Looking for a blue 2002 Chrysler Sebring Lxi Convertible

[SoniaStrummFan]

Forgive me if I placed this in the wrong part of the forum. There is one particular car in SL I would love to own; a Sapphire blue 2002 Chrysler Sebring Lxi convertible:) I hate to be picky, but I'm only looking for this car in this particular style and color. I've tried to find it, or any SL equivilants of it, but have had no luck whatsoever. I lack the skill to make one myself, so I am looking for anyone out there who would be willing to make one for me. Here's an idea of what a 2002 Cyrsler Sebring Lxi convertible looks like http://cimages2.carsforsale.com/318501/1C3EL55U51N633074_1.jpg

There are only a few specs I would want. As I said before, I wish it to be Sapphire or dark blue, and it needs to look like the 2001 or 2002 model. In terms of scripts, I wouldn't be looking for anything super fancy. Naturally, it would need to be drivable, possibly with say 5 changable gears for speed, and being a convertible, I would want the top to be able to be raised and lowered. So, for scripts, I would need whichever scripts are normally used to make a car in SL move and be able to change gears, any scripts needed to make the car drivable, a script to allow the top to be raised or lowered, and if possible a script to make the avatar hold the steering wheel while driving the car. For coloring, I'd want the body of the car to be sapphire or dark blue, the convertible top to be black, and the interior to be either light brown or beige. 

If I had the building and programming skills to do this myself, I would, but I don't:( Is there anyone out there who would be willing to take on this project? I'm ready to pay up to L$3000 for the completed vehicle. Please bear in mind that I will not any linden dollars until the 1st of next month (January 1st, 2012). This is one my SL dream cars, so I'll be really grateful to whoever can make it a reality.

[Poenald Palen]

Perms are an issue, do you want full perms on it? Many builders use others scripts and do not have the righ to transfer those scripts to you with trans perms, or even mods! Many use DT and modify it, as I do. Although, there are a few other scripts out there and I know some end up making thier own anyway, DT scripts get complaints from some car builders/scripters/makers.

I can, however, help with scope and cost info.

YOu can find cars already made on websites like turbosquid.com, 3dexchange, 3d ocean and many other 3d asset marketplaces. Many of these are royalty free, meaning you can use the model as part of a greater work for only the fee you have paid, no matter the circulation. Read licenses though! Be warry of logos. The maker assumes YOU have the rights to use the logo's, trade dress looks and copyrighted bits of the car they are reproducing! They are passing the buck, and have even gotten legal attention and take downs...legal battles and all that. Words, body bits and so on are sometimes the trademarked property of a company and the builder is thinking they are sort of selling a b2b product, meant for only those who already have rights. So, if you sell it then be sure to read the SL wiki on copyright and trademark at the very least. 

The next trick is making it lower poly and exporting it as a Collada file format. This can be done in blender, which is free, or many other 3d packages. The most popular ones are 3ds, maya, C4D, LIghtwave, softimage xsi(now different...not sure what it is part of now), AC3D(I think. This costs around 80USD$), and many others handle import of files avialable at online 3D warehouses. How the person does this can be as easy as seperating (or joining) parts that are already built and then running a script addition, build in function or plug-in software helper. They wait a few seconds to a few minutes, viola they are (maybe) done. If it is ugly, they might fix it by hand OR simply run the script with different settings or prep work, like adding in a new loop by pressing a few keys and selecting the area to add a new loop. This would sharpen an edge up and might help keep a important part looking right and not so...well, melted or dented. The plug-ins or functions can do a good job. They are even free! Standaloneones with optimized math and logic are available when a college used them for 3D scanned objects...so, this is not rocket science...well, at least not using the software. The guys who made it...that is some heavy math for me, so yeah...they are almost rocket scientists! But, alas....tis free for all to use!

Oh, speaking of free....well, you can get car scripts for free. A basic pose for driving is available built right into SL! YOu can call it up easily by triggering animation function (llStartAnimation("driving", <0,0,0>,<0,0,0,0)> and...well, this is code you will find IN...yes, a free car script! Aron's has wheels that move, it is available in the archive areas. Some people hand it around. Hey, you can even find a free car script in the library LL has placed in your inventory! Yup, the Kart 1.0 object has full perms, so you can learn! You can even find a free Vehicle tutorial to teach you about the parts. Basically though, you can change how it drives via changing the physics settings. Making gears...um, easyish...but they are not in there as defualt. You also have odd reverse stearing, which is why people by the DT script. I think Aron's car scipt has reverse steering working a bit better. That is free to, and have working turning wheels and a seat script for triggering the free animation.

In fact, you can use the belnder free sofware out of the box to make this. If you want to make it with sculpts...wow, you need to find Primstar and then be in for a bit of fustration with how unsharp sculpts can be, learn to double up the edges and how to figure out how many loops are effecting the final results. But, learning blender can take a few weeks to a few months. fastest path is to make it with normal blender, and skip messing with sculpts...well, IMHO. Sculpts slow you down and are very non standard, so you have lots of restrictions. OR, instead of 'you' I should say, the creator. This is to help with understanding the scope of the job.

So, you can make the whole thing for free! It does take time. I estimate almost a week, 30+ hours for a car. But I am slow at this. If theperson buys or gets a free model...well, they might only spend a few hours prepping and uploading. Adjusting scripts....well, some don't bother much. many work very well enough and all you do is adjust the sittiing position and gears, after puttiing all the scripts in the right prims. SO, it might take them 2 hours or 20! lol. I mean, blender cookies tutorial is around ( lessons...I think they are around 30-45 minutes. But he does not do an interior! The interior is...well, as much as the outside! lol. So, you can see where I get my numbers. BUT, he is also talking a bit. A vetarin car builder said 12 hours for a modern street car! He was not speeding along either. So, you can see my estimates of up to 20 hours depend on interior and what they are buidling. YOu can buy interior parts, wheels, or even the whole car...some parts are even free! But, for an accurate car....if they/you makes it from scratch, and a repro with details....that can take the 20 I mention...or more.

Back to royalty free asset stores. You will maybe not find stuff that is upload ready. A free vehicle I got, with full perms (it was froma  tutor...mot sure if he has it up anymore...and it was a mazda sport thingy) did not uplaod when simply exported! There are issues sometimes with how the surface normal is, to many polygons or whatever. Lower polygon count is easy and fast, but sometimes ugly...so, some hand fixing might work. I didn't do this, so I have no estimate of time. I say 2 hours as a minumum because I know you can drop unmodified scripts into a shell pretty quick. That is if you are not scripting changes (which many don't, I have bought cars and luaghed because they seem to have used default DT scripts and it shows. I like a different ride...just me though?) and you are not worried about testing the car on different surfaces. There are issues with muiltiprim tracks and collision boxes bouncing or catching at the edges of the prims. Megaprim tracks are usually not a bid deal though, ground can work wonderfully and I have seen a track made of slat sim ground..it worked well enough and even had a banked corner. Very smooth! But, I am gettiing off topic.

So, take into account you might pay for time. If not for time, then the easy and fast export of low poly and textures done easy (with nice render control and realism baked in....sort of, unless you preffer SL shine?) that is from the more costly programs...well, then you pay for thier cost in software a bit to. 3000L is low for a car with full perms, but some people don't think so and sell full perm cars on the marketplace for like 700L! They are usually unpainted though.

Sorry if this is not of as much help, but anyone else searching for cars and ballpark figures might like the very very lighth breakdown of what considerations go into a car build.....I didn't address different build styles. THere are guys that will build it with 300 prims, some with sculpts that take SL shine, some will bake or paint textures for the sculpts and use a similar existing car to paint on, and others go to collada. A low poly build can be quick, they can use SL shine and you might be happy enough. But details will take a lot extra time, and baking and assembly in SL. scritping is light, unless they want to get into making more and testing it extensively for drive on many track styles. But, yeah...this is light and does focus on collada mesh build style a bit more....it works a bit better for cars. Sculpts are great for organic shapes really, but even then can have increased land impact costs or rendering costs...depends.