Away From Home

I have just snuck into a booth at the craft fair where they are featuring craft blogs. Surely Audrey Building is a craft? Art? Something. Certainly the slogan "Living Creatively" fits in nicely!
I had a quick glimpse at my emails and have collected 50 SL emails in 4 days. In amongst that is quite a few from SLexchange as a few of my buildings have been bought.
I don't sell a lot so it is still a little thrill when they do. And in the week's list is the new castle Yay!
This is my lunch 45 seconds, so now I check the spelling (inadequately no doubt) and post!!
See you all soon!

A blogging fo Jo.. building in SL

Jo hasn't been in SL, though she reads this blog apparently. She was a little impatient today as she said there was nothing new. She also wanted me to explain how the water works in Steelhead.

Well I don't think I have a satisfactory answer for the waters of Steelhead but I thought I would just offer a glimpse of the way SL is assembled.
(Waves at Jo... Hi Jo!)
Right!
Everything in SL is made by the people in it. There is no great god of SL that plonks the buildings, trees and shapes the earth in it. The Lindens keep the power turned on, but we decorate the landscape.
Everything in sl is made from a prim

Behold! The humble prim!

A prim can be manipulated. It can be three basic shapes as shown next or the intriguing ring shape called a torus or the baffling sculptured prim. These basic shapes can be manipulated with twists and tapers and dimples. Making these distortions then reflect what it is you are wanting to reproduce is the challenge and fun of it!

Every prim rezzed begins as plain wood coloured. A pattern can then be placed on them with a texture and the texture can be tinted with a colour.
Different faces of the object can be textured with different textures.

At the moment I am building a castle. I have a brown castle texture that I used for Castle Shapinsay but it wasn't fun building two so much the same so I went to TRU and bought a new castle set.
I have tried a few wall papers inside and I am not happy so it looks like I am off to TRU to find something extra.
Jo... in sl.. you can make your own textures and upload them for a couple of cents or you can go to a business in sl and buy them. Soemtimes you can even find them set out as freebies.

First photo is from outside.

Next shows with the draw bridge shut.

And then through the front door with a little Audrey within.

Jo, the doors open and shut by placing a command (script/program) inside the appropriate prim. That's how the actions in sl are achieved.
A simple rotation script looks like...
default
{
state_entry()
{
llTargetOmega(<0,0,1>,PI,1.0);
}

}
But the door script had about 200 lines in it.

There's so much fun to be had tinkering with colour shape and movement in SL building...
or...
you can just play dress ups...

Definitely girl next door, Jo....see? freckles.. piggy tails...

Jo also has a notion that I am some kind of femme fatale.....but I swear not!

Castle Jayjay/Shapinsay

Jayleden wanted to build a new castle for Jamie. I am not sure.. I think Jay and I were going to build it together? Umm well, I got keen and started without waiting for the team to arrive....

It was to be a surprise for Jamie. Jay said there were some stained glass panels in the house they already had that he would want incorporated. He wanted it roughly the same size. He'd like a dance space. Verandas. 2 floors of dungeons.

I started with a few photos from Google Image. Showed jay and asked for his opinions and then off I went. The textures are from Textures R Us. Best place in SL to get textures. Second best for me has been Harbingers Haven. Theirs are free and a great range of ones that suit were I build.
Eager Jay was asked a few questions mid building and he couldn't wait to get Jamie's input, so Jamie got to see his castle a little sooner than planned. Jamie then went home and dug a somewhat generous hole to accommodate the castle. Net result being that by the time I placed the castle in place, its subterranean levels were exposed!

A few texture fixes later the castle was in fine shape and instead of being land-locked, it now has a moat! What a great idea!

I love this castle. I think the two Js do too and I have ti for sale now at Winterfell Fathom