Custom made houses?

[Gone Incognito]

Is there anyone who makes houses that you can design yourself?

[VanillaSunsets]

Sure, there are creators that accept custom work. Not a lot tho, custom work is time consuming and it's very hard to meet the exact wishes of a customer. Especially if the customer does not know a lot about creating mesh in general, meaning, being aware of the limits of mesh in SL. 

Custom work is expensive, even more so if you want the work to be exclusively for you. Also, most creators will ask you to pay in advance.

If you still want a custom house after considering all of the above, I suggest to post in the Commercial-Wanted section of these forums. Make sure to be clear in explaining your wishes and be realistic in your expectations!

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Yes and no.  There are people who make custom made houses, but while you can tell them how you want it to look and a general floor plan, unless you have lots of building experience yourself you will have to rely on the builder to tell you what can and can't be done within the LI you specify and any technical limitations of SL and what your alternatives are.

You shouldn't give them a photo of a RL house or a RL floor plan to follow unless you are the architect that designed it as this is a violation of the intellectual property rights of the architect.  You can however use them for inspiration in working with the builder on your own design for your house.

Most likely, you will pay more for a quality custom build than a similar prefab by the same builder, especially if you want it full perm or as an exclusive. 

You may find someone that builds just for the fun and they may volunteer.  Note that using a volunteer you may not get the quality you want, although there are many excellent hobbyists in SL.   

You should also be prepared to pay for any building components that are not created by your builder that will be needed, unless you are told all those things are included in the price quoted, especially if you find a volunteer.  Of course any custom textures, scripts, animations, mesh, etc. needed will increase the price too.

Interview several builders and ask for references and examples of their work.  Check those references too!  Negotiate a payment schedule you and  your builder both can live with.  For instance, what do you need to pay up front, what at the end and maybe during the different stages.  If you are not completely comfortable with the references that you checked and the payment schedule, move on an find someone else.

Edited to add after seeing VanillaSunsets' post after I posted this: Your house does not have to be mesh.  I'll repeat what I just posted in Phil's post above this one.  Prims, sculpts and mesh are all tools in a bulder's toolbox.  A good builder knows which of these options or combinations will produce the house a client wants within the given LI available, at a price that the customer is willing to pay. 

You would do well to keep your eye on Phil's thread to see what other people have to say about the advantages and disadvantages of mesh houses.

[ChinRey]

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saara Christenson wrote:

Is there anyone who makes houses that you can design yourself?

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Sure!

Let's see... Assuming a moderately advanced build and a clear project plan right from the start, should take about 100 work hours. Assuming you want exclusive rights or that the house is too atypical to be sellable: Well, wages are low in SL, so you probably don't have to pay more than 20 dollars/hour.

So, that's 2,000 dollars, or 540,000 Lindens if you like. Half up front, the rest when the work is finished.

That's a very rough estimate but it should give you an idea of what kind of money we're talking about for a professional one of a kind build. A fairly simple house may cost less than half, a really complex one many times as much. If you jsut need a house that fits a particular parcel or just need some custom texturing we're talking considerably less of course.

But as Amethyst said, there may be people who are happy to build yor house just for fun so you never know.

[VanillaSunsets]

It is very true as stated by other residents, it does not have to be made out of mesh. I don't know why you want design you own house so it is hard to say what your best options are.

Have you thought about trowing some prims around yourself? It can be very fun and you do get a one-of-a-kind build that you yourself can adjust to your need, land or mood. Who knows... you might find out you are an excellent builder :matte-motes-bashful-cute-2:

[Gone Incognito]

I have actually built the house plan that i have once, and i was happy with it. But the reason i considered custom made is that i have no idea how to do windows and I do not know how to do mesh stuff. Although I might have to go with self built option if i do not finda builder

[Amethyst Jetaime]

You can buy just about all mesh or sculpted components of a building such as windows, doors etc. on the MP under Building and Object Components.  Some windows and doors there come with the wall surrounding them so you don't have to use multiple prims to accomplish this.  I suggest that if you see something you like, that you go inworld to the merchants shop to see them in person to be sure you like them or contact the merchant and ask to see them if they have no shop.

Unless you are familiar with using Photoshop, Gimp (which is free to download) or other graphics program that is used with some of these products to make their textures, either look for elements that can be textured like a prim, that come with premade textures, or get someone with some experience with texturing to help you. 

If you know how to use a graphics program like mentioned above, you can create your own texture for the elements that come with AO (Ampient Occlusion) aka Shadow maps and/or UV maps.  AO's are the easiest to work with. 

If you don't know how to use a graphics program like mentioned above or how to use AO maps to create a texture and want to give it a shot, search Google for tutorials on how to use AO maps to create textures.  It's a handy skill to learn.  If you need a graphics program, Gimp is free to download and widely used by SL creators. You can also come back to the Creation forum and post specific questions if you need more help.

[VanillaSunsets]

Another quick tip. If you find Gimp complicated ( it took me a while to get a decent workflow after switching from Photoshop), try Krita. It looks and feels more then Photoshop, a more intuitive interface.I have to say I use it more and more.

It is pretty powerful and you can download it for free here:

https://krita.org/en/

The Marketplace also offers many building kits, most are beautiful and a lot are even full perm, AO's included for most. Meaning you could even sell your build if you want and earn back what you invested :matte-motes-wink-tongue: