Advanced Tutorials

From SLIS Second Life Wiki

[edit] PowerPoint Slides as Textures

(Video) [[1]] Saving Powerpoint Slides as JPEGs for Easy Text in Second Life by Erin Barta and Colyn Wohlmut.

[edit] Creating and Sending Notecards

Notecards are great ways to send out information that requires some length, such as event invitations and announcements. Below are step-by-step instructions for creating and embedding objects into them, and then sending them to other avatars.

Creating a Notecard

1. Open up your inventory by clicking on the Inventory button.
2. Select Create > New Note. This will automatically save the new notecard in the Notecards folder in your Inventory.
3. Write the message in the new note window. When done, click the Save button.
4. You can embed items that are all at once modifiable, transferable, and copy-able into a notecard by just dragging-and-dropping the object you want to embed into the message text box. This is a great way to pass along landmarks, promotional objects and textures.
5. Find the new notecard you had just created. At this point it will still be called New Note. Right-click on it and select Rename in the menu window that pops up. Enter a succinct but appropriate, descriptive title for your notecard.
6. After renaming your new notecard, it is now ready to be sent!

Sending a Notecard
From Close Proximity:

1. If the avatar you want to give your notecard to is close by, you can just drag-and-drop the notecard from your inventory onto the avatar.
2. A notice will appear when the recipient has accepted your notecard. It will say "Avatar Such-and-such has accepted your inventory offer."
3. Notecards received will appear in the Notecards folder in your Inventory.

From Far Away/For Offline Avatars:
Use your friends list or the Search function to access avatar profiles to deliver your notecard to them.

1. Friends function:
   1. Click on the Communicate button (see the bottom of screen for selection of function buttons), then select the Friends tab on the left side of the window that pops up.
   2. Select the avatar you want to send your notecard to and open up their profile by clicking the Profile button on the right side of the Communicate window.
   3. Drag-and-drop your notecard in the area that states "Drop inventory item here." A message stating that the avatar is not online and that the item has been saved will appear if the avatar is offline. The acceptance notice will appear when the avatar receives the notecard.
2. Search function:
   1. Click on the Search button, then select the People tab.
   2. Enter the name of the avatar you want to give your notecard to. Select the avatar's name from the search result, and this will pull up the avatar's profile on the right side of the Search window.
   3. Drag-and-drop your notecard in the area that states "Drop inventory item here." The acceptance notice will appear when the avatar receives the notecard.

Video Resource
For those who'd much prefer watching a video tutorial, the link below leads to a tutorial from the Second Life Knowledge Base that illustrates the steps described above.
Second Life Tutorial - How to send and create a notecard

[edit] Creating a Billboard in Second Life

One great way to promote events or post information within Second Life is to create a billboard. There are many different ways to build a billboard, but below you’ll find one step-by-step way to create a very simple billboard. The size we used here was arbitrary; you can make your billboard whatever height and shape you wish.

Things to know before we begin

• In SL, if you need to change the angle your at or view an object more closely, hold down the “Alt” key and click with your mouse, moving it to re-position your view.
• Objects in SL are made using something called “prims.” Each prim is a geometric shape that you select while building, which you then manipulate the way you want.
• If the prim you’re editing is selected, it will have a yellow haze around it. To select a prim, click on it.

To create a billboard:

1. At the bottom of your screen, there are blue buttons such as “Communicate,” “Chat,” “Fly,” etc. Click on the one labeled “Build."

2. A new window will pop up in the upper left. There will be five icons on the top-- Focus, Move, Edit, Create and Land; there will also be a variety of geometric shapes below. The default selection should already be on “Create” and the cube shape; a yellow box will outline these icons. If not, select them.

3. Your mouse will now be in the shape of a wand; click anywhere on the screen by your avatar, and a cube should appear. The cube will have blue, red, and green lines bisecting it. Each color is a different axis, and if you click on it and move your mouse, it will let you move the box or dimensions of the box accordingly. Click on the green line (axis Y) and you can move the box right or left; clicking on the blue line (axis Z) will move it up or down; and clicking on the red line (axis X) will move it forward and back. This box will become one of the billboard posts after we manipulate it.

4. The first thing we’re going to do is stretch the height of the box. There are two ways to do this: you can stretch it manually, or you can enter a number in meters. To stretch it manually, do either Ctrl-Shift or click on the “Stretch” option in the top window. Now you can grab the blue knob on the box and raise it or lower it to the level you want. To stretch it by adding an exact number, we need to go to the Object tab. On the bottom of the building window (the one in your upper left), there is a blue button that says “More.” Click on that button. Five new tabs will appear in a new window below it: General, Object, Features, Texture, and Content. Click on the tab labeled “Object.”

5. On the left side of this tab, you will see three sets of X,Y, and Z coordinates followed by numbers: the set of coordinates we’re interested in is labeled “Size (meters)“ and colored red for X, green for Y, and blue for Z, which correspond to the colors of the knobs or lines of your actual box. To stretch the box so it’s nine feet tall, delete the number in the Z box and enter the number three, then press enter. You should see your box grow nine feet tall!

6. You can make your billboard post as tall and wide as you want. For this billboard we’re going to make it a foot wide in both directions, so we’re going to change the numbers in the X and Y boxes to say 0.15 meters, which is about a half a foot. Press enter, and you should see the box’s width and length shrink. You now have your billboard post!

7. To copy this post so you don’t have to build another one from scratch (though you can if you’d like, following the same method we just used), click the “Position” button in the top left window. Make sure your post is selected (it will have a yellow haze around it and the colored axis lines; click on the box if it doesn’t), then hold down the shift key on your computer and click on one of the colored axis lines: when you move your mouse, a second billboard post should appear. Drag it to the distance you want it from the first post.

8. Now we’ll create the billboard panel. To do this, we want to create another box. So, select the “Create” icon again, make sure the cube is selected below it, and click the mouse cursor (which should be a wand again) on the screen. A new box should appear.

9. You can leave it on the ground while you edit it, but it helps to raise the box and place it between the two posts, so you can get a general idea of how big it needs to be. So, click on the three different colored axis lines to bring the box between the top of your billboard sides.

10. Next, we want to make the box into a flat panel. To do this, you can once again manually stretch it, or use the numbers. To manually stretch it, either press Ctrl-Shift on your keyboard or select the stretch option on the top window. Click on the red knob on the box and push it in until it’s flat. Then click on the Position button and adjust the panel’s position between the two billboard posts as necessary.

11. Now we’re going to stretch the sides of the panel. Ctrl-Shift or click Stretch again, then use the green knob to stretch the panel. You can stretch the panel so it goes a few inches beyond the inner billboard post sides; if you now reposition the panel so it’s in the middle of each billboard post, those extra inches will disappear inside the billboard post. Position the panel halfway between the each billboard post.

12. Next, we’re going to stretch the billboard panel’s height. Ctrl-Shift/click stretch, then use the blue knob to make the billboard as tall as you want it to be. You can match the top of the billboard panel to the top of the posts, or leave it a few inches below them.

13. Your simple billboard should be almost done! Reposition the three prims as necessary, until you’re happy with the billboard’s shape.

14. You can change how the surface of your billboard looks by changing it's "texture." The default texture of the billboard is “Wood,” as you can see if you select one of the prims and then click the Texture tab in the bottom window. To change the appearance of the prim, click on the wooden box you see in the top left of the texture tab, which is labeled “Texture.” A new window will appear to the right. In the right hand side of the window, it should have a folder labeled “Library.” Click on library, and one of the folders below it should say “Textures”. If you click on that folder, numerous sub-folders will appear, each containing different types of textures. For example, if you want your billboard to be a different type of wood, click on the wood folder and select one of the alternatives. You can chose any type of textures you want-- you can even make your billboard zebra-striped!

15. However, you’re not quite done yet! It’s important to link the three prims together, so your hard work doesn’t come apart. To do this, click on each prim while holding down the shift key-- all three prims should be highlighted with a yellow glow. To link them, simply click Ctrl-L on your keyboard. Now you should see a blue light, except for the last prim you clicked. If you click “Position,” and click on one of the axis, the whole billboard should move as one. If you need to edit the billboard after you’ve linked it, simply check the box labeled “Edit linked parts” in the upper left window.

16. Finally, if you click on the “General” tab in the bottom window, you can name your object so you can find it in your inventory later, as well as set the permissions on the object. You can check the box that allows anyone to copy your object, or set a sale price on it.

Congratulations, you’re done! You now have a simple billboard, and all the basic tools to help you build a fancier one with a bit of experimentation. Happy building!