Day 258: Sculpted Prims Tutorial Part 1

Sculpties, anyone? :)

Theres a lot of interest in sculpted prims (sculpties) right now in Second Life. Theres also a lot of discussions and tutorials on sculpties. But things are all over the place and most of the discussions go WAY over my head :P

Im hoping to make sculpties a bit friendlier. At least the basics. So, this is like "Sculpties for Blondes" :)

Im NOT an expert on sculpties...Im just relaying what Ive learned from playing around with them a little bit. I also dont have the money to spend on 3D programs right now, so Im going with the freebie programs :) Before last week, I made smoothies with my Blender and thought Wings belonged on birds. So if youve seen these programs before, you already know more than me :)

If you want more technical information, the Sculpted Prims FAQ on the Second Life Wiki is an excellent resource with lots of links and samples. Also, search for "sculpted prims" in the SL forums.

But if you want to know what sculpties are and a (very) basic intro to tools for making them, then read on...

Of course, this is a multi-part series (because I like to drag them out :P). In this part 1, we are going to talk about what sculpted prims are, make some from existing textures, and then make a simple texture using Wings 3D. In future parts, we will create more complex textures and also look at Blender (in other words, I dont know how they work yet :P)



Whats a Sculpted Prim?

Youve probably seen this pix with the plate of fruits from Linden Labs. The fruit shapes (and the plate) are all sculpted prims.

Sculpties are prims, just like boxes, spheres, tori, etc. Except that sculpties use a small texture file to describe the shape, instead of settings like Path Cut, Hollow, Taper, etc.



These small texture files are called sculpt maps (they have psychedelic colors because they were invented by hippies :P) OK no...their colors describe the shape of the sculptie...sorta where each little portion of the sculptie shape is located.

Because sculpt maps really have a lot of information in them, its not practical to create them using regular paint programs like Photoshop or GIMP. Sculpt maps are generally created using 3D programs like Blender, Wings 3D, Maya, etc. Theres a really nice list of these 3D programs on the Second Life Wiki.



Creating Sculpted Prims

So how do you create a sculpted prim? Its really easy, actually...

Just rez a prim on the ground (like a Box, for example).








Then Edit the prim, go to the Object tab, and change the Building Block Type to "Sculpted".















Thats it! You now have a big wooden sculptie apple :) The apple stem costs extra :P (its a different sculptie)

You can go ahead and resize the apple just like any other prim. You can change the texture and color, even make it semi-transparent or shiny.

Notice that the apple has a wooden texture, just like any other newly created prim. If you want that nice apple texture from the photo, just apply an apple-skin texture to the apple sculptie. The texture works just like any other prim, except it is a bit trickier to line up the texture properly...



If you want to apply a different sculpt map to the prim, just click in the "Sculpt Texture" window and select the new sculpt map. Thats all there is to it...

You do have a bunch of sculpt maps, dont you? :P










Finding Existing Sculpt Maps

OK, so you are probably asking, where can I get some sculpt maps to play around with?

There is a package of sample sculpt maps you can download (sculpt-test.zip) from the Second Life Wiki. This contains 7 sculpt maps: cube, apple, banana, plate, letter-s, apple-stem, and test01. You can upload these textures to SL and apply them to any sculpted prim to try it out.

Note: Some of these sample sculpt maps create sculpties that look inside-out. Im not sure if this is an SL issue or a problem with my computer. Just thought I should mention it in case you see the same thing...

(Since I uploaded these sculpt maps already, you can pick them up for free along with the samples below at Sirena Hair & Fashion. Its in a box called "Sculpted Prims".)



In addition, the Second Life Wiki has an excellent page with lots of sample sculpties. You need to create a small script and use the texture UUID to grab the texture (the instructions are on the page). Be sure you use the textures for the Main Grid (not the Beta Grid or Teen Grid).

If you just want to play with some of these sample sculpties, I also put them in the "Sculpted Prims" box at Sirena Hair & Fashion.


Creating Sculpt Maps

You are probably reading this because you are interested in creating your own sculpt maps. After all, even that cool sculptie push-pin gets boring after a while.

To create sculpt maps, we need a 3D program. There are 2 freebie 3D programs that are great for making sculpt maps: Wings 3D and Blender.

Wings 3D is probably the easiest way to create sculpt maps right now. Wings 3D is relatively easy to learn (at least to do simple things). And theres an excellent sculpt map exporter for Wings 3D, so you can export a sculpt map within minutes of installing the program. Unfortunately, Wings 3D has fewer tutorials than Blender, and doesnt have some of Blender's cool features (like sculpt mode!) So in the long run, it may be harder to make some things using Wings 3D versus Blender.

Blender is an amazing 3D program packed with tons of buttons that do amazing things. Unfortunately, it takes me a while to figure out what those tons of buttons do :P Creating sculpt maps from Blender is also a complicated process right now, at least when you are wearing blonde hair. Theres a Blender template file you can use that makes the process easier. Unfortunately, the Blender program itself will simply take longer to learn. But Blender is definitely worth learning if you plan on making complicated sculpt maps.


Installing Wings 3D

So lets start by installing Wings 3D and setting up the Second Life Sculpted Prims Exporter.

Note: I am not sure if the Wings 3D exporter works on anything other than Windows. There appears to be some debate in the SL forum.

First, download and install the Wings 3D Development Rel: 0.98.36 from the Wings 3D website. Be sure that you use the Development Rel (0.98.36), and not older Stable Rel.

Next, download the Wings 3D exporter from the link in the SL forum. Thanks to Omei Turnbull for creating this great tool!

(Note: If you dont have access to the SL Forums, Omei Turnbull (the author) has kindly made it available for free from PK Pounceworks. The files start with "wpc_sculpty_080707".)

The Wings 3D exporter comes with a bunch of files. Just copy all of them to the Wings 3D Plugins "import_export" directory. This directory is pretty buried. On my computer, its at "C:\Program Files\wings3d_0.98.36\lib\wings-0.98.36\plugins\import_export".


Creating a Sculpt Map in Wings 3D

And heres the Wings 3D main screen. Doesnt look that bad, does it? :)

The Wings 3D exporter supports only spheres. So we are going to create a sphere, make some changes to it, then create a sculpt map from it.



Right-click on the Wings 3D main screen to bring up the popup menu. Click on the little box to the right of the word "Sphere".
















This will open the Create a Sphere dialog box.

We need to pick a set of dimensions for the sphere. The exporter only supports one of the following dimensions:

     8 sections and 7 slices (avoid this...)
     16 sections and 15 slices
     32 sections and 31 slices
     64 sections and 63 slices

Think of this as the resolution of the sculpt map. The higher the resolution, the more definition you can have in the shape. But at a higher resolution, there are also more points you have to move around.

For now, enter "32" for Sections, and "31" for Slices.



And heres our sphere!

Its actually ready for export as a sculpt map. But lets make some changes to it first to make it a bit more...unusual. We are going to shape it like a mushroom and add some "organic" bumps :)

Remember the 32 Sections and 31 Slices we picked above? We cannot change these dimensions, or else the sculptie exporter wont work. Thats because SL sculpties require very specific dimensions. That means you have to limit the changes to Move, Rotate, Scale, Tweak, and a few other functions that will not alter the dimensions of the sphere.



Click on the Select menu option at the top of your screen, then select the "All Faces" option.















Next, Right-click anywhere on the main window, select "Scale", and "Y".









Move your mouse to the right to stretch the sphere. Left-click on the main screen when you are done.









This step is a little tricky...

First, press the [Spacebar] to de-select everything. The sphere should turn black.

Next, click on the second pyramid in the top middle of the screen. This pyramid means you are going to select an Edge.

Finally, select one of the horizontal Edges in the top half of the sphere, somewhere towards the middle. Its only important that you select a horizontal Edge (and NOT a vertical one). You dont need to be precise...its a mushroom after all :P



Click on the Select menu option at the top of your screen, then select "Edge Loop", and then the "Edge Loop" option.






The middle of the sphere should now have a thin red ring.






Next, click on the Select menu option at the top of your screen, then select "Edge Loop", and then the "Edge Loop to Region" option.







The top of the sphere should now be red.

If the bottom of your sphere turned red, its because the Edge you selected is too low...try again a little further up. You can go back by repeatedly selecting Edit/Undo.





Right-click anywhere on the main window, select "Scale", and "Radial Y".





Move your mouse to the right to make the mushroom cap larger. Left-click on the main screen when you are done.

And we have a mushroom :) But wait! Lets make it more realistic by adding some irregular bumps...





Click on the Tools menu option at the top of your screen, then select "Tweak".

















The main screen will change slightly. You will see a bunch of little black squares at the corners around the mushroom.



When you are in Tweak mode, you can click and drag these black squares in or out to modify the shape.

Try it! Grab one and move it around :)




We just want to add some realism to the mushroom by randomly pulling and pushing these little black squares. So tweak away and rough things up!

If you make a mistake, you can press "Ctrl-Z" to undo your change.

To rotate the image, click the middle mouse button. When you are done rotating, click the left mouse button to stop rotating. I know...this takes some getting use to... :P

When you are done tweaking, press the [Esc] key to exit Tweak mode.

Now, lets create the sculpt map...



Select the File menu option at the top, then Export, "Second Life Sculpty (.bmp)...".

Enter a name for the .bmp file. Call it "Sculptie Mushroom.bmp".

Now, lets upload the texture to Second Life...





Upload and Make a Sculptie

Go to the Second Life program. Select File from the top menu and "Upload Image (L$10)...".

Select the "Sculptie Mushroom.bmp" file we just created. At the Preview Image window, click "Upload (L$10)" (This step will cost L$10...)

Once the texture is uploaded, rez a Box on the ground. Edit the Box, and select the Object tab in the Edit window.

Change the Building Block Type to "Sculpted".

Click on the picture above "Sculpted Texture" and select the "Sculptie Mushroom" texture we just uploaded.

You should see something that looks like the mushroom you tweaked in Wings :) Second Life does tend to smooth the edges, so the shape make look slightly different...

Go ahead and change the color and texture, or resize your new sculptie.

Congratulations...you just made your first sculpted prim, complete with your own custom sculpt map! :)

To learn more about Wings 3D, there is a nice tutorial in the Second Life Wiki.

For general Wings tutorial, check out the Puzzled Paul website. Note that most of the tutorials either dont use a sphere, or change the dimensions of the sphere. However, the techniques in the tutorials are useful for learning the program.



Hi cutie! You definitely remind me of someone :)

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