Day 223: Creating Jewelry Part 3 (Tiny/Micro Prims)

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this tutorial series, we made a necklace and bracelet using Ged Larsen's LoopRez script.



In this part of the Creating Jewelry tutorial, we are going to do something a little different. We are going to create a pair of earrings using micro-prims.

As you probably know, the minimum size for prims in Second Life is 0.010M. For jewelry pieces, thats still pretty big. Fortunately, there are a number of tricks we can use to create shapes smaller than 0.010M. These shapes are sometimes referred to as micro-prims or tiny prims. They are just normal prims (Spheres, Tori, etc) with some special settings applied.

Here is an old thread on the SL Forums talking about Tiny Prims. My blog friend Johanna Hyacinth also mentions some jewelry prims in her older posts.

If you know of any other tiny/micro prims, please let me know so we can share it with everyone!

You will need the free "Full Transparent Texture" from Sirena Hair & Fashion to complete this part of the tutorial. Click on Search, select Places, and enter “sirena” as the keyword (SLURL: Sirena Hair (116,217,22)).

Let me show you the basic micro-prim shapes and then we will get started with the earrings :)

Oh, one word of caution: These prims are really really small! So be sure you are in a place where you can keep track of them :) In other words, dont try to work on these over a grass texture. Try rezzing a dark colored surface to work on. Also, its helpful to use exact coordinates (like putting the prim in a "known spot").


Types of Tiny/Microprims

1. Tiny Sphere

This is probably one of the most useful micro-prims. This enables you to create a sphere (or 3D ellipse) thats less than 0.010M. Great for little decorations around a jewelry piece.

a. To create a tiny sphere, rez a sphere.

b. Set the Hollow to something higher than 0 (use 50 as an example).

c. Go to the Texture tab. Select a Color for the sphere. You can also change the Texture or Shininess if you like.

d. Click on the "Select Texture" box at the top of the Edit window. Then click on the outside of the sphere to select the outside surface only.



e. Look for the "Full Transparent" texture you picked up from Sirena Hair & Fashion. Change the texture of the outside of the sphere to the "Full Transparent" texture. You will notice that the inside (hollow) part of the sphere still has the color from step c above.

f. Lastly, we need to flip the sphere inside out to make it look right. Go back to the Object tab and change the Twist Begin = 180 and Twist End = 180.

You can now shrink the sphere (all the way down to 0.010M if you like). The "inside" of the sphere will shrink accordingly. If you want the sphere even smaller, you can reduce the Hollow setting some more.


2. Flat Prim



This micro-prim is a technique that creates really thin prims. This can be used on all basic prim types, including Box, Cylinder, Prism, and Sphere. If you do this on a Box, you will have a very thin square or rectangle. If you do this on a Cylinder or Sphere, you will have a thin circle or ellipse. If you do this on a Prism, you will have a thin triangle.

Unfortunately, this technique does not produce prims that can be used for Flexible Paths (flexi) :(

a. Rez a Sphere



b. Change the Dimple Begin to 0.950

c. Change the Building Block Type to the desired prim type (Box, Cylinder, Prism, or Sphere)

d. Change the Size Z to a small number (0.010M or 0.020M)

Note that it is the Dimple setting that makes the prim flat. Since you can only change the Dimple settings as a Sphere, you have to make the prim a Sphere first.


3. Tiny Gemstone



This technique makes tiny little tapered Cylinders, perfect for applying gemstone textures and turning into little decorative stones. Note that this is not a realistic shape for a gemstone...just a really small one. But at this size, there is no way to tell (and anyone who is that close to you should be buying you jewelry anyway :P)

a. Rez a Sphere.

b. Set the Dimple Begin to 0.950



c. Set the Hollow to 80.0 (adjust as needed for desired thickness)

d. Go to the Texture tab. Apply a gemstone texture (you can get some free gemstone textures from the Sirena Hair & Fashion store).

e. Apply the following settings:

Repeats Per Face Horizontal (U): 4.000
Repeats Per Face Vertical (V): 4.000

Rotation: 90.00

You can now resize the prim as needed to as small as you like. Be careful! If you make it too small, the prim will disappear :P


4. Tiny Stick



This technique creates very thin rods, sticks, or straight wires.









a. Rez a Tube

b. Apply the following settings:

Hollow: 95.00

Profile Cut Begin: 0.500
Profile Cut End: 0.750

You can now use the Size Y and Z, as well as the Hole Size, to adjust the thickness of the stick.


5. Tiny Tube



Here is a variation of the Tiny Stick above. This technique creates a tiny tube. ironically, this is made with a Torus :)





a. Rez a Torus

b. Apply the following settings:

Hollow: 95.00

Profile Cut Begin: 0.200
Profile Cut End: 0.300

You can now use the Size Y and Z, as well as the Hole Size, to adjust the thickness of the tube.


6. Tiny Chain Link



This technique makes a tiny chain link, perfect for those necklace chains or joining jewelry pieces.





a. Rez a Sphere

b. Apply the following settings:

Hollow: 95.00

Dimple Begin: 0.930
Dimple End: 0.950

Adjust the size as needed for your jewelry piece.


Creating the Earring

OK, now that we've talked about all of these different micro-prims, lets make something :)

Again, we are going to be working with very very small prims. It is VERY easy to lose track of them. So be sure you are in a place where you can keep track of tiny prims! And be sure you are familiar with those Camera Controls.

Here we go:

Rez a Sphere.

Enter the following settings:

Size X: 0.020
Size Y: 0.020
Size Z: 0.020



Go to the Texture tab. Click on the square above the word Texture to open the "Pick: Texture" window. Click on "Blank" and "Select".

Click on the Dropdown box for Shininess and select "Medium".

Make sure you are still in Edit mode (you can see the Red/Green/Blue arrows). Press and hold the Shift key. Click and drag on the Blue arrow and pull UP to make a copy of the prim Sphere.



Do this 3 more times until you have a total of 5 prim Spheres.

Starting from the bottom, edit each prim and change their Name to a number from "1" to "5". The prim at the bottom should be "1". The one at the top should be "5".

Edit Prim 1 and enter the following settings:

Size X: 0.010
Size Y: 0.020
Size Z: 0.020

Dimple Begin: 0.490
Dimple End: 0.510















Edit Prim 2 and enter the following settings:

Size X: 0.010
Size Y: 0.020
Size Z: 0.020

Rotation Z: 90.00

Dimple Begin: 0.490
Dimple End: 0.510

Edit Prim 3.

Prim 3 is a Tiny Sphere. First, enter the following settings:

Size X: 0.020
Size Y: 0.020
Size Z: 0.020

Hollow: 30.00

Twist Begin: 180
Twist End: 180

For Prim 3 click on the "Select Texture" box at the top of the Edit window. Then click on the outside of the sphere to select the outside surface only.

Look for the "Full Transparent" texture you picked up from Sirena Hair & Fashion. Change the texture of the outside of the sphere to the "Full Transparent" texture.

(thanks for catching this mistake, Yavanna :D)















Edit Prim 4.

Change the Building Block Type to Tube.

Enter the following settings:

Size X: 0.020
Size Y: 0.020
Size Z: 0.020

Rotation Y: 90.00

Hollow: 95.00

Profile Cut Begin: 0.500
Profile Cut End: 0.750















Edit Prim 5 and enter the following settings:

Size X: 0.020
Size Y: 0.010
Size Z: 0.015

Path Cut Begin: 0.000
Path Cut End: 0.600

Hollow: 95.0

Dimple Begin: 0.490
Dimple End: 0.510



As usual, you now have a stack of strange looking prims ready to assemble :)

These prims are perfectly lined up right now, so be careful how you move them!

Lets put them together and make an earring!



Move Prim 2 down to Prim 1 until they run into each other. If you want to be precise, copy the Position Z value from Prim 1 and paste it into Prim 2.



Next, bring Prim 3 down to the top of Prim 1 and Prim 2.



Bring Prim 4 down and put it partly into Prim 3 (the tiny sphere).



Finally, bring Prim 5 down to Prim 4. Connect the shorter end of Prim 5 to Prim 4. You will need to use only the Blue and Green arrows to do this step (dont use the Red arrow!).

Now we want to link the earring together and make Prim 5 (the earring loop) the Root Prim. We are going to select the whole earring, de-select Prim 5, and re-select Prim 5 to make sure that Prim 5 becomes the Root Prim.



Edit any of the prims in the earring. Now draw a box around the entire earring.

Press and hold the Shift key and click on Prim 5 (the earring loop at the top) to de-select it.

Press and hold the Shift key and click on Prim 5 to select it again.

Click on the Tools menu at the top of your screen and select "Link" to link the earring.



The earring loop (Prim 5) should be outlined in yellow, everything else should be outlined in blue.

Go to the General tab and change the Name to "Earring (L)".

Right-click on Earring (L) and select "Take" to take it into your Inventory.

Now, we are going to Wear and fit the earring :) You might want to remove any prim hair you are wearing to make this easier. Im not taking my hair off in public, so I'll just have to work around it :P



Look for the "Earring (L)" object in your Inventory. It should be in your Objects folder.

Right-click on "Earring (L)" in your Inventory and select "Attach To >" and "Left Ear".

When you first attach the earring, it is sideways and not positioned quite right.

Right-click on the Earring (L) you are wearing and enter the following setting: Rotation Z = 300.00.

Then use the Red/Green/Blue arrows to slide the earring into position. Because the shape of each avatar varies greatly, you would likely need very different settings than me. But using the numbers at the top of the main screen as a guide, the earring fits me pretty well at: "X: 0.010 Y: 0.000 Z: 0.002".

Once you are done positioning, Right-click on Earring (L) and select "Detach".

Now, we are going to make a copy of Earring (L) and fit it on the right ear.

Right-click on "Earring (L)" in your Inventory and select "Copy".

Right-click on "Earring (L)" again in your Inventory and select "Paste".

You should now have 2 copies of "Earring (L)" in your Inventory. Right-click on one of the "Earring (L)" and select "Rename". Change the Name to "Earring (R)".

Right-click on "Earring (R)" and select "Attach To >" and "Right Ear".

Right-click on the Earring (R) you are wearing and enter the following setting: Rotation Z = 240.00.

You should not have to change the position.



Here I am, wearing my new pair of earrings :)

Of course, you can change the colors, add some tiny gemstones to it, or even bling it up!

Have fun with your new earrings :)

60225-071006-519386-30

© 2007 All Rights Reserved.