggested that people should come as something non-human.

Hmmm. I want to learn to build stuff. What is easy, and non-human..........

How about a snowman?

Tonight I decided to have my first go at making something.

Snowman starts with big snowball, right? Ok, I figured out how to get a sphere, and how to make it white, and have a "snow" texture.

Then the thing is, can I wear it, or what? I google for "second life attach" and learn how to attach things to various parts of my personage. I start trying attaching my snowball.

Hmmm. Ok. One snowball, attached. But this is too big, and ... it's not attached where I need it to be attached........





Ok. There it is, smaller, and attached in the middle.

I learn that there are a limited number of places to attach things, and most of them are either in front or back, or one side or the other.

Attaching all of this as separate parts is not going to work.





I decide to build a snowman, and worry later about putting it on. An issue I don't know the solution to is ... how to stick things to other things. I know you can, but in looking through all the "primitive object" menus, I don't see how to do it....

I get this far, building, and then it's time for supper. Since I don't know how to stick it together, I save the bits..........





Talking about this over supper, I mention that as "attach" means "attach things to one's body," "attach" can't be the word that means stick objects to each other.

I realize that I saw, in the menus, something that says "edit linked [somethings]," and I wonder if the magic word is "link." Once I know the word, I can google it up....

After supper, I google up "second life link prim" ("prim" is what "primitive objects" -- spheres, cubes, cones, etc -- are called). Bingo. Ok.

I find a way to move things that is a lot faster, and go to town. I link all the pieces of the snowman together, and then I start trying to "wear" it. Eventually I try wearing it on my chin.

Yeehaa! Moi, with the snowman suit on my chin.

But wait. What is that dark place, on the right, between the top and middle snowballs?





Hmmm. My hair, and/or my shoulder, that's what.....





I make the snowman suit a bit bigger, so my shoulder is inside the middle ball. Once you have an object's prims linked, you can stretch the whole thing as one unit. I make all new undies (plus gloves and socks) that are white. I save all of this as an "outfit" -- white undies plus snowman-suit-worn-on-chin, and, sigh, lose my hair.

Ta da!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Victorious!





And, best of all, recovery to my usual self is a piece of cake.





Excellent.

I know there are all kinds of tutorials on building stuff, but I sorta wanted to give it a go All By Myself. I will look at the tutorials, but I'm glad to have worked out at least the verrrrry basics by myself. Yay.

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