Baking Textures - 3ds Max

I had never created anything in 3d for anything until recently, but have always wanted to do so.  My head is so full of ideas that I'm trying to learn and implement.  One of biggest challenges is mastering a good 3d program to do my work in.  I've chosen 3ds Max with a plug-in called Prim Composer that allows you to create and export objects for Second Life.  I've spent hours watching tutorials on both the program itself and the plug-in and getting a grasp on how to create my objects and export them, and I have already imported projects into Second Life that are currently selling on the Second Life Market Place and in my stores in-world.

The next step:  Creating textures for complex objects.  This is challenging because each object is basically a wire frame 3d image that has a texture wrapped around it.  The texture itself needs to be painted flat, then it wraps around and there is a seam or seams.  You need to paint the image to match up at the seams and to accurately represent what it is you are trying to make.  For instance, I have made a single prim stack of eight hay bales.  When I apply the hay texture, the seams don't match up and there are separate faces on each bale that go in different directions so it looks kind of like a patchwork of images.  My goal will be to make these patches all face the correct direction!  Here is a picture of what it looks like when the texture is not "baked" onto the actual sculpt and just applied to the prim in-world with no editing.

I hope to be able to update this page with a new image that has a baked texture on it. Wish me luck!

Update!  Redone hay bales:

Projects

Some of my 3d projects for Second Life:

Lily pads -  This was my first project, and was a request from a friend in-world.  I built them using sculpt studio and first made them with 4 leaves/stems, then I proceeded to build a flower for them, I will post a picture of the slices and how they looked, it was confusing at best!  It turned out to be a pretty decent little piece of art for the most part, and I went on to create a 10 lily pad version that had 2 flowers.

The next picture is of the slices used to make the flower, beside a picture of the finished product.  Gives you an idea of how complex some of these sculpts are and how hard the sculptors work at this.  It is no easy task to keep track of 64 slices!

My next project was not done with sculpting, just regular prims.  I wanted to make some Halloween items that would be low prim as well, so I first made some Jack-o-lanterns.  How I made them glow is my own little secret (at least for now), but they look awesome at midnight and very realistic!

I have so many items, please check out my SL Marketplace listings to see them all.  I won't bore you with too many more at the moment.

Designing in Second Life

Learning about creating items for any type of game is challenging and fun. I've begun creating 3d objects with single prims for Second Life and can't believe how much easier it's gotten in the last month or so!  I use a combination of programs, and one in-world program.

In world, I use Sculpt Studio with a plug-in that helps to build basic shapes, the plug-in can be found at Tama Tools.  Sculpt Studio is a great program and is quite simple to use, although I'm sure I have not touched anything more than the basics in this program.  I've created a number of my sculpts with this product.

Recently I began using another program called Sculpty Paint and basically use it to create simple object sculpt maps to import into 3ds Max for tweaking.  It's rather fun to play with and I'm sure with some mastery it will prove invaluable to my sculpting.  The great thing about it is that it has a painting program built right in where you can paint your textures directly onto the sculpt and then save them for import into Second Life.

3ds Studio Max is the third program I'm using.  This is coupled with a plug-in called Prim Composer this plug-in allows you to save sculpt maps to be imported into Second Life.  3ds Max is a program I've had for many years, but have never really sat down to learn.  If you go to the Prim Composer link I've added into this blog, you will find the tutorials invaluable.  Make a slice of pie and I can promise you will learn lots, I did!  Who would have known one basic object would kick start me on the road to being able to figure out this complex program?  I certainly didn't know, but now I'm building stuff!

Please visit my Halloween store Xanna's Halloween Emporium for low prim items for Halloween!  You will find single prim hay bale stacks (8 bales/1 prim), single prim spooky trees, single prim spider webs, low prim spider and lots and lots of jack-o-lanterns that glow!  I also take custom orders for the jacks, if you would like a particular design just IM me in world and I'll be happy to oblige.  My pumpkins are only 19L each, and I have an MM board for a free one.  Customs will be 25L and up depending on the intricacy.

Look for my latest items on the Second Life Marketplace and save money with monthly promo's and more!