Second Life Wiki - User contributions [en]

Sculpted Prims: Resident-made Tools

2010-02-08T01:26:44Z

Nand Nerd: /* sculpty.php */ updated url

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This page showcases '''special purpose tools''' for creating, manipulating, and viewing sculpted prims. Most of them are created by SL residents, but the reason they are on this page is that they are ''not'' general purpose 3D tools.
For that list, see [[Sculpted Prims: 3d Software Guide]].

= Preview Tools =

== Offline Preview Tools ==

Basic tools that can be used to preview what a sculpt texture will look like when uploaded into Second Life and rendered as a prim. All of these are made by other Residents and should generally be considered beta or works in progress.

=== AvPainter ===
Sculpty previewer that allows you to preview with texture. Also allows you to paint directly on the surface to create texture maps. Support for layers. Full version allows texture maps to be saved as PSD and TGA.
*'''Creator''': [[user:Pootle Trollop | Pootle Trollop]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=158462 Purchase from Xstreet] or [http://avpainter.osbyte.net/dl.php?name=demo&regcode=demo Download Demo]
*'''Requires''': A PC running Windows XP or Vista, as well as [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable]. Includes XNA/DirectX component installer.

=== Sculptaire ===
Open source sculpty previewer that also allows preview with texture.
*'''Creator''': [[user:Flame Swenholt | Flame Swenholt]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://sourceforge.net/projects/sculptaire/ Download from website]
*'''Requires''': Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista (NOT x64!), as well as [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable]

=== SculptySpace ===
Supports textured Sculpt preview with Second Life style texture parameters.
*'''Creator''': [[user:Sculpty Carver | Sculpty Carver]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.sculptyspace.com/index.php?id=2 Download from website]
*'''Requires''': Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=200b2fd9-ae1a-4a14-984d-389c36f85647&displaylang=en Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable]

=== XNA Sculptpreview ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Eddy Stryker | Eddy Stryker]]
*'''Link to get it''': [[User:Eddy_Stryker/XNA_Sculptpreview | XNA Sculptpreview]]
*'''Requires''': Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, along with the Microsoft XNA framework (see above link for details)
*'''Derivatives''': [http://mailerdaemon.home.comcast.net/SculptedPreview.zip XNA SculptPreview] - Modified version to include LOD and a more sensible camera configuration (and a bunch of other changes under the hood).

=== A Hacky Sculpt Previewer ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Yumi Murakami | Yumi Murakami]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.bijodesign.com/sculpt/SculptPreview.html Web Start Launcher], [http://www.bijodesign.com/sculpt/SculptPreview.jar Executable JAR file], [[Hacky Sculpt Previewer | Source Code]] (Java SDK required to run from the source).
*'''Requires''': [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp Java Runtime Engine 1.6 or higher], [http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D/download.html Java 3d API] and any OS that will run them (Win and Linux are well covered, Mac is not). If installing or upgrading the JRE, be sure to do it before installing Java3d. The Web Start link above should be able to automatically install any needed components. Note that it will attempt to automatically redirect your browser to a download page, so if nothing happens when you click on it, please check your security settings will allow this.

=== Cel_Sculptpreview ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Cel Edman | Cel Edman]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.xs4all.nl/~elout/sculptie/ Download from website]
*'''Requires''': [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp Java Runtime Engine 1.6 or higher] installed on your system. This is a simple Sculpt previewer created in [http://processing.org/ Processing]. Downloads available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Currenly not further developed, since Cel continues on developing Sculptypaint (Resident-made Sculpt Creation Tools) at the moment, that got this realtime previewer as well.

=== SIEE(Sculptie Importer Exporter and Editor) ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Rex Cronon | Rex Cronon]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.elektralusion.com/siee_122809/ Run it from website]
*'''Requires''': [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp Java Runtime Engine 1.6 or higher] installed on your system. This is java applet. To run it you only need to have a browser that allows applets to run. It has many functions. I personally use it with ArtOfIllusions. I plan to have it allow the use of addons. If you have any questions, comments, or you find any bugs please send me an IM in world:) This program is free to use for a limited time. My only request is that you mention it:) 
Thank you Eleanora Newell for hosting it:)
 

== In-world Preview Tools ==

Tools that can be used to view in Second Life what a sculpt will look like before the texture is uploaded.

=== Texture Wizard (Commercial) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://sl.infomyth.com/texturepreview/texturepreview.htm Infomyth.com]
*'''In-World:''' [http://slurl.com/secondlife/Horowitz/164/20/21/ Horowitz]
*'''Cost:''' L$399 (about $1.80 U.S.)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP

Works using the media texture on your land (you must own or rent land to use it) using QuickTime, the way an in-game TV does. Saving a .bmp, .jpg or .psd file will automatically update the image in-game. You can see your changes live on a prim. Avoids uploads until you are done (you must still upload for a permanent version). Also works just as a regular texture previewer.
 

=== Sculpt Preview using Parcel Media ===

*'''Website:''' [http://nandnerd.info/blog/2007/06/16/sculpty-media-video-url-previewer/ blog.nandnerd.info/...]
*'''Forum Discussion:''' [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=191214 forums.SecondLife.com]
*'''Author:''' [[User:nand Nerd | nand Nerd]]
*'''In-World:''' [http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lasiocampa/133/209/57 Lasiocampa]
*'''Requirements:''' Web hosting (free small image hosting at http://imageshack.us works without hassle)

Tutorial on using the Parcel Media as a Sculpt Texture Preview. Example available at location above (Lasiocampa 133,209,57).

= Special purpose Sculpt Creation / Manipulation Tools =

The tools listed here aren't fully-fledged 3d modeling programs — they are stand-alone tools for creating sculpt maps, usually in some limited way. As with the previewers above, consider them works in progress.

On the other hand, if they do what you want, a lathe tool, for example, then they are much easier than buying, setting up, learning, and using a full 3D modeler.

=== LandSculptor ===

*'''Creator:'''[[User:Emma Nowhere | Emma Nowhere]]
*'''Link to get it:'''http://www.nowherevirtual.com/landsculptor/
*'''Requires:''' Web browser

Makes a sculptie model of any region in SL. LandSculptor scans the sim region and creates a sculpt map texture you can use to make detailed models of your land. Rez the LandSculptor and start scanning and in about a minute, you'll be provided with a set of textures to make your own sculptie model.

=== SculptCrafter ===

*'''Creator:'''[[User:Contagious Republic | Contagious Republic]]
*'''Link to get it:'''http://slurl.com/secondlife/3DBuildEasy/183/114/508
*'''Requires:''' 86 prims at most, but typically 30 or so. Only during creation.

It turns a linkset of spheres, cylinders and boxes into a sculptie and outputs it as a web link (giving a lego-like feel of moving parts of your sculpt around fast and getting quasi-immediate results), which you click and do 'save file' to get your sculpt map. The sculptie will look as much like the linkset within certain technical limits, such as the fact it does not support twist.

You can fit 64 boxes into a sculptie; 28 for spheres; 85 for spikes, 23 cylinders of 8 sides, or mix thereof. As they can be placed independantly, you get the unprecedented ability to make several window frames per sculpt, for example.

The SculptCrafter is 100% functional if you use it in its sandbox, including ability to output sculpt and use/sell them as normal, except for the "10 prims per sculpt" limit and the fact you must create in its sandbox. The demo also works anywhere the 1rst of each month, which is handy for contests, classes, and other events. The full version works anywhere, anytime.

=== PloppSL ===

*'''Creator:'''[[User:Imp Iwish | Imp Iwish]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://www.secondplopp.com/
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac OS

PloppSL allows you to create Sculpted Prims for Second Life by painting the front and back side of your model. Thus, texture and model are created in one step. You can create or use different textures for the front and backside of your model. You can also paint in your favored paint program, import the images into PloppSL by drag&drop and turn them into 3D models.

'''Resources'''

* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=213219 sl forum thread] (restricted access)

=== TATARA - Sculpted Prim Previewer and Editor ===

*'''Creator:'''[[User:Yuzuru Jewell | Yuzuru Jewell]]
*'''Link to get it:'''http://kanae.net/secondlife/tatara.html
*'''Requires:''' Windows/Mac OS X/Linux using wine

TATARA displays both a sculpted prim and its texture.
A sculpted Prim can be edited in the five modes:ROKURO/TOKOROTEN/MAGE/WAPPA/TSUCHI.
The five modes can be combined and used.
Furthermore, TATARA can correct coordinates for every control point in the BITMAP and TSUCHI mode.
Created by Yuzuru Jewell...arigato!

=== ROKURO Sculpted Prim Maker ===

*'''Creator:'''[[User:Yuzuru Jewell | Yuzuru Jewell]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://kanae.net/secondlife/
*'''Requires:''' Windows/Mac OS X/Linux using wine

Rokuro translates from Japanese as "lathe" and that's basically what this is: a standalone version of the lathe tool found in many 3d modeling programs that saves directly to sculpt maps. You draw a line in 2d by editing the various points and the program effectively spins that line around an axis to create the 3d object. Cylinders and polygonal prisms are both possible. Obviously limited to things you can create with this method so far, but easy for anyone to pick up and use and more features are still being added. Created by Yuzuru Jewell...arigato!

'''Resources'''

* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=184264 sl forum thread] (restricted access)

=== TOKOROTEN(extruder)Sculpted Prim Maker ===

*'''Creator:'''[[User:Yuzuru Jewell | Yuzuru Jewell]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://kanae.net/secondlife/tokoroten.html
*'''Requires:''' Windows

This Program makes Sculpted Prim texture .tga file of the pushed-out object.
TOKOROTEN is Japanese jelly extruded to thin strips.
An object will be pushed out if the form of the hole which you push out is made.
You can twist or round an object. You draw a line in 2d by editing the various points and the program. Obviously limited to things you can create with this method so far, but easy for anyone to pick up and use and more features are still being added. Created by Resident Yuzuru Jewell...arigato!

'''Resources'''

* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=184264 sl forum thread] (restricted access)

=== sculpty.php ===

*'''Creator:''' [[User:nand Nerd | nand Nerd]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://www.nandnerd.info/sculpt/
*'''Requires:''' Browser

A web-based series of tools, still rather primitive but constantly updating. Currently implemented are revolve and z,r revolve which both take a series of values (radii and z-pos,radii values respectively) and rotate them around the z-axis. Recently implemented a constant cross-section which extrudes a series of x,y values through the z-axis.

=== SculptyPaint v.092===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Cel Edman | Cel Edman]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.xs4all.nl/~elout/sculptpaint/ Download from website]
*'''Requires''': [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp Java Runtime Engine 1.6 or higher] installed on your system?! In case it wont work.
Last update: march 10 - 2008. Realtime sculpt previewer. Drawing tool: manipulate the width, height and shape of the Sculpt. Edit RGB Layers, Flower, Stone, Stair and Point, Texturesketch and Morph Tool. Downloads available for Windows, Mac-OSX and Linux.
 

=== Math Sculptor 1.0===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Burhop Piccard | Burhop Piccard]]
*'''Link to get it''': http://mark.burhop.net there is also a [[MathSculptor|MathSculptor]] wiki page.
*'''Requires''': Windows XP or Vista.
Math Sculptor is free application for creating and viewing sculpted primitives. It provides dynamic viewing and modification of sculpties. What differentiates this application is that it is build upon an extendable "addin" architecture. This allows others to easily create new algorithms that generate completely new types of sculpties. See http://mark.burhop.net for more information and sample sculpted primitives.
 

=== SnurbO'Matic ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Anjin Meili | Anjin Meili]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=273452 Slexchange]
*'''Requires''': Secondlife client and a sandbox with at least 1100 primitives.
SnurbO'Matic is an in world tool that allows editing and creation of sculpties. The system uses a molding method, allowing a mesh to be molded around other inworld objects. Objects must not be phantom. The mold may be modified using normal in world build tools. Each mesh node is visualized as a sphere, and can be moved as desired. Once finished, the mold is saved and a casting produced thru an automated web process. The user gets a URL when completed for a TGA file containing the texture. This can be further refined using off grid tools, or simply uploaded to Second Life as is. For new modelers, its easier to start with a close approximation of an object, rather then manipulating a sphere to the object they wish. For landscapers, the tool can produce organic, smooth, and unique rocks, logs, etc. Search for the group SculptO'Matic, or visit our sandbox and lab in Talakin.
 

=== Sculpted Sim Terrain Mapper ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Anjin Meili | Anjin Meili]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=270738 Slexchange]
*'''Requires''': Secondlife client and a object create and script permissions on a parcel.
The Sculpted Sim Terrain Mapper creates a sculpted primitive map in 3D of any given Simulator. The tool simply is rezzed onto a parcel in the sim, and allowed to run. It will report back to the operator a URL to pickup a completed sculpted texture in TGA format. The data collected may also be used to create higher detail maps of the simulator, by using more prims, up to an 8x8 grid of sculpted prims to represent a simulator. Or just the default of one prim for the entire simulator. While the packaged tool is fee based, due to the costs of operating the backend... There is an open source version written entirely in LSL that requires minimal server side support. Contact Anjin Meili for a copy of the open source code. This tool is an example of using data to create sculpted primitives, with very little interaction. The source details using PPM as a description format within LSL for the sculpted texture map.
 

=== Sculpt Studio ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:TheBlack Box | TheBlack Box]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=278458 SL-Exchange]
*'''Requires''': SL (34+ Prims) and Browser

A high-end in-world sculpting tool for beginners, advanced and professional Sculptors,
that allows to apply SL building skills to sculpting.
 

=== Terrain Sculptor (Open Source) ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Cadroe Murphy | Cadroe Murphy]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://spinmass.blogspot.com/2007/08/terrain-sculptor-maps-sims-and-creates.html Blog]
*'''Requires''': .NET 2.0

Terrain Sculptor is a .NET application which uses a [http://www.libsecondlife.org/wiki/Main_Page libsecondlife] bot to retrieve the elevation data for a sim and generates a sculpty texture of the terrain. It also downloads the world map image from the web for use as a texture. The user can teleport to specific locations within sims and monitor the process through a graphical display. The operation usually takes a number of seconds after logging into a sim. Elevation data can be saved and loaded seperately. The application is relatively user-friendly but errors are not always handled informatively. The source code is open.
 

=== LD Sculpty Protect ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Langweiliger Dreier | Langweilliger Dreier]]
*'''Link to get it''': [https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=986734 https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=986734]
*'''Requires''': Windows PC

LD Sculpty Protect is a tool to protect sculpty textures in Second Life - that nobody can steal your hard work by simply making screenshots. It is optimized to manage multiple files at once. It is possible to use your own logo! See website for more information.
 

=== Sculpty Hider ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Gorge Go | Gorge Go]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://caboosecode.webs.com/Programs/Sculpty_Hider.rar http://caboosecode.webs.com/Programs/Sculpty_Hider.rar]
*'''Requires''': Windows PC

This is a FREE alternative to Langweiliger's LD Sculpty Protect with all of the benofits.
 

=== LD Sculpty Shrink ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Langweiliger Dreier | Langweilliger Dreier]]
*'''Link to get it''': [https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=987653 https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=987653]
*'''Requires''': Windows PC

LD Sculpty Shrink is a tool to decrease size of sculpties to any size - to make sculpted nano prims for example. It is optimized to manage multiple files. (LD Sculpty Protect is included in this tool). See website for more information.
 

=== Sim Terrain Surveyor ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Glox Parisi | Glox Parisi]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1184678 SL-Exchange]
*'''Requires''': Any graphics editor capable of portable pixmap files (*.ppm).
Scans the sim's elevation profile and chats the readings which you then convert into a sculpt map texture using GIMP, ACDSee or Photoshop or any other graphics editor that supports .ppm portable pixmap files.
 

[[Category: Sculpted Prims]]

= File Converters =

These utilities are made to translate 3d files directly into sculpt maps, with varying degrees of sucess.

=== 3dm2sculpt ===

*'''Creator:''' [[User:Cindy Crabgrass | Cindy Crabgrass]]
*'''Link to get it:''' [[3dm2sculpt|3dm2sculpt]]
*'''Requires:''' Windows

A command-line utility that reads an [[#3D_File_Formats | OpenNURBS]] .3dm file and generates a .tga sculpt map from it. Still in need of a lot of testing but potentially very useful for any program that supports this format.

=== obj2sculpt ===

*'''Creator:''' [[User:Cindy Crabgrass | Cindy Crabgrass]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=1505114&postcount=14
*'''Link on the TG forums:''' Nonexistent, can someone please fix this?
*'''Requires:''' Windows

A command-line utility that reads a Wavefront Style .obj file and generates a .tga sculpt texture from it. Still in need of a lot of testing but potentially very useful for any program that supports this format.

=== Sculpty Maker ===

*'''Creator:''' 2k Suisei
*'''Link to get it:''' http://www.shiny-life.com/sculpty-maker/
*'''Requires:''' Windows, zBrush

Sculpty Maker is a free program for Windows PCs that allows you to create objects in zBrush and convert them to Second Life sculpted prims. It includes an in-world tool called Sculpty Rezzer that assembles the converted objects, and a plug-in for zBrush that allows you to export sculptmaps directly from zBrush. Please direct all support questions to Vlad Bjornson.

= Importers =

These utilities assist in bringing sculpted creations in to the Second Life world:

=== GridImageUpload ===

*'''Creator:''' [[User:Eddy Stryker | Eddy Stryker]]
*'''Link to get it:''' [[GridImageUpload]]
*'''Requires:''' Windows, Linux, OSX

A simple graphical user interface to upload textures to the grid. It will show you the compressed texture size before uploading and allow you to upload lossless images, perfect for 64x64 or smaller sculpt maps.

=== importprimscript ===

*'''Creator:''' [[User:Eddy Stryker | Eddy Stryker]]
*'''Link to get it:''' [[Importprimscript|Importprimscript]]
*'''Requires:''' Windows, Linux, OSX

A command-line utility to batch upload an entire folder output from Qarl's Advanced Maya Sculpt Exporter in to Second Life and rez the scene as a full permission linkset. The sculpt maps are uploaded as lossless images and the textures are uploaded with the normal compression settings.

'''NOTE:''' Although the main utility is command-line, for using the app on Windows there is a GUI provided by Johan Durant on the importprimscript page.

=== redcap ===

*'''Creator:''' [[User:Adam Marker | Adam Marker]]
*'''Link to get it:''' [http://adammarker.org/redcap/ redcap] ([http://github.com/slothbear/redcap source])
*'''Requires:''' Ruby, ImageMagick

redcap is an open-source command line utility for uploading images to Second Life.

Sculpted Prims: 3d Software Guide

2007-12-18T10:33:57Z

Nand Nerd: /* AutoCAD (Autodesk) */ Modified to make clear that there is no current sculpt map support

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''(Want to help out with this page? Check out the [[Talk:Sculpted_Prims:_3d_Software_Guide#ToDo | To-do list]].)''
= About 3D Modeling Software =

This page offers a list of 3D modeling software for use with Sculpt Maps for [[Sculpted Prims]], along with a short explanation of popular 3D file formats. Each entry lists the software package's web site, operating system support, cost and trial versions if applicable, and the license.

Note: Resident-made sculpt map tools and offline previewers [[Sculpted Prims: Resident-made Tools|now have their own page]].

;What Features are important for making Sculpted Prims?

Each software entry includes a rundown of features that are particularly useful for creating sculpt maps. Although support for these features isn't necessary in order to create sculpt maps, it can make the process a whole lot easier.

*'''User Scripting:''' A script interface is one of the easiest and fastest ways to add functionality to a program or to automate tasks the program is already capable of. Plugins and SDKs can do the same thing but may not be available.
*'''Built-in texture baking/generation:''' This term describes the ability to create/"render" textures and export them to image files. If this functionality is built into the software, it is available to user-generated scripts. For example, it allows manual export of sculpt maps with [[#Blender|Blender]] and [[#Lightwave_.28Newtek.29|Lightwave]]. It can also make it easier to create regular textures for your model; you can apply colors, patterns or just a template guide to your model and bake it out for upload or further detailing in a paint program.
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Over the years a variety of different 3d modeling techniques have emerged, each having various strengths and weaknesses. They include:
** Polygon modeling: The most mature method and the choice output for most games and realtime rendering in which you directly manipulate the faces, edges and vertices of an object.
** NURBS: NURBS modeling uses series of curved splines to define the shape of an object and are excellent for smooth organic shapes. The methodology behind sculpted prims are very largely based on them.
** Subdivision Surface: Subdivision modeling shares some of the advantages of both NURBS and polygon modeling: the shape is manipulated using sets of control points that allow for both smooth surfaces and precise details.
** Brush Sculpting: With this method, you use your mouse or pen tablet and a series of adjustable brushes to literally sculpt on the 3d surface like clay. Many programs such as Blender and 3ds Max offer this function in a limited sense to help with precision detailing but not to the extent of programs built with this method as their focus, such as zBrush.

Which you use will ultimately come down to personal preference and what your exporter will handle best.

;Do I need a really powerful computer to run this stuff?

For most Second Life users, this shouldn't be a major issue. If your computer is capable of running the Second Life client, you should have no trouble running most of these programs. Some programs will run fine on something as old as a Pentium III. A few professional programs (like Maya) say they'll only support high-end workstation graphics cards but it will still run ok on a regular setup. Check the system requirements on the software vendor's webpage for specific details.

;What program(s) are the best for making sculpties?

There's no easy answer to that question. It will depend on a number of factors:
* '''How much money are you willing to spend?''' The cost of 3d software ranges from "free" to thousands of dollars. Programs like Maya and 3ds Max are powerful but if you're not already seriously into 3d modeling, they're probably overkill. Lightwave, zBrush and programs in their price range are powerful professional tools while still being within reach of a reasonably well-to-do person who's dedicated to their SL design work, but these are probably still overkill as most of the features you pay for go beyond the general tools to create sculpt maps for Second Life. Programs like Amorphium, trueSpace and Milkshape are aimed at professionals and casual hobbyists but not all of them are going to have the full 3D studio capabilities of some more expensive programs. Free programs run the gamut between the pro and hobby levels and you'll have to consider other factors when choosing between them.

* '''How much time are you willing to invest?''' If you want to just make a few sculpted objects, a simple standalone utility like Rokuro might suit you best. If you're a serious content creator though, you'll want to put the time and effort into learning a more complex program.

* '''How much prior experience do you have?''' If you've been working with 3d software for a while already, you probably already know what you like or will have an easier time picking up a new and/or more complicated program. If you're a brand newbie to modeling, it's probably a mistake to jump right into a program like Blender or Maya with their steep learning curves. The availability of general modeling tutorials and other resources (not just SL-related ones) will probably affect your choice as well.
 

;I'm a newbie to all this. What should I start with?
Probably not with anything expensive...''unless'' you're a university student at a school with a good computer art program where you can take advantage of their resources. If you're very serious about learning the tools the pros use you might also seek out such a program, either online or in a classroom.

If you just want to dive in to making sculpties then there are a couple front runners for your attention. (Please note that these are opinions and may not reflect everyone's.) If you have to go the free route, Wings 3d is probably your best bet: the exporter has some hard limitations and the interface isn't necessarily friendly but it's loads easier than the other main free option, Blender. Once you get the hang of it you can make sculpties fairly quickly.

If you want free and simple, try out the Rokuro and Tokoroten sculpt making tools. You'll be limited in the shapes you can produce but they require no 3d experience and you can turn out some good sculpties in a little as ten minutes. The Wings plugin can also import these sculpt maps where you can tweak them further.

If you're willing to spend some money (under $100), AC3D is a good place to start. The interface is nicer than that of Wings and Zora Spoonhamer's exporter allows you to take good advantage of program features that the Wings exporter doesn't; full subdivision capabilities, cutting and extrusion of faces, etc.

That said, the best way to decide what program you should use is to start downloading their demos and trying them to find what you like.

= Adding Programs to This List =
The hobby market for 3d software is currently growing rapidly: as a result there are dozens of software packages in the wild, many undiscovered or not well known. If a new program is discovered and proven by means of it being listed here, great, but it's not within the scope of this list to name them all, else the most useful ones would get buried and the page would become a confusing mess.

A couple things to consider:
* Popularity: This may seem contrary to the "discovering new programs" bit above, but it's impossible to ignore the impact popularity has on a program: it means there's a community of users that can offer support to newbies and it increases the likelihood that someone will develop sculpt map support for it.
* Features: If it doesn't already have sculpt map support, does it have the features that will make it likely able to support sculpt maps? Certain well known programs like Sketchup and Milkshape have been put in the "Other" category because people will ask about them but the chance of sculpt map support being developed for them seems slim because of their feature sets. If that turns out to be an incorrect assumption then they'll certainly be moved up. A file converter like 3dm2sculpt or one of various object to sculpty programs is better than nothing but as such programs are in varying stages of being beta and/or experimental (and often may not work), being able to save to a convertible file format shouldn't be the only thing to consider. Other things to keep in mind: is the interface usable? Does the program run without frequently crashing?

With those in mind, if you're adding a program, follow the format used in the rest of the entries (they differ slightly between the free and commercial packages) and be sure to fill in as much information as you can; this will usually take a little research. If you've used the program, you're encouraged to include your insights and experiences in the short description blurb (you don't need more than a short paragraph). Tutorials, documentation and the like should be linked separately under the Resources section.

= Special Purpose Sculpted Prim Tools =

The resident-made sculpt tools such as Rokuro, SnurbO'Matic and the preview tools now have their own page: [[Sculpted Prims: Resident-made Tools]].

= Free 3D Modeling Software =

=== Art of Illusion ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.artofillusion.org artofillusion.org]
*'''License:''' [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GPL]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Any OS that will run Java (requires Java Runtime Environment 1.4 or later)
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes, Java via [http://www.beanshell.org/ Beanshell]
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon, NURBS
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' ???
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No, although it is possible to save as a .obj file and then convert it to a sculpt image.

A number of Residents have recommended this program. If you're familiar with it, please give the rest of us a summary!

*'''Warning:''' I have a reported '''Malware/Virus''' that came from Art Of Illusion. It infected a few of my files! ''-Caboose Enfield''
[NOTE: chances are it was either downloaded from a shady site or was a false positive. More details are needed!]

'''Resources'''

*[http://www.artofillusion.org/documentation AoI Documentation]
 

=== Blender ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.blender.org blender.org]
*'''License:''' [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GPL]
*'''Operating Systems''': Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, Irix, Solaris, FreeBSD and others)
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes, Python
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon, NURBS, Subdivision, Basic Brush Sculpting
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes. Documented [http://amandalevitsky.googlepages.com/sculptedprims here], and [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted2/Blender-to-sculpted.html here]

Formerly a company's in-house tool, Blender is the current king of the open source modeling programs. With all the features of the expensive programs, an active development community and even some existing SL-based tools made by Residents, this is going to be the default choice for many people. Downsides: Blender's interface is not newbie-friendly. That combined with spotty documentation can make for a slow learning curve.

'''Resources'''

* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=203571 Blender Sculptie Import & Export scripts]
* [http://www.blender.org/tutorials-help/ Blender.org Documentation and Tutorials]
* [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro Blender 3D: Noob to Pro] - on [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikibooks], It's a great step-by-step tutorial that contains substantial content, is well-formatted, and has screen shots.
* [http://amandalevitsky.googlepages.com/sculptedprims How to Make Sculpted Prims with Blender]
*[http://www.bentha.net/sculpted-tuto/Blender-export-template-tut.html A template file to start with and export easy]
*[http://blendernewbies.blogspot.com/2007/04/video-oven-baked-pretzels-in-blender-3d.html Oven Baked Pretzels @ BlenderNewbies.com] - A video tutorial that covers the basics of Blender's new sculpt mode, useful if you're creating sculpties using the above manual method.
*[http://www.bentha.net/sculpted2/Blender-to-sculpted.html An almost complete method] to export almost anything from blender
*[http://iramblesorry.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love_28.html Another great tutorial] on using blender for sculpts
*[http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=110607 Offline Prim Builder] for standard prims (restricted access)
*[http://www.treekyomoon.com/blenderInstrux.jpg Specifically making a flat/embossed type sculptie] one could use for floating terrains with giant prims, licence plates, nifty brass scene covered fireboxes...or whatever else might be handy! [http://www.treekyomoon.com/flattysculptie.blend Sample .blend file here]
 

=== Moment of Inspiration ===

*'''Website:''' [http://moi3d.com/ Moment of Inspiration]
*'''License:''' Open beta testing/freeware
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP/Vista
*'''User Scripting?''' ?
*'''Modeling Methods:''' NURBS, Polygon (Import/Export Only)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' ?
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, try [[3dm2sculpt]]

This program has some cool things going for it. It's the work of a former [[#Rhino_3D | Rhino]] developer and has an interface that pretty much lets you draw shapes with the mouse or a pen tablet. Documentation on the website is sparse however and being in beta means there will be kinks.

It should be noted that MoI will become a commercial product when it leaves beta testing (expected later this summer), but it will still be comparatively inexpensive; the estimated cost is between US$200-$100.

'''Resources'''

* [http://moi3d.com/forum/ Moment of Inspiration Forums]
* [http://mefeedia.com/tags/momentofinspiration/ Video Tutorials]
 

===Plopp===
[[Image:Plopp example.jpg|thumb|250 px| A SLork sculpted in Plopp]]

*'''Website:''' [http://www.secondplopp.com/ Plopp Second Life]
*'''License:''' Donationware/Commercial
*'''Operating Systems:'''Windows, Mac, Linux
*'''User Scripting?''' No (N/A)
*'''Modeling Methods:''' 2d painting
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes

''Plopp'' is a cute 3D modeling tool designed for little kids. The makers of Plopp have now put out a free version for SL users (the full program can be bought for US$19.50).

Imagine one of those new mylar balloons. You paint the one side with an image, and then paint the other side with an image represetning the other side. Plopp then blows up the balloon and shades it. You can also import graphics from other tools (Photoshop, a scanned drawing, etc.), make a "cutout" with the eraser and inflate that. You can play a little with the lighting and with rotations. The Plopp drawing tools are very basic but keep in mind, this is for little children. Then it bakes the texture and exports the texture and the sculpt map (128x128).

Even if you don't use this for Second Life, you might like to get it for your kids...or inner child. It just looks like a lot of fun.

'''Resources'''
*[http://www.planet-plopp.com/biggerkids/tips.html Plopp Tips] - Video tutorials and neat tricks from the Plopp website

=== Wings 3D ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.wings3d.com Wings 3D]
*'''License:'''[http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html BSD license]
*'''Get Started:'''[[Wings 3D|Second Life Wings 3D guide]]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac OS X, Linux (binaries), other Unixes (source only)
*'''User Scripting?''' Plugin interface using a language called Erlang
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon, Subdivision
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Not sure
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes.

Wings3D is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivision_surface subdivision modeler] that is easy to learn and is well suited to making sculpted prims. The sculpt import and export for Wings is easy to use. Detailed documentation is sparse, but there are several Second Life tutorials in this Wiki and on the Web.

'''Resources'''
* See the [[Wings 3D|Second Life Wings 3D guide]].
* Get the [[Omei Turnbull]] [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=183764 import/export plugin here.]
* Get the [[user:Strife Onizuka|Strife Onizuka]] [http://forums.secondlife.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=25721 import/export plugin here].
*Get the [http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=wings&filename=wings3d_manual1.6.1.pdf&use_mirror=internap Wings 3D User Manual] here. (Sourceforge, pdf)

 

=== POV-Ray ===

*'''Website:''' http://povray.org
*'''Cost:''' FREE
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows/Linux/Mac
*'''Trial version available?'''
*'''User Scripting?'''
*'''Modeling Methods:''' N/A
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' Yes. Instructions are here: http://johannahyacinth.blogspot.com/2007/05/sculpted-prims-with-pov-ray.html

POV-Ray is a renderer - you have to do all your modeling in another application, or by describing in plain text the mathematical shapes which make up the model. It may seem an odd inclusion in this part of the list but merits mentioning up here instead of burried at the bottom with the "Other" section because it actualy can produce sculpt maps. Some other programs like AC3D (below) can also call on POV-Ray for texture baking.
 

= Commercial 3D Suites =

It has to be said: most professional 3D software is (understandably) expensive, anywhere from hundreds to many thousands of dollars for a single copy. They're marketed at big professional studios with thousands or millions of dollars to budget for this stuff. There are ways to [[3D software cost savings|reduce this expense]] so that it's within the reach of an average person: some legal, some not.

== Under $200 ==

=== Amorphium (Electric Image)===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.eitechnologygroup.com/products/amorphium Electric Image Amorphium]
*'''Cost:''' US$79 ("Standard")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac (UB) - trial is Mac OS X 10.0 - 10.3 only
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Brush Sculpting, NURBS, Polygon
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes (paint on, further controllable with sensitive pen-tablet)
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No (export to a format Blender knows, or to OBJ, and use a converter, can start with the 64x63 sphere made by Wings3D)

Sculpting is what Amorphium is all about. If you have a pen tablet (even a tablet PC), the pressure sensitivity will control the pressure applied to the current brush to morph the sculpture. It gives a very natural feel to being able to sculpt 3d models easily and intuitively. Amorphium has won 14 awards including "Best Graphics Software" from magazines like Computer Graphics World, PC World, and Macworld for its breakthrough real-time approach to creating 3D graphics.

'''Resources'''

* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=186218 Sculpted Prim Modeler: Amorphium] on sl forums (restricted access)
 

=== AC3D (invis) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.inivis.com/ www.invis.com - AC3D]
*'''Cost:''' US$75
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac OSX 10.4 or later, Linux (x86 only)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes - 14 day trial
*'''User Scripting?''' Plugin Interface available, plus TCL-based scripting
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon, Subdivision
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' No (But can be accomplished via 3rd party plug-ins or POV-Ray)
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes: [http://www.inivis.com/secondlife.html Export plug-in for Windows, Mac and Linux], [http://www.ccccybernetics.com/ developed by Zora Spoonhammer]

AC3D is an inexpensive polygon modeler with SubD support designed to be easy for novice users. The sculpt map plug-in will export any model that has a perfect uv space. Several pre-mapped starter shapes are included with the plug-in, including a cube that can be used as basis for complex objects by artists familiar with the popular box modeling method using sub-division surfaces. Invis recently gave their official blessing (as well as hosting) to the plugin, making them the first vendor of this kind of software to put their backing into sculpy development.

''' Resources '''

*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8RC5aJuWks 5-minute video tutorial on creating a pear]
*[http://www.independentdeveloper.com/archive/2007/09/27/sculpted_prims_from_existing_3 Sculpted Prims from Existing 3D Models] in AC3D. A step-by-step guide using an existing 3-D model of a fish.
*[http://www.supercoldmilk.com/ac3dplug/index.html AC3D Plugins @ Super Cold Milk] - several invaluable free plugins can be found here, including the knife tool used in the pear tutorial
 

=== Silo (Nevercenter) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.nevercenter.com/ Nevercenter - Silo]
*'''Cost:''' US$159, US$59 (upgrade), edu licensing on request
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000 or later, Mac OSX 10.3 or later
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes - 30 day trial
*'''User Scripting?''' -?-
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon, Subdivision
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' -?-
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' -?-

'''Resources'''
* [http://www.nevercenter.com/about/features/ Silo Features] and [http://www.nevercenter.com/about/videos/ how-to videos]

 

== $200 - $999 ==

=== Zbrush (Pixologic) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/products/products.php Pixologic :: Zbrush]
*'''Cost:''' US$595 (V3.1)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 98/2000/ZP, Mac OS X
*'''Trial version available?:''' No
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes, Zscripting
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Brush Sculpting, "ZSphere" modeling, Polygon (Import/Export)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No, future support is planned by Linden Lab (but note to resident developers: this one is in high demand).

Zbrush is a 3d painting and sculpting tool; instead of manipulating polys or curves, you select a brush and literally ''paint'' and chisel and mold...the best way to grasp it is to download the demo and play with it. It's pretty sweet: a ton of studios such as [http://www.epicgames.com/ Epic Games] use it to create the details for their normal maps and some SL designers are already using it for the 3d painting capabilities.

V3.1 adds many new features, such as Displacement Maps (and and Exporter) and the ZMapper.

(I may be incorrect, but I believe that the Displacement Maps and Exporter may be Pixologic's rendition of sculpture maps. Some with more experience needs to check, please: [http://www.zbrush.info/docs/index.php/Displacement_Exporter Displacement Exporter]. -- just checked this, and is different from how sculpt maps work. Just a converter for displacement maps to normal maps. (pretty powerful in its own right, but not the same thing as sculpties) Sculpt maps are not using the normals in any way at all - they look similar in that they are RGB maps, but the similarity pretty much ends there. Rather sculpties use RGB gradients from the center of the prim to the edge of the prim's bounding box to define where the vertices are in xyz space. --[[User:Hypatia Callisto|Hypatia Callisto]] 14:47, 1 November 2007 (PDT))

'''Resources'''

* [http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Main_Page Zbrush Documentation]
* [http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/index.php ZbrushCentral - Official Forums and Online Community]
 

=== Lightwave (Newtek)===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/ Lightwave]
*'''Cost:''' US$895, US$495 as a companion upgrade for Photoshop
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP, Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30 day time limit, currently only available with a couple books
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes, LScript
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon, NURBS with LWCAD 2.1 add-on (costs extra)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, manual method instructions here: [[User:Patchouli_Woollahra/Lightwave_Sculptie_Rendering]] (works with any version of Lightwave of at least version 6) or use the DStorm plugin provided [[http://www.dstorm.co.jp/english/plugin/secondlife.htm]] at DStorm (LW9+ only)

Some high-profile Second Life designers have been using Lightwave for quite a while to burn realistic highlights and shadows onto their skins and clothing textures. Therefore it's not a big surprise that after Blender, this was the second program that community members figured out a sculpt export method for.

'''Resources'''
*[http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/LightwaveTuts/LWTutSet.html Lightwave Tutorials] by Robin Wood, a.k.a. SL's [https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Robin_Sojourner Robin Sojourner].

 

=== Rhinoceros (McNeel) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.rhino3d.com Rhino 3D]
*'''Cost:''' US$995
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP/Vista (Vista not recommended due to OpenGL issues)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, save count limited
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes, VBScript
*'''Modeling Methods:''' NURBS, Polygon (limited)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' please try [[3dm2sculpt]] (not tested with Rhino yet)

Rhino is built from the ground up for NURBS modeling; thus if you intend to use NURBS, this isn't such a bad option. From this author's brief trial with it, it handles certain operations (like joining 2 or more objects) somewhat more intelligently than 3ds Max. A couple UI tricks make it easier to learn than the sea of buttons you're initially presented with: a help window to one side explains each operation as you select it and the command line at the top effectively lets you search for a function by typing in its name, without having to know where the button or menu option is.

'''Resources'''
 

=== trueSpace (Caligari) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.caligari.com Caligari]
*'''Cost:''' US$595 for latest version (7), but legacy versions are sold for lower prices ($199 for TrueSpace 5)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP/Vista
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, prior version of the program
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon, NURBS, Subdivision
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

trueSpace and its companion products appear to be aimed more at the independent developer and hobby market, resulting in a fully featured program at a much more affordable price. Of interest to Second Life users: trueSpace 7 and up offers a collaborative work environment; the benefit of working together like in SL but without the guy shooting off guns at you in the sandbox.

'''Resources'''

* [http://forms.caligari.com/forms/ts3all_free.html trueSpace3.2 Full Version (very old) for Free]
 

=== Softimage XSI (Avid) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/ Softimage XSI]
*'''Cost:''' US$495 ("Foundation") - US$6995 ("Advanced")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2/64 bit
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30 day trial with full features, free "Mod Tool" supported by [http://www.valvesoftware.com/ Valve] with limited features (watermarks images).
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes, Python, COLLADA and C#
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon, NURBS, Subdivision
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

Billing itself as "the most advanced 3D animation and character creation software for next generation games & film", it does that, modeling, baking, film compositing, ''and'' it makes toast! All kidding aside, they seem to be going after the largest slice of the market they can and their client list includes everything from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2 Half-Life] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl's_Moving_Castle_(film) Howl's Moving Castle]. Pluses? It's one of the few commercial programs that uses non-proprietary languages for their scripting...yes, I said languages, because apparently you have a choice between several. However it's unlikely that it has a significant user base within the SL community at the moment.

'''Resources'''
 

=== Modo 301 (Luxology)===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.luxology.com/ Luxology Home]
*'''Cost:''' US$895 professional, $149 Educational, $99 "Good Student" price. Download a trial version then wait 1-2 weeks and you'll receive a voucher dropping professional price to US$695.
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon, Subdivsion, Brush Sculpting
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, via texture baking

Luxology Modo is a premier modeling and UV system built to maximize the workflow of professional modelers. It has both a rich modeling and painting toolset, ideal for creating models for Second Life.

'''Resources'''

* Lovecraft Forest Testbed [http://www.rabbitroo.com/SL/SLtest7.lxo SLtest7.lxo]
* Lovecraft Forest Usage Instructions: [http://www.lovecraftforest.com/blog/2007/05/17/sculpted-prims-in-modo-part-ii/ Blog Post]
 

=== Mudbox (Skymatter) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.mudbox3d.com/ Mudbox]
*'''Cost:''' US$299 ("Basic") - US$649 ("Professional")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2, Atm untested on x64 or Vista
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 15 days trial fully functional.
*'''User Scripting?''' No
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Brush Sculpting, Subdivision
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

With ZBrush one of the most powerful organic modelers out there, really easy to use and artist friendly. Its modeling is based on brushes like ZBrush but aims more to 3D like Maya or 3D Studio Max. It contains a high quality texture renderer for baking normal maps and is used be many 3D professionals and studios like WETA Digital and some artists at Raven Software and id Software.

'''Resources'''
 

=== Carrara (Daz) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.daz3d.com/ Daz]
*'''Cost:''' US$249 ("Standard") - US$549 ("Professional")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac (UB)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes (plugin development, no scripting)
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' No (Yes with third party plug from [http://www.inagoni.com/content.php?content.3/ Inagoni]
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes - via texture baking with third party plugins - tutorial [[User:Hypatia_Callisto/Carrara_Sculpt_Baking]]

Like Hexagon, Carrara was an Eovia product that is now owned by Daz. Carrara is full-featured 3D application, supporting polygon modeling, spline modeling, "metaballs", and terrain modeling (it is sometimes compared to Vue). This app seems fly under the radar consistently, but Daz does seem to be serious about maintaining it as they have recently released a Mac Universal Binary version, free to registered users. Carrara also provides animation and particles.

'''Resources'''
 

=== Cinema 4D ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.maxon.net Maxon]
*'''Cost:''' CINEMA 4D R10 Win PC £586.33, additional modules available.
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP/Vista, Mac
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, Demo
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes, COFFEE
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon, NURBS, Subdivision
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, via Shader.

One of the more affordable 3D applications, excellent learning curve. Uses COFFEE script for plugins.

'''Resources'''
 
Nice [http://www.ks-3d.de/KS-3D_SCULPTIES_(SCULPTED_PRIMS).htm tutorial] to create a Shader and modeling (by KS-3D Klaus Strifler - german only)

 

== $1000 and Up ==

=== Maya (Autodesk/Wavefront) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.autodesk.com/maya Autodesk Maya]
*'''Cost:''' US$3000 ("Complete") - US$7000 ("Unlimited"). ("Complete" version sufficient for creating sculpted prims.) Educational license: US$300
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2, Mac OS X 10.4, Linux (SUSE, RedHat and Fedora supported)
*'''Trial version available?:''' "Personal Learning Edition", no time limit but not usable for creating sculpted prims (sculpt textures ruined by watermark)
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes, MEL Script
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon, NURBS, Subdivision
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, script by Qarl Linden available on their wiki [[LlSculpt mel|here]], instructions [[Sculpted_Prims:_FAQ#MayaExporter|here]].
** Qarl has released a new export script that can handle assemblies of prims and can also bake the surface textures for you. [[Advanced_Sculptie_Exporter_From_Maya | Available Here]]

*'''Plugins:''' [http://www.sim-image.co.jp/sltk/en/index.php SIM Image SLTK (Second Life Toolkit)] (￥94,000/126,000, $800/1,100, €600/800) is a plugin for Maya that allows users to create and export objects for Second Life. See [http://www.sim-image.co.jp/sltk/en/function.php this page] for the complete feature set.

Why was Maya the first to receive sculpted prim support from Linden Lab? Because it was what [http://www.qarl.com/ Qarl Linden], the main developer on the project, learned to use while creating kick-ass movie SFX like [http://www.qarl.com/menu/resume/matrix-demo.mov these] and the tech for sculpted prims was adapted from tricks he learned in the process. Maya has been a growing force in the movie industry for some years and a strong presence in the video game industry as well.

'''Resources'''

* [http://webpages.charter.net/talilal/Balloon%20Tutorial/ Maya Sculpt Tutorial] by Talila Liu
* [http://www.sim-image.co.jp/sltk/en/index.php SIM Tools - Second Life ToolKit plugin]
 

=== 3d Studio Max (Autodesk) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax Autodesk 3ds Max]
*'''Cost:''' US$3495. Educational License: ~US$200. Subscription: ~US$500/year.
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP, Windows Vista (with version 9.1)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30-day demo, full features
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes, MAX Script/plugins
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygons, NURBS, Subdivsion, Basic Brush Sculpting
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' Yes (some functions only in version 8 and higher)
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' 3 methods in development:
** [http://www.joe-brown.net/SecondLife/SculptTut/SculptTut.html Method 1] by Gearsawe Stonecutter, uses a premade template file.
** [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=182461 Method 2] by Abu Nasu, uses a shader. [http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=1505984&postcount=46 Download the Materials file here], or [http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=1695133&postcount=112 the updated Materials file here]. [http://tech-slop.serveit.org/wiki/index.php?title=Sculptie_Egg Read the tutorial here].
*** A varient of Abu's methood by Chip Midnight uses a projection modifier and can handle arbitrary shapes but requires Max version 8 or higher. [http://home.comcast.net/~pixelforgeltd/Tutorial.htm The tutorial is here.]
** Method 3 ([http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=185426 thread]) ([http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SculptGenMax wiki]) by Shack Dougall, is a vertex-based method using MAXScript and preset geometry as a starting point. Tested on 3dsMax 9.

Formerly Maya's main competitor, especially in the game industry. Then Autodesk (the makers of Max) bought out Alias (the makers of Maya) a couple years ago. So far the company is developing both products separately, marketing Maya at the movie industry and Max at the game developers, but they have long had comparable feature sets, and in the future it's likely that there will be tighter integration between the two. A choice between Maya and Max generally comes down to user preference and (particularly in our case) plugin support. Some users have said that Max is easier for a newbie to learn than Maya and certain basic controls share similarities with SL's build tools (such as shift-drag to copy).

'''Resources'''

 

=== AutoCAD (Autodesk) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.autodesk.com/autocad Autodesk AutoCAD]
*'''Cost:''' US$4,000 Educational License: US$400 AutoCAD LT: US$900
*'''Operating Systems:''' -
*'''Trial version available?:''' - 30 day trials available
*'''User Scripting?''' - AutoCAD LISP
*'''Modeling Methods:''' -
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' -
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' - No sculpt map support at present.
** '''[http://ai-designstudio.net/ Henshin III]''' by AI Design Studio is a tool that allows the export of AutoCAD files into Second Life.

'''Resources'''

* [http://ai-designstudio.net/ AI Design Studio]

 

= Other 3d Programs =

These programs may be free or cheap, but they won't have nearly as expansive feature sets as those above.

=== MilkShape 3D ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.milkshape3d.com/ www.milkshape3d.com]
*'''Cost:''' US$25 / €25
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows
*'''Trial version available?''' 30-day unrestricted trial, save disabled thereafter until registered
*'''User Scripting?''' Plug-in SDK available (Does that count?)
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygons
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' Import/Export plugin under development

'''Resources''' 

* See the '''Tutorials''' and '''Links''' sections on the [http://www.milkshape3d.com/ MilkShape website]
 

=== Hexagon 2 (DAZ Productions) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/hexagon/-/? Hexagon product page]
*'''Cost:''' Full version: $149, "Crossgrade" from other DAZ software: $79, Upgrade: $49
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP, Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
*'''Trial version available?''' Yes, it's buried: go [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/support/downloads/-/ here] and select Hexagon from the list.
*'''User Scripting?''' No
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' No

SL animators may have heard about (and perhaps been disappointed with) [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/studio/-/? DAZ Studio], a competitor to Poser. Others may be familiar with [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/bryce/-/? Bryce], a landscape creation tool with a much better reputation. Hexagon was originally developed by eovia until purchased by DAZ and while it appears to be a perfectly capable 3d program by itself with polygon modeling subdivision modeling, sculpting tools, and is that 3d painting I see?, the absence in their feature list of either texture baking or any sort of user scripting or plugin interface could be a deal-breaker until something like a reliable .OBJ converter comes along.
 

=== Google SketchUp ===

*'''Website:''' [http://sketchup.google.com/ Google SketchUp]
*'''Cost:''' Free (Google SketchUp 6); $495 (Google SketchUp 6 Pro)/$45 (full-feature academic license for Google SketchUp 6 Pro)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP/2000, Windows Vista (with OpenGL 1.5 or higher), Mac OS X (10.3.9 or higher)
*'''Trial version available?:''' 8 hour trial available for Sketchup Pro
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes, Ruby
*'''Modeling Methods:''' Polygon
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Indirectly (through OBJ export; Pro version only)

SketchUp is a 3D drafting program popular among architects for its conceptual similarity to manual drafting and physical model-building. It has a very low learning curve, but is rather foreign to most established suites other than AutoCAD.

Hypothetically, SketchUp could be used to reduce the number of prims used in structures already possible with Second Life's built-in tools, as its use of edges and faces allows the creation of efficient compound geometric forms.

On the other hand, SketchUp's "bring your own geometry" approach makes it not particularly suited to the creation of mesh-based organic shapes.

Sketchup's surface modeling paradigm currently makes it difficult to translate SketchUp models into Sculpted Prims. The paid "Pro" version of SketchUp does, however, allow export to OBJ which, via [[Sculpted_Prims:_3d_Software_Guide#obj2sculpt|obj2sculpt]] (or, of course, Maya), may allow sculpt-map export. It also exports to 3DS, Collada, XSI and VRML, ''et cetera'', but these formats may well require software more expensive than SketchUp.

SketchUp uses image textures about as basic as those found in the Second Life build tools. Its texture capabilities would therefore likely not be useful to Second Life designers other than for previewing existing textures.

 
=== Ayam ===

*'''Website:''' [http://ayam.sourceforge.net/ Ayam]
*'''License:''' [http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html BSD license]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Unix/Linux (native), Windows 98, 2000 and XP, Mac OS X (with X11)
*'''User Scripting?''' Yes, tcl
*'''Modeling Methods:''' NURBS, Polygon (Import/Export Only)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking?''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

'''Resources'''

* [http://ayam.sourceforge.net/docs.html Ayam Documentation page]
 

= 3D File Formats =

If you're using software that cannot export to sculpt directly, you might still be able to succeed. You can always give the file to someone with access to the appropriate software, or you could export your model into another 3D modeler. To do that, you'll need to export the model into a format the other program can handle. Here's a brief rundown of the file formats that SL developers will generally find the most useful.

:*'''.OBJ''': Probably the most common cross-platform export format for polygon models; it's fairly open and any 3D program worth its bits supports it. It's also well-documented and easily hackable.

:*'''.3DS''': The default polygon export format supported by [[#3d_Studio_Max_.28Autodesk.29|3D Studio Max]]. Because of this, it is widely supported. However, it doesn't have as many export options as OBJ.

:*'''.FBX''': Another Autodesk format that is good if you need to export whole scenes: objects, animation, lights, cameras, etc. More importantly for our purposes, it preserves [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NURBS NURBS] objects in some programs. Especially useful if you're trading files between 3DS Max and [[#Maya_.28Autodesk.2FWavefront.29|Maya]]; it's also supported in some other programs but [[#Blender|Blender]] isn't among them ...yet.

:*'''.3DM''': a.k.a [http://www.opennurbs.com OpenNURBS]. This is the native format of [[#Rhinoceros_Rhino_3D|Rhino3D]] and [[#Moment_of_Inspiration|MoI]] and, as the name suggests, is a [[Sculpted_Prims:_3d_Modeling_Glossary#NURBS_Modeling | NURBS]] export format. It's gaining some popularity; unfortunately, it's not currently supported by the big three (Maya, Max and Blender). However the format documentation and code libraries are open-source, tempting those brave enough to try and write tools for it, such as [[#3dm2sculpt | 3dm2sculpt]].
 

= Other Resources =

Useful places for anyone interested in 3d modeling:

* [http://www.3dbuzz.com 3d Buzz] — Forums, video tutorials and even classes covering everything from 3d programs to 3d programing and even Photoshop.
* [http://ibiblio.org/e-notes/Splines/Intro.htm An Interactive Introduction to Splines] — a technical introduction to NURBs.
 

== See also ==

* [[Sculpted Prims|Sculpted Prims]]
* [[Sculpted Prims: FAQ|Sculpted Prims: FAQ]]
* [[Sculpt Textures in Paint Programs]]
* [[Sculpted Prims: Technical Explanation|Sculpted Prims: Under the Hood]]
* [[Sharing_sculpt_maps_and_textures|Sculpted Prims: Sharing Sculpt Maps and Textures]]
* [[Sculpted Prims Beta Discussion|Sculpted Prims Beta Discussion]]

 

[[Category:Sculpted Prims]]

Talk:Sculpted Prims: 3d Software Guide

2007-12-18T10:27:40Z

Nand Nerd: Added discussion section for AutoCAD regarding Henshin III and lack of sculpt map generation for AutoCAD

Are you ''sure'' about the "software subscriptions"? The product that Autodesk sell that is called "3DS MAX subscription" is actually an update service for people who already own the software, not a cheap purchasing option. [[User:Yumi Murakami|Yumi Murakami]]

: Well, in hindsight (I did some checking), the "$200" price tag was a 1-year licence offered by an educational resaler. However the person I met in school who got his copy of Max this way (who happens to be a Second Life resident too) was pretty satisfied with it; it's a full licence and not the "educational use only". You can keep buying 1-year licences but I don't think you get the same perks as the "subscription", which turns out to be more like $500/year.

There was also an article in Game Developer Magazine about a year ago on the trend torwards software subscriptions, I'll post it if I find it. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 18:29, 6 May 2007 (PDT)

:'''Update''': I've corrected the info about subscriptions accordingly and added a new line for the annual licenced. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 17:03, 16 May 2007 (PDT)
_______________________________________________

The following discussions (number 1 - 5 in the TOC) have been relocated here from [[Talk:Sculpted Prims]].

''I would like to yank this discussion thread over to the [[Sculpted Prims: 3D Software Guide | software guide]] page to reduce the clutter over here. If there are any objections, please say so; if not, I'll drag it over in the next day or two. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 18:55, 6 May 2007 (PDT)''

: ''Could be nice if we keep here for discussion and draft things for a little while, and we only move what is achieved, like Amanda's tut, to where you said ? So that the said page doesn't get cluttered :) [[User:camilla Yosuke|camilla Yosuke]] 7 may 2007''

:: ''Well the clutter can be controlled...really, this sections has about 4 or 5 different topics going and each of those could get a discussion section on the software guide talkpage, i.e. one for the Blender stuff, one for Maya stuff, etc. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 11:42, 7 May 2007 (PDT)''

:::''Sounds nice yes!''

_______________________________________________

== Blender ==

=== Blender Exports ===

- Eddy Stryker says he made an exporter for Blender.

-- Linkage?

i spoke with Eddy Stryker - he does indeed have a procedure for extracting sculpt textures from blender. currently it's a bit of manual labor - he's looking from someone who knows blender's scripting language so he won't have to learn it himself. :) --[[User:Qarl Linden|Qarl Linden]] 13:03, 29 April 2007 (PDT)

- IIRC, I belive Blender uses Python for scripting. Eddy hangs out with enough programers that he ought to be able to find *someone* with that qualifation. :) (Jeffery Gomez is the reigning guru of Blender to/from SL projects, last I checked.) [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 15:54, 29 April 2007 (PDT)

-----------------------

- Amanda Levistsky has posted a method of using Blender http://amandalevitsky.googlepages.com/sculptedprims --[[User:Destiny Niles|Destiny Niles]] 09:52, 5 May 2007 (PDT)

I made a little template file to help exporting from blender without efforts. This is not an export script, but rather a file-to-start-from-and-export in-two-clicks. It has its little limitations, but it should be helpful, waiting for something more complete and friendly. So here is the [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted-tuto/sculpted-export-template.blend blend file], and I made a little tutorial to explain : [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted-tuto/Blender-export-template-tut.html tutorial]. I hope it makes sense :) [[User:camilla Yosuke|camilla Yosuke]] 6 may 2007

: I tried your template file, and it works very well. I was able to stick a lattice on the sphere, stretch it into some funny shape, then bake that texture and upload it into SL. The one thing I don't understand is how you unwrapped the sphere to get the UV map to fill a square. It's easier to understand with [http://amandalevitsky.googlepages.com/sculptedprims Amanda's tutorial] (which starts with a cylinder), but you've already done that part in your blend file, so if you could maybe add a section to your tutorial explaining how you did that, that might be helpful for others too. -[[User:Ziggy Puff|Ziggy Puff]] 6 may 2007

:: My intention was to provide a template which is directly usable, even if you don't know about uvs and all. For those who want to get deeper into it, Amanda's tutorial is much better done I think. But I'll try to make a little addition and corrections to explain that part. This said, I had a chat with another resident, and he found a very interesting way to build the mesh, getting progressively into detail. I think this option is real worth a tutorial, because it doesn't limit us to start from a cylinder or a sphere, and you can almost build whatever shape you want without having to deform a base mesh. I'll try to write something tonight or tomorrow [[User:camilla Yosuke|camilla Yosuke]] 6 may 2007

::: Thanks. I don't think anything needs to be changed in your tutorial, I agree that it's a good write-up for people who don't want to get into the details. Maybe a link at the bottom called "If you want to know more", for the more curious readers :) New ways to make meshes would be helpful too. And you should add your link to the Tutorials section below. -[[User:Ziggy Puff|Ziggy Puff]] 6 may 2007

:::: Updated with sphere explanation [[User:camilla Yosuke|camilla Yosuke]] 7 may 2007

I think we really are on the right way, I could talk with Tomha Zymurgy, and combining our ideas we are very close to be able to export almost anything with blender, provided it has no holes and its a tube topologically. I could export nurbs, meshes, metaballs, anything. The process is simple if the thing is close to convex, it needs a bit more work if there are non-convex parts.
I stll have to figure out why it makes odd things at poles,and I write a tutorial to explain. [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted-tuto/suzanne2.tga Here] an export of [http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Meshes#Monkey Suzanne] ^_^[[User:camilla Yosuke|camilla Yosuke]]8 may 2007

So here is the [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted2/Blender-to-sculpted.html tutorial] I hope this can help ^_^
Please if you don't want to follow it entirely , at least take a look at the conclusion, at the very end.[[User:camilla Yosuke|camilla Yosuke]] 9 may 2007

[[Version francaise d'Amanda avec plein de tips et d'exemple de .Blend files :]]
http://www.jk-lab.net/sculpt/ ou http://www.jk-lab.com/sculpt/ avec les théories fumantes de Jo Melnik.

It's a french version of the Amanda's Method, with some tips, and Blend files used by Jo Melnik.

''Jo Melnik - 4th december 2007 - Thanks Amanda
''

=== Blender Previewer ===

[http://www.bentha.net/sculpted2/sculpted-preview-2.blend Here] I posted a new version of a better blender previewer, it comes without tutorial, but the tutorial below explains it good [[User:camilla Yosuke|camilla Yosuke]] 9 may 2007

I made a little blender file to preview the sculpted prims. Basically its just a cylinder with the 2 extreme loops sized to a single point ( yes, not a sphere, to avoid blender's odd sphere projection ) with a clean spherical uvmapping. Then in edit mode I sized all the vertices to the smallest possible, approaching a single point, then I applied a displacement modifier, with RVB-XYZ as displace direction, and UV as input, using the apple texture given here as the texture for displacment map. This one is a 16x16 vertices mesh, but I assume it must be the same with a 32x32. [http://www.bentha.net/apple-blender.jpg Here is the result] and [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted-preview.blend the older blender file]
I managed to export deformations of this mesh to pictures,baking the displacment map generated like Eddy said, then previewed these with my little reciepe, it works fine :) Considering the sculpt mode , we have an awesome environment to create sculpted prims in blender ^_^ Beeing very used to use meshes instead of nurbs, that have relatively poor handling in blender so far, I don't even see the point of a script - well, this is my own and personal opinion :) Can't wait for playing with it in world, and make damn die-for-shoes ! Ty for all [[User:camilla Yosuke|camilla Yosuke]] 2 may 2007

Camilla, hate to say this but I got an unexpected shut down on Blender when trying to run the Blender-script. : / It didn't say what kind of error or a cause. Was on AMD 4000+, ATI x1600XT with latest driver update, Window XP Home, hope that helps. --[[User:Vincent Nacon|Vincent Nacon]] 00:07, 2 May 2007 (PDT)

--> fixed, due to using 2.42a instead of 2.43

Vincent, do you mean, when trying to open the .blend file with blender ? Or the 'uv-face-layout' export script, which I packed with the file unintentionally, and which is absolutely not needed for the preview to work.[[User:camilla Yosuke|camilla Yosuke]] 2 may 2007

That's right, just opening the file itself. Not sure what else is there that I had to do with it. --[[User:Vincent Nacon|Vincent Nacon]] 12:27, 2 May 2007 (PDT)

I opened it in Blender 2.42a - instant crash. Blender 2.43 - crashes when i select a Texture (using Win XP SP2/NVIDIA 7600).
Which Blender Version and OS did you use ? Just like in SL, new Blender Versions lead to new Problems.--[[User:Cindy Crabgrass|Cindy Crabgrass]] 13:26, 2 May 2007 (PDT)

Cindy, Camilla and I worked out to see the problem in the blender. Must have Blender version 2.43. However, I'm not sure why you are crashing when selecting texture. I'm on Windows XP and she was on Linux. Both are working well, except the normals are flip sided, which said to fix later. You should talk to Camilla if you're still crashing, she may figure out why. --[[User:Vincent Nacon|Vincent Nacon]] 16:36, 2 May 2007 (PDT)

--> I updated the blend file with normals in the right direction ^_^ [[User:camilla Yosuke|camilla Yosuke]] 3 may 2007

Now i managed to load it, using a special Blender Version from [http://www.graphicall.org/builds/builds/showbuild.php?action=show&id=395 graphicall.org] - must have been a Bug in 2.43 that makes it crash on some Machines. --[[User:Cindy Crabgrass|Cindy Crabgrass]] 07:39, 3 May 2007 (PDT)

=== Blender Misc. ===

Wow, talk about perfect timing! For those who use or are considering using the free & open-source Blender, it just so happens that the latest Blender release (2.43) has an all-new feature that appears to be a wonderful solution for modeling sculpted prims for SL: [http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-243/sculpt-mode/ Sculpt Mode]. From the description page: "Sculpt Mode is a new mode for editing Mesh objects. Unlike Edit Mode, the model's shape is manipulated with various brushes, rather than by editing individual vertices, edges, and faces. Additionally, Sculpt Mode only edits the shape of the model (meaning vertices, edges, and polygons cannot be added or deleted in Sculpt Mode) which allows Sculpt Mode to work considerably faster than Edit Mode on denser meshes. Sculpt Mode is primarily a tool for creating organic shapes with curved surfaces rather than mechanical shapes with flat surfaces and hard edges." Can someone say free alternative to Zbrush? :O [[User:Beatfox Xevious|Beatfox Xevious]] 15:27, 1 May 2007 (PDT)

== Maya ==

Will the Maya exporter work with Maya Personal Learning Edition? [http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7639525] --[[User:Kamilion Schnook|Kamilion]]

:: haven't tried it - but i believe the personal edition puts gaudy maya watermarks on images - which would definitely cause sculpties grief... but this isn't a typical rendering, so perhaps not. worth an experiment. --[[User:Qarl Linden|Qarl Linden]] 09:58, 28 April 2007 (PDT)

:: Hi, I just tried it and and it does unfortunately watermark the resulting image with the free edition. (P.S. Even so, still, WOOOT!!! :)) --[[User:Logan Bauer|Logan Bauer]]

:: This is unlikely to happen because of SL's potential commercial applications, Buuuuut..... Epic Software apparently has a standing deal where their export plugin for Unreal Tourniment 2k3 mods works in Maya PLE without the normal restructions (this may be holdover from before Autodesk bought them). Might it be possible for Linden Lab to look into a similar deal? [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 14:58, 28 April 2007 (PDT)

---------------------------------------

Does anyone know whether sculpts made with the student/faculty edition of maya render correctly in second life. As a hobbyist on second life ( and a college prof) $289 is much easier to justify than $1999. Reginald Barrymore --[[User:Reginald Barrymore|Reginald Barrymore]] 08:10, 6 May 2007 (PDT)
:The educational version of Maya forbids any commercial use of content produced and expires after two years. [[User:Yumi Murakami|Yumi Murakami]]

: The free "Personal Learning Edition" watermarks images making it good for making the sculpt maps, but if you're buying an educational licence for the full program, that should give you full functionality. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 09:37, 6 May 2007 (PDT)

== Lightwave ==

Is there any further info. on this or on how the Blender export is done? I have an in-world friend getting miserable because they use Lightwave and nobody knows how to export from it. I looked around and found that there ''is'' a normal-map generation plug-in for Lightwave, but it's not open to modification, and it seems to be the same for ZBrush too. So just saying it's a "simple modification" is presuming a bit I think ;) [[User:Yumi Murakami|Yumi Murakami]]
:: I just rezzed a pair of bright red one-prim sculptie wellies in world that was originally crafted within Lightwave's toolset. To encourage exploration, I'll drop a couple of major points rather than hand you a tightly parcelled scene. This generic layman walkthrough will require some knowledge of Lightwave, a copy of Lightwave, and imagination: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Patchouli_Woollahra/Lightwave_Sculptie_Rendering - --[[User:Patchouli Woollahra|Patchouli Woollahra]] 08:59, 5 May 2007 (PDT)
: Here's roughly how Eddy described it to me when I asked in email a few days ago:
:: - Follow the directions at http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-236/normal-maps/ for creating a normal map, except select the option to use "Orco" (local position) instead of "Nor"(mals)
:: - "The problem with this is that it's not normalized from 0-255, and aside from doing post-processing on the image I don't know if that can easily be solved in Blender without breaking down and writing a script."
: If you contact him in-world or by email (on the libsecondlife page, he's jhurlman), he can probably give more up to date details. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 12:16, 1 May 2007 (PDT)

:Yumi - consider that the blender work by Eddy was done ONE DAY after we announced the sculpties - i do think i'm safe in saying that exporters are simple work. let's give this project a WHOLE WEEK before we get too upset about how long things are taking... ? :) --[[User:Qarl Linden|Qarl Linden]] 11:01, 1 May 2007 (PDT)

Pricing and demo updates:

LightWave currently sells for US$895 without printed manuals, or if you have Photoshop you can get it as a "companion upgrade" for US$495. The demo version is currently unavailable through the website, but it comes on a DVD with a couple available LightWave 9 books. [[User:Anna Gulaev|Anna Gulaev]] 10:01, 9 August 2007 (EST)

== AutoCAD ==

I was surprised to see Henshin III under the bullet point "Current Sculpt Map Support?". Henshin III is used to create builds within AutoCAD and then import them into Second Life, the tool is very powerful but unfortunately does not support sculpt map generation. I was informed by their support that you can define a block in AutoCAD of "sculpted" type and Henshin will get its parameters and will position it into SL. I'm not sure how this should be noted on the article or if the entry for Henshin should be removed (not my intention to flag it for removal) but as such the answer to "Current Sculpt Map Support?" is "No" (at least to the best of my knowledge, please please please someone prove me wrong). Signed with tildes, [[User:Nand Nerd|nand]] 02:27, 18 December 2007 (PST)

== Misc. 3d Software Qs. ==

:I know of three perfectly free modellers that run on many platforms: Blender, Google's SketchUp, and the open source Wings3D which I use with X-Plane. It would help the "pennyless" content makers tremendously to have exporters for these.

::I'm not sure if Sketchup has the functionality required for this sort of thing. It can do plugins (Python, IIRC) , but it doesn't have much in the line of map rendering and export of non-native formats except maybe for .jpg renders is tied to having the paid "Pro" version. There might be importers for skp files into other programs. Might. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 12:05, 28 April 2007 (PDT)

:::SketchUp just has raster exports (i.e. JPEG, PNG, etc. renders) in the free version. The paid version adds exporters for AutoCAD DWG and DXF, as well as 3D Studio Max. So you can design something in SketchUp, export it to another (more expensive) program, then export a sculpt texture. However, I don't think SketchUp is really ideal for this sort of work... it has a bit of a bias towards orthogonal architecture stuff, which you can already build fairly easily with prims. -- [[User:Pablo Andalso|Pablo Andalso]] 02:04, 5 May 2007 (PDT)

------------------
In considering programs to offer export support for, is there any chance of offering support for Caligari Truespace [http://www.caligari.com/Products/trueSpace/tS75/brochure/intro.asp?Cate=BIntro]? It is priced much more in reach for the average users than 3d Studio Max/Maya, and is not as esoteric as Blender. [[User:Cristiano Midnight|Cristiano Midnight]] 21:12, 27 April 2007 (PDT)

- these exporters are really easy to create - basically if your program has a normal-map generator (most do) it's a simple mod to make a sculpt exporter. so i challenge YOU Cristiano to make the truespace exporter. :) --[[User:Qarl Linden|Qarl Linden]] 09:43, 28 April 2007 (PDT)

-- if i understand the issue right, the main obstacle at the moment would be: the displacement map is "baked" into texture which is created based on UV map associated with low resolution prim. In case of SL sculpt prims, this low res UV map is "hard coded" property of the sculpt prim as it's rezzed in SL rather than anything user would create themselves, and so the displacement map generator has to be given this exact prim with this exact UV map to use it as baking reference or Bad Things(tm) happen. Is there any chance such reference "sculpt prim" with its UV map could be provided for download, perhaps in .obj format for easy use?

- Gonna post tech specs for that sort of thing any time soon? Won't help me much since I'm not a coder, but... [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 13:14, 28 April 2007 (PDT)

-----------------

If NURBS are going to be the recommended methood of making SL objects...for about the price of a Photoshop suite ($995 for the full licence, $195 for students) there's Rhino 3D, which is made with NURBS in mind. I don't know much else about it at this point but it supports plugins and has a trial version (full functionality for 25 saves). http://www.rhino3d.com [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 13:14, 28 April 2007 (PDT)

whoa, no need to buy rhino, I think its overkill, besides - you can't really texture anything in it. if I read correctly, this is more like maya, in which case we're talking patch models. there are lowcost to free patch modelling programs, like A:M, hamapatch, etc. rhino doesn't function like that really, it's a great program but it's not as good for organic modelling. but this is all under the hood stuff. I suspect a polygon model made to approximate the control points and uvspace of the prim will be plenty good enough to work with - and you can sculpt it to your hearts content in a variety of low-cost programs from blender (free) to silo, hexagon, up to programs like zbrush (which would be my preferred method, as I can up and downsample the resolution). I'm guessing based on the info provided about the texture, we're talking about a low poly model limited to 64 control points. --[[User:Hypatia Callisto|Hypatia Callisto]] 14:23, 29 April 2007 (PDT)

:One of the programmers responsible for Rhino is working on a tool called [http://moi3d.com Moment of Inspiration]. Functional beta is available online. Not sure how long it'll be useful, but it does export to .3ds, .obj, .iges, .stl, and OpenNURBs (aka Rhino3D format).

:In addition, there are other NURBs-capable modelers available. [http://www.artofillusion.org/ Art of Illusion] is an open source, Java-based hybrid modeler iirc. [http://ayam.sourceforge.net/ Ayam] is another NURBs modeler that some people might prefer. -- [[User:Csven Concord|Csven Concord]] 17:40, 28 Apr 2007 (PDT)

--------------------------

Please excuse me if i am not posting this correctly
but here goes.
I know very little about 3d programs so my question is. will the average SL user be able to readily use this new prim with out having to pay 1000's 0f $$ for an expensive 3d modeling program.
regardds crucial Armitage

:I'm working on a sculpture map exporter for '''MilkShape3D''', which is free to download and evaluate for 30 days (with no cripples or restrictions, IIRC), and after that is only US$25 to register. --[[User:Deanna Trollop|Deanna Trollop]] 15:34, 2 May 2007 (PDT)

: Short answer: Yes, if you're willing to put in the effort to learn how.
:: Slightly longer answer: see the section above that discusses various free and not-so-free programs [[#3D_Programs_for_the_Rich_and...the_not_so_Rich. | here]]. [http://www.blender.org Blender] will probably be the first to be fully supported. A tool within the SL client is planed eventually. And inevitably, there will be people offering sets of free sculpt maps to builders; new primitive shapes, assorted architectural elements, etcetera. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 15:41, 2 May 2007 (PDT) (who will probably merge this into the afformentioned section but leaves it to be found for the moment)

---------------------------

Has any work been done on a Modo exporter? For those unfamiliar with this wonderful program http://www.luxology.com/ [[User:Lallander Parvenu|Lallander Parvenu]] 13:53, 7 May 2007 (PDT)

: None that I know...I only know one other person who uses Modo though and the laws of demand and supply are in full force. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 09:30, 8 May 2007 (PDT)

---------------------------

== Other Qs ==

Why not provide (for example) a 3DS to texture converter instead of a conversion plugin? Most programs I've seen will save and load 3DS format, so this would be just the same as writing an exporter plugin. [[User:Yumi Murakami|Yumi Murakami]]

- If someone were to go that route, they might be better off using OBJ format, which every polygon modeler worth it's salt can export, or MDL which is less common but the files can be read as plain text like BVH (Neverwinter Nights uses it and there are some existing tools to work with it); it's closer to being a "standard" format than 3DS. I like the idea, but for programers, a lot of existing 3d suites have the ability to render textures built in, which I think would make plugins easier to write initialy.

-- the reason it's better to write an exporter is for programs which can generate a normal map from displacement painting a low polygon mesh. Most of these programs let you subdivide the model to higher resolutions, letting you displacement paint with better detail, giving you a map that can better approximate nurbs-style patch curves, rather than the blocky nature of a polygon model. (OBJ and 3DS are polygon model formats) --[[User:Hypatia Callisto|Hypatia Callisto]] 16:20, 29 April 2007 (PDT)

While on the subject of export formats, does anyone know the prefered format to export NURBS objects in? (OBJ and 3DS are both polygon exports). [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 12:16, 29 April 2007 (PDT)

: to answer this question - Rhino's 3DM format is becoming a standard in that area. But my previous statement holds - no need for Rhino for sculpties. You need a modeller that can export a normal map. Probably best would be some kind of converter to deal with Zbrush's normal maps to turn them into sculptie format. Most programs which can import/export and use normal maps can deal with Zbrush-type maps. --[[User:Hypatia Callisto|Hypatia Callisto]] 03:15, 30 April 2007 (PDT)

:: Well, the question is directed at figuring out platform-independent formats for those working in programs for which there isn't an export to sculpt map yet, in order to pass it along to a program (or person) that does. For polygons it's usualy OBJ.

-- you'll be looking basically at creating something like qavimator is to bvh files. But with an exporter for blender around (and I suspect this will come about pretty soon, and a manual method exists already), I doubt there'll be much need for a stand alone app. The price ranges from free to midrange to highend professional apps can be easily covered. --[[User:Hypatia Callisto|Hypatia Callisto]] 15:47, 30 April 2007 (PDT)

: one problem is that no one can agree on which program is the best, which format, etc, etc. ideally i'd like to see our vibrant community develop the import/export mechanisms - they're the ones who know exactly what the want/need. --[[User:Qarl Linden|Qarl Linden]] 13:09, 29 April 2007 (PDT)

:: I would like to create an OBJ->texture converter but I'm not 100% sure on the best approach to use. At a general, conceptual level, and please correct me if I'm wrong, I envisage the conversion process to get a 64x64 textures as follows:
- draw a sphere around the object to be represented
- draw a 64x64 grid on the sphere (like parallels and meridans on a world map)
- for each ray from the center of the sphere to a grid point
-- compute the intersection of the ray with the object
- Scale, normalize, etc to fit into 0-255 range.

:: I understand the process as described above, assuming is correct, is heavy and that 3d software have means to ease that conversation so exporters are preferable to converters. Nevertheless there are so many 3D programs (CB Model Pro, anyone?) able to create .obj files that I believe a converter will prove itself useful.

:: That said, I must confess that I still don't understand many things. It's not clear to me how normals map (that is stored into the .obj file) relates to the sculpted texture even if elsewhere in this discussion someone said that from the normal maps one can derive the texture. Any hints? --[[User:Rael Delcon|Rael Delcon]] 01:29, 9 May 2007 (PDT)

----------------------------------

:: Just so I'm clear, Linden Lab is supporting Autodesk software first and then open source second, despite the fact that the viewer is open sourced? This is a very mixed signal. I would have thought that the open source stuff would have been done first. Is this how we should expect features to be done in the future? Cater to the minority so that process drives product instead of product driving process? --[[User:Nobody Fugazi|Nobody Fugazi]] 10:37, 5 May 2007 (PDT)

::: Sounds like you're very unclear. I don't believe LL supports any plug-ins at all. It doesn't even support sculpted prims yet. When it does, it probably still won't support any plug-ins, but by then the community will have them for many different platforms. The question of "Which platforms?" will be decided the same way it's always decided in open-source community projects -- coders who use particular platforms will code for them, and the order they get made will depend on the speed of the individual coders in question, and will not be determined by any official policy anywhere. --[[User:Gaius Goodliffe|Gaius Goodliffe]]

:::: The original blog posts clearly highlighted Autodesk software which is as good as a pepsi ad in a movie. As far as 'what is decided in open source communities', well - let's see, Gaius - would an open source community have started with Autodesk software when they could have started with Blender? But Deight defends below, saying Qarl knew only Maya... and I feel for Qarl. I do. But this is NOT about Qarl, this is about software available to the community for features available to the community which affect an economy where Maya users were at an almost immediate advantage. Despite what some people may think, I am fairly certain that Maya users form a minority of the SecondLife community. --[[User:Nobody Fugazi|Nobody Fugazi]] 08:19, 16 May 2007 (PDT)

::: Sculpted prims were made by Qarl. Qarl knows Maya best. So, when he made this he did it with Maya because that was the easiest and quickest option for him to do it. He didn't make it so that's it's impossible to use other tools, and in fact it took pretty much ''one day'' for serious progress on Blender export to come along. One week later, it's now easy to make Blender exports. Would you rather have waited for Qarl to learn Blender, make an exporter for it, and ''then'' release it? Or do you just wanna remember that Qarl just wanted to get this out as soon as it was stable, and worry about other applications later? --[[User:Deight Boccara|Deight Boccara]] 18:36, 5 May 2007 (PDT)
:::: Short answer: Yes. When releasing a new feature to a diverse community, it is sensible not to treat some better than others based on their ability to use one package over another. Qarl may have made it, but the release of it to the public was probably not his decision. Would it have been horrible to wait a little while to get sculpted prims out the door in a more mature manner? That is the point. We could have waited another week or two for a more balanced release, especially with the bubbly entries highlighting Autodesk software. They sure got some cheap advertising out of that. --[[User:Nobody Fugazi|Nobody Fugazi]] 08:19, 16 May 2007 (PDT)
:::: couldn't have said it better, Deight. --[[User:Qarl Linden|Qarl Linden]] 20:03, 5 May 2007 (PDT)
:::::Perhaps you couldn't have, Qarl, but perhaps more preparation before release is in order. Just because you're good in Maya doesn't mean that the Linden Lab client base is, and demonstrating something can be done in Maya is fine and dandy - I appreciate that - but having the blog entry releasing it along the lines of an advertorial did not impress myself. The only people who seem duly impressed are defending you when in fact I am not attacking you. What I am attacking is a supposedly open source friendly company forcing the community to develop something for a feature simply because internally they do not seem to be eating their own dog food. What I will suggest to you, Qarl, is to become more familiar with open source software. Based on the belief people have in you, I have no doubt you could have learned blender - if you have not done so yet - and there could have been a balanced release which didn't seem like an advertorial for Autodesk. It is a good thing, these sculptured prims - but when they skew toward one small user group, you can expect criticism and perhaps some righteous indignation. This is not just about prims. This affects a lot of other things, and to say otherwise is myopic. --[[User:Nobody Fugazi|Nobody Fugazi]] 08:19, 16 May 2007 (PDT)

::::::Nobody, by the time you're posting this, it's allready a moot point, with exporters now avalible for Blender, Wings 3D, Lightwave and more programs on the way. [[Sculpted Prims: 3d Software Guide]] should be up-to-date with the links and such. (Of those I listed, Wings is probably the easiest for a complete newbie to pick up, though the first version of the export is somewhat limited to specific dimentions.)

::::::It does not take "a coupple weeks" to learn Blender. One may grasp the basics in that amount of time but Blender still has one of the sharpest learning curves of all the 3d software out there. Even were that not so, I took a college course in 3ds Max over a year ago and I'm ''still'' learning the program, not because it's necesicarly difficult but because there is a lot to learn. Yet in those "coupple weeks" five or six methoods have been developed using other programs, some of them that may even be better than Qarl's initial script if I may venture to say so, by people who allready learned the programs. Wouldn't you say that's better than one guy spending a month or two or more trying to learn the program in his spare time (and very possibly a new scripting language to go with it) by himself one at a time?

::::::And while I hardly think the blog anouncement sounded like an advertisement, Autodesk does make good stuff. (Or in the case of Maya, buy out good stuff.) I'm not particuarly defending Qarl or Linden Lab...I'm just saying you're wrong. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 16:56, 16 May 2007 (PDT)

:::::::Hey i just found this.... PolyTrans-for-MAX 3D conversion plug-in system 4.3. http://www.highend3d.com/downloads/tools/3d_converters/PolyTrans-for-MAX-3D-conversion-plug-in-system-3698.html
It can do OpenNURBS wondering if someone can look at it and its use with the OPENNURBS exporter for SL
[[User:Dimentox Travanti|Dimentox Travanti]] 11:09, 23 May 2007 (PDT)

== A very green Newbie in 3D world ==

Another 'Free' program is 'Dez Studio' ... by all accounts it's easy to use with plenty of material available . Does anyone know if its compatible with SL re upload ?. Thanks : )

:I suspect you mean "''Daz'' Studio...the program circulated among SL animators for a while as a way to do BVH exports...initaly it lacked an exporter at all save the paid version and I think even if they ever did include a BVH export, people found it lacking. It's more of a competitor to Poser than any of the programs listed here.

:Now on the other hand, Daz does make other products and looking at their page, I see that one of them is [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/hexagon/-/? Hexagon]. There's a chance that might fit the bill. I'll have a looksee at their feature list. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 16:31, 16 May 2007 (PDT)

== 3D for all SL artists.....Vive la revolution ! ==

Whilst I see much talk of the super league 3D programmes that require a stack of $'s to own, it would be great if Linden Labs could source an economical selection of compatable software and make a list available for the less well-off creative 'greenhorns' who want to get involved in the new prim revolution. It sounds to me like Sculpted prims are going to change the way SL looks in a major way .

: Read the article attached to this talk page and note the big section that says "Free 3d Modeling Software". Particuarly Blender and Wings3d. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 22:25, 18 May 2007 (PDT)

== Modo ==

Modo isn't a NURBS modeler, its focus is on polygon and subdivision surfaces (sub-d) modeling.

== Hexagon ==

Hexagon was originally developed by Eovia of France. It was purchased by Daz to supplement their product suite - poser assets and Daz Studio. Daz Studio isn't really a modeling package, but is used to pull together scenes from pre-existing assets.

Carrara is another Daz (formerly Eovia) product that is more of a full-fledged 3D package than Hexagon, although the modeling capabilities are (apparently) not as comprehensive as those in Hexagon.

: Thanks for the info...feel free to update the section in the article, as you seem to know more about it than I (who made an educated guess from the webpage). [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 21:03, 21 May 2007 (PDT)

== Modeling Tools of Interest ==

[http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=184823 Forum Thread]
*[http://www.mudbox3d.com Mudbox]
*[http://www.curvy3d.com Curvy3d]
*[http://www.cbmodelpro.com Curvy3d]

http://www.ppmodeler.com/index.php

[http://directory.fsf.org/graphics/3d/ Free Software Directory: Graphics > 3D]
*[http://www.k-3d.org/wiki/Main_Page]
*[http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/]
*[http://www.misfitcode.com/misfitmodel3d/]
*[http://www.moonlight3d.eu/cms/]
*[http://osgedit.sourceforge.net/]
*[http://sharp3d.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page]

More...
*[http://threedom.sourceforge.net/]
*[http://www.jpatch.com/]
*[http://k3dsurf.sourceforge.net/] <- 4+ dimensional modeling x_x

Others...
*[http://www.bishop3d.com/]
*[http://www.metaseq.net/english/index.html]

== How do I upload images to Second Life? ==

Please Help!!

I heard the main grid can now accept prims sculpted in Blender. I've made objects, cooked them, and saved them, but can't upload them from Second Life via "file/upload image, animation, or sound" so how do I do it? Do I download them to my avatar's inventory from Blender???

-Wish Lusch

PS I have succesfully uploaded Images... This can't be that hard... What am I missing?

: You use "upload image" same as any other texture; find the image file (not the .blend file) that you saved out in Blender and upload that. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 09:31, 24 May 2007 (PDT)

Thank you, Elle,
HOW DO I SAVE AS .pdf IN BLENDER? Sounds silly, but I can't find out how to do that in "save as" or under "export" though there are 27 other files types I can save as.
-Frustrated Avatar Sculpting Tangibles

If it's not explained in the tutorial you're using, you should bug the tutorial authors to include it. I'm not in a good position to dig for the answer at the moment. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 06:06, 26 May 2007 (PDT)

== Organizing the list ==

So, something for the hive mind to ponder:

When I started this list, it initialy seemed that there need only be 3 catigories: Free software (in either the beer or the speech (but mostly the beer) definition of the word), Professional software, i.e. paid stuff in the league of Maya and Max, and "other", software that, whether paid or free, would probably be less than ideal for sculpt making. Right now though, we're being inundated with programs I didn't even know existed and a lot of stuff that doesn't fit any of those catigories cleanly.

One catigory that I think I'm going to add is "Resident-Made Sculpting Tools", for which Rokuro and 3dm2sculpt would be the current entries along with obj2sculpt if it ever gets made...programs that aren't 3d modelers but can generate sculpt maps nonetheless.

The "Other" and the "Professional" catigories are troublesome, because otherness is largely in the eye of the beholder. For example, I put Milkshape as one of the first entries into that category...it costs $25 but you're getting what you pay for in this case, which I say with a small degree of experience trying to use it. Does that mean Amorphium ($79) should go in "Other"? If someone manages to create a sculpt map plugin for Milkshape then does it get bumped up with the pro software? Should Ayam (in the "free" catigory) be bumped down to Other because no one seems to be using it? And where does POV Ray fit into all this? It doesn't create models but it can still render sculpt textures from existing ones.

Part of the problem is testing...it's hard to know what a program is good at without giving them a test drive and who has time to download and play in all these demos? How are you going to entice people to try out something that doesn't allready have a following? (As I mentioned above somewhere, the laws of demand and supply are in full effect...people will demand sculpt support for their program and the higher the demand, the more likely the supply. To what degree should this list pay attention to that demand as well?)

Should "Professional" perhaps be reclassified as "paid" and have programs grouped by price range? I don't know if that's a particuarly good idea because "Professional" indicates a certian degree of quality and usefullness and I want to preserve that aspect of the grouping somehow.

It should not be the goal of this page to list every 3d software program in existance...if we turn up some previously unknown gems in the process, that's good, but there's got to be a seperation of wheat and chaff somewhere in order to be usefull.

[[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 10:34, 24 May 2007 (PDT)

:At first I was thinking alphabetical. It maybe easier to index them at the end of the page under one group. Then, they can be sorted in different categories near the top with page links to below. [[User:Dzonatas Sol|Dzonatas Sol]] 11:03, 24 May 2007 (PDT)

:Another thing I'm thinking of is whether there's a sane methood of having user ratings on here. I'm not sure how that could be done well without some extra coding or an external webpage. Even something as basic as a thumbs up/thumbs down tally with comments would be nice; it would offer a rough gague of how popular a program is among SL users who are following this stuff. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 10:51, 31 May 2007 (PDT)

== ToDo ==

This space is my running list of things I'm working on or would like to see done with this page. Feel free to add to it or grab an item off the list and do it. [[User:Elle Pollack|Elle Pollack]] 10:46, 31 May 2007 (PDT)

Continual tasks:
* Find sources for general tutorials in the various programs, especialy beginer-level ones and link them in the respective Resources section. (Sites with tutorials or other resources that apply to many different programs go into the other resources section)
* Many of the scultpy tutorials Residents are writing are in need of serious copyediting and fleshing out - a lot of them assume the reader knows what they're doing in a program, for example.
** If you can get permission from the author, offer to mirror the tutorial on the Wiki where we can get our collective hands on it.

(5/31/07)

* <s>Instead of saying whether a program supports NURBS modeling, it will be more usefull to say what methoods of modeling it supports. The importance of NURBS has, in my opinion, been shown to be a moot point and it's going to boil down to personal preference in the end.
** Polygon, NURBS, Subdivision, Brush sculpting (the later is a bit tricky: 3ds Max has paint deformation, Blender has a new sculpt mode, but do they even compare to zBrush and the like?)</s> Done
* <s>Organize the pro software list by price range. Suggested divisions: Under US$100, $100-$499, $500-$999, $1000+</s> Done, but with 3 divisions instead of 4)
* Create a section for tools that are just for 3d painting/UVMapping: i.e. DeepPaint3d, UV Mapper Pro, Tattoo. These may warant a seperate page since they're not strictly related to sculpties.

(7/04)
* The Resident-made tools section has grown to the point where it warants its own page (Linkage: [[Sculpted Prims: Resident-made Tools]]

== Uploading Textures ==

It says in the article that 128 x 128 textures are not compressed. Is this correct? I find it hard to believe since I've attempted to upload 128 x 128 textures and I still receive some vertice drift.
- [[User:Obsidian Stormwind|Obsidian Stormwind]] 06:33, 3 June 2007 (PDT)

:Tests show that 128x128 is lossless or at the least near to lossless. Maybe 128x128 only has loss in specific cases. You can test for yourself if you're suffering from compression artifacts. Save the texture from SL back to your disk. Load both original and saved texture in photoshop. Add a layer to the original one with Mode set to difference. Paste the saved texture in the new layer. Flatten the image. Change the contrast to +100. If you get a full white image you've no compression artifacts. If you spots of red, green, yellow, black ... you do.

:Note that there are many reasons why you may seem to have drift. Precision is only 8 bits so it's not always possible for exporters to reproduce exactly what you had in your designer. I also don't expect this situation to last. Logically what you'd expect to see is the reverse: 64x64 and below lossless, 128x128 and above lossy. Maybe that's what they wanted but they made a typo? :) --[[User:Blakar Ogre|Blakar Ogre]] 07:43, 3 June 2007 (PDT)

::Blakar, please see my comments on the JIRA page. There is a bug in your testing methodology. 128x128 textures definitely are lossy-compressed. --[[User:Deanna Trollop|Deanna Trollop]] 19:46, 3 June 2007 (PDT)

HTML on a Prim Use Cases

2007-11-22T21:08:06Z

Nand Nerd:

This page is for listing actual use cases for HTML on a Prim. Write up a section for what you would use HTML on a Prim for. Please only add a section for what an actual use you have, not something you could imagine using. A good metric is if you have a project that would be substantially improved, or that you could actually do now if you had the feature. Please don't add seconds for uses that you might imagine someone building. We want to know what '''you''' would do. If you have several different things, add several sections.

'''Note:''' There have been many interesting use cases discussed in [[User:Zero_Linden | Zero's office hours]]. If talked about one there, please extract your use case and summarize it here.

It is okay, even preferable, for you to add your use case, even if there is another similar one here. By see all the particular details of each use case, we can begin to extract the common needed features.

See also: [[User:Zero Linden/Office Hours/HTML on a Prim Taxonomy | HTML on a Prim Taxonomy]]

----

== Tree Kyomoon ==

''I received this in world on a notecard from Tree. Hope he doesn't mind me posting it here. -- Zero''

1. get content hosted externally into SL , just images so we dont have to pay L$10 for each mistake

2. get text into SL via http, not linked text just plain text

3. an interactive browser on a 3d surface is nerdy and cool, but unnecessary, as is flash for a while

4. fix HTTPRequest so it is more transparent and compliant with web systems, I have 200,000 users I could bring into SL via our learning management system if I could properly authenticate them and grab the course XML. I can render it with objects, I just need to get the data in and out :)

==Use Cases for HTML on a prim==
# Presently, to make a presentation within SL I have to create the 'slides' or 'flipcharts' as a matrix on a single image which I can then put on a prim (usually 4x4) and upload. The cost is negligible, clearly, but the ease of use is lacking. I can't easily take different paths through the slides, nor jump to a different presentation easily if required. Direct use of HTML would greatly ease this. I did try using Flash but found through testing that it was not possible to co-ordinate which state was displayed to each user so that they all say the same 'side' together. --[[User:Alison Wheels|Alison Wheels]]
# To bring in live news updates from outside in an easier manner than a headline and an off-SL browser link. Being able to display the latest SL Blog entry on a prim in the Infohub I operate would also be nicer than sending someone off to an external browser as it would keep the resident within SL rather than probably hiding the SL window (where they might miss someone talking to them, etc) --[[User:Alison Wheels|Alison Wheels]]
# Additionally, many items are scripted to do texture changes - which causes an element of sim lag - whereas moving that script+image off-SL to an externally hosted image (animated gif, whatever) will help all residents. --[[User:Alison Wheels|Alison Wheels]] 06:36, 21 March 2007 (PDT)
# Display current score for an interactive game where the game is controlled entirely by LSL scripts --[[User:Kelly Linden|Kelly Linden]]
# Display a list of high scores - user names plus scores for a game written entirely in LSL --[[User:Kelly Linden|Kelly Linden]]
# Display a list of high scores for a game whose score tracking is performed outside of SL/LSL --[[User:Kelly Linden|Kelly Linden]]
# Display information about the world in a HUD, or about a game written in LSL (nearby avatars, augmented reality, game stats) --[[User:Kelly Linden|Kelly Linden]]
# Display information about a game run on servers outside SL/LSL in a HUD, with multiple HUD components --[[User:Kelly Linden|Kelly Linden]]
# Implement advanced user addons in the HUD - a HUD that is your AIM/YAHOO/MSN contact list and IM interface --[[User:Kelly Linden|Kelly Linden]]
# An in world console to display information about a game and allow interaction with the game --[[User:Kelly Linden|Kelly Linden]]
# Interactive Movies/Stories. [[User:Gigs Taggart|Gigs Taggart]] 13:26, 27 March 2007 (PDT)
# Puzzle Games [[User:Gigs Taggart|Gigs Taggart]] 13:26, 27 March 2007 (PDT)
# In world "cameras". By using a scripted client, we could have "camera screens" into other parts of the world. [[User:Gigs Taggart|Gigs Taggart]] 13:26, 27 March 2007 (PDT)
# Morphed Text Displays/Captcha [[User:Gigs Taggart|Gigs Taggart]] 13:26, 27 March 2007 (PDT)
# 2D Action Games. If the client caches the textures, flipping between them might happen a lot more quickly. [[User:Gigs Taggart|Gigs Taggart]] 13:26, 27 March 2007 (PDT)
# Ads. Some people might serve web based ads. [[User:Gigs Taggart|Gigs Taggart]] 13:26, 27 March 2007 (PDT)
# Web cams without relying on quicktime. [[User:Gigs Taggart|Gigs Taggart]] 13:26, 27 March 2007 (PDT)
# http textures: get product images into Second Life, such as books, CDs etc. and make them exchangable automatically. Dynamic search results from Amazon with images are another usecase --[[User:Tao Takashi|Tao Takashi]]
# text on a prim: for any device like RSS readers, search results again and so on. --[[User:Tao Takashi|Tao Takashi]]
# creating better HUD userinterfaces with HTML-on-a-prim. UI scripting could happen server side and buttons are more easily exchangable etc. --[[User:Tao Takashi|Tao Takashi]]
# For basic whiteboarding, use HTML-on-a-prim as the backdrop (in our case we were doing a design review of concept sketches) then meeting participants can move small prims around on the surface of the presentation prim to highlight areas of interest (while discussing in voice chat). Maybe we could add a "web projector screen" object to the library? [[User:Benjamin Linden|Benjamin Linden]] 10:31, 30 March 2007 (PDT)
# Collaborative text document editing [[User:Ryan Linden|Ryan Linden]]
# Collaborative spreadsheet editing [[User:Ryan Linden|Ryan Linden]]
# Gallery2 to SL photo sharing; for example, for an in-world picture gallery of RL photos, complete with RL ordering and delivery [[User:Dr Scofield|Dr Scofield]]
# displaying and entering data into ANY kind of form without having a browser window over the "worldview" [[User:Pham Neutra|Pham Neutra]]
# having a usable way to input TEXT into an application (doing this by chat is a joke) [[User:Pham Neutra|Pham Neutra]]
# a usable collaborative whiteboard for inworld meetings (in discussion with one of our clients) [[User:Pham Neutra|Pham Neutra]]
# creating interactive UIs for many RL/SL applications [[User:Pham Neutra|Pham Neutra]]
## coupling web based shops and inworld shops more effectively and with better usability
## selling land and managing land (in discussion with one of our clients)
## creating a reputation system with an inworld interface (in discussion with one of our clients)
## creating a better/alternative inworld search engine or many different specialized ones
## creating a better/alternative inworld classifieds system or (in discussion with one of our clients)
## creating an information/management system for inworld groups (in discussion with one of our clients)
# creating a custom soundtrack / long streams of sound effects for an area by enabling numerous media streams from objects across a parcel [[User:Dizzy Banjo|Dizzy Banjo]]
# Web-based tools such as http://www.nandnerd.info/particlesystem.php or http://www.nandnerd.info/sculpty.php which could be integrated with Second Life more fully should we have this feature (and will be when the time comes). [[User:Nand Nerd|nand]] 13:08, 22 November 2007 (PST)

for many of these applications a set of APIs, which can interface the server based app or a javascript app with inworld information, would be extremely useful (getting information about the avatar interacting, the inworld location of the prim etc. etc.)
# Currently for the Historical Museum I'm using notecards to give information out to people, while this is great for spreading information it's a disaster to update each card to provide new information when the same article is updated on the History Wiki. So I'd love to use HTML on a prim to replace the current notecard based system with just HTML prims that show the wiki page. I could also maybe create a HUD that makes use of the wiki, providing more information with less inventory filling content. [[User:Oz Spade|Oz Spade]] 17:55, 22 June 2007 (PDT)

==TrustNet==
I run an in-world reputation system. The current capabilities of SL limit what can be done. Here's what I'd add:
* Screens (near doors for example), that display information on why exactly somebody wasn't allowed in. Moderated areas could contain a small area with a screen that could be used to display the reason why somebody isn't welcome.
* Use it as a part of an avatar scanner HUD, to represent information like graphs and tables that are difficult to represent well in LSL.
* System status display, with information about system load, service availability, etc.
* Make it possible to access the website directly from SL, which has functionality that is currently very impractical to implement in-world, such as tables with hundreds of rows.
* It would make it possible to create an in-world demonstration of how the system works. Currently assembling such a thing from prims seems to be fairly complicated.
[[User:Dale Glass|Dale Glass]] 11:02, 25 March 2007 (PDT)

User:Nand Nerd

2007-06-19T12:02:33Z

Nand Nerd:

'''Name:''' nand Nerd

'''Website:''' [http://www.nandnerd.info www.nandnerd.info]

The following is my "artist statement" for [[SL4B_Art]]

'''Artwork:''' Flexi-hedra display

'''About the artwork:'''
4 Flexi-hedra are suspended in force fields as platonic solids until awoken by the touch of an avatar. At once the solids are fluid and come to life as they shift from one colour to the next.

These Flexi-hedra started life as polyhedra built by laying out the net of the shape and rotating sections until it finally took form. Quite a long process and open to making quite a few mistakes. The I was very happy with the result and would have stopped there though for some reason I decided to apply the new feature "flexible path" which had been brought to the main grid that week. Once I had seen one polyhedra with the flexible path feature I knew there was something worth experimenting with. A fair bit of scripting work went into the Flexi-hedra as they are just now however most of that was spent on adding little features and controls which would not be apparent, the core scripting that goes into the motion of the Flexi-hedra is relatively simple.

'''About the Artist:'''
Artist? I'm no artist. What would I know about art? I'm an Engineer, damnit. That aside, when these Flexi-hedra were put on display I found myself being referred to as an artist. I'm not sure how this could be compared to Real Life (would Stephenson's Rocket be classed a work of art?). I was flattered that I was invited to display my work at the Second Life's 3rd Anniversary (SL3B) Art Exhibition and I thouroughly enjoyed the response I got from those who commented on my work. In my time in Second Life I have worked on many silly little experiments and shall hopefully continue to do so, perhaps I shall strike it lucky with another random "work of art".

Enough rambling now, I'm a 23 year old Mechanical Engineer from Scotland. I enjoy scripting and messing around with fundamental mathematics. When I'm not working in RL or in SL I'm usually Scuba Diving or spending time with my Fiancee. If you would like to know more about what I'm working on, what I have worked on or what I may yet be working on with regards to Second Life please visit [http://www.nandnerd.info/ www.nandnerd.info] and [http://blog.nandnerd.info/ blog.nandnerd.info].

Sculpted Prims: 3d Software Guide

2007-06-17T22:57:30Z

Nand Nerd: /* In-world Preview Tools */

{| align="right"
| __TOC__
|}

== About 3D Modeling Software ==

A list of 3D modeling software for use with Sculpt Maps for [[Sculpted Prims]], along with a short explanation of popular 3D file formats and off line previewers. Each entry lists the software package's web site, operating system support, cost and trial versions if applicable, and the license.

;What Features are important for making Sculpted Prims?

Each software entry includes a rundown of features that are particularly useful for creating Sculpt Maps. Although support for these features isn't necessary in order to create Sculpt Maps, it can make the process a whole lot easier.

*'''User Scripting:''' A script interface is one of the easiest and fastest ways to add functionality to a program or to automate tasks the program is already capable of. Plugins and SDKs can do the same thing but may not be available.
*'''NURBS:''' NURBS stands for "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NURBS Non Uniform Rational B-Splines]". It's an advanced modeling technique in which shapes are created by manipulating a series of curved splines. Compare this to [[Sculpted Prims Creators Guide#PolygonMesh|polygon modeling]], a more economical method of manipulating the faces, edges and vertices of a polygon mesh, which is frequently used for computer graphics. NURBS are very good at creating organic shapes and smooth curves and, according to Qarl Linden, they convert to sculpted prims much more easily than polygon meshes. (However with the flood of Resident solutions for creating sculpt prims in different programs, this distinction may turn out not to be relevant.)
*'''Built-in texture baking/generation:''' This term describes the ability to create/"render" textures and export them to image files. If this functionality is built into the software, it is available to user-generated scripts. For example, it allows manual export of Sculpt Maps with [[#Blender|Blender]] and [[#Lightwave_.28Newtek.29|Lightwave]]. It can also make it easier to create regular textures for your model; you can apply colors, patterns or just a template guide to your model and bake it out for upload or further detailing in a paint program.

;Do I need a really powerful computer to run this stuff?

For most Second Life users, this shouldn't be a major issue. If your computer is capable of running the Second Life client, you should have no trouble running most of these programs. Some programs will run fine on something as old as a Pentium III. A few professional programs (like Maya) say they'll only support high-end workstation graphics cards but it will still run ok on a regular setup. Check the system requirements on the software vendor's webpage for specific details.

;What program(s) are the best for making sculpties?

There's no easy answer to that question. It will depend on a number of factors:
* '''How much money are you willing to spend?''' The cost of 3d software ranges from "free" to thousands of dollars. Programs like Maya and 3ds Max are powerful but if you're not allready seriously into 3d modeling, they're probably overkill. Lightwave, zBrush and programs in their price range are powerful profesional tools while still being within reach of a reasonably well-to-do person who's dedicated to their SL design work, but these are probably still overkill as most of the features you pay for gone beyond the general tools to create sculpt maps for Second Life. Programs like Amorphium, trueSpace and Milkshape are aimed at professionals and casual hobbyists but not all of them are going to have the full 3D studio capabilities of some more expensive programs. Free programs run the gammut between the pro and hobby levels and you'll have to consider other factors when choosing between them.

* '''How much time are you willing to invest?''' If you want to just make a few sculpted objects, a simple standalone utility like Rokuro might suit you best. If you're a serious content creator though, you'll want to put the time and effort into learning a more complex program.

* '''How much prior experience do you have?''' If you've been working with 3d software for a while already, you probably already know what you like or will have an easier time picking up a new and/or more complicated program. If you're a brand newbie to modeling, it's probably a mistake to jump right into a program like Blender or Maya with their steep learning curves. The availability of general modeling tutorials and other resources (not just SL-related ones) will probably affect your choice as well.
 

== Built-in Features ==
These are features that are available to vote upon to include in the main client. Some of these have custom clients that you can download and try.

=== {{jira|VWR-1110}} Scuplted Prims: Ability to Import .OBJ Files ===
*'''Vote:''' [https://jira.secondlife.com/secure/ViewIssue.jspa?id=12107&vote=vote Click here]
*'''Patch available''': Yes
*'''Custom client available''': Yes - [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=191214&package_id=235614&release_id=516188 Download]

=== {{jira|VWR-1111}} Scuplted Prims: Ability to Import .3DS Files ===
*'''Vote:''' [https://jira.secondlife.com/secure/ViewIssue.jspa?id=12108&vote=vote Click here]
*'''Patch available''': No
*'''Custom client available''': No

=== {{jira|VWR-858}} Scuplted Prims: Ability to Import .3DM Files ===
*'''Vote:''' [https://jira.secondlife.com/secure/ViewIssue.jspa?id=11701&vote=vote Click here]
*'''Patch available''': No
*'''Custom client available''': No

== Offline Preview Tools ==

Basic tools that can be used to preview what a sculpt texture will look like when uploaded into Second Life and rendered as a prim. All of these are made by other Residents and should generally be considered beta or works in progress.

=== XNA Sculptpreview ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Eddy Stryker | Eddy Stryker]]
*'''Link to get it''': [[User:Eddy_Stryker/XNA_Sculptpreview | XNA Sculptpreview]]
*'''Requires''': Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, along with the Microsoft XNA framework (see above link for details)
*'''Derivatives''': [http://mailerdaemon.home.comcast.net/SculptedPreview.zip XNA SculptPreview] - Modified version to include LOD and a more sensible camera configuration (and a bunch of other changes under the hood).

=== A Hacky Sculpt Previewer ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Yumi Murakami | Yumi Murakami]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.bijodesign.com/sculpt/SculptPreview.html Web Start Launcher], [http://www.bijodesign.com/sculpt/SculptPreview.jar Executable JAR file], [[Hacky Sculpt Previewer | Source Code]] (Java SDK required to run from the source).
*'''Requires''': [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp Java Runtime Engine 1.6 or higher], [http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D/download.html Java 3d API] and any OS that will run them (Win, Mac and Linux are well covered). If installing or upgrading the JRE, be sure to do it before installing Java3d. The Web Start link above should be able to automatically install any needed components. Note that it will attempt to automatically redirect your browser to a download page, so if nothing happens when you click on it, please check your security settings will allow this.

=== Cel_Sculptpreview ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Cel Edman | Cel Edman]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.xs4all.nl/~elout/sculptie/ Download from website]
*'''Requires''': [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp Java Runtime Engine 1.6 or higher] installed on your system. This is a simple Sculpt previewer created in [http://processing.org/ Processing]. Downloads available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Currenly not further developed, since Cel continues on developing Sculptypaint (Resident-made Sculpt Creation Tools) at the moment, that got this realtime previewer as well.
 

== In-world Preview Tools ==

Tools that can be used to view in Second Life what a sculpt will look like before the texture is uploaded.

=== Texture Wizard (Commercial) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://sl.infomyth.com/texturepreview/texturepreview.htm Infomyth.com]
*'''In-World:''' [http://slurl.com/secondlife/Horowitz/217/105/23/ Horowitz]
*'''Cost:''' L$399 (about $1.80 U.S.)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP

Works using the media texture on your land (you must own or rent land to use it) using QuickTime, the way an in-game TV does. Saving a .bmp, .jpg or .psd file will automatically update the image in-game. You can see your changes live on a prim. Avoids uploads until you are done (you must still upload for a permanent version). Also works just as a regular texture previewer.
 

=== Sculpt Preview using Parcel Media ===

*'''Website:''' [http://nandnerd.info/blog/2007/06/16/sculpty-media-video-url-previewer/ blog.nandnerd.info/...]
*'''Forum Discussion:''' [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=191214 forums.SecondLife.com]
*'''Author:''' [[User:nand Nerd | nand Nerd]]
*'''In-World:''' [http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lasiocampa/133/209/57 Lasiocampa]
*'''Requirements:''' Web hosting

Tutorial on using the Parcel Media as a Sculpt Texture Preview. Example available at location above (Lasiocampa 133,209,57).

== Resident-made Sculpt Creation Tools ==

The tool slisted here aren't fully-fledged 3d modeling programs — they don't integrate with the modeling software listed below; they are stand-alone tools for creating sculpt maps. As with the previewers above, consider them works in progress.

=== ROKURO Sculpted Prim Maker ===

*'''Creator:'''[[User:Yuzuru Jewell | Yuzuru Jewell]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://kanae.net/secondlife/
*'''Requires:''' Windows/Mac OS X/Linux using wine

Rokuro translates from Japanese as "lathe" and that's basically what this is: a standalone version of the lathe tool found in many 3d modeling programs that saves directly to sculpt maps. You draw a line in 2d by editing the various points and the program effectively spins that line around an axis to create the 3d object. Cylinders and polygonal prisms are both possible. Obviously limited to things you can create with this method so far, but easy for anyone to pick up and use and more features are still being added. Created by resident Yuzuru Jewell...arigato!

'''Resources'''

* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=184264 sl forum thread] (restricted access)

=== TOKOROTEN(extruder)Sculpted Prim Maker ===

*'''Creator:'''[[User:Yuzuru Jewell | Yuzuru Jewell]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://kanae.net/secondlife/tokoroten.html
*'''Requires:''' Windows

This Program makes Sculpted Prim texture .tga file of the pushed-out object.
TOKOROTEN is Japanese jelly extruded to thin strips.
An object will be pushed out if the form of the hole which you push out is made.
You can twist or round an object. You draw a line in 2d by editing the various points and the program. Obviously limited to things you can create with this method so far, but easy for anyone to pick up and use and more features are still being added. Created by resident Yuzuru Jewell...arigato!

'''Resources'''

* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=184264 sl forum thread] (restricted access)

=== 3dm2sculpt ===

*'''Creator:''' [[User:Cindy Crabgrass | Cindy Crabgrass]]
*'''Link to get it:''' [[3dm2sculpt|3dm2sculpt]]
*'''Requires:''' Windows

A command-line utility that reads an [[#3D_File_Formats | OpenNURBS]] .3dm file and generates a .tga sculpt map from it. Still in need of a lot of testing but potentially very useful for any program that supports this format.

=== obj2sculpt ===

*'''Creator:''' [[User:Cindy Crabgrass | Cindy Crabgrass]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=1505114&postcount=14
*'''Requires:''' Windows

A command-line utility that reads a Wavefront Style .obj file and generates a .tga sculpt texture from it. Still in need of a lot of testing but potentially very useful for any program that supports this format.

=== sculpty.php ===

*'''Creator:''' [[User:nand Nerd | nand Nerd]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://www.nandnerd.info/sculpty.php
*'''Requires:''' Browser

A web-based series of tools, still rather primitive but constantly updating. Currently implemented are revolve and z,r revolve which both take a series of values (radii and z-pos,radii values respectively) and rotate them around the z-axis. Recently implemented a constant cross-section which extrudes a series of x,y values through the z-axis.

=== SculptyPaint v.06===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Cel Edman | Cel Edman]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.xs4all.nl/~elout/sculptpaint/ Download from website]
*'''Requires''': [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp Java Runtime Engine 1.6 or higher] installed on your system?! In case it wont work.
Last update: 17 june 2007. Realtime sculpt previewer. Drawing tool: manipulate the width, height and shape of the Sculpt. Edit RGB Layers, Flower and Stone generator Tools. New in v.06 1-Prim Stairs Generator. Downloads available for Windows, Mac-OSX and Linux.
 

== Free 3D Modeling Software ==

=== Blender ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.blender.org blender.org]
*'''License:''' [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GPL]
*'''Operating Systems''': Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, Irix, Solaris, FreeBSD and others)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Python
*'''Supports NURBS?:''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Development in progress by SL residents. Also, people have figured out how to get Blender to generate sculpt maps as you work, without needing a script! The process is documented [http://amandalevitsky.googlepages.com/sculptedprims here], and [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted2/Blender-to-sculpted.html here]

Formerly a company's in-house tool, Blender is the current king of the open source modeling programs. With all the features of the expensive programs, an active development community and even some existing SL-based tools made by Residents, this is going to be the default choice for many people. Downsides: Blender's interface is not newbie-friendly. That combined with spotty documentation can make for a slow learning curve.

'''Resources'''

* [http://www.blender.org/tutorials-help/ Blender.org Documentation and Tutorials]
* [http://amandalevitsky.googlepages.com/sculptedprims How to Make Sculpted Prims with Blender]
* [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted-tuto/Blender-export-template-tut.html A template file to start with and export easy]
* [http://blendernewbies.blogspot.com/2007/04/video-oven-baked-pretzels-in-blender-3d.html Oven Baked Pretzels @ BlenderNewbies.com] - A video tutorial that covers the basics of Blender's new sculpt mode, useful if you're creating sculpties using the above manual method.
* [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted2/Blender-to-sculpted.html An almost complete method] to export almost anything from blender
* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=110607 Offline Prim Builder] for standard prims (restricted access)
 

=== Art of Illusion ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.artofillusion.org artofillusion.org]
*'''License:''' [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GPL]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Any OS that will run Java (requires Java Runtime Environment 1.4 or later)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Java via [http://www.beanshell.org/ Beanshell]
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' ???
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

A number of Residents have recommended this program; If you're familiar with it, please give the rest of us a summary!

'''Resources'''

*[http://www.artofillusion.org/documentation AoI Documentation]
 

=== Moment of Inspiration ===

*'''Website:''' [http://moi3d.com/ Moment of Inspiration]
*'''License:''' Open beta testing/freeware
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP/Vista
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' ?
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' ?
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, try [[3dm2sculpt]]

This program has some cool things going for it. It's the work of a former [[#Rhino_3D | Rhino]] developer and has an interface that pretty much lets you draw shapes with the mouse or a pen tablet. Documentation on the website is sparse however and being in beta means there will be kinks.

It should be noted that MoI will become a commercial product when it leaves beta testing (expected later this summer), but it will still be comparatively inexpensive; the estimated cost is between US$200-$100.

'''Resources'''

* [http://moi3d.com/forum/ Moment of Inspiration Forums]
* [http://mefeedia.com/tags/momentofinspiration/ Video Tutorials]
 

=== Ayam ===

*'''Website:''' [http://ayam.sourceforge.net/ Ayam]
*'''License:''' [http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html BSD license]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Unix/Linux (native), Windows 98, 2000 and XP, Mac OS X (with X11)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, tcl
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes (NURBS modeling only; polygon meshes can be imported)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

'''Resources'''

* [http://ayam.sourceforge.net/docs.html Ayam Documentation page]
 

=== Wings 3D ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.wings3d.com Wings 3D]
*'''License:'''[http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html BSD license]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac OS X, Linux (binaries), other Unixes (source only)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Plugin interface using a language called Erlang
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Not sure
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes.

Wings3D is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivision_surface subdivision modeler] that is easy to learn and is well suited to making sculpted prims. The sculpt import and export for Wings is easy to use. Documentation is sparse, but there are tutorials on the Web.

'''Resources'''
* There is a [[Wings 3D|Second Life sculpty tutorial]] using [[Wings 3D]].
* Get the Omei Turnbull [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=183764 import/export plugin here.]
* Get the [[user:Strife Onizuka|Strife Onizuka]] [http://forums.secondlife.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=25721 import/export plugin here].
*Get the [http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=wings&filename=wings3d_manual1.6.1.pdf&use_mirror=internap Wings 3D User Manual] here. (Sourceforge, pdf)

 

== Professional 3D Suites ==

It has to be said: most professional 3D software is (incredibly) expensive, anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars for a single copy. They're marketed at big professional studios with thousands or millions of dollars to budget for this stuff. There are ways to reduce this expense so that it's witin the reach of an average person: some legal, some not.

* '''Don't''' post links to downloads of pirated software or directions/tools to crack trial software. They'll be deleted.

* '''Don't''' ask in a public forum where you can download pirated software.

* '''Don't''' be fooled by online retailers selling "cheap OEM" copies of software online. None of these programs come in OEM (original equipment manufacturer, or anyone who makes computer hardware and bundles software with them) versions. Many companies such as Autodesk only sell their software through authorized retailers. These too good to be true offers are just that: crooks trying to get you to pay them money for pirated software. (ed.: Trust me: I've fallen for it before and now know better).

* '''Do''' be aware that downloading pirated software is a good way to end up with malware on your system such as trojans and keyloggers.

That said, here are some of the legal options you can look for:

* '''Educational Licenses''': If you're a student or know one willing to help you, you can usually get a significant discount on most of these programs. The downside is that many educational licenses say you're not supposed to use the program for commercial purposes.
* '''Annual Licenses''': Many of the same educational vendors also offer an option to buy a one or two year license to the full version of the program, sometimes for as little as $200 or less. Even over the course of several years, this could be the most economical option and you won't be crippled by the terms of an educational license.
* '''Subscriptions''': If you already own the software, some companies, particularly Autodesk, offer subscriptions that can get you access to extra new features and deals on upgrades.
* '''Trials''': Most 3d software has a demo or a "learning edition" that you can download from the software maker and try on your system. They will be either time or feature limited but this is a good way to get your feet wet.

So with that out of the way, the list...

=== Amorphium ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.eitechnologygroup.com/products/amorphium Electric Image Amorphium]
*'''Cost:''' US$79 ("Standard")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac (UB) - trial is Mac OS X 10.0 - 10.3 only
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes (controllable with pen-tablet)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes (paint on, further controllable with sensitive pen-tablet)
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No (export to a format Blender knows, or to OBJ, and use a converter, can start with the 64x63 sphere made by Wings3D)

Sculpting is what Amorphium is all about. If you have a pen tablet (even a tablet PC), the pressure sensitivity will control the pressure applied to the current brush to morph the sculpture. It gives a very natural feel to being able to sculpt 3d models easily and intuitively. Amorphium has won 14 awards including "Best Graphics Software" from magazines like Computer Graphics World, PC World, and Macworld for its breakthrough real-time approach to creating 3D graphics.

'''Resources'''

* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=186218 Sculpted Prim Modeler: Amorphium] on sl forums (restricted access)
 

=== AC3D (invis) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.inivis.com/ www.invis.com - AC3D]
*'''Cost:''' US$75
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac OSX 10.4 or later, Linux (x86 only)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes - 14 day trial
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Plugin Interface available, plus TCL-based scripting
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No (But can be accomplished via 3rd party plug-ins or POV-Ray)
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes: [http://www.ccccybernetics.com/ Exporter by Zora Spoonhammer] (beta)

AC3D is an inexpensive polygon modeler with SubD support designed to be easy for novice users. The sculpt map plug-in will export any model that has a perfect uv space. Several pre-mapped starter shapes are included with the plug-in, including a cube that can be used as basis for complex objects by artists familiar with the popular box modeling method using sub-division surfaces.

''' Resources '''
 

=== Maya (Autodesk/Wavefront) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.autodesk.com/maya Autodesk Maya]
*'''Cost:''' US$3000 ("Complete") - US$7000 ("Unlimited"). ("Complete" version sufficient for creating sculpted prims.) Educational license: US$300
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2, Mac OS X 10.4, Linux (SUSE, RedHat and Fedora supported)
*'''Trial version available?:''' "Personal Learning Edition", no time limit but not usable for creating sculpted prims (sculpt textures ruined by watermark)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, MEL Script
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, script by Qarl Linden available on their wiki [[LlSculpt mel|here]], instructions [[Sculpted_Prims:_FAQ#MayaExporter|here]].

Why was Maya the first to receive sculpted prim support from Linden Lab? Because it was what [http://www.qarl.com/ Qarl Linden], the main developer on the project, learned to use while creating kick-ass movie SFX like [http://www.qarl.com/menu/resume/matrix-demo.mov these] and the tech for sculpted prims was adapted from tricks he learned in the process. Maya has been a growing force in the movie industry for some years and a strong presence in the video game industry as well.

'''Resources'''

* [http://webpages.charter.net/talilal/Balloon%20Tutorial/ Maya Sculpt Tutorial] by Talila Liu
 

=== 3d Studio Max (Autodesk) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax Autodesk 3ds Max]
*'''Cost:''' US$3495. Educational License: ~US$200. Subscription: ~US$500/year.
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP, Windows Vista (with version 9.1)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30-day demo, full features
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, MAX Script/plugins
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes (some functions only in version 8 and higher)
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' 3 methods in development:
** [http://www.joe-brown.net/SecondLife/SculptTut/SculptTut.html Method 1] by Gearsawe Stonecutter, uses a premade template file.
** [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=182461 Method 2] by Abu Nasu, uses a shader. [http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=1505984&postcount=46 Download the Materials file here]. [http://tech-slop.serveit.org/wiki/index.php?title=Sculptie_Egg Read the tutorial here].
*** A varient of Abu's methood by Chip Midnight uses a projection modifier and can handle arbitrary shapes but requires Max version 8 or higher. [http://home.comcast.net/~pixelforgeltd/Tutorial.htm The tutorial is here.]
** Method 3 ([http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=185426 thread]) ([http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SculptGenMax wiki]) by Shack Dougall, is a vertex-based method using MAXScript and preset geometry as a starting point. Tested on 3dsMax 9.

Formerly Maya's main competitor, especially in the game industry. Then Autodesk (the makers of Max) bought out Alias (the makers of Maya) a couple years ago. So far the company is developing both products separately, marketing Maya at the movie industry and Max at the game developers, but they have long had comparable feature sets, and in the future it's likely that there will be tighter integration between the two. A choice between Maya and Max generally comes down to user preference and (particularly in our case) plugin support. Some users have said that Max is easier for a newbie to learn than Maya and certain basic controls share similarities with SL's build tools (such as shift-drag to copy).

'''Resources'''
 

=== Zbrush (Pixologic) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/products/products.php Pixologic :: Zbrush]
*'''Cost:''' US$489
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 98/2000/ZP, Mac OS X
*'''Trial version available?:''' No
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Zscripting
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No, future support is planned by Linden Lab

Zbrush pretty new and a bit unique. It's a 3d painting and sculpting tool; instead of manipulating polys or curves, you select a brush and literally ''paint'' and chisel and mold...the best way to grasp it is to download the demo and play with it. It's pretty sweet: a ton of studios such as [http://www.epicgames.com/ Epic Games] use it to create the details for their normal maps and some SL designers are already using it for the 3d painting capabilities.

'''Resources'''

* [http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/education/documentation/guides.php Zbrush Documentation]
* [http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/index.php ZbrushCentral - Official Forums and Online Community]
 

=== Lightwave (Newtek)===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/ Lightwave]
*'''Cost:''' US$795
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP, Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30 day time limit
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, LScript
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes, with LWCAD 2.1 add-on (costs extra)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, manual method instructions here: [[User:Patchouli_Woollahra/Lightwave_Sculptie_Rendering]]

Some high-profile Second Life designers have been using Lightwave for quite a while to burn realistic highlights and shadows onto their skins and clothing textures. Therefore it's not a big surprise that after Blender, this was the second program that community members figured out a sculpt export method for.

'''Resources'''
 

=== Rhinoceros (McNeel) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.rhino3d.com Rhino 3D]
*'''Cost:''' US$995
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP/Vista (Vista not recommended due to OpenGL issues)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, save count limited
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, VBScript
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes (limited polygon functions)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' please try [[3dm2sculpt]] (not tested with Rhino yet)

Rhino is built from the ground up for NURBS modeling; thus if you intend to use NURBS, this isn't such a bad option. From this author's brief trial with it, it handles certain operations (like joining 2 or more objects) somewhat more intelligently than 3ds Max. A couple UI tricks make it easier to learn than the sea of buttons you're initially presented with: a help window to one side explains each operation as you select it and the command line at the top effectively lets you search for a function by typing in its name, without having to know where the button or menu option is.

'''Resources'''
 

=== trueSpace (Caligari) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.caligari.com Caligari]
*'''Cost:''' US$595 for latest version (7), but legacy versions are sold for lower prices ($199 for TrueSpace 5)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP/Vista
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, prior version of the program
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

trueSpace and its companion products appear to be aimed more at the independent developer and hobby market, resulting in a fully featured program at a much more affordable price. Of interest to Second Life users: trueSpace 7 and up offers a collaborative work environment; the benefit of working together like in SL but without the guy shooting off guns at you in the sandbox.

'''Resources'''

* [http://forms.caligari.com/forms/ts3all_free.html trueSpace3.2 Full Version (very old) for Free]
 

=== Softimage XSI (Avid) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/ Softimage XSI]
*'''Cost:''' US$495 ("Foundation") - US$6995 ("Advanced")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2/64 bit
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30 day trial with full features, free "Mod Tool" supported by [http://www.valvesoftware.com/ Valve] with limited features (watermarks images).
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Python, COLLADA and C#
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

Billing itself as "the most advanced 3D animation and character creation software for next generation games & film", it does that, modeling, baking, film compositing, ''and'' it makes toast! All kidding aside, they seem to be going after the largest slice of the market they can and their client list includes everything from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2 Half-Life] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl's_Moving_Castle_(film) Howl's Moving Castle]. Pluses? It's one of the few commercial programs that uses non-proprietary languages for their scripting...yes, I said languages, because apparently you have a choice between several. However it's unlikely that it has a significant user base within the SL community at the moment.

'''Resources'''
 

=== Modo 203 (Luxology)===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.luxology.com/ Luxology Home]
*'''Cost:''' US$895 professional, $149 Educational, $99 "Good Student" price. Download a trial version then wait 1-2 weeks and you'll receive a voucher dropping professional price to US$695.
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, via texture baking

Luxology Modo is a premier modeling and UV system built to maximize the workflow of professional modelers. It has both a rich modeling and painting toolset, ideal for creating models for Second Life.

'''Resources'''

* Lovecraft Forest Testbed [http://www.rabbitroo.com/SL/SLtest4.lxo SLtest4.lxo]
* Lovecraft Forest Usage Instructions: [http://www.lovecraftforest.com/blog/2007/05/17/sculpted-prims-in-modo-part-ii/ Blog Post]
 

=== Mudbox (Skymatter) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.mudbox3d.com/ Mudbox]
*'''Cost:''' US$299 ("Basic") - US$649 ("Professional")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2, Atm untested on x64 or Vista
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 15 days trial fully functional.
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' No
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

With ZBrush one of the most powerful organic modelers out there, really easy to use and artist friendly. Its modeling is based on brushes like ZBrush but aims more to 3D like Maya or 3D Studio Max. It contains a high quality texture renderer for baking normal maps and is used be many 3D professionals and studios like WETA Digital and some artists at Raven Software and id Software.

'''Resources'''
 

=== Carrara (Daz) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.daz3d.com/ Daz]
*'''Cost:''' US$249 ("Standard") - US$549 ("Professional")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac (UB)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes (plugin development, no scripting)
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No (Yes with third party plug from [http://www.inagoni.com/content.php?content.3/ Inagoni]
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes - via texture baking with third party plugins, details and tutorial forthcoming.

Like Hexagon, Carrara was an Eovia product that is now owned by Daz. Carrara is full-featured 3D application, supporting polygon modeling, spline modeling, "metaballs", and terrain modeling (it is sometimes compared to Vue). This app seems fly under the radar consistently, but Daz does seem to be serious about maintaining it as they have recently released a Mac Universal Binary version, free to registered users. Carrara also provides animation and particles.

'''Resources'''
 

=== Cinema 4D ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.maxon.net Maxon]
*'''Cost:''' CINEMA 4D R10 Win PC £586.33, additional modules available.
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP/Vista, Mac
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, Demo
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, COFFEE
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Under development - send me an IM inworld (Peter Stindberg)

One of the more affordable 3D applications, excellent learning curve. Uses COFFEE script for plugins. Please, please someone write a sculptie script for it, please? ;;-)

'''Resources'''
 

=== Google SketchUp ===

*'''Website:''' [http://sketchup.google.com/ Google SketchUp]
*'''Cost:''' Free (Google SketchUp 6); $495 (Google SketchUp 6 Pro)/$45 (full-feature academic license for Google SketchUp 6 Pro)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP/2000, Windows Vista (with OpenGL 1.5 or higher), Mac OS X (10.3.9 or higher)
*'''Trial version available?:''' 8 hour trial available for Sketchup Pro
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Ruby
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Indirectly (through OBJ export; Pro version only)

SketchUp is a 3D drafting program popular among architects for its conceptual similarity to manual drafting and physical model-building. It has a very low learning curve, but is rather foreign to most established suites other than AutoCAD.

Hypothetically, SketchUp could be used to reduce the number of prims used in structures already possible with Second Life's built-in tools, as its use of edges and faces allows the creation of efficient compound geometric forms.

On the other hand, SketchUp's "bring your own geometry" approach makes it not particularly suited to the creation of mesh-based organic shapes.

Sketchup's surface modeling paradigm currently makes it difficult to translate SketchUp models into Sculpted Prims. The paid "Pro" version of SketchUp does, however, allow export to OBJ which, via [[Sculpted_Prims:_3d_Software_Guide#obj2sculpt|obj2sculpt]] (or, of course, Maya), may allow sculpt-map export. It also exports to 3DS, Collada, XSI and VRML, ''et cetera'', but these formats may well require software more expensive than SketchUp.

SketchUp uses image textures about as basic as those found in the Second Life build tools. Its texture capabilities would therefore likely not be useful to Second Life designers other than for previewing existing textures.

'''Resources'''
 

== Other 3d Programs ==

These programs may be free or cheap, but they won't have nearly as expansive feature sets as those above.

=== MilkShape 3D ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.milkshape3d.com/ www.milkshape3d.com]
*'''Cost:''' US$25 / €25
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows
*'''Trial version available?''' 30-day unrestricted trial, save disabled thereafter until registered
*'''Supports user scripting?''' Plug-in SDK available (Does that count?)
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' Import/Export plugin under development

'''Resources''' 

* See the '''Tutorials''' and '''Links''' sections on the [http://www.milkshape3d.com/ MilkShape website]
 

=== POV-Ray ===

*'''Website:''' http://povray.org
*'''Cost:''' FREE
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows/Linux/Mac
*'''Trial version available?'''
*'''Supports user scripting?'''
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' Yes. Instructions are here: http://johannahyacinth.blogspot.com/2007/05/sculpted-prims-with-pov-ray.html

POV-Ray is a renderer - you have to do all your modeling in another application, or by describing in plain text the mathematical shapes which make up the model.
 

=== Hexagon 2 (DAZ Productions) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/hexagon/-/? Hexagon product page]
*'''Cost:''' Full version: $149, "Crossgrade" from other DAZ software: $79, Upgrade: $49
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP, Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
*'''Trial version available?''' Yes, it's buried: go [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/support/downloads/-/ here] and select Hexagon from the list.
*'''Supports user scripting?''' No
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' No

SL animators may have heard about (and perhaps been disappointed with) [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/studio/-/? DAZ Studio], a competitor to Poser. Others may be familiar with [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/bryce/-/? Bryce], a landscape creation tool with a much better reputation. Hexagon was originally developed by eovia until purchased by DAZ and while it appears to be a perfectly capable 3d program by itself with polygon modeling subdivision modeling, sculpting tools, and is that 3d painting I see?, the absence in their feature list of either texture baking or any sort of user scripting or plugin interface could be a deal-breaker until something like a reliable .OBJ converter comes along.
 

== 3D File Formats ==

If you're using software that cannot export to sculpt directly, you might still be able to succeed. You can always give the file to someone with access to the appropriate software, or you could export your model into another 3D modeler. To do that, you'll need to export the model into a format the other program can handle. Here's a brief rundown of the file formats that SL developers will generally find the most useful.

:*'''.OBJ''': Probably the most common cross-platform export format for polygon models; it's fairly open and any 3D program worth its bits supports it. It's also well-documented and easily hackable.

:*'''.3DS''': The default polygon export format supported by [[#3d_Studio_Max_.28Autodesk.29|3D Studio Max]]. Because of this, it is widely supported. However, it doesn't have as many export options as OBJ.

:*'''.FBX''': Another Autodesk format that is good if you need to export whole scenes: objects, animation, lights, cameras, etc. More importantly for our purposes, it preserves [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NURBS NURBS] objects in some programs. Especially useful if you're trading files between 3DS Max and [[#Maya_.28Autodesk.2FWavefront.29|Maya]]; it's also supported in some other programs but [[#Blender|Blender]] isn't among them ...yet.

:*'''.3DM''': a.k.a [http://www.opennurbs.com OpenNURBS]. This is the native format of [[#Rhinoceros_Rhino_3D|Rhino3D]] and [[#Moment_of_Inspiration|MoI]] and, as the name suggests, is a [[Sculpted_Prims:_3d_Modeling_Glossary#NURBS_Modeling | NURBS]] export format. It's gaining some popularity; unfortunately, it's not currently supported by the big three (Maya, Max and Blender). However the format documentation and code libraries are open-source, tempting those brave enough to try and write tools for it, such as [[#3dm2sculpt | 3dm2sculpt]].
 

== Other Resources ==

Useful places for anyone interested in 3d modeling:

* [http://www.3dbuzz.com 3d Buzz] — Forums, video tutorials and even classes covering everything from 3d programs to 3d programing and even Photoshop.
* [http://ibiblio.org/e-notes/Splines/Intro.htm An Interactive Introduction to Splines] — a technical introduction to NURBs.
 

== See also ==

* [[Sculpted Prims|Sculpted Prims]]
* [[Sculpted Prims: FAQ|Sculpted Prims: FAQ]]
* [[Sculpt Textures in Paint Programs]]
* [[Sculpted Prims: Technical Explanation|Sculpted Prims: Under the Hood]]
* [[Sharing_sculpt_maps_and_textures|Sculpted Prims: Sharing Sculpt Maps and Textures]]
* [[Sculpted Prims Beta Discussion|Sculpted Prims Beta Discussion]]

 

[[Category:Sculpted Prims]]

Sculpted Prims: 3d Software Guide

2007-06-01T12:12:07Z

Nand Nerd: /* sculpty.php */

{| align="right"
| __TOC__
|}

== About 3D Modeling Software ==

A list of 3D modeling software for use with Sculpt Maps for [[Sculpted Prims]], along with a short explanation of popular 3D file formats and off line previewers. Each entry lists the software package's web site, operating system support, cost and trial versions if applicable, and the license.

;What Features are important for making Sculpted Prims?

Each software entry includes a rundown of features that are particularly useful for creating Sculpt Maps. Although support for these features isn't necessary in order to create Sculpt Maps, it can make the process a whole lot easier.

*'''User Scripting:''' A script interface is one of the easiest and fastest ways to add functionality to a program or to automate tasks the program is already capable of. Plugins and SDKs can do the same thing but may not be available.
*'''NURBS:''' NURBS stands for "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NURBS Non Uniform Rational B-Splines]". It's an advanced modeling technique in which shapes are created by manipulating a series of curved splines. Compare this to [[Sculpted Prims Creators Guide#PolygonMesh|polygon modeling]], a more economical method of manipulating the faces, edges and vertices of a polygon mesh, which is frequently used for computer graphics. NURBS are very good at creating organic shapes and smooth curves and, according to Qarl Linden, they convert to sculpted prims much more easily than polygon meshes. (However with the flood of Resident solutions for creating sculpt prims in different programs, this distinction may turn out not to be relevant.)
*'''Built-in texture baking/generation:''' This term describes the ability to create/"render" textures and export them to image files. If this functionality is built into the software, it is available to user-generated scripts. For example, it allows manual export of Sculpt Maps with [[#Blender|Blender]] and [[#Lightwave_.28Newtek.29|Lightwave]]. It can also make it easier to create regular textures for your model; you can apply colors, patterns or just a template guide to your model and bake it out for upload or further detailing in a paint program.

;Do I need a really powerful computer to run this stuff?

For most Second Life users, this shouldn't be a major issue. If your computer is capable of running the Second Life client, you should have no trouble running most of these programs. Some programs will run fine on something as old as a Pentium III. A few professional programs (like Maya) say they'll only support high-end workstation graphics cards but it will still run ok on a regular setup. Check the system requirements on the software vendor's webpage for specific details.

;What program(s) are the best for making sculpties?

There's no easy answer to that question. It will depend on a number of factors:
* '''How much money are you willing to spend?''' The cost of 3d software ranges from "free" to thousands of dollars. Programs like Maya and 3ds Max are powerful but if you're not allready seriously into 3d modeling, they're probably overkill. Lightwave, zBrush and programs in their price range are powerful profesional tools while still being within reach of a reasonably well-to-do person who's dedicated to their SL design work, but these are probably still overkill as most of the features you pay for gone beyond the general tools to create sculpt maps for Second Life. Programs like Amorphium, trueSpace and Milkshape are aimed at professionals and casual hobbyists but not all of them are going to have the full 3D studio capabilities of some more expensive programs. Free programs run the gammut between the pro and hobby levels and you'll have to consider other factors when choosing between them.

* '''How much time are you willing to invest?''' If you want to just make a few sculpted objects, a simple standalone utility like Rokuro might suit you best. If you're a serious content creator though, you'll want to put the time and effort into learning a more complex program.

* '''How much prior experience do you have?''' If you've been working with 3d software for a while already, you probably already know what you like or will have an easier time picking up a new and/or more complicated program. If you're a brand newbie to modeling, it's probably a mistake to jump right into a program like Blender or Maya with their steep learning curves. The avalibility of general modeling tutorials and other resources (not just SL-related ones) will probably affect your choice as well.

== Offline Previewer Tools ==

Basic tools that can be used to preview what a sculpt texture will look like when uploaded into Second Life and rendered as a prim. All of these are made by other Residents and should generally be considered beta or works in progress.

=== XNA Sculptpreview ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Eddy Stryker | Eddy Stryker]]
*'''Link to get it''': [[User:Eddy_Stryker/XNA_Sculptpreview | XNA Sculptpreview]]
*'''Requires''': Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, along with the Microsoft XNA framework (see above link for details)
*'''Derivatives''': [http://mailerdaemon.home.comcast.net/SculptedPreview.zip XNA SculptPreview] - Modified version to include LOD and a more sensible camera configuration (and a bunch of other changes under the hood).

=== A Hacky Sculpt Previewer ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Yumi Murakami | Yumi Murakami]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.bijodesign.com/sculpt/SculptPreview.html Web Start Launcher], [http://www.bijodesign.com/sculpt/SculptPreview.jar Executable JAR file], [[Hacky Sculpt Previewer | Source Code]] (Java SDK required to run from the source).
*'''Requires''': [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp Java Runtime Engine 1.6 or higher], [http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D/download.html Java 3d API] and any OS that will run them (Win, Mac and Linux are well covered). If installing or upgrading the JRE, be sure to do it before installing Java3d. The Web Start link above should be able to automatically install any needed components. Note that it will attempt to automatically redirect your browser to a download page, so if nothing happens when you click on it, please check your security settings will allow this.

=== Cel_Sculptpreview ===
*'''Creator''': [[user:Cel Edman | Cel Edman]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.xs4all.nl/~elout/sculptie/ Download from website]
*'''Requires''': [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp Java] installed on your system. This is a simple Sculpt previewer created in [http://processing.org/ Processing]. Downloads available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

== Online (In-Game) Previewer Tools ==

Tools that can be used to view in Second Life what a sculpt will look like before the texture is uploaded.

=== Texture Wizard (Commercial Tool) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://sl.infomyth.com/texturepreview/texturepreview.htm Infomyth.com]
*'''In-World:''' [http://slurl.com/secondlife/Horowitz/217/105/23/ Horowitz]
*'''Cost:''' L$399 (about $1.80 U.S.)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP

Works using the media texture on your land (you must own or rent land to use it) using QuickTime, the way an in-game TV does. Saving a .bmp, .jpg or .psd file will automatically update the image in-game. You can see your changes live on a prim. Avoids uploads until you are done (you must still upload for a permanent version). Also works just as a regular texture previewer.

== Resident-made Sculpt Creation Tools ==

These programs aren't full-fledged 3d modeling programs nor do they integrate with such programs (those get listed with their respective software below) but Residents have made these stand-alone tools specificly for creating sculpt textures. As with the previewers above, consider them works in progress.

=== ROKURO -Sculpted Prim Maker ===

*'''Creator:'''[[User:Yuzuru Jewell | Yuzuru Jewell]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://kanae.net/secondlife/
*'''Requires:''' Windows/Mac OS X/Linux using wine

Rokuro translates from Japanese as "lathe" and that's basically what this is: a standalone version of the lathe tool found in many 3d modeling programs that saves directly to sculpt maps. You draw a line in 2d by editing the various points and the program effectively spins that line around an axis to create the 3d object. Cylinders and polygonal prisms are both possible. Obviously limited to things you can create with this method so far, but easy for anyone to pick up and use and more features are still being added. Created by resident Yuzuru Jewell...arigato!

'''Resources''' 
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=184264

=== 3dm2sculpt ===
*'''Creator:''' [[User:Cindy Crabgrass | Cindy Crabgrass]]
*'''Link to get it:''' [[3dm2sculpt|3dm2sculpt]]
*'''Requires:''' Windows

A command-line utility that reads an [[#3D_File_Formats | OpenNURBS]] .3dm file and generates a .tga sculpt texture from it. Still in need of a lot of testing but potentially very useful for any program that supports this format.

=== obj2sculpt ===
*'''Creator:''' [[User:Cindy Crabgrass | Cindy Crabgrass]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=1505114&postcount=14
*'''Requires:''' Windows

A command-line utility that reads a Wavefront Style .obj file and generates a .tga sculpt texture from it. Still in need of a lot of testing but potentially very useful for any program that supports this format.

=== sculpty.php ===
*'''Creator:''' [[User:nand Nerd | nand Nerd]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://www.nandnerd.info/sculpty.php
*'''Requires:''' Browser

A web-based series of tools, still rather primitive but constantly updating. Currently implemented are revolve and z,r revolve which both take a series of values (radii and z-pos,radii values respectively) and rotate them around the z-axis. Recently implemented a constant cross-section which extrudes a series of x,y values through the z-axis.

=== SculptyPaint ===
*'''Creator''': [[user:Cel Edman | Cel Edman]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.xs4all.nl/~elout/sculptpaint/ Download from website]
*'''Requires''': [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp Java] installed on your system. Note: This is not a modeling tool!, its more for manipulating and exploring sculpts at the moment. Nice for creating all kinds of abstract forms, and playing around with them. Realtime manipulate and change the RGB layers of 64*64 sculpts. Drawing functions not implemented yet, also a personal research from the creator on how sculpties work. Created in [http://processing.org/ Processing]. Downloads available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

== Free 3D Modeling Software ==

=== Blender ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.blender.org blender.org]
*'''License:''' [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GPL]
*'''Operating Systems''': Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, Irix, Solaris, FreeBSD and others)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Python
*'''Supports NURBS?:''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Development in progress by SL residents. Also, people have figured out how to get Blender to generate sculpt maps as you work, without needing a script! The process is documented [http://amandalevitsky.googlepages.com/sculptedprims here], and [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted2/Blender-to-sculpted.html here]

Formerly a company's in-house tool, Blender is the current king of the open source modeling programs. With all the features of the expensive programs, an active development community and even some existing SL-based tools made by Residents, this is going to be the default choice for many people. Downsides: Blender's interface is not newbie-friendly. That combined with spotty documentation can make for a slow learning curve.

'''Resources'''
* [http://www.blender.org/tutorials-help/ Blender.org Documentation and Tutorials]
* [http://amandalevitsky.googlepages.com/sculptedprims How to Make Sculpted Prims with Blender]
* [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted-tuto/Blender-export-template-tut.html A template file to start with and export easy]
* [http://blendernewbies.blogspot.com/2007/04/video-oven-baked-pretzels-in-blender-3d.html Oven Baked Pretzels @ BlenderNewbies.com] - A video tutorial that covers the basics of Blender's new sculpt mode, useful if you're creating sculpties using the above manual method.
* [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted2/Blender-to-sculpted.html An almost complete method] to export almost anything from blender
* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=110607 Offline Prim Builder] for standard prims (Secondlife.com login required)

=== Art of Illusion ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.artofillusion.org artofillusion.org]
*'''License:''' [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GPL]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Any OS that will run Java (requires Java Runtime Environment 1.4 or later)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Java via [http://www.beanshell.org/ Beanshell]
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' ???
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

A number of Residents have recommended this program; If you're familiar with it, please give the rest of us a summary!

'''Resources'''
*[http://www.artofillusion.org/documentation AoI Documentation]

=== Moment of Inspiration ===

*'''Website:''' [http://moi3d.com/ Moment of Inspiration]
*'''License:''' Open beta testing/freeware
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP/Vista
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' ?
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' ?
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, try [[3dm2sculpt]]

This program has some cool things going for it. It's the work of a former [[#Rhino_3D | Rhino]] developer and has an interface that pretty much lets you draw shapes with the mouse or a pen tablet. Documentation on the website is sparse however and being in beta means there will be kinks.

It should be noted that MoI will become a commercial product when it leaves beta testing (expected later this summer), but it will still be comparatively inexpensive; the estimated cost is between US$200-$100.

'''Resources'''
* [http://moi3d.com/forum/ Moment of Inspiration Forums]
* [http://mefeedia.com/tags/momentofinspiration/ Video Tutorials]

=== Ayam ===

*'''Website:''' [http://ayam.sourceforge.net/ Ayam]
*'''License:''' [http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html BSD license]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Unix/Linux (native), Windows 98, 2000 and XP, Mac OS X (with X11)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, tcl
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes (NURBS modeling only; polygon meshes can be imported)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

'''Resources'''
* [http://ayam.sourceforge.net/docs.html Ayam Documentation page]

=== Wings 3D ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.wings3d.com Wings 3D]
*'''License:'''[http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html BSD license]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac OS X, Linux (binaries), other Unixes (source only)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Plugin interface via Erlang
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes. Wings 3D is the easiest way to get started making sculpties. See the first post in this [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=183764 forum thread]for instructions on getting set up. Also see this [[wings 3D | tutorial]].

Wings3D is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivision_surface subdivision] modeler and has the advantage of being fairly easy to learn and is well suited to making sculpted prims. Documentation is sparse, but there are many tutorials on the Web.

'''Resources'''
*[http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=wings&filename=wings3d_manual1.6.1.pdf&use_mirror=internap Wings User Manual] (Sourceforge, PDF)
* A Second Life [[Wings 3D]] tutorial.

== Professional 3D Suites ==

It has to be said: most professional 3D software is (incredibly) expensive, anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars for a single copy. They're marketed at big professional studios with thousands or millions of dollars to budget for this stuff. There are ways to reduce this expense so that it's witin the reach of an average person: some legal, some not.

* '''Don't''' post links to downloads of pirated software or directions/tools to crack trial software. They'll be deleted.

* '''Don't''' ask in a public forum where you can download pirated software.

* '''Don't''' be fooled by online retailers selling "cheap OEM" copies of software online. None of these programs come in OEM (original equipment manufacturer, or anyone who makes computer hardware and bundles software with them) versions. Many companies such as Autodesk only sell their software through authorized retailers. These too good to be true offers are just that: crooks trying to get you to pay them money for pirated software. (ed.: Trust me: I've fallen for it before and now know better).

* '''Do''' be aware that downloading pirated software is a good way to end up with malware on your system such as trojans and keyloggers.

That said, here are some of the legal options you can look for:

* '''Educational Licenses''': If you're a student or know one willing to help you, you can usually get a significant discount on most of these programs. The downside is that many educational licenses say you're not supposed to use the program for commercial purposes.
* '''Annual Licenses''': Many of the same educational vendors also offer an option to buy a one or two year license to the full version of the program, sometimes for as little as $200 or less. Even over the course of several years, this could be the most economical option and you won't be crippled by the terms of an educational license.
* '''Subscriptions''': If you already own the software, some companies, particularly Autodesk, offer subscriptions that can get you access to extra new features and deals on upgrades.
* '''Trials''': Most 3d software has a demo or a "learning edition" that you can download from the software maker and try on your system. They will be either time or feature limited but this is a good way to get your feet wet.

So with that out of the way, the list...

=== Amorphium ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.eitechnologygroup.com/products/amorphium Electric Image Amorphium]
*'''Cost:''' US$79 ("Standard")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac (UB) - trial is Mac OS X 10.0 - 10.3 only
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes (controllable with pen-tablet)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes (paint on, further controllable with sensitive pen-tablet)
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No (export to a format Blender knows, or to OBJ, and use a converter, can start with the 64x63 sphere made by Wings3D)

Sculpting is what Amorphium is all about. If you have a pen tablet (even a tablet PC), the pressure sensitivity will control the pressure applied to the current brush to morph the sculpture. It gives a very natural feel to being able to sculpt 3d models easily and intuitively. Amorphium has won 14 awards including "Best Graphics Software" from magazines like Computer Graphics World, PC World, and Macworld for its breakthrough real-time approach to creating 3D graphics.

'''Resources'''

[http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=186218 SL Forums > Resident Forums > Content Creation > Building Tips > Sculpted Prim Modeler: Amorphium]

=== AC3D (invis) ===
*'''Website:''' [http://www.inivis.com/ www.invis.com - AC3D]
*'''Cost:''' US$75
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac OSX 10.4 or later, Linux (x86 only)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes - 14 day trial
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Plugin Interface available, plus TCL-based scripting
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No (But can be accomplished via 3rd party plug-ins or POV-Ray)
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes: [http://www.ccccybernetics.com/ Exporter by Zora Spoonhammer] (beta)

AC3D is an inexpensive polygon modeler with SubD support designed to be easy for novice users. The sculpt map plug-in will export any model that has a perfect uv space. Several pre-mapped starter shapes are included with the plug-in, including a cube that can be used as basis for complex objects by artists familiar with the popular box modeling method using sub-division surfaces.

''' Resources '''

=== Maya (Autodesk/Wavefront) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.autodesk.com/maya Autodesk Maya]
*'''Cost:''' US$3000 ("Complete") - US$7000 ("Unlimited"). ("Complete" version sufficient for creating sculpted prims.) Educational license: US$300
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2, Mac OS X 10.4, Linux (SUSE, RedHat and Fedora supported)
*'''Trial version available?:''' "Personal Learning Edition", no time limit but not usable for creating sculpted prims (sculpt textures ruined by watermark)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, MEL Script
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, script by Qarl Linden available on their wiki [[LlSculpt mel|here]], instructions [[Sculpted_Prims:_FAQ#MayaExporter|here]].

Why was Maya the first to receive sculpted prim support from Linden Lab? Because it was what [http://www.qarl.com/ Qarl Linden], the main developer on the project, learned to use while creating kick-ass movie SFX like [http://www.qarl.com/menu/resume/matrix-demo.mov these] and the tech for sculpted prims was adapted from tricks he learned in the process. Maya has been a growing force in the movie industry for some years and a strong presence in the video game industry as well.

'''Resources'''

[http://webpages.charter.net/talilal/Balloon%20Tutorial/ Maya Sculpt Tutorial] by Talila Liu

=== 3d Studio Max (Autodesk) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax Autodesk 3ds Max]
*'''Cost:''' US$3495. Educational License: ~US$200. Subscription: ~US$500/year.
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP, Windows Vista (with version 9.1)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30-day demo, full features
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, MAX Script/plugins
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes (version 8 and higher)
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' 3 methods in development:
** [http://www.joe-brown.net/SecondLife/SculptTut/SculptTut.html Method 1] by Gearsawe Stonecutter, uses a premade template file.
** [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=182461 Method 2] by Abu Nasu, uses a shader and is capable of handling arbitrary shapes but requires Max 8 or higher. [http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=1505984&postcount=46 Download the Materials file here]. [http://tech-slop.serveit.org/wiki/index.php?title=Sculptie_Egg Read the tutorial here].
** Method 3 ([http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=185426 thread]) ([http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SculptGenMax wiki]) by Shack Dougall, is a vertex-based method using MAXScript and preset geometry as a starting point. Tested on 3dsMax 9.

Formerly Maya's main competitor, especially in the game industry. Then Autodesk (the makers of Max) bought out Alias (the makers of Maya) a couple years ago. So far the company is developing both products separately, marketing Maya at the movie industry and Max at the game developers, but they have long had comparable feature sets, and in the future it's likely that there will be tighter integration between the two. A choice between Maya and Max generally comes down to user preference and (particularly in our case) plugin support. Some users have said that Max is easier for a newbie to learn than Maya and certain basic controls share similarities with SL's build tools (such as shift-drag to copy).

'''Resources'''

=== Zbrush (Pixologic) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/products/products.php Pixologic :: Zbrush]
*'''Cost:''' US$489
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 98/2000/ZP, Mac OS X
*'''Trial version available?:''' No
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Zscripting
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No, future support is planned by Linden Lab

Zbrush pretty new and a bit unique. It's a 3d painting and sculpting tool; instead of manipulating polys or curves, you select a brush and literally ''paint'' and chisel and mold...the best way to grasp it is to download the demo and play with it. It's pretty sweet: a ton of studios such as [http://www.epicgames.com/ Epic Games] use it to create the details for their normal maps and some SL designers are already using it for the 3d painting capabilities.

'''Resources'''
* [http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/education/documentation/guides.php Zbrush Documentation]
* [http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/index.php ZbrushCentral - Official Forums and Online Community]

=== Lightwave (Newtek)===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/ Lightwave]
*'''Cost:''' US$795
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP, Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30 day time limit
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, LScript
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes, with LWCAD 2.1 add-on (costs extra)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, manual method instructions here: [[User:Patchouli_Woollahra/Lightwave_Sculptie_Rendering]]

Some high-profile Second Life designers have been using Lightwave for quite a while to burn realistic highlights and shadows onto their skins and clothing textures. Therefore it's not a big surprise that after Blender, this was the second program that community members figured out a sculpt export method for.

'''Resources'''

=== Rhinoceros (McNeel) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.rhino3d.com Rhino 3D]
*'''Cost:''' US$995
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP/Vista (Vista not recommended due to OpenGL issues)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, save count limited
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, VBScript
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes (limited polygon functions)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' please try [[3dm2sculpt]] (not tested with Rhino yet)

Rhino is built from the ground up for NURBS modeling; thus if you intend to use NURBS, this isn't such a bad option. From this author's brief trial with it, it handles certain operations (like joining 2 or more objects) somewhat more intelligently than 3ds Max. A couple UI tricks make the learning curve much less steep than the sea of buttons you're initially presented with: a help window to one side explains each operation as you select it and the command line at the top effectively lets you search for a function by typing in its name, without having to know where the button or menu option is.

'''Resources'''

=== trueSpace (Caligari) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.caligari.com Caligari]
*'''Cost:''' US$595 for latest version (7), but legacy versions are sold for lower prices ($199 for TrueSpace 5)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP/Vista
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, prior version of the program
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

trueSpace and its companion products appear to be aimed more at the independent developer and hobby market, resulting in a fully featured program at a much more affordable price. Of interest to Second Life users: trueSpace 7 and up offers a collaborative work environment; the benefit of working together like in SL but without the guy shooting off guns at you in the sandbox.

'''Resources'''

[http://forms.caligari.com/forms/ts3all_free.html trueSpace3.2 Full Version (very old) for Free]

=== Softimage XSI (Avid) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/ Softimage XSI]
*'''Cost:''' US$495 ("Foundation") - US$6995 ("Advanced")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2/64 bit
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30 day trial with full features, free "Mod Tool" supported by [http://www.valvesoftware.com/ Valve] with limited features (watermarks images).
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Python, COLLADA and C#
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

Billing itself as "the most advanced 3D animation and character creation software for next generation games & film", it does that, modeling, baking, film compositing, ''and'' it makes toast! All kidding aside, they seem to be going after the largest slice of the market they can and their client list includes everything from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2 Half-Life] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl's_Moving_Castle_(film) Howl's Moving Castle]. Pluses? It's one of the few commercial programs that uses non-proprietary languages for their scripting...yes, I said languages, because apparently you have a choice between several. However it's unlikely that it has a significant user base within the SL community at the moment.

'''Resources'''

=== Modo 203 (Luxology)===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.luxology.com/ Luxology Home]
*'''Cost:''' US$895 professional, $149 Educational, $99 "Good Student" price. Download a trial version then wait 1-2 weeks and you'll receive a voucher dropping professional price to US$695.
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, via texture baking

Luxology Modo is a premier modeling and UV system built to maximize the workflow of professional modelers. It has both a rich modeling and painting toolset, ideal for creating models for Second Life.

'''Resources'''
* Lovecraft Forest Testbed [http://www.rabbitroo.com/SL/SLtest4.lxo SLtest4.lxo]
* Lovecraft Forest Usage Instructions: [http://www.lovecraftforest.com/blog/2007/05/17/sculpted-prims-in-modo-part-ii/ Blog Post]

=== Mudbox (Skymatter) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.mudbox3d.com/ Mudbox]
*'''Cost:''' US$299 ("Basic") - US$649 ("Professional")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2, Atm untested on x64 or Vista
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 15 days trial fully functional.
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' No
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

With ZBrush one of the most powerful organic modelers out there, really easy to use and artist friendly. Its modeling is based on brushes like ZBrush but aims more to 3D like Maya or 3D Studio Max. It contains a high quality texture renderer for baking normal maps and is used be many 3D professionals and studios like WETA Digital and some artists at Raven Software and id Software.

'''Resources'''

=== Carrara (Daz) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.daz3d.com/ Daz]
*'''Cost:''' US$249 ("Standard") - US$549 ("Professional")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac (UB)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes (plugin development, no scripting)
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No (Yes with third party plug from [http://www.inagoni.com/content.php?content.3/ Inagoni]
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes - via texture baking with third party plugins, details and tutorial forthcoming.

Like Hexagon, Carrara was an Eovia product that is now owned by Daz. Carrara is full-featured 3D application, supporting polygon modeling, spline modeling, "metaballs", and terrain modeling (it is sometimes compared to Vue). This app seems fly under the radar consistently, but Daz does seem to be serious about maintaining it as they have recently released a Mac Universal Binary version, free to registered users. Carrara also provides animation and particles.

'''Resources'''

=== Cinema 4D ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.maxon.net Maxon]
*'''Cost:''' CINEMA 4D R10 Win PC £586.33, additional modules available.
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP/Vista, Mac
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, Demo
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, COFFEE
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

One of the more affordable 3D applications, excellent learning curve. Uses COFFEE script for plugins. Please, please someone write a sculptie script for it, please? ;;-)

'''Resources'''

== Other 3d Programs ==

These programs may be free or cheap, but they won't have nearly as expansive feature sets as those above.

=== Google Sketchup ===

*'''Website:''' [http://sketchup.google.com/ Google Sketchup]
*'''Cost:''' Free (Google Sketchup 6)/$495 (Google Sketchup 6 Pro)/$45 (Educational/Student Price)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP/2000, Windows Vista (with OpenGL 1.5 or higher), Mac OS X (10.3.9 or higher)
*'''Trial version available?:''' 8 hour trial available for Sketchup Pro
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Ruby
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

Since before Google bought the company that made SketchUp, the program was designed with a very specific aim: fast, easy to use architectural rendering and other similar conceptual art. While a cool program in and of itself, it's not particularly designed for organic shapes. The texturing and materials tools are about as basic as those found in the Second Life build tools and export to other formats like OBJ is limited to the paid Pro version.

'''Resources'''

=== MilkShape 3D ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.milkshape3d.com/ www.milkshape3d.com]
*'''Cost:''' US$25 / €25
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows
*'''Trial version available?''' 30-day unrestricted trial, save disabled thereafter until registered
*'''Supports user scripting?''' Plug-in SDK available (Does that count?)
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' Import/Export plugin under development

'''Resources''' 
: See the '''Tutorials''' and '''Links''' sections on the [http://www.milkshape3d.com/ MilkShape website]

=== POV Ray ===

*'''Website:''' http://povray.org
*'''Cost:''' FREE
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows/Linux/Mac
*'''Trial version available?'''
*'''Supports user scripting?'''
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' Yes. Instructions are here: http://johannahyacinth.blogspot.com/2007/05/sculpted-prims-with-pov-ray.html

POV-Ray is a renderer - you have to do all your modeling in another application, or by describing in plain text the mathematical shapes which make up the model.

=== Hexagon 2 (DAZ Productions) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/hexagon/-/? Hexagon product page]
*'''Cost:''' Full version: $149, "Crossgrade" from other DAZ software: $79, Upgrade: $49
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP, Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
*'''Trial version available?''' Yes, it's buried: go [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/support/downloads/-/ here] and select Hexagon from the list.
*'''Supports user scripting?''' No
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' No

SL animators may have heard about (and perhaps been disappointed with) [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/studio/-/? DAZ Studio], a competitor to Poser. Others may be familiar with [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/bryce/-/? Bryce], a landscape creation tool with a much better reputation. Hexagon appears to be a spinoff of DAZ Studio and while it appears to be a perfectly capable 3d program by itself with polygon modeling subdivision modeling, sculpting tools, and is that 3d painting I see?, the absence in their feature list of either texture baking or any sort of user scripting or plugin interface could be a deal-breaker until something like a reliable .OBJ converter comes along.

== 3D File Formats ==

If you're using software that cannot export to sculpt directly, you might still be able to succeed. You can always give the file to someone with access to the appropriate software, or you could export your model into another 3D modeler. To do that, you'll need to export the model into a format the other program can handle. Here's a brief rundown of the file formats that SL developers will generally find the most useful.

:*'''.OBJ''': Probably the most common cross-platform export format for polygon models; it's fairly open and any 3D program worth its bits supports it. It's also well-documented and easily hackable.

:*'''.3DS''': The default polygon export format supported by [[#3d_Studio_Max_.28Autodesk.29|3D Studio Max]]. Because of this, it is widely supported. However, it doesn't have as many export options as OBJ.

:*'''.FBX''': Another Autodesk format that is good if you need to export whole scenes: objects, animation, lights, cameras, etc. More importantly for our purposes, it preserves [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NURBS NURBS] objects in some programs. Especially useful if you're trading files between 3DS Max and [[#Maya_.28Autodesk.2FWavefront.29|Maya]]; it's also supported in some other programs but [[#Blender|Blender]] isn't among them ...yet.

:*'''.3DM''': a.k.a [http://www.opennurbs.com OpenNURBS]. This is the native format of [[#Rhinoceros_Rhino_3D|Rhino3D]] and [[#Moment_of_Inspiration|MoI]] and, as the name suggests, is a [[Sculpted_Prims:_3d_Modeling_Glossary#NURBS_Modeling | NURBS]] export format. It's gaining some popularity; unfortunately, it's not currently supported by the big three (Maya, Max and Blender). However the format documentation and code libraries are open-source, tempting those brave enough to try and write tools for it, such as [[#3dm2sculpt | 3dm2sculpt]].

== Other Resources ==

Useful places for anyone interested in 3d modeling:

* [http://www.3dbuzz.com 3d Buzz] - Forums, video tutorials and even classes covering everything from 3d programs to 3d programing and even Photoshop.

== See also ==

* [[Sculpted Prims|Sculpted Prims]]
* [[Sculpted Prims: FAQ|Sculpted Prims: FAQ]]
* [[Sculpt Textures in Paint Programs]]
* [[Sculpted Prims: Technical Explanation|Sculpted Prims: Under the Hood]]
* [[Sharing_sculpt_maps_and_textures|Sculpted Prims: Sharing Sculpt Maps and Textures]]
* [[Sculpted Prims Beta Discussion|Sculpted Prims Beta Discussion]]

[[Category:Sculpted Prims]]

Sculpted Prims: 3d Software Guide

2007-05-24T22:57:27Z

Nand Nerd: /* Resident-made Sculpt Creation Tools */

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== About 3D Modeling Software ==

This page offers a comprehensive list of 3D modeling software for use with Sculpt Maps for [[Sculpted Prims]], along with a short explanation of popular 3D file formats and offline previewers. Each entry lists the software package's web site, operating system support, cost and trial versions if applicable, and the license.

;What Features are important for making Sculpted Prims?

Each software entry includes a rundown of features that are particularly useful for creating Sculpt Maps. Although support for these features isn't necessary in order to create Sculpt Maps, it can make the process a whole lot easier.

*'''User Scripting:''' A script interface is one of the easiest and fastest ways to add functionality to a program or to automate tasks the program is already capable of. Plugins and SDKs can do the same thing but may not be available.
*'''NURBS:''' NURBS stands for "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NURBS Non Uniform Rational B-Splines]". It's an advanced modeling technique in which shapes are created by manipulating a series of curved splines. Compare this to [[Sculpted Prims Creators Guide#PolygonMesh|polygon modeling]], a more economical method of manipulating the faces, edges and vertices of a polygon mesh, which is frequently used for computer graphics. NURBS are very good at creating organic shapes and smooth curves and, according to Qarl Linden, they convert to sculpted prims much more easily than polygon meshes. (However with the flood of Resident solutions for creating sculpt prims in different programs, this distinction may turn out not to be relevant.)
*'''Built-in texture baking/generation:''' This term describes the ability to create/"render" textures and export them to image files. If this functionality is built into the software, it is available to user-generated scripts. For example, it allows manual export of Sculpt Maps with [[#Blender|Blender]] and [[#Lightwave_.28Newtek.29|Lightwave]]. It can also make it easier to create regular textures for your model; you can apply colors, patterns or just a template guide to your model and bake it out for upload or further detailing in a paint program.

;Do I need a really powerful computer to run this stuff?

For most Second Life users, this shouldn't be a major issue. If your computer is capable of running the Second Life client, you should have no trouble running most of these programs. Some programs will run fine on something as old as a Pentium III. A few professional programs (like Maya) say they'll only support high-end workstation graphics cards but it will still run ok on a regular setup. Check the system requirements on the software vendor's webpage for specific details.

== Offline Previewer Tools ==

Basic tools that can be used to preview what a sculpt texture will look like when uploaded into Second Life and rendered as a prim. All of these are made by other Residents and should generaly be considered beta or works in progress.

=== XNA Sculptpreview ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Eddy Stryker | Eddy Stryker]]
*'''Link to get it''': [[User:Eddy_Stryker/XNA_Sculptpreview | XNA Sculptpreview]]
*'''Requires''': Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, along with the Microsoft XNA framework (see above link for details)
*'''Derivatives''': [http://mailerdaemon.home.comcast.net/SculptedPreview.zip XNA SculptPreview] - Modified version to include LOD and a more sensible camera configuration (and a bunch of other changes under the hood).

=== A Hacky Sculpt Previewer ===

*'''Creator''': [[user:Yumi Murakami | Yumi Murakami]]
*'''Link to get it''': [http://www.bijodesign.com/sculpt/SculptPreview.html Web Start Launcher], [http://www.bijodesign.com/sculpt/SculptPreview.jar Executable JAR file], [[Hacky Sculpt Previewer | Source Code]] (Java SDK required to run from the source).
*'''Requires''': [http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp Java Runtime Engine 1.6 or higher], [http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D/download.html Java 3d API] and any OS that will run them (Win, Mac and Linux are well covered). If installing or upgrading the JRE, be sure to do it before installing Java3d. The Web Start link above should be able to automatically install any needed components. Note that it will attempt to automatically redirect your browser to a download page, so if nothing happens when you click on it, please check your security settings will allow this.

== Resident-made Sculpt Creation Tools ==

These programs aren't full-fledged 3d modeling programs nor do they integrate with such programs (those get listed with their respective software below) but Residents have made these stand-alone tools specificly for creating sculpt textures. As with the previewers above, consider them works in progress.

=== ROKURO -Sculpted Prim Maker ===

*'''Creator:'''[[User:Yuzuru Jewell | Yuzuru Jewell]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://kanae.net/secondlife/
*'''Requires:''' Windows (OSX port in development)

Rokuro translates from Japanese as "lathe" and that's basically what this is: a standalone version of the lathe tool found in many 3d modeling programs that saves directly to sculpt maps. You draw a line in 2d by editing the various points and the program effectively spins that line around an axis to create the 3d object. Cylinders and polygonal prisms are both possible. Obviously limited to things you can create with this method so far, but easy for anyone to pick up and use and more features are still being added. Created by resident Yuzuru Jewell...arigato!

'''Resources''' 
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=184264

=== 3dm2sculpt ===
*'''Creator:''' [[User:Cindy Crabgrass | Cindy Crabgrass]]
*'''Link to get it:''' [[3dm2sculpt|3dm2sculpt]]
*'''Requires:''' Windows

A command-line utility that reads an [[#3D_File_Formats | OpenNURBS]] .3dm file and generates a .tga sculpt texture from it. Still in need of a lot of testing but potentialy very usefull for any program that supports this format.

=== obj2sculpt ===
*'''Creator:''' [[User:Cindy Crabgrass | Cindy Crabgrass]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=1505114&postcount=14
*'''Requires:''' Windows

A command-line utility that reads a Wavefront Style .obj file and generates a .tga sculpt texture from it. Still in need of a lot of testing but potentialy very usefull for any program that supports this format.

=== sculpty.php ===
*'''Creator:''' [[User:nand Nerd | nand Nerd]]
*'''Link to get it:''' http://www.nandnerd.info/sculpty.php
*'''Requires:''' Browser

A web-based series of tools, still rather primitive but constantly updating. Currently implemented are revolve and z,r revolve which both take a series of values (radii and z-pos,radii values respectively) and rotate them around the z-axis.

== Free 3D Modeling Software ==

=== Blender ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.blender.org blender.org]
*'''License:''' [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GPL]
*'''Operating Systems''': Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, Irix, Solaris, FreeBSD and others)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Python
*'''Supports NURBS?:''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Development in progress by SL residents. Also, people have figured out how to get Blender to generate sculpt maps as you work, without needing a script! The process is documented [http://amandalevitsky.googlepages.com/sculptedprims here], and [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted2/Blender-to-sculpted.html here]

Formerly a company's in-house tool, Blender is the current king of the open source modeling programs. With all the features of the expensive programs, an active development community and even some existing SL-based tools made by Residents, this is going to be the default choice for many people. Downsides: Blender's interface is not newbie-friendly. That combined with spotty documentation can make for a steep learning curve.

'''Resources'''
* [http://www.blender.org/tutorials-help/ Blender.org Documentation and Tutorials]
* [http://amandalevitsky.googlepages.com/sculptedprims How to Make Sculpted Prims with Blender]
* [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted-tuto/Blender-export-template-tut.html A template file to start with and export easy]
* [http://blendernewbies.blogspot.com/2007/04/video-oven-baked-pretzels-in-blender-3d.html Oven Baked Pretzels @ BlenderNewbies.com] - A video tutorial that covers the basics of Blender's new sculpt mode, useful if you're creating sculpties using the above manual method.
* [http://www.bentha.net/sculpted2/Blender-to-sculpted.html An almost complete method] to export almost anything from blender
* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=110607 Offline Prim Builder] for standard prims (Secondlife.com login required)

=== Art of Illusion ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.artofillusion.org artofillusion.org]
*'''License:''' [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GPL]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Any OS that will run Java (requires Java Runtime Environment 1.4 or later)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Java via [http://www.beanshell.org/ Beanshell]
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' ???
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

A number of Residents have recommended this program; If you're familiar with it, please give the rest of us a summary!

'''Resources'''
*[http://www.artofillusion.org/documentation AoI Documentation]

=== Moment of Inspiration ===

*'''Website:''' [http://moi3d.com/ Moment of Inspiration]
*'''License:''' Open beta testing/freeware
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP/Vista
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' ?
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' ?
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, try [[3dm2sculpt]]

This program has some cool things going for it. It's the work of a former [[#Rhino_3D | Rhino]] developer and has an interface that pretty much lets you draw shapes with the mouse or a pen tablet. Documentation on the website is sparse however and being in beta means there will be kinks.

It should be noted that MoI will become a commercial product when it leaves beta testing (expected later this summer), but it will still be comparatively inexpensive; the estimated cost is between US$200-$100.

'''Resources'''
* [http://moi3d.com/forum/ Moment of Inspiration Forums]
* [http://mefeedia.com/tags/momentofinspiration/ Video Tutorials]

=== Ayam ===

*'''Website:''' [http://ayam.sourceforge.net/ Ayam]
*'''License:''' [http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html BSD license]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Unix/Linux (native), Windows 98, 2000 and XP, Mac OSX (with X11)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, tcl
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes (NURBS modeling only; polygon meshes can be imported)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

'''Resources'''
* [http://ayam.sourceforge.net/docs.html Ayam Documentation page]

=== Wings 3D ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.wings3d.com Wings 3D]
*'''License:'''[http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.html BSD license]
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac OSX, Linux (binaries), other Unixes (source only)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' ? (Plugin interface avalible)
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' ?
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes. Wings 3D is the easiest way to get started making scultpties. See the first post in this [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=183764 forum thread]for instructions on getting set up.

Wings3D is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivision_surface subdivision] modeler and has the advantage of being fairly easy to learn and is well suited to making sculpted prims. Documentation is sparse, but there are many tutorials on the Web.

'''Resources'''
*[http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=wings&filename=wings3d_manual1.6.1.pdf&use_mirror=internap Wings User Manual] (Sourceforge, PDF)

== Professional 3D Suites ==

It has to be said: most professional 3D software is (incredibly) expensive, anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars for a single copy. They're marketed at big professional studios with thousands or millions of dollars to budget for this stuff. There are ways to reduce this expense so that it's witin the reach of an average person: some legal, some not.

* '''Don't''' post links to downloads of pirated software or directions/tools to crack trial software. They'll be deleted.

* '''Don't''' ask in a public forum where you can download pirated software.

* '''Don't''' be fooled by online retailers selling "cheap OEM" copies of software online. None of these programs come in OEM (original equipment manufacturer, or anyone who makes computer hardware and bundles software with them) versions. Many companies such as Autodesk only sell their software through authorized retailers. These too good to be true offers are just that: crooks trying to get you to pay them money for pirated software. (ed.: Trust me: I've fallen for it before and now know better).

* '''Do''' be aware that downloading pirated software is a good way to end up with malware on your system such as trojans and keyloggers.

That said, here are some of the legal options you can look for:

* '''Educational Licenses''': If you're a student or know one willing to help you, you can usually get a significant discount on most of these programs. The downside is that many educational licenses say you're not supposed to use the program for commercial purposes.
* '''Annual Licenses''': Many of the same educational vendors also offer an option to buy a one or two year license to the full version of the program, sometimes for as little as $200 or less. Even over the course of several years, this could be the most economical option and you won't be crippled by the terms of an educational license.
* '''Subscriptions''': If you already own the software, some companies, particularly Autodesk, offer subscriptions that can get you access to extra new features and deals on upgrades.
* '''Trials''': Most 3d software has a demo or a "learning edition" that you can download from the software maker and try on your system. They will be either time or feature limited but this is a good way to get your feet wet.

So with that out of the way, the list...

=== Amorphium ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.eitechnologygroup.com/products/amorphium Electric Image Amorphium]
*'''Cost:''' US$79 ("Standard")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac (UB)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes (controllable with pen-tablet)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes (paint on, further controllable with sensitive pen-tablet)
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

Sculpting is what Amorphium is all about. If you have a pen tablet (even a tablet PC), the pressure sensitivity will control the pressure applied to the current brush to morph the sculpture. It gives a very natural feel to being able to sculpt 3d models easily and intuitively. Amorphium has won 14 awards including "Best Graphics Software" from magazines like Computer Graphics World, PC World, and Macworld for its breakthrough real-time approach to creating 3D graphics.

'''Resources'''

=== Maya (Autodesk/Wavefront) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.autodesk.com/maya Autodesk Maya]
*'''Cost:''' US$3000 ("Complete") - US$7000 ("Unlimited"). ("Complete" version sufficient for creating sculpted prims.) Educational licence: US$300
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2, Max OSx 10.4, Linux (SUSE, RedHat and Fedora supported)
*'''Trial version available?:''' "Personal Learning Edition", no time limit but not usable for creating sculpted prims (sculpt textures ruined by watermark)
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, MEL Script
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, script by Qarl Linden available on their wiki [[LlSculpt mel|here]], instructions [[Sculpted_Prims:_FAQ#MayaExporter|here]].

Why was Maya the first to receive sculpted prim support from Linden Lab? Because it was what [http://www.qarl.com/ Qarl Linden], the main developer on the project, learned to use while creating kick-ass movie SFX like [http://www.qarl.com/menu/resume/matrix-demo.mov these] and the tech for sculpted prims was adapted from tricks he learned in the process. Maya has been a growing force in the movie industry for some years and a strong presence in the video game industry as well.

'''Resources'''

[http://webpages.charter.net/talilal/Balloon%20Tutorial/ Maya Sculpt Tutorial] by Talila Liu

=== 3d Studio Max (Autodesk) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax Autodesk 3ds Max]
*'''Cost:''' US$3495. Educational License: ~US$200. Subscription: ~US$500/year.
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP, Windows Vista (with version 9.1)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30-day demo, full features
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, MAX Script/plugins
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes (version 8 and higher)
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' 3 methods in development:
** [http://www.joe-brown.net/SecondLife/SculptTut/SculptTut.html Method 1] by Gearsawe Stonecutter, uses a premade template file.
** [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=182461 Method 2] by Abu Nasu, uses a shader and is capable of handling arbitrary shapes but requires Max 8 or higher. [http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=1505984&postcount=46 Download the Materials file here]. Tutorial coming soon.
** [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=185426 Method 3] by Shack Dougall, is a vertex-based method using MAXScript and preset geometry as a starting point. Tested on 3dsMax 9.

Formerly Maya's main competitor, especially in the game industry. Then Autodesk (the makers of Max) bought out Alias (the makers of Maya) a couple years ago. So far the company is developing both products separately, marketing Maya at the movie industry and Max at the game developers, but they have long had comparable feature sets, and in the future it's likely that there will be tighter integration between the two. A choice between Maya and Max generaly comes down to user preference and (particularly in our case) plugin support. Some users have said that Max is easier for a newbie to learn than Maya and certain basic controls share similarities with SL's build tools (such as shift-drag to copy).

'''Resources'''

=== Zbrush (Pixologic) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/products/products.php Pixologic :: Zbrush]
*'''Cost:''' US$489
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 98/2000/ZP, Mac OSX
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30-day time limit
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Zscripting
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No, future support is planned by Linden Lab

Zbrush pretty new and a bit unique. It's a 3d painting and sculpting tool; instead of manipulating polys or curves, you select a brush and literally ''paint'' and chisel and mold...the best way to grasp it is to download the demo and play with it. It's pretty sweet: a ton of studios such as [http://www.epicgames.com/ Epic Games] use it to create the details for their normal maps and some SL designers are already using it for the 3d painting capabilities.

'''Resources'''
* [http://www.pixologic.com/zbrush/education/documentation/guides.php Zbrush Documentation]
* [http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/index.php ZbrushCentral - Official Forums and Online Community]

=== Lightwave (Newtek)===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/ Lightwave]
*'''Cost:''' US$795
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP, Mac OSX 10.3.9 or higher
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30 day time limit
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, LScript
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes, with LWCAD 2.1 add-on (costs extra)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, manual method instructions here: [[User:Patchouli_Woollahra/Lightwave_Sculptie_Rendering]]

Some high-profile Second Life designers have been using Lightwave for quite a while to burn realistic highlights and shadows onto their skins and clothing textures. Therefore it's not a big surprise that after Blender, this was the second program that community members figured out a sculpt export method for.

'''Resources'''

=== Rhinoceros (McNeel) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.rhino3d.com Rhino 3D]
*'''Cost:''' US$995
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP/Vista (Vista not recommended due to OpenGL issues)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, save count limited
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, VBScript
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes (limited polygon functions)
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' please try [[3dm2sculpt]] (not tested with Rhino yet)

Rhino is built from the ground up for NURBS modeling; thus if you intend to use NURBS, this isn't such a bad option. From this author's brief trial with it, it handles certain operations (like joining 2 or more objects) somewhat more intelligently than 3ds Max. A couple UI tricks make the learning curve much less steep than the sea of buttons you're initially presented with: a help window to one side explains each operation as you select it and the command line at the top effectively lets you search for a function by typing in its name, without having to know where the button or menu option is.

'''Resources'''

=== trueSpace (Caligari) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.caligari.com Caligari]
*'''Cost:''' US$595 for latest version (7), but legacy versions are sold for lower prices ($199 for TrueSpace 5)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP/Vista
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, prior version of the program
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

trueSpace and its companion products appear to be aimed more at the independent developer and hobby market, resulting in a fully featured program at a much more affordable price. Of interest to Second Life users: trueSpace 7 and up offers a collaborative work environment; the benefit of working together like in SL but without the guy shooting off guns at you in the sandbox.

'''Resources'''

[http://forms.caligari.com/forms/ts3all_free.html trueSpace3.2 Full Version (very old) for Free]

=== Softimage XSI (Avid) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/ Softimage XSI]
*'''Cost:''' US$495 ("Foundation") - US$6995 ("Advanced")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2/64 bit
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 30 day trial with full features, free "Mod Tool" supported by [http://www.valvesoftware.com/ Valve] with limited features (watermarks images).
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Python, COLLADA and C#
*'''Supports NURBS?''' Yes
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

Billing itself as "the most advanced 3D animation and character creation software for next generation games & film", it does that, modeling, baking, film compositing, ''and'' it makes toast! All kidding aside, they seem to be going after the largest slice of the market they can and their client list includes everything from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_2 Half-Life] to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl's_Moving_Castle_(film) Howl's Moving Castle]. Pluses? It's one of the few commercial programs that uses non-proprietary languages for their scripting...yes, I said languages, because apparently you have a choice between several. However it's unlikely that it has a significant user base within the SL community at the moment.

'''Resources'''

=== Modo 203 (Luxology)===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.luxology.com/ Luxology Home]
*'''Cost:''' US$895 professional, $149 Educational, $99 "Good Student" price. Download a trial version then wait 1-2 weeks and you'll receive a voucher dropping professional price to US$695.
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' Yes, via texture baking

Luxology Modo is a premier modeling and UV system built to maximize the workflow of professional modelers. It has both a rich modeling and painting toolset, ideal for creating models for Second Life.

'''Resources'''
* Lovecraft Forest Testbed [http://www.rabbitroo.com/SL/SLtest4.lxo SLtest4.lxo]
* Lovecraft Forest Usage Instructions: [http://www.lovecraftforest.com/blog/2007/05/17/sculpted-prims-in-modo-part-ii/ Blog Post]

=== Mudbox (Skymatter) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.mudbox3d.com/ Mudbox]
*'''Cost:''' US$299 ("Basic") - US$649 ("Professional")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP SP2, Atm untested on x64 or Vista
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes, 15 days trial fully functional.
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' No
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

With ZBrush one of the most powerful organic modelers out there, really easy to use and artist friendly. Its modeling is based on brushes like ZBrush but aims more to 3D like Maya or 3D Studio Max. It contains a high quality texture renderer for baking normal maps and is used be many 3D professionals and studios like WETA Digital and some artists at Raven Software and id Software.

'''Resources'''

=== Carrara (Daz) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.daz3d.com/ Daz]
*'''Cost:''' US$249 ("Standard") - US$549 ("Professional")
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows, Mac (UB)
*'''Trial version available?:''' Yes
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes (plugin development, no scripting)
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No (Yes with third party plug from [http://www.inagoni.com/content.php?content.3/ Inagoni]
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

Like Hexagon, Carrara was an Eovia product that is now owned by Daz. Carrara is full-featured 3D application, supporting polygon modeling, spline modeling, "metaballs", and terrain modeling (it is sometimes compared to Vue). This app seems fly under the radar consistently, but Daz does seem to be serious about maintaining it as they have recently released a Mac Universal Binary version, free to registered users. Carrara also provides animation and particles.

'''Resources'''

== Other 3d Programs ==

These programs may be free or cheap, but they won't have nearly as expansive feature sets as those above.

=== Google Sketchup ===

*'''Website:''' [http://sketchup.google.com/ Google Sketchup]
*'''Cost:''' Free (Google Sketchup 6)/$495 (Google Sketchup 6 Pro)/$45 (Educational/Student Price)
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows XP/2000, Windows Vista (with OpenGL 1.5 or higher), Mac OSX (10.3.9 or higher)
*'''Trial version available?:''' 8 hour trial available for Sketchup Pro
*'''Supports user scripting?:''' Yes, Ruby
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?:''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support?:''' No

Since before Google bought the company that made SketchUp, the program was designed with a very specific aim: fast, easy to use architectural rendering and other similar conceptual art. While a cool program in and of itself, it's not particularly designed for organic shapes. The texturing and materials tools are about as basic as those found in the Second Life build tools and export to other formats like OBJ is limited to the paid Pro version.

'''Resources'''

=== MilkShape 3D ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.milkshape3d.com/ www.milkshape3d.com]
*'''Cost:''' US$25 / €25
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows
*'''Trial version available?''' 30-day unrestricted trial, save disabled thereafter until registered
*'''Supports user scripting?''' Plug-in SDK available (Does that count?)
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' Import/Export plugin under development

'''Resources''' 
: See the '''Tutorials''' and '''Links''' sections on the [http://www.milkshape3d.com/ MilkShape website]

=== POV Ray ===

*'''Website:''' http://povray.org
*'''Cost:''' FREE
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows/Linux/Mac
*'''Trial version available?'''
*'''Supports user scripting?'''
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' Yes
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' Yes. Instructions are here: http://johannahyacinth.blogspot.com/2007/05/sculpted-prims-with-pov-ray.html

POV-Ray is a renderer - you have to do all your modeling in another application, or by describing in plain text the mathematical shapes which make up the model.

=== Hexagon 2 (DAZ Productions) ===

*'''Website:''' [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/hexagon/-/? Hexagon product page]
*'''Cost:''' Full version: $149, "Crossgrade" from other DAZ software: $79, Upgrade: $49
*'''Operating Systems:''' Windows 2000/XP, Max OSX 10.2 or higher
*'''Trial version available?''' Yes, it's burried: go [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/support/downloads/-/ here] and select Hexagon from the list.
*'''Supports user scripting?''' No
*'''Supports NURBS?''' No
*'''Built-in Texture Baking/generation?''' No
*'''Current Sculpt Map Support:''' No

SL animators may have heard about (and perhaps been disappointed with) [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/studio/-/? DAZ Studio], a competitor to Poser. Others may be familiar with [http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/bryce/-/? Bryce], a landscape creation tool with a much better reputation. Hexagon appears to be a spinoff of DAZ Studio and while it appears to be a perfectly capable 3d program by itself with polygon modeling subdivision modeling, sculpting tools, and is that 3d painting I see?, the absence in their feature list of either texture baking or any sort of user scripting or plugin interface could be a deal-breaker until something like a reliable .OBJ converter comes along.

== 3D File Formats ==

If you're using software that cannot export to sculpt directly, you might still be able to succeed. You can always give the file to someone with access to the appropriate software, or you could export your model into another 3D modeler. To do that, you'll need to export the model into a format the other program can handle. Here's a brief rundown of the file formats that SL developers will generally find the most useful.

:*'''.OBJ''': Probably the most common cross-platform export format for polygon models; it's fairly open and any 3D program worth its bits supports it. It's also well-documented and easily hackable.

:*'''.3DS''': The default polygon export format supported by [[#3d_Studio_Max_.28Autodesk.29|3D Studio Max]]. Because of this, it is widely supported. However, it doesn't have as many export options as OBJ.

:*'''.FBX''': Another Autodesk format that is good if you need to export whole scenes: objects, animation, lights, cameras, etc. More importantly for our purposes, it preserves [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NURBS NURBS] objects in some programs. Especially useful if you're trading files between 3DS Max and [[#Maya_.28Autodesk.2FWavefront.29|Maya]]; it's also supported in some other programs but [[#Blender|Blender]] isn't among them ...yet.

:*'''.3DM''': a.k.a [http://www.opennurbs.com OpenNURBS]. This is the native format of [[#Rhinoceros_Rhino_3D|Rhino3D]] and [[#Moment_of_Inspiration|MoI]] and, as the name suggests, is a [[Sculpted_Prims:_3d_Modeling_Glossary#NURBS_Modeling | NURBS]] export format. It's gaining some popularity; unfortunately, it's not currently supported by the big three (Maya, Max and Blender). However the format documentation and code libraries are open-source, tempting those brave enough to try and write tools for it, such as [[#3dm2sculpt | 3dm2sculpt]].

== Other Resources ==

Useful places for anyone interested in 3d modeling:

* [http://www.3dbuzz.com 3d Buzz] - Forums, video tutorials and even classes covering everything from 3d programs to 3d programing and even Photoshop.

== See also ==

* [[Sculpted Prims|Sculpted Prims]]
* [[Sculpted Prims: FAQ|Sculpted Prims: FAQ]]
* [[Sculpt Textures in Paint Programs]]
* [[Sculpted_Prim_Explanation|Sculpted Prims: Under the Hood]]
* [[Sharing_sculpt_maps_and_textures|Sculpted Prims: Sharing Sculpt Maps and Textures]]
* [[Sculpted Prims Beta Discussion|Sculpted Prims Beta Discussion]]

[[Category:Sculpted Prims]]

SL Certification/List of Resident Participants

2007-05-20T21:31:03Z

Nand Nerd: added nand Nerd

[[Category:Certification]]
Add yourself to the '''bottom''' of this list using the following Wiki code:
<code><pre><nowiki>* ~~~</nowiki></pre></code>

* [[User:Ceera Murakami|Ceera Murakami]] (Fox and Ground Construction Company) Texture Artist
* [[User:Elle74 Zaftig|Elle74 Zaftig]] (Bellissima!/Shoppe74) build/model/textures
* [[User:Keiki Lemieux|Keiki Lemieux]] (HUDDLES Games & Gadgets) Building, Scripting, Animations, Textures
* [[User:Tre Giles|Tre Giles]] (GiTech/Action Village Paintball) Building, Scripting, Animation, Photography
* [[User:Alexander Regent|Alexander Regent]] (MageTech LLC) Scripting, website integration, cellphone integration, in-world building
* [[User:Sitearm Madonna|Sitearm Madonna]] (Siterma): Sim Scale Project Planning and Management; Structural Builds and Simulator Performance Management; Social Builds and Community Growth Management; Modeling - Architecture, Terraforming, Waterscaping, Landscaping, Soundscaping
* [[User:Hugo Dalgleish|Hugo Dalgleish]]
* [[User:Kenn Nilsson|Kenn Nilsson]] (NDE)
* [[User:Ravanne Sullivan|Ravanne Sullivan]] (Ravanne's Dance Poles and Animations) Animations and Scripting
* [[User:Fox Diller|Fox Diller]] (Crystal Studio/Magrathean Technologies) Anything Second Life.
* [[User:MSo Lambert|MSo Lambert]] ([http://www.synthetik-on.net/ Synthetik]) Scripting, Web Integration, project management
* [[User:Rael Delcon|Rael Delcon]]
* [[User:Dytska Vieria|Dytska Vieria]] (residential design/builds)
* [[User:Skye McArdle|Skye McArdle]] - Modeling, Animation, Textures, AV Customization
* [[User:Eladon Galsworthy|Eladon Galsworthy]] (PondLife - building and scripting)
* [[User:Oz Spade|Oz Spade]]
* [[User:Max Case|Max Case]]
* [[User:Newfie Pendragon|Newfie Pendragon]] (Reality Check, LSL Scripting)
* [[User:Gigs Taggart|Gigs Taggart]]
* [[User:Peekay Semyorka|Peekay Semyorka]]
* [[User:Osgeld Barmy|Osgeld Barmy]] (biulding textures lsl)
* [[User:Nargus Asturias|Nargus Asturias]] (Avatar building, animations, scripts)
* [[User:ForestMist Skjellerup|ForestMist Skjellerup]]
* [[User:Rraven Moonlight|Rraven Moonlight]] (Terraforming Raw files, Texture developer, Large Scale Architectural Builds)
* [[User:Xylo Quisling|Xylo Quisling]]
* [[User:Thunderclap Morgridge|Thunderclap Morgridge]] (Texture artist, and nascent builder)
* [[User:Hiro Pendragon|Hiro Pendragon]] (CTO, Infinite Vision Media) LSL scripting, modeling
* [[User:Ethan Therian|Ethan Therian]] (Creative Director, Infinite Vision Media) modeling, texturing
* [[User:Ciemaar Flintoff|Ciemaar Flintoff]] (associate, Infinite Vision Media) lsl scripting, web-to-SL-to-web scripting
* [[User:Nimrodina Wayne|Nimrodina Wayne]] (build, animate, machinima)
* [[User:Lias Leandros|Lias Leandros]] (VooDoo Corp.)Sim Scale Project Planning and Management; Social Builds and Community Growth Management
* [[User:Erin Talamasca|Erin Talamasca]]
* [[User:Till Stirling|Till Stirling]] (Scripter, Builder, Consultant)
* [[User:Kri Ayakashi|Kri Ayakashi]] (AyakashiTEC) - LSL Scripting, Web2.0 integration, distributed programming (C/C++/C#, Python), in-world building, consultancy
* [[User:Alison Wheels|Alison Wheels]] ([http://secondlife.creative.org.uk/ Creative Organisation]) Scripting, FL/SL Integration issues, construction, terraforming, design
* [[User:FlipperPA Peregrine|FlipperPA Peregrine]] (Peregrine Salon/ESC) - LSL Scripting, Web integration, lots of other stuff. Creator of SLBoutique.com and SLTrivia.com.
* [[User:Strife Onizuka|Strife Onizuka]] (Scripter, Builder, Consultant)
* [[User:Porky Gorky|Porky Gorky]] - Hydro Homes : Prefabricated & customised building & architectural design.
* [[User:Bru Yang|Bru Yang]]
* [[User:Dirk Talamasca|Dirk Talamasca]] (Building, Custom Textures, Land/Estate Management. Internet Abuse Remediation, Sim Scale Layout, Planning and Development)
* [[User:Aimee Weber|Aimee Weber]]
* [[User:Banana Stein|Banana Stein]] (SL Brand) Builder, Textures, Sim Scale Project
* [[User:Linnian Sugar|Linnian Sugar]] (*Lollipop Shop owner* Builder, Clothing and textures, scripting, animations)
* [[User:Siobhan Taylor|Siobhan Taylor]] Building, Scripting.
* [[User:Taco Rubio|Taco Rubio]] (Media Management)
* [[User:RobbyRacoon Olmstead|RobbyRacoon Olmstead]] (Scripting, Building, C:SI Developer)
* [[User:Dnali Anabuki|Dnali Anabuki]] (Structure,Process,Organizing of Cert) Satorifilmservices.com
* [[User:Detect Surface|Detect Surface]] - (**D&D Creative Lab/The Brain Game/City of Abaddon** Building, Texturing, Skins, Texture-Mapping/Zoning, AV Design, Clothing, Sim Design and Construction, Architecture, Weapons, Vehicles, Furniture, Animation, Graphic Design, Artist and Pretty Flower Arranging.)
* [[User:Meade Paravane|Meade Paravane]] (Script monkey, Builder)
* [[User:Orange Montagne|Orange Montagne]]
* [[User:Joshua Nightshade|Joshua Nightshade]] (Builder, avatar design - primarily smaller-than-normal avatars)
* [[User:Zorena Deckard|Zorena Deckard]] (builder,textures,modeling)
* [[User:Bartiloux Desmoulins|Bartiloux Desmoulins]] (Scripting, modeling and animations)
* [[User:Ravenelle Zugzwang|Ravenelle Zugzwang]]
* [[User:Little Penguin|Little Penguin]] Building, Scripting
* [[User:Pol Tabla|Pol Tabla]]
* [[User:Jade Opel|Jade Opel]] (Brides & Blooms by Jade Opel) Building, terra-forming, textures, particles, modeling
* [[User:Auron Havercamp|Auron Havercamp]] ([http://www.kenthavercamp.com/ Kent-Havercamp Enterprises, Ltd.]) - Scripting, Web Interaction, Data Storage
* [[User:Schuyler Kent|Schuyler Kent]] ([http://www.kenthavercamp.com/ Kent-Havercamp Enterprises, Ltd.]) - Building, Scripting, Consulting
* [[User:Vincent Nacon|Vincent Nacon]] (all above)
* [[User:Aradia Aridian|Aradia Aridian]] (Modeling, Land/Estate Management, Business Management, Marketing to the Virtual Customer)
* [[User:Scarlet Singer|Scarlet Singer]] (Textures/Graphics) <3
* [[User:Will Webb|Will Webb]]
* [[Cocoanut Koala]] (Coco's Cottages) Builder
* Illya Sullivan
*[[User:Frans Charming|Frans Charming]] ([http://www.thevesuviusgroup.com The Vesuvius Group])Project Planning and Management, 3D Modeling/Building, Scripting, Texturing, etc
* [[User:Nomasha Syaka|Nomasha Syaka]] Specialist Maya based Sculpties /Photoshop textures/ build /model/ Space Hopper test engineer([http://www.nomashasyaka.com Website])
*[[User:Rhiannon Chatnoir|Rhiannon Chatnoir]] ([http://www.thevesuviusgroup.com The Vesuvius Group])Creative Director of The Vesuvius Group (Project Management, Planning, Textures, Terraforming, machinima), also SL and web dev for Global Kids, Inc. and a RL professional graphic designer.
* [[User:Shockwave Yareach|Shockwave Yareach]] (Textures/Scripting/Building)
* [[User:Rebel Television|Rebel Television]] ([http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=147428 Airfoil]) Scripting, Animation, Vehicles, Avatars, Building, In-world RSS Feed Displays
* [[User:Storm Thunders|Storm Thunders]]
* [[Rocky Merosi]] (Objects, Furnishings/Interior Design, Weapons and Vehicles, Asset Managment, Movement, Attachments, Setting Properties, Communications)
*[[User:Moriz Gupte|Moriz Gupte]] ([http://www.play2train.org Play2Train])Producer, Scripter, Builder SL educator
*([http://homepage.mac.com/salazarjack/ Salazar Jack]) - Kahruvel Design - Environments, Landscapes, Forest Preservation, Terraforming, Architecture, Archeological Restoration, Furnishings/Interior Design, Objects, Textures
*[[User:Raven Pennyfeather|Raven Pennyfeather]] Owner/operator for House of RFyre LLC,clothing and avatar development, textures building, business analyst, gragphic design.
*[[User:Thraxis Epsilon|Thraxis Epsilon]] (Resume in Profile)
*[[User:Angelica Puff|Angelica Puff]] (Communications, External <-> Inworld data, Asset Management)
*[[User:Jeff Kelley|Jeff Kelley]] (Communications, Networking, Display, Data storage & access)
*[[User:Ace Albion|Ace Albion]] (Ace's Spaces) prefab builder
*[[User:SunShine Kukulcan|SunShine Kukulcan]] (Mercury Dev Studios - Music and Media Services, Sim planning)
*[[User:Klink Epsilon|Klink Epsilon]] (Mercury Dev Studios - Builder, Custom Textures, Sim Design and planning, Media Services)
*[[User:Parker McTeague|Parker McTeague]] (BLIP) building, textures
*[[Demian Caldera]] Architecture, Furnishings/Interior Design, Objects, Landscaping, Terra Forming, Event Organizing, Event Set Building.
*[[User:Rainbow Drake|Rainbow Drake]] Director of Education - [http://raindancer.ca/NCI New Citizens Incorporated]
*[[User:Kamael Xevious|Kamael Xevious]] - Radio Babylonia/Batak Island Traders - Architecture, Furnishings and Interior Design, Media, Community Development and Region Construction, Education.
*[[User:Pipe Hesse|Pipe Hesse]] Scripting, Building
* [[User:Abramelin Wolfe|Abramelin Wolfe]] (Abramelin Studios Ltd / Abranimations) script/build/texture/animation/mocap/web integration
* [[User:katykiwi Moonflower|katykiwi Moonflower]] interior design/furnishings/building/texturing/terraforming
*[[User:Jade Jensen|Jade Jensen]] (Jaded Visions) Clothing Design, Avatar Creation/Design, Texturing, Graphics Design
*[[Darien Caldwell]] Builder/Scripter
*[[User:Azrazael Dhara|Azrazael Dhara]] Building, Terraforming, Sim Design, Landscaping, Instructing, Photography
*[[User:Andreas Isachenko|Andreas Isachenko]] Building, Scripting, DB access
*[[User:Jason Keegan|Jason Keegan]] (K-tech) Scripting
*[[User:Gaius Goodliffe|Gaius Goodliffe]] (Second Skies) Vehicles, scripting, back-end server/website integration
*[[User:Pericat Aquitaine|Pericat Aquitaine]] (Elf Harbour Boatyard) Vehicles, scripting, terraforming, general building
*[[User:Karsten Rutledge|Karsten Rutledge]] (Play2Train/K.R. Engineering) Scripting, building.
*[[User:Bubba Biberman|Bubba Biberman]] Building, textures, machinima
*[[User:Kerian Bunin|Kerian Bunin]] (uʍop əpı̣sdn) Building, Scripting, Estate Management
*[[User:Tsukasa Keiko|Tsukasa Keiko]] Building, Scripting
*[[User:Morph Wollongong|Morph Wollongong]] Gadgets, Scripting
*[[User:Ordinal Malaprop|Ordinal Malaprop]] - scripting, some building
*[[User:Donnagh McDonnagh|Donnagh McDonnagh]] - Undergraduate education (School of Communication), machinima, scripting, general building, avatar skins/clothes, 3d textures, animation, web integration, vehicles, huds, event management, orientation, inworld collaboration
*[[User:Able Whitman|Able Whitman]] - scripting, some building
*[[User:Adri Saarinen|Adri Saarinen]] - ([http://www.metaversatility.com Metaversatility]) scripting, building, presence development
*[[User:Curious Rousselot|Curious Rousselot]] - Scripting, Building
*[[User:otakup0pe Neumann|otakup0pe Neumann]] - Pleiades Consulting & libsecondlife. Rich Educational Content, tech integration, libsl powered services
*[[User:Damek Tretiak|Damek Tretiak]] - ([http://www.tretiakmedia.com Tretiak Media])/([http://www.slquery.com SLQuery.com]) scripting, building, project management
* [[User:Jacques Groshomme|Jacques Groshomme]] - Building/Scripting
* [[User:Iris Bourdeille|Iris Bourdeille]] - Building/Scripting/Texturing/Animation
* [[User:Fallon Winnfield|Fallon Winnfield]] - ([http://www.centric.com Centric])/([http://www.secondtalk.com Second Talk]) - Business development, building, scripting
* [[User:Adam Rakosi|Adam Rakosi]] - ([http://www.centric.com Centric])/([http://www.secondtalk.com Second Talk]) - Building/Scripting
* [[User:Neko Longduk|Neko Longduk]] - ([http://www.centric.com Centric])/([http://www.secondtalk.com Second Talk]) - Business Development, scripting
* [[User:Weasel Gough|Weasel Gough]] - ([http://www.centric.com Centric])/([http://www.secondtalk.com Second Talk]) - Building/Scripting/Texturing/Animation
* [[User:Chime Bellman|Chime Bellman]] strategy/build/model/promote
*[[User:Sage Duncan|Sage Duncan]] - animation/machinima/motion/media management/live performance
* [[User:Economic Mip|Economic Mip]] -imagine/dream
* [[User:Talarus Luan|Talarus Luan]] - Archaean Designs / Council of Wyrms - Scripting, Building, Consulting
* [[User:Dustin Widget|Dustin Widget]] Builder/Scripter/Mentor/Lots More
* [[User:Tab Scott|Tab Scott]] - Terry Beaubois, Montana State University - College of Art & Architecture - Art, Music, Architecture, Film - Sustainable Community Design
* [[User:Hiro Market|Hiro Market]] - ([http://www.slicr.net Slicr]) Slicr - Scripting, Consulting
* [[User:Scorpio Galatea|Scorpio Galatea]] - Builder (Phoenix), Texture Creator
* [[User:Sylvia Trilling|Sylvia Trilling]] - Modeling, Scripting, Animating, Texturing
* [[User:Earnest Candour|Earnest Candour]] - ([http://www.metaverseenterprises.com Metaverse Enterprises])
* [[User:Carl Metropolitan|Carl Metropolitan]] - Building, Site Developement, Project Management, Marketing, Graphic Design, Event Hosting, Terraforming, Teaching
* [[User:Lecktor Hannibal|Lecktor Hannibal]] - (Landscaping, Estate Management, Modeling, Media Streaming, Event Management)
* [[User:Destiny Niles|Destiny Niles]] - Scripter/Mentor
*[[User:Kim Anubis|Kim Anubis]], ([http://www.themagicians.us The Magicians])
* [[User:Bobble Bertone|Bobble Bertone]] - ([http://www.coolbananas.com.au Cool Bananas Ventures]) - Building, Scripting, Terra forming, Project management, Networking with RL businesses.
* [[User:Logan Bauer|Logan Bauer]] - Building/Texturing/Scripting/Ect.
* [[User:In Kenzo|In Kenzo]] ([http://www.amoration.org Amoration]) Design, Building, Machinima, Events, Immersive Experiences for nonprofits and education
* [[User:Gearsawe Stonecutter|Gearsawe Stonecutter]] - Scripting, HUDs, Building, complex prim transformations, single script simplification
* [[User:Apollo Case|Apollo Case]] - (Armory Island and Armory Xtreme)- Virtual Weapons, Combat Items and Gadgets - Conceptualization, Testing, Marketing, Communication, Distribution, and Retailing - Combat Sim Owner and Developer
* [[User:Sindy Tsure|Sindy Tsure]] (Scripting, Buidling)
* Huns Valen - ([http://valenheavy.com Valen Heavy Industries]) - Aircraft physics & avionics. Efficient interprocess communication. Remote business logic. Heuristic algorithms. Cryptography. User interfaces.
* [[User:Damanios Thetan|Damanios Thetan]] - ([http://www.damanicorp.com Damani]) - Modeling, Building, Texturing, Scripting, External server comms.
* [[User:Mary Edison|Mary Edison]] - (Phase 5) - Modeling, Building, Texturing, Design.
* Catty Loon - Building/Scripting
* [[User:Phelan Corrimal|Phelan Corrimal]] - ROCKCLIFFE UNIVERSITY - Please note that we are already more than 50% of the way there to having this already developed as we've been working on this since November 2006 when Linden Labs pulled out from financially supporting education. We are most interested in providing full support behind this initiative and would welcome people to come have a look at what we have to offer currently and where we are planning to be come end of August, 2007.
* [[User:Restorator Ristow|Restorator Ristow]] - Promotion and Marketing, novice builder
* [[User:Scout Detritus|Scout Detritus]] - Scripting, Building, Sounds, Animations, Clothing/Textures, Marketing, Sim Design.
* [[User:Nylon Pinkney|Nylon Pinkney]] - Texturing
* [[User:Alessio0108 Beck|Alessio0108 Beck]] - Nogravity - Full service italian agency - scripting - building - SltoRl web applications - design - sl real estate
* [[User:Osprey Therian|Osprey Therian]] - building, texturing, machinima
* [[User:Max Pitre|Max Pitre]] - building, texturing, scripting
* [[User:Gus Poutine|Gus Poutine]] - Instructional Designer A.S.K. Learning
* [[User:Lucian Overlord|Lucian Overlord]] - building, texturing,modeling, animations,sim design
* [[User:Lordfly Digeridoo|Lordfly Digeridoo]] - Digeridoodesigns.com -- building, architecture, sim planning
* [[User:Jauani Wu|Jauani Wu]] - second life is just like real life ... if you replace "second" with "no"
* [[User:MadamG Zagato|MadamG Zagato]] - ([http://www.never30.com Never 30 & N30 Studios]) Residential and commercial building, Web <---> LSL Communications, SL to RL Fashion, Furniture and Interior Design [UMPIRE], Photography [N30].
* [[User:Aradia Dielli|Aradia Dielli]] - Building, Modeling, Interior design, Photography.
* [[User:PajVar Kerensky|PajVar Kerensky]] - DESHADOW CUSTOMS - Custom Building, Scripting, Sim Development, Business Consultation, Community Development, WWW Portals, WWW Sites, In-World Community tools.
* [[User:Bobby Berwick|Bobby Berwick]] (QHB - Quality Home Builders) Scripting, Building
* [[User:SignpostMarv Martin|SignpostMarv Martin]] - geek. Does all kinds of things.
* [[User:Dnel DaSilva|D'Nel DaSilva]] (Xessories by D'Nel DaSilva) Builder, specializing in jewelry and other avatar accessories including the scripts used in them.
* [[User:Joshua Perenti|Joshua Perenti]] - Live Helper, Sim Designer, Landscaper & Builder
* [[User:Lucius Nesterov|Lucius Nesterov]] - ([http://lucius-games.blogspot.com/ Development Blog]) In-world game development
* [[User:Lewis Nerd|Lewis Nerd]] - ([http://www.lewisnerd.com website]) - Construction, development, landscaping and consultation
* [[User:Zal Chevalier|Zal Chevalier]] - Architect
* [[User:Casu Capra|Casu Capra]]
* [[User:Dalian Hansen|Dalian Hansen]] - Creative Director ([http://tretiakmedia.com/ Tretiak Media]) full service sim design and construction, SL > RL integration (advertising, marketing, internet/web design) ([http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/ Han Translation]) - Photography, Design/Translation in Japanese/Mandarin
* [[User:Kami Harbinger|Kami Harbinger]] - Developer of many scripted devices and the Pellucidar adventure game.
* [[User:Top Tank|Top Tank]] - Scripting, product design
* [[User:Whispering Hush|Whispering Hush]] Custom scripting boats, cars, push and non push weapons, prim torture, and general building.
* [[User:Nex Brannan|Nex Brannan]] Brutal Gear [http://gearshop.blogspot.com.com/ GearShop]) Clothing, Hair, Accesories, Building.
* [[User:HatHead Rickenbacker|HatHead Rickenbacker]] [http://hatheadinc.com/ HatHead Incubators] Modeling, Scripting.
* [[User:Desideria Stockton|Desideria Stockton]] (Literature Alive!) College Educator, Web 2.0, 3.0
* [[User:Isandra Willunga|Isandra_Willunga]] - IDS - scripting, texturing, lowprim building, general guidance.
* [[User:Derin Swenson|Derin Swenson]] ([http://www.olemissbusiness.com/ University of Mississippi, School of Business]) Building, Scripting, RL -> SL integration
* [[User:Escort DeFarge|Escort DeFarge]] (Together Systems) All aspects of scripting
* [[User:Davidorban Agnon|Davidorban Agnon]] ([http://www.questar.eu/secondlife Questar] and [http://vulca.no Vulcano])
* [[User:Mevo Syaka|Mevo Syaka]] - LSL Scripting, Modelling, Texturing, Custom Work
* [[User:Uccello Poultry|Uccello Poultry]] - Building, Texturing (including sign graphics), Clothing, Landscaping, Contract/On-Demand Work
* [[User:Itazura Radio|Itazura Radio]] - Modeling Architecture and Furnishings/Interior Design as well as Avatars, Terraforming, and Land/Estate Management. Photoshop and custom graphics skills.
* [[User:Phish Frye|Phish Frye]] - LSL scripter and expert programmer, specializing in connecting in-world objects to real world servers [http://www.purplestripe.com/ Purple Stripe]
* [[User:Haterot Okina|Haterot Okina]] - LSL scripter and builder extraordinaire. [http://www.purplestripe.com/ Purple Stripe]
* Noramyr Gullwing - ExtroVirtual (Flights of Fantasy) Builder, texturer, designer, graphic arts and development
* [[User:Gregory McLeod|Gregory McLeod]] Scripter of Games.
* [[User:Timeless Prototype|Timeless Prototype]] - Creator of the Multi Gadget
* [[User:Zayn Till|Zayn Till]] ([http://www.metaverseunlimited.com/ Metaverse Unlimited]) Building, Texturing, Content & Concept Creation, Sim design & Management, Real life business solutions
* [[User:Actionworx Pro|Actionworx Pro]] - MySQL, PHP, HTTP, LSL, XML.
* [[User:Ipenda Keynes|Ipenda Keynes]] ([http://paws-above.com/ Paws Above University]) Founder of PAU, creator of widely accepted "content standards". Certified, K-12 Educator with skills in LSL, and general SL knowledge.
* [[User:Yumi Murakami|Yumi Murakami]] - Scripting, Newbie helper volunteer, NCI contributor, RL education experience.
* [[User:Arthur Fermi|Arthur Fermi]] - Scripting, Building, Fermi Sandbox, Landscaping [http://fermidesigns.com/ Fermi Designs]
* [[User:Gatz Morang|Gatz Morang]] - Texture artist, builder
* [[Jessica Ornitz]] - Architecture, Sim Planning, Texturing, Landscaping and Interior design
* [[User:Fleep Tuque|Fleep Tuque]] - Faculty Educator, Concierge Member, Chilbo Community Building Project
* [[User:Pumpkin Tripsa|Pumpkin Tripsa]] - (UV Taxidermy/ The Steamed Palette)- Custom Av Texturing and Shaping; Building, Scripting, Texturing
* [[User:Ro Gastel|Ro Gastel]] - Liquid Prims, Scipting, Builder
* [[User:AHG Hallard|AHG Hallard]] - Scripting, Design, Content and Concept creation, Building, Real Life educational, training and business solutions
* [[User:SL Mathilde|SL Mathilde]] - Scripting, Building, Real Life educational, training and business solutions
* [[Roderick Runo]] Builder/Scripter
* [[User:Equitus Bosch|Equitus Bosch]] Architect and Planner, Mojo Business Ventures
* [[Threshin Barnett]] - Terraforming, Building, Decorating, Landscaping, Animations, Design, Texturing, Land/Estate managment
* [[Laylah Mistral]] ([http://www.get-inkd.com/ Get InkD!]) Tattoos, photography, graphic design/textures, and marketing for SL and RL ([http://www.slmarketing.us/ SL Marketing]).
* [[Torment Thorn]] - Wicked, Inc. since 2004, Wicked stuff for Wicked folks. Childrens to Goreans we have something for everyone. Avatars, clothing, houses, furniture and more.
* [[User:Charlene Trudeau|Charlene Trudeau]] - Building/Architecture.
* [[User:Matthew Dowd|Matthew Dowd]] - Scripting, some building
* [[User:Fumon Kubo|Fumon Kubo]] Frelance contract and while-you-wait scripter (MySQL, LSL, PHP, HTML, Java, C++), SL educator (RL/SL math + programming), Technical Advisor and Jack of all other trades.
* [[User:Joker Opus|Joker Opus]] LSL,PHP,vB,BAISIC,Javascript,Perl, CSS scripter. Live Helper, Mentor, Instructor. Linden Test Dummy =P (Kick at will sire ;))
* [[User:Lothaniel Yellowknife|Lothaniel Yellowknife]] LSL, Design/Texturing. Mentor, Live Helper, Instructor, Estate manager. Freelance Journalist and Photographer.
* [[User:Grady Echegaray|Grady Echegaray]] - Building/Architecture/Exhibitions and Curatorial
* [[User:Ceeq Laborde|Ceeq Laborde]] - Developer
* [[User:Stephanie Misfit|Stephanie Misfit]]
* [[User:Little Gray|Little Gray]] ([http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jinn/243/110/231/ Little Shop of Scripts 'n Things)] - Scripts, Builds, Contractor, & Legal Srvcs.
* [[User:Dnate Mars|Dnate Mars]] - nobody
* [[User:Wolf Yohei|Wolf Yohei]] - Builder, scripter, designer, MIB
* [[User:Geuis Dassin|Geuis Dassin]] (Mannea, Filming Path Studios) Scripter, Machinimatographer, Builder
* [[User:Rob Arten|Rob Arten]] - Project Management, Architecture.
* [[User:Cory Edo|Cory Edo]] - building, texture creation, project management
* [[User:Komuso Tokugawa|Komuso Tokugawa]]
* [[User:Anna Gulaev|Anna Gulaev]] - builder, scripter, designer, programmer - Vengeance Studio
* [[User:David Cartier|David Cartier]] - Period Architecture and Interior Design, Landscaping, Texture Designs. Member of the Artist Friends Collaborative.
* [[User:Upshaw Underhill|Upshaw Underhill]] - Builder and Scripter. Member of the Artist Friends Collaborative.
* [[User:Roseann Flora|Roseann Flora]] - Buildings, Clothing, Textures and Objects. Member of the Artist Friends Collaborative.
* [[User:Traven Sachs|Traven Sachs]] ([http://www.wolfhavenproductions.com/ Wolfhaven Productions - Shubelik (128,95,232)]) Scripting, Building, Texturing, Content & Concept Creation, Sim design & Management/Terraforming, Business & Point of Sales Solutions.
* [[User:Suzanne Zeluco|Suzanne Zeluco]] (SZ Designs) Building, Textures, Scripting, Animations
* [[User:Tobia Forcella|Tobia Forcella]] (http://www.sltranslator.com - professional translation tool for second life) scripting interests: Communications - Interacting with external data stores & web content - Media Management
* [[User:Lyr Lobo|Lyr Lobo]] - Colorado Technical University - Professor of Computer Science - Ephemeral Spaces - project and performance management, build, texture, script and game design
* [[User:Simil Miles|Simil Miles]] - [http://unconwtech.free.fr/ UnConWTech] - Scripting : PSYS, Attachments, Setting Properties, Communications, External data.
* [[User:Ushuaia Tokugawa|Ushuaia Tokugawa]] - Electric Sheep Company - Scripting
* [[User:Vitis Obviate|Vitis Obviate]] - [http://www.slicr.net/ Slicr] - Scripting, Fully acronymn compliant system integration
* [[User:Kriz Dix|Kriz Dix]] ([http://www.plusx.de/ PLUSX.de]) German Marketing Company, Design, Script, Marketing, Consulting
* [[User:Ronin DeVinna|Ronin DeVinna]] - [http://www.slportugal.com] - Scripting, Building
* [[User:Andy Rozier|Andy Rozier]]
* [[User:Samm Submariner|Samm Submariner]]
* [[User:Jason Hashimoto|Jason Hashimoto]] - ([http://www.hashimotoenterprises.com Hashimoto Enterprises]) - Scripting, Building
* [[User:Jim Perhaps|Jim Perhaps]] (J&S Aviation) Building
* [[User: Storm Babeli|Storm Babeli]]- Purple Rose Jewelry - Building and Design
* [[User:Elzbiet Meili|Elzbiet Meili]] - Graphics, Useability, Building and Landscape Design
* [[User:Aquarius Paravane|Aquarius Paravane]] - Usability, Buidling / Architecture
* [[User:Coal Edge|Coal Edge]] - (FixedBit) Scripting
* [[User:KirstenLee Cinquetti|KirstenLee Cinquetti]] - (Club N Lighting, CNL) - Building,Script, Particle Systems,Texture and lighting effects
* [[User:Nexus Laguna|Nexus Laguna]] - Nexus Tech - Scripted objects including security and custom scripting.
* [[User:Robins Hermano|Robins Hermano]] Builder, Scripter, Scripted objects including educational based scripts and scripted objects.
* [[User:Cherub Spectre|Cherub Spectre]] ([http://www.pixeltrix.org PixelTrix]) (PixelTrix - BioLabs - Red Eye Modeling and Talent Management - Modele) - Builder, Custom Textures, Scripter, Project Management, Business Startup, Developer
* [[User:Deight Boccara|Deight Boccara]] - Voted 5/Club Extreme - All of scripting but vehicles, building, all modeling, event planning and hosting
* [[User:Nowun Till|Nowun Till]] - CEO Anarchy in the UK Full service provider
* [[User:Papalopulus Kobolowski|Papalopulus Kobolowski]]([http://www.wishland.info Wishland Corporation])- Building,texturing,Land management,some scripting,avatar customizacion,skins,atachs etc.
* [[User:William Harbinger]] - (Experimental Zone), Scripting and Building
* [[User:Raymond Tuxing]] - building, scripting
* [[User:Paskis Robinson|Paskis Robinson]] - LSL
* [[User:Ann Enigma|Ann Enigma]] - (JWU), Scripting/web integration
* [[User:Simone Stern|Simone Stern]]
* [[User:Versu Richelieu|Versu Richelieu]] - (Millions of Us/VR Designs) Sim Design, Architecture, Building, Modeling, Textures, Clothing, Skins
* [[User: Atashi Toshihiko|Atashi Toshihiko]] - Building, Scripting, Land / Estate management, Architecture
* [[User:Zell Christensen|Zell Christensen]] - Scripting, Building, Tumansky Heavy Industries Engineer
* [[User:Hunter Stern|Hunter Stern]] - (The Driders Nest,GarHunt Productions LLC)(http://www.garhunt.com/hunter188/html/the_driders_nest.html) Custom Avatars, Scripting, Modeling, Animation, Sound, Textures, Communications, Building, Interface, Marketing
* [[User:Lexx Greatrex]] - huds, security, LIBSL bots, combat, vehicles, AI, animation, modelling, architecture, secure intra and extra-grid communications, financial systems & vending systems, integeration of SL to offworld systems, scripting mentor, Second Life mentor, marketing, management systems
* [[User:Fay Tal]] - (Teeka Designs) LSL Scripting, Second Life Mentor
* [[User:Tygeria Mirabeau|Tygeria Mirabeau]] - (Queen of Hearts) Entertainment and avatar enhancement, Dancing, modelling and games
* [[User:Rizpah Galatea|Rizpah Galatea]] - (RW Designs) Modeling: Architecture; Specializing in Residential Custom Homes & Prefabs; Furniture, Boats, Pools, Fountains, Custom Texture Creation, Custom Texturing; Second Life Mentor
* [[User:Woody Blair|Woody Blair]] - (RW Designs) Building; Architecture; Specializing in Residential Custom Homes & Prefabs, Boats, Pools, Terraforming, Texturing, Limited Custom Texture Creation
* [[User:Grandma Bates|Grandma Bates]] - Scripting physical objects and physics as well as communications.
* [[User:Buddy Sprocket|Buddy Sprocket]] - Building, scripting, web integration. RL education
* [[User:Kedessa Kurri|Kedessa Kurri]]
* SheOfTheSourSnailSuckers Sellery - (Asian Inspiration) Building, clothing, texturing
* [[User:Asturkon Jua|Asturkon Jua]] - ([http://www.secondmind.es/ SecondMind.es Marketing, Development and Creations of Virtual Communities - Ibiza The Island]) Content and Concept Creation, Sim design and Management, Business and Sales Solutions, Scripting, Building, Texturing. WebMaster of ([http://www.mundosecondlife.com/ MundoSecondLife.com, Second Life Spanish Community])
* [[User:Liz Ferlinghetti|Liz Ferlinghetti]] - Landscaper, builder, designer, terraformer
* Lily Lightcloud - Builder, Architecture, Landscaping, Sim Design and managing, Furniture, Waterfalls, Custom homes, Whispering Pines Island. Live helper and Mentor
* Francalee Loon
* [[User:Geetarpicker Kidd|Geetarpicker Kidd]]
* [[User:Luis Aldrich|Luis Aldrich]] - (Novatierra Network SL)(http://www.novatierra.com) Virtual Architecture, Marketing and Business in the Metaverse, Online Communities Development (http://www.secondlifespain.com)
* [[User: Edgar Gantenbein|Edgar Gantenbein]]
* [[User: Talyon Petion|Talyon Petion]]
* [[User: Cenji Neutra|Cenji Neutra]] - CEO, Apez Corp (http://www.apez.biz) - LSL scripting, back-end DB and web services
* [[User:Dalavert Sodwind|Dalavert Sodwind]] - Virtual Builder, CEO DISI, systems developer
* [[User: Happyholly Grigges|Happyholly Grigges]]
* [[User:Piper Zuhal|Piper Zuhal]] - (Grendel's Children) avatar contruction and general scripting.
* [[User: Emily Darrow|Emily Darrow]] - Sim Builder, Jewelry, Weapons, Instuctor, developer
* [[User:Nand Nerd|Nand Nerd]] - Scripter, Builder, Engineer, Mathematician
<code><pre><nowiki>* ~~~</nowiki></pre></code>