Designing a new collar
Whenever i start a new outfit, i like to see what i can do differently, how can i make it a bit more interesting. collars have been on my mind a lot lately. i've seen a few new designs in world that got me inspired. ways that people have use sculpted prims to make them more dimensional, look more like real collars. something i've been wanting to work on. so i thought, for my next outfit, i'd try to come up with a new collar style.
i decided to start the design in C4D, using a basic SL prim shape ... in this case a box. i was able to flatten it down to a thin box and curve it around the avatar shape, pushing and pulling points to get it into the shape that i wanted. i had already downloaded the SL avatar shape, so i was able to work around the basic body shape as i worked with the collar.
once i had the basic shape i wanted, i was able to export an .obj file from C4D and open it in hexagon, another 3D modeling program, which has the ability to export SL sculpt map TGA files. I could have used hexagon for the modeling, but i prefer the tools and interface in Cinema 4D. unfortunately C4D doesn't export sculpt maps, but the export process in hexagon is quick and gets the job done.
after uploading the sculpt maps to SL, i was able to see how the pieces translated in world. since i was designing this collar for men, i quickly switched into my male avatar shape, and hopped onto a pose stand. with my avatar stabilized, i could size the collar and check the position to see if the 3D model needed any tweaking. in this case, i discovered the collar edge around back needed to curve in towards the neck a bit more, so i hopped back into C4D, made the change, re-exported, did the hexagon translation into a tga, and uploaded the new sculpt map to SL.
Now that i had an idea of how the collar was going to look, i could go over to photoshop and create the fabric texture. the extended version of photoshop lets you open .obj files so you can view and paint the models in 3D.
working in photoshop, i finalized the textures on the collar, and the rest of the outfit. and brought the textures back into second life to create the final outfit.
and a new collar is born!
=^.^= blakopal
Comments
Fleeting Creativity
31 August, 2009 11:55 AM
| steampunk, SL6B, fashion, Burning Life
| Permalink
I love wandering around SL and checking out what other designers come up with. Sometimes it's the way a designer handles a detail on an outfit that catches my eye. Other times it's the completely random build that excites me. The latter is one of the reasons that I enjoy being a part of the short-term themed events that happen around the grid. Some would argue that they are a lot of work for something that will only live for a short period of time, but it's the temporary nature and the unbridled creativity that that freedom inspires in artists that I love.
It wasn't more than a few weeks after I first entered the world of Second Life that I got accepted to be one of the Burning Life camps ... it had to be on the merits of having been to burning man several years running that put me on that list, since I hadn't built anything, and I don't think I had even created my first outfit yet. It certainly wasn't because of my mad building skills (lmao). It didn't take me long before the building bug hit me, and I figured out the tools and process that now makes it possible for me to do the things I do. And Burning Life was the first opportunity I had to see other artists make wildly creative and imaginative buildings. My build there was fun, working with what I knew how to do, I created a space with lots of twisty spires, torches of fire, and beanbags for weary wanderers to rest their bones and chat with others. We also had a second-story dance floor where TriloByte (in world even less time than I was) set up a DJ area and music feed for the camp.
It wasn't more than a few weeks after I first entered the world of Second Life that I got accepted to be one of the Burning Life camps ... it had to be on the merits of having been to burning man several years running that put me on that list, since I hadn't built anything, and I don't think I had even created my first outfit yet. It certainly wasn't because of my mad building skills (lmao). It didn't take me long before the building bug hit me, and I figured out the tools and process that now makes it possible for me to do the things I do. And Burning Life was the first opportunity I had to see other artists make wildly creative and imaginative buildings. My build there was fun, working with what I knew how to do, I created a space with lots of twisty spires, torches of fire, and beanbags for weary wanderers to rest their bones and chat with others. We also had a second-story dance floor where TriloByte (in world even less time than I was) set up a DJ area and music feed for the camp.
This was also the first opportunity to offer up a fun freebie. I created two outfits for the occasion, a horned cape for the guys, and for the ladies I wanted to make something that expressed the joy of dancing in the desert, so I came up with the Dancing Peacock Gown, a feathered gown designed to look best in motion. It became a part of the BlakOpal collection after the event, and is still one of my favorites.
Another fun event was the week-long Oiling Festival in New Babbage. A celebration of all things steampunk and mechanical, it was filled with contests for designers and builders, with lots of opportunity to get involved. I decided to put my energy into something that didn't come naturally to me (again), and entered the Honkin' Big Machine Contest. This gave me the opportunity to learn just a little about scripting, and have fun with animated parts. My entry was a fanciful machine i called the Steampunk Duck Factory, and although it didn't win (actually, i couldn't get it under the prim allotment so it wasn't entered officially) my Steampunk Rusted Duckie did win for New Babbage tourist trinket. *grin* ... the Rusted Duck Factory is now set up outside our main store in New Babbage.
More recently I was able to take my event designs up a notch. I was accepted as an exhibitor at the Second Life 6th Birthday (SL6B) event, which was a really fun event. The concept was that this was a meteor that we were setting up a new civilization on, and my exhibit brought the Steamlands to this outpost in space. In addition to creating an atrium to make the environment support life, I also set up a display of the photos i took in and around the Steamlands in SL. I tied it all together with a backstory that connected the home world of New Babbage in with the extraterrestrial world on the meteor.
And of course ... it offered another opportunity for a fun freebie. this one required a special feature ... it needed to include a life support system for strolling around the oxygen-depleted environment outside of the Atrium, but I wanted to maintain the Victorian sensibilities that the folks from back home would be expecting in this new world.
Burning Life 2009 is just around the corner, and we're crossing our fingers that we get to build there again. The opportunity to create environments and experiences that live on their own for just a fleeting moment ... and see how others choose to express themselves, is one of my favorite things to do in SL and RL. There's no shortage of creativity ... only in the amount of time we have to imagine and share it.