Creating your own items in SL is so much fun and can also be quite lucrative.  All it takes is patience and a willingness to learn skills that you have may have previously been unfamiliar with.  Before I joined SL, I did have some knowledge of photoshop and graphics but since then, I’ve learned so many new things.  Whether you’d like to create your own clothing, poses & animations..etc..  There is a cure out there for what ails ya! In other words, there is a tool somewhere out in cyberspace that can help you along your creative path…and the best part of it is that you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on accquiring these tools..in fact, you don’t have to spend anything at all but a little of your time in getting to know them. 

I’ve been looking around and I’ve put together a list of some great free applications to maybe enhance your SL creativity.  Most of these I’ve tried so if you’ve any questions…really really simple questions that is…..please feel free to ask.  There are also a few that I’ve only gotten to the stage of downloading and haven’t really tried them out in any depth yet.  

GIMP

A free edit-imaging package that can be used to create clothing and textures etc for SL.  A bit difficult to come to grips with at first, especially for Photoshop users such as myself, but well worth sticking with it… (wish I could follow my own advice!)

SL Clothes Previewer 

Created by Johan Durant, this is a fantastic application that allows you to ‘preview’ your designs before you spend that hefty 10L$ on upload fees..lol

Blender 

This is a ‘content creation suite’… and it’s so jam-packed with features, it’s hard to know where to start.  I’ve been so busy with Photoshop lately, that I haven’t really had time to look at Blender at any in-depth level, but the site is very interesting and informative and there are loads of tutorials and fantastic examples on how to create with blender.  

Daz

A 3D modelling software programe …again, this one falls into the catagory of ‘just downloaded’ so I haven’t used it as of yet, but I did browse through the various examples of the possibilites of it and I have to say, this is one I’m looking forward to getting to grips with.  

Qavimator 

Have a go at creating your own SL animations and poses..

Audacity 

A free sound editing software package. Here you can edit and manipulate sound files and upload them to SL.  Very useful if you’d like to have you own custom sounds to accompany your animations. Of course, it can be used for a myriad of things, explore it and have fun..

As promised, here are some links where you can download some alternatives to the official SL viewer.

 Nicholaz Viewer

 OnRez Viewer (CSI style)

Able Viewer 

Dale Viewer 

Sculptypaint 

Using sculpted textures in SL can be a great way to reduce your prim usage.  With a basic 512sqm plot of land there is a limitation of 117 prims.  You can make the most of your prim allowance by using sculpties in your builds… Of course there are the ‘temp-rezzers’ that people use to kind of ‘cheat’ the prim system to allow them to have more prims than is allowed.  It may sound like a great and wonderful thing, but I personally wouldn’t advocate their usage as they can cause absolutely crippling lag.

Well, this should be enough to give you some food for thought.  The best thing is that all of these tools are free…. but you know what, there is another tool, and it’s probably the most powerful of them all, unlimited usage and potential, and you’ve already got it in your inventory…

YOUR IMAGINATION……..so go use it and make some SL magic!! 

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If you’re a bit short on cash, or if you’d like to learn how to make your own skins, then please please do yourself a great big favour and visit Eloh Eliot’s place.  Eloh Eliot has made some of the most wonderfully pretty skins I’ve ever seen in SL….and believe it or not folks, she’s now giving them away full permissions..  This is an unbelievably generous gesture on her part.  The facial make-ups on these skins has to be seen to be believed.  

And as if that wasn’t enough, she is even giving away the PSD files too!!!  So if you’ve ever wanted a go at making your own skins, then these would make an EXCELLENT starting point for you….to modify and experiment with.  Skin making is an extremely hard business….well decent skins are tough to make…there are lots of really ‘tacky’ ones out there…  But Eloh’s are definitely not in that category!

If you want to pay a visit to Eloh’s place… here’s the co-ordinates:  

Another shop, Lippert (73, 185, 179)

If you’d like a hand at experimenting with them yourself…you can dowload the PSD files and get straight to work in Photoshop.   

I’m just flabberghasted at Eloh’s generousity… 

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With many retailers being in a festive mood, this is a time to pick up yet some more great freebies.  I did a little freebie hunting today and there were one or two really nice items up for grabs.

This offering ‘Jinglebell’  comes courtesy of Gurl6….it’s a really cute style and the free package comes in all colours and sizes.  With this, I would presume that you might not want to remove your hat….as with most of these styles, there’s no hair underneath!!  So whatever you do, don’t take off your hat…anyway, why would you want to…it’s freezing out there.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a pic of this next freebie, but trust me, it’s wonderful.  It’s a very glitzy Christmas Holiday skin courtesy of Nyte N Day.  With a lot of free skins, you end up looking as if you’ve been dipped in gravy, but this one is beautifully detailed with some wonderful sparkling eye-makeup detail.  It also comes in a few different varieties…..try it out.. 

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Shopping is probably the most popular activity in Second Life but you don’t have to spend a fortune, in fact if you really have a bad shopping bug, you can indulge to your heart’s content with some fabulous on-line freebies.  Here are just a few links to some great items that can be bought for 0L$ without even having to log on to SL…

These items can be found at OnRez. 

Cimarron Set

Black Velvet Lolita Dress 

Lucia Dress 

Satin Shine Dress 

Pumpkin Sweater 

Winter Jacket 

These are just a very small selection from some of the great freebies available.  You really don’t need go out and spend a fortune to look good.  All it takes is a little investigation  and you can create an entire wardrobe without parting with a single L$. 

There are some really great deals for new  residents also.  You can purchase a Gurl 6 Free Hair Voucher for Newbies which will entitle you to select a hairstyle of your choice from the entire range of hair available at the Gurl 6 store in Gurlywood, but you have to be under 4 weeks old for this offer.

I’m off on another freebie hunt soon so stay posted for some more great links… 

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