Christmas is just around the corner and with it comes the pressents. I usually relax from all the stress by building some, so why not build a pressent? This projects takes around 10 minutes and is completely free. Let’s build ourselves a helmet that can be a part of a space suit as it is, or easily modified to be the helmet in a fancy steampunk diving suit.
We’ll start with some basics. A prim is a primitive shape, everything in SL is basically prims (some are special thou, such as sculpties or mesh that are prims modified in another program, we won’t go through them here). It can be a basic box, cylinder or sphere or a modification of any of these three. A pyramid is a modified square, a ring is a hollowed out cylinder and so on.
To create a prim you need to be in an area that permits building. Sandboxes are perfect for this, as they let often gives you building tips, you always have people around you that you can look at for inspiration (remember, inspiration, not copy or plagiarize) and you can build really large or primmy things without having to worry about a prim limit.
This project is small enough to build just about anywhere thou. If you have a premium account, you get a free Linden Premium Home that allows 117 prims. If you have nothing in it, it’s actually a good building workshop.
Alright, with that over, lets start building! Start by right-clicking the ground. In the pop-up-menu select build/create and select the sphere. For now, leave it as it is and click the magic wand in the edit menu to open the create menu again. Select the tube (that is basically a hollow cylinder). Left-click somewhere near the sphere and move the tube so it’s centered over it, touching the ground under it. Hold ctrl/cmd and shift simultaneously and move one of the top colored boxes down to resize the cylinder, so the sphere looks like it’s resting on it.
In the edit dialog box, look at the Object tab and in the three Size boxes type in these values: X 0.12, Y 0.47, Z 0.47 (notice the full stop instead of a comma).
Click on the sphere, so it becomes selected. In the Rotation boxes, make sure all numbers say 0.000. In the Path Cut (on the top-right part of the edit dialog, right under the drop down menus) type the fullowing values: B 0.25 and E 0.9. In Hollow, type 100 and you should have what looks like a wooden Pac Man and a thick, short tube. Select the tube and look for Hole Size in the edit dialog. Change the Y value to 0.05 to thin it out.
Next, click the sphere and hold down shift while dragging one of the arrows sligtly, then release both the mouse an shift. Move it back (without holding shift) and you should have two overlapping, identical spheres. In the edit dialog, change the following values: Rotation X 320, Path Cut B 0, Path Cut E 0.375, Hollow 95. Hold down shift and move it to fit in the hole on the pacman-esque sphere.
This is all the building we need to do, so let’s make everything into one single object by holding down shift and click on the Pac Man cylinder and lastly the tube and select Link in the build menu. Now when you modify anything, all three objects will be modified, but we don’t need to do that now. Instead, check the box Edit Linked in the edit dialog and go to the Texture tab.
Click on the visor and in Transparacy type 75. Click Texture and click the button Blank in the menu that pops up. Click ok and then click the back part of the helmet. Again, click the texture and select blank, do the same with the collar tube. Now you can click Color and select the color you want, click the back sphere again and select the color you want. Uncheck the Edit Linked box again and all three objects should be selected. Go to the General tab and give it the name you want, then exit the edit dialog, right-click the helmet and select Take.
Look in your inventory, in the Objects folder and it should be there. Right-click it and select Attach To and browse to Nose (if you want it to follow your head) or Spine (if you want it to follow your torso, like a divers helmet). It should end up somewhere on your body, in an odd position and angle. Right-click it and move and rotate until it’s on your head and you’re satisfied. Right-click it again and select Detach to put it back in the inventory, and the position, attachment and rotation should be saved.
You’re all done, now you can double-click it in your inventory, or right-click and select Wear to wear it as any other items you have.
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