Sound: To ad reality.

Every world needs a full range of sounds both in the background and for vehicles and gadgets. Most sounds can be created by just recording it and then do a clean up on the file. Others requires you to create the sound from scratch by mixing midi and wave sounds. A sound can take as much time to make as total 3D build and its often really important for the ambiance of the scene.

Lighting

I have been doing 3d graphics for a long time now. Its all about that little triangle. How many and how to use a texture or not. Just to make it take as little process power as possible. Effective use of spaces to separate groups of objects and now days how to make download as small as possible. Then there are some more things to think about like shadows, ambient occlusion and what kind of shaders that the viewer software uses. Reusing objects and textures are important. Trying to cut frame rates on the graphics card and making the build a nice experience for the viewer.

I see some great builds in games and in Second life that sometimes blow my mind. How did they do that? When I analyze it. It´s always really good use of triangles, space and texture. That is what I want to do. That is what 3D graphics is all about.

A world do not only contain landscapes and buildings. Every world or game are full of usable objects that the player can drive or use in different ways.

All the products on the pictures are created for the inhabitants in Second life. All the vehicles are drivable and flyable. The furniture contains special animations that makes sitting exciting. And the camera makes your avatar take pictures when you stand still.

Creating different avatatars is a lot about texture and skinning. I often use drawings for textiles because i feel it gets to be more living.

The picture on the left is a avatar with a dress from Second life designer Donna Hedges and the Av i did.

One of the many problems with doing a life like AV is doing the skin. Its very sensitive for highlights and shadow. We all of course know what people should look like, so we see all errors.