Where'd you learn to do that? (Best Places to learn the Best Tricks from the Best Residents)

[Lanas Criss]

The title says it all... I was just working on some animations with a funny prop that had these sort of spiral horn things on it and I had a flashback to Harbinger's Haven Sandbox.  Quite a while ago I remember sitting hypnotized watching this MadCow fellow craft the wildest things with effortless ease.  I finally got up the nerve to ask how in the world he made those horns since I couldn't see any instructions for them on all the helpful boards on the walls.  I'd already tried just about everything with no luck.  His answer was quick and clear and next thing I knew I had several of my own giant wooden horns sitting around with no possible use other than the pride of creation but I was so very happy and proud.

Eventually I found uses for that wacky building trick, but most importantly my flashback made me remember how fun it was to get help from a genius and how friendly the folks seemed while we all played in the 'Sandbox'.  Which brings me to the question to see if anyone else has fond memories of places where your creativity blossomed or you were taught that skill or trick that changed your Second Life for the better~~~

Where'd you learn to do that?



[Marigold Devin]

I learnt a lot of stuff from Torley Linden's great vidtuts, but right at the beginning of my early SL I had a wonderful mentor who taught me how to fly higher than 200m, and how to get up to different heights just by sitting on a prim and using the edit to change the XYZ.  All basic stuff now, but in the beginning it just made a ton of difference to my Second Life.

[Ceera Murakami]

Mine would be my first visit to the Ivory Tower of Primitives. I devoured every exhibit in a single many-hours long visit, making a non-stop tour from bottom to top, and then repeated the entire tutorial to make sure I hadn't missed anything. It was an absolute eye-opener for me, and to this day I am grateful for the person or people who built that wonderful place. I'm a pro builder today, but I got my real start there, studing those in-world tutorials.

[Rolig Loon]

I love it when people ask really tough questions that force me to rethink concepts that I thought I understood, or that make me sit down and learn a new skill.  An offbeat question in the forums will do it, or a wierd challenge from a scripting client. I have figured out how to do all sorts of cool things in SL, often because someone's casual comment handed me a seed that just begged to be planted. 

I have also learned from a few very talented mentors who have been generous with their guidance.  I learned many of the methods I use for dressmaking from Chosen Few's beautifully articulate explanations in the old Texturing forum.  I get new insights about scripting every time I read one of Void Singer's posts, or when she shows me a way to do an end run around some tricky problem. I would never have made it up the learning curve with Blender without Gaia Clary's video tutorials. 

If you ask me where I learned most specific tricks, though, I probably can't tell you.  There are just too many of them and they come from too many places.  They get all jumbled up in the toolbox, too, so that they don't look the same as when I first learned them.

[Rufus Darkfold]

I have been learning what the various prim and particle parameters do by making a HUD to fiddle with them.

Wanna play with it?

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Building-and-Texturing-Forum/Free-primcontrol-HUD-Call-for-Beta-Testers/td-p/1092577

[Void Singer]

most of the scripting tricks for LSL that I've picked up along the way came from the forums.... people Like Strife Onizuka, Nexii Malthus, Argent Stonecutter, Meade Paravane, Talarus Luan, Lex Neva, and so many others that I couldn't possibly name off the top of my head.... having a programming background myself I also adapted and discovered a few tricks of my own along the way.

For building it's been a rougher go... mostly experimentation, but I have a dear friend inworld (who is always swamped with request so I won't name her) who has been a brilliant source of help with physics building. We first Met through a mutual friend, but I didn't realize her true genius until I watched her building one day... watching others build is truly amazing to see.

a combination of her work and some comments on transparency from Chosen Few helped me discover two methods for beating the alpha sorting glitch in certain situations. and a underused build trick from chosen (twist rawks)  opened up tons of new options for me.

Chosen Few, Namasorr Daguerre (sp?), and a few other that no longer post to the forums have given me endless insight into tricky texture problems and methods for addressing all sorts of isssues.

 

in short.... these forums have been a gold mine, as well as some friendly helpful builders and artists inworld, who's help I've never forgotten (Munch, I'm talking about you lol)