Archive for the ‘Building stuff’ Category

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Abraxus Academy a builders resource center

October 30, 2012


If you want to start building, brush up on your building skills or fill in some gaps in your knowledge of building techniques make time to visit The Abraxus Academy at Inworldz.

screenshot of builders resources

This region is an educational site that houses tutorials of various building techniques.Toddle over to the builders hall as if you are new to building you can start at the very beginning and discover what a prim is and travel this educational path right through to torturing them into different shapes.

screen

At each station there are note cards that allow you to read and retain the information.

Also available by the door is a basic building Box set that is a complete kit lessons. On the other side of the door you will find a Class Schedule as the Abraxus Academy as there are also tutors who hold classes at the sim. All classes that are suitable of those that are new to building through to intermediate builders
also if you use google calendar upcoming classes can be found here


If you venture outside a courtyard contains information on the building interface including the texture and colour picker windows.

Also outside you will find the Chapel Schoolhouse  where you will find a number of self paced lessons available. Self paced lessons are ideal if you are one of those folks that get lost in a class situation, and embarrassed to ask questions if you can’t keep up, if English is a second language and you need things to move a slower  or if you are timezone handicapped which means you are either trying to learn something when your body clock is at its worst or you simply miss out.

A huge plus is that the basic building classes are completely free. There no risk. So click on those boxes as you have nothing to lose and possibly a whole new interest to gain.  Notes are a rezzable book and are designed as self paced lessons. The idea is to rezz the book on the ground so the instructions can be read while building.

Other educational building kits I noticed are priced from 8 izzies to 25 izzies which is more than reasonable as kits contain textures, sculpts, animations, scripts, sounds etc that are required to make the item.  I purchased a 2 basic projects and 4 intermediate projects. I wanted to test each level to see what the quality was like. Once again at this price you get really good value as everything is supplied to enable you to complete the project.

I am possibly a harsh critic as I was a lecturer in new media for over a decade. Directions in these lessons are very clear and precise although for total beginners I would have included a few more screenshots. Steps were well described but after many years of teaching in Rl I know the if people can see an illustrated instruction for some reason they feel more secure. So screenshots are more about the psychology of teaching rather than the actual content provided. However I want to stress that all information is delivered in clear precise english that is easily understood.

Most people really like the contained unit of a rezzible book. It gives them a section to work through and sense of achievement when done. This is not to underestimated as working through any tech instructions can be a hard task and many people simply lose focus and concentration so every little teaching trick helps! So in my opinion the self contained nature of these rezzible books have advantages in the process of learning something.

Before you leave the building don’t forget to pick up the freebies on offer and join the group! This is an excellent educational service. The materials supplied are really good and since much of the basic building lessons are free it is a wonderful  service  that I hope more Inworldz residents avail themselves of classes and information.

To find it open up your map and type in Giffu with co-ordinates of 168, 149, 21

Please note other than joining the Abraxus Academy group I am not associated with the Academy in any way nor did I receive a financial incentive to write this review.

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Work in Progress Wednesday Week 1

December 1, 2010

I have decided to take on a personal challenge to write a series of weekly Work in Progress posts on … wait for it … drum roll … Wednesdays!

I will try to make them interesting but if I am to be honest, Work in Progress posts are a self indulgence, as in time they will end up documenting what I make at InWorldz. I am not sure why other builders don’t do it.

As I said last week I have a new region to play with so I thought I would share a few screen shots.


As you can see I have started to terraform and established a water course, with the stream source being at the top of the hill and then tumbling down towards a dammed area. I still have lots of plants and greenery to add.


From the dam there is a water race that leads to a waterwheel on a mill. This mill is partly built as I got part the way and started to doubt my texture choice.


I spend half the time wandering about the region checking the key viewpoints at sunrise and sunset as I want visitors to discover viewpoints that are aesthetically pleasing.

My old friend the freebie rooster came with me from the S&S Gallery of Fine Arts. (See this humorous post for the back story). The bird brain regularly checks out what is going on. I am going to have to give  him a name as he is such nosy creature yet silly enough to be the but of jokes.

The rooster is by Gregg Legendary of Legendary Pets & Wildlife
Since SLURLs don’t yet work on this new grid if you search under a designers name (in this case Gregg Legendary) and go to either picks or classifieds you can teleport to the designers retail outlet.

I did popover to Legendary Pets & Wildlife to see what else was on offer and he has loads of fantastic animals. Once I have established the main areas of the gardens I will visit again as there really is a lot of fun to be had populating the place with all sorts of animals and birds. I will write more about Legendary Pets & Wildlife then, meanwhile I will save my virtual dollars.