Second Life is a 3-D virtual world created entirely by its Residents. –Linden Lab
How to start creating in Second Life
Here's an easy introduction to creating objects in Second Life.
The creation tools within Second Life will enable you to construct just about anything you want to make. With a bit of practice you'll have your own mansion, jet plane or biodiverse forest in no time.
Let's start with some small wooden boxes. ;-)
Prims
Prim is short for primitive. Prims are the building blocks of Second Life. Everything is constructed of prims.
All objects in Second Life are made of prims, except for avatars, the natural ground, and trees.
People say "prim dress" or " prim hair" or "prim shoes." They mean those objects have been made by someone from prims.
What do prims look like?
They come in 15 different original shapes. Your choice. The default prim shape is a cube.
Prims can be colored and textured as you wish (explanation is below).
Some samples of prim shapes |
Where do prims come from?
Prims come out of your "magic wand" building tool.
People say they "rez" a prim. What is "rezzing?" To "rez" something means to create it or to pull it from inventory. A brand new prim comes from the "magic wand" building tool, rather than from inventory.
Prims can be made anywhere you are allowed to build.
Prims costs L$0 (zero linden dollars) and are unlimited in supply. There is a limit to how many prims any one parcel of land can hold, but no limit on how many prims you can create in total.
If the maximum number prims on a parcel of land is reached, no more prims can be made until some are deleted or moved into inventory.
Where to build?
You can create prims, and build things with those prims, anywhere in Second Life where you have permission to build. That could be your own land, someone else's land with permission, or a public sandbox.
Landowners control the act of building on their land. Most landowners will have that permission blocked. You always can ask them to turn it on for you, but don't expect that. Rather, go to a public build area known as a "sandbox."
Sandboxes
In a sandbox you can build freely.
You can use the in-world Search to find sandboxes. There are many across the SL world.
Sandboxes usually are "cleaned" automatically every few hours. The length of times between cleanings should be posted at the sandbox. Be sure to "Take" your work into your inventory periodically so you don't lose it entirely during a sandbox cleaning. To do so, right-click on your object and select "Take" from the pie-shaped menu.
Here's a link to UNCP's sandbox: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Myungsimbogam/11/211/63
SLURL stands for Second Life URL, the Web link to a specific place in Second Life
Here is a different sandbox, at the Morris welcome area:
Morris sandbox SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morris/196/84/32
SLURL stands for Second Life URL, the Web link to a specific place in Second Life
How to start creating
There are two ways to obtain a fresh prim.
- Right-click on the ground and select "Create." A Build Toolbox window will open on screen and your mouse cursor will turn into a magic wand. Click on the ground with the wand to create a plywood-looking virgin prim cube.
- Left-click the "Build" button at the bottom of your viewer screen. A Build Toolbox window will open on screen and your mouse cursor will turn into a magic wand. Click on the ground with the wand to create a plywood-looking virgin prim cube.
Do one of those two things, then select a prim shape from the 15 choices shown as tiny icons at the top of the Build Toolbox window, and right-click on the ground to generate your first shape.
Experiment with creating various prim shapes.
Editing a prim
Right-click on the prim. Select "Edit" from the pie-shaped menu. This will expose red, blue and green drag arrows used to move the prim. Red is the x-axis. Green is the y-axis. Blue is the z-axis.
Alternatively, if you have the Build Toolbox window open, you can select the "Edit" icon. It's next to the "Create" icon. Click on the prim. This will expose red, blue and green drag arrows used to move the prim.
Click on a colored arrow to move the prim in that direction.
Once you've got the basics, try experimenting with some of the other editing options -- hollow out a cube, squish a sphere, etc.
Changing the size of a prim
Right-click on the prim and select Edit. Hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys. Small color axis boxes will appear on he edges and corners of the prim. Drag them to resize your prim in that direction.
A prim can be no larger than 10m x 10m x 10m. To create larger objects, link several prims.
Rotating a prim
While in Edit mode, hold down the Ctrl key to turn the red, blue and green drag drag arrows into rotation handles or hold down both Shift and Ctrl keys to produce stretch handles.
To rotate, right-click on the prim and select Edit. Hold down the Ctrl key. The color arrows will change to the color bands of the rotation mode. Holding down the Ctrl key and drag a color band with the mouse to rotate the prim around that axis.
Naming an object
In the Build Toolbox window, click the General tab. You will find your prim is named "object." Give it a new name. If you don't do this, your inventory will be cluttered with items all labeled "object."
Texturing a prim
Prims start out looking like plywood. That is totally changeable.
Adding a texture can make a prim or set of prims look like something recognizable. The same for coloring.
To add or change the surface texture of a prim, go in the Build Toolbox window to the Texture tab and click the image at middle left of a sample "Texture." If you have never changed it, the sample will look like plywood. Clicking it will open the "Pick Texture" panel. There you can browse or search through the textures in your inventory. Find one you like and click "Select."
There are buttons on the panel labeled "Default" and "Blank." Default returns the to the plywood texture. Black makes the surface white with no pattern.
(See the examples of textured prims in the practice exercise walls below.)
Coloring a prim
To add or change the surface color of a prim, go in the Build Toolbox window to the Texture tab and click the image of a sample "Color" at center.
If you have never changed the color, the sample will be white.
Clicking it will open the "Color Picker" panel. There you can click to select from 32 predefined colors. Or you can click in the color mixing area above the predefined colors. Find a color you like and click "Select."
You also can make glass, plexiglass or clear plastic from a prim by using the Transparency option under the Texture tab in the Build Toolbox window.
Some samples of prim colors |
Copying a prim
Right-click on a prim. Select edit. This will expose the red, blue, green position arrows used to move the prim.
Hold down your Shift key, grab one of the arrowheads, and drag off a copy of the prim. Release the Shift key and stop dragging the arrowhead. You will have a copy of the original prim.
Alternatively, you can duplicate a prim while in Edit by selecting the prim and pressing the Ctrl and D keys. The he prim will be duplicated and offset from the first by 0.5m.
Linking prims
You can hook several prims together to form a set that will allow you to move the prims in unison.
To temporarily group prims, hold down the Shift key as you click on each prim. This is referred to as "shift-selecting."
When you have all the prims grouped and shift-selected, you can move them as one. However, deselecting them will break the link.
To make a permanent link, shift-select the objects, then press Ctrl + L to link them. Press Ctrl + Shift + L to unlink them.
Alternatively, you can link multiple shift-selected objects by using "Link" in the "Tools" menu. Just shift-select all the prims you wish to link together, open the "Tools" menu and select "Link." Now, as you move them around, they all will move in unison.
You can link upto 255 prims together in one grand object. The prims must be no farther than 30m apart from each other.
You can select "Edit Linked Objects" in the Build Toolbox window to move one prim in a linked set.
Don't litter
Please don't litter the Second Life environment. Remember, there's a limit on how many prims a parcel of land can hold. We need to conserve as well as keep the land attractive. When you are done working with a prim, right-click it and select either "take" or "delete." Take moves it into your inventory. Delete does away with it.
Scripts
You can add behaviors to objects by using LSL -- the Linden Scripting Language.
To do so, you build in a code, which tells the object what to do. As an example try this out:
Create a cube and then right-click on it to select "edit." Click the "Content" in the Build Toolbox window. Click on "New Script." Hit "save" and then "close" to see the script appear in the object's contents. Now close the edit panel and click on the prim.
When clicked, the prim will say "touched." Change this by going back into Edit mode, open the script on the Contents panel via a double-click and replacing the word "touched" in the script with something of your own choosing. When you next click the prim, it will chat your new text instead of the default "touched."
It's that easy to make something totally unique. As you spend more time in the world you'll be able to play with more scripts written by other people or maybe even create some of your own.
A fun practice exercise
Put a window in a wall by hollowing out a prim and inserting a glass.
- Create a cube prim.
- In the Edit window of the Build Toolboox, click the Object tab.
- Locate the "Hollow" percentage setting. It will be 0%.
- Increase the percentage and watch a hole open in the top face of the prim. Set the hollow percentage to 40%.
- To see the hollow more clearly, rotate the prim so the hole faces you.
- Use the Ctrl and Shift keys to resize the prim so it looks like a wall. Or use the "Size (meters)" settings under the Object tab. Try 4.0 x 4.0 x 0.2.
- Create a second prim.
- Resize it to slightly thinner than the wall. The window can be wider and taller than the hole because its thinner and therefore you can't see that part of the window inside the wall. If the wall is 0.2, try 0.19 for the window thickness and 1.325 x 1.325 for the window width and height. Your dimensions may have to be slightly larger.
- Move the window so it fits in the hole in the wall.
- Change the texture of the window to "Blank."
- Increase the transparency percentage to something between 80% and 90%.
- Look through the window in the wall.
These walls with windows are examples of how this practice exercise might turn out. One wall is a prim with a brick texture. The other prim wall has a siding texture.The prim that is the glass window, in each case, is set at 85% transparency. Notice there even is light reflecting from the glass. |
Where to learn more about building
For help with building while in Second Life, send an IM to: Stone Semyorka (SL adult main grid) or Dreyfus Dryke (SL teen grid)
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