Having fun with HUDs or AO fun

HUDs are cool tools; they sit on your screen as little buttons for quick and easy clicks. They are handy dandy little features for gestures and actions in weapons, umm certain body parts *red faced* and just standing around being silly. I don’t know ALL there is about them but I can tell you how I got mine to work :D

First off, we need to find one. So I clicked my little blue button on the bottom of the screen and did a search for Animation Override. This gives you tons of animation shops and most of them have free HUDs for you to use. I chose Abranimations because I know the area and how to buy my animations there. I personally like my ZHAO because it’s tiny on the screen and I know how to use it :D so that’s what I’m going to show you how to use.

I found some animations on one wall in Abranimations. Those are the cool little movements your AV makes. There are these posing stands --a guys and girls version-- even a Drunk version! Under the stands are the names of the animations and the prices, you can buy the whole bunch or just single one. Just jump on a stand and scroll through to the one you want.

(That’s what I did) We will just do one animation and you should get the idea on adding the rest. I wanted a cool landing so I chose this one, its called "hitground". So if I'm flying and see a hot girl AV, I stop flying and make this cool landing :D (Hey I helped someone with a picture frame and they gave me some L$)

Don’t forget to find your Free HUD and off to a sand box!! First thing I do is make a 10x10 slab with a Black color, because I never can see this little sucker, they are super tiny. If you use your camera controls and swirl around (see building tips) you will see it. You have to put that new animation in there along with editing the note card in the Contents. Now as I said, I already have some animations in my ZHAO so I grabbed it out of my inventory and dropped it on the slab. Just like anything else, you need to Edit the ZHAO. Right click it, a pie chart comes up and Edit -- then go to the Contents Tab. Find the new Animation you just purchased in your inventory and slide it in the Contents. See the "hitground" (no copy) in the Contents Folder? There is a note card you need to edit as well in there. "Empty"<~~ you can rename that if you wish. Open it, because it has a listing of all the animations you can add. See the listing? (below pic) All you do is type the name of the animation BELOW exactly as the name of the animation. Mine was “hitground” no spaces; no capitalization -- nothing, just like it is named. I found the Landing option on the notecard and typed it below ::[SoftLanding/Landing]::, it's about the 4th one up from the bottom in this pic. This notecard tells the ZHAO what animation script to use when your AV is doing that action (landing). Save it. Then close the Edit box and Right Click the HUD again and Take it into your Inventory. Click the HUD in the Inventory and Wear, see the nifty little Menu on the bottom of your screen?Now you have to load the animations notecard into the ZHAO, click the "Load" button and a window prompt will slide down, mine is called "Empty" :D Boy aren’t I original hey?

I think you can have multipule note cards if you wish, say you wanted a medevial set of animations whilst you visit in some medieval town or for the ladies how about Dancing. You can copy your notecard and rename it umm Medeival or Dancing and add a whole new set of animations in there. Click on the "Load" button and you will be prompted on which notecard the ZHAO needs to use. Give it a few seconds to load …we all know about lag. In a few moments you will see "Empty loaded". Now test it out, soon you will be swaying, scratching and landing or what ever animations you have!! I was very happy with my animations I hope you will be too!

Whats this Second Life about Part 3

Where is my land?!?!
Some people come in with the misconception that when you register to Second Life you automatically have a 512 M plot of land waiting on you.
I think the old project of *First Land* might be still floating about. How ever, all is required it to do a search and locate the land you want and buy it – Ok there’s more to it; more on buying land in later issues of this blog.

Whats this Second Life about Part 2

I have this Group tag above my head! How did it get there and how do I remove it?
Group tags are fun to have, at times. They can show rank in the *Club* or just a silly saying. You are like a walking mini advertisement.

How did you get it?
Possibly by walking in a club/store etc and clicking a *Join Us* box, or someone else may have seen you and sent you one, either way you accepted the group tag.

How do I remove it?
The top of the screen Click Edit then Groups, then click the Group and there is a leave button on the side. If you chose to just not display it click the None Tab to select it and then the Activate button on the side.

Want to learn a little more about tags? Click me


Where are some fun places to go?
The best resourses to finding fun places are the Search button on the bottom of your screen, or look at someone’s Profile and the Picks Tab. Better yet, just ask someone where a fun place is to hang out. People are usually eager to share them.


Want to know where someone bought an item but are too scared to ask?

Scan them :D

Right click on the item/Avatar; a pie chart will pop up
More
Inspect -- then a nifty box will pop up as well
Now you can see who the creator was of the product
Click on the creators profile in the lower portion of the info box and you might find a Pick to their store.

Just what is this Second Life all about?

Standing around Help Island I’ve heard that question over and over.

The Answer? Well, it can be anything you make of it.

Being a Newbie isn’t a shameful thing, in fact I’m envious of them, you have a fresh start or a *Cleanslate* of sorts, to work with. Also asking questions isn’t such a bad idea either, I’ve been on here over a year now and still ask them.

Can you earn an income on here?

Yes, there are people here that can make *Real* money, from producing skins or clothing, making jewelry or scripting items or animations to furniture etc. to sell to you.

There are the virtual jobs: Bouncing for clubs, escorting, stripping, hostess and Djng or greeter, photography just to list a few.

For your time and effort a lot of people will pay you Lindens to do *something* for them.

Do a search of *jobs or hiring* and you will find a listing of them to try out for.

There is that dirty word. * camping*... I will talk on that later.


Someone just gave me/I bought clothing but it's in a box?

I see that a lot as well along with people walking around with a box on the head or hand. The box is just like a present, inside you will find items you purchased but you need to get them out of the box to wear them.

To cure the Box on the head or hand predicament:

Take the box from your Inventory, sometimes you can find it in your Objects folder and then some times they have a folder of their own or they might land in your Clothing folder.
Slide the Box on the ground. (Do it, no one can take it away from you)
Right click it.

Then a pie chart is available choose *Open.*

You will see the contents in the folder.

Click *copy to Inventory*

(sometimes I'm lazy and choose the *copy and wear* option)

This takes those items out of the box and individually places them in your inventory.

Now you once again may have another folder with icons that look like shirts or pants or shoes etc.
You can right click those and chose wear.

How do I sit?

See an item you might like to sit on?

Just right click and a Pie chart will appear or with a Mac just click it.

You will see the *sit* option.

Hint: some times SL will prompt you that you can't sit there. Keep clicking around on the object, sometimes they are just picky where you click.

What is a Rebake and how do I find that oven?

When someone says *Do a Rebake* or that you are missing textures it means you haven’t fully loaded on SL.
It doesn’t mean you are missing limbs; however it can mean you appear bald or gray.

How to cure that?

Click on your AV
Then Appearance
Give that a few seconds to load
You can Cancel and things should clear up

If not clear your cache and cookies and log off and back on.

An Intro:

Day one: I am born, well really I’m not born, that would be kinda cool to be born and start off typing and making blogs but I am born on Second Life.

I thought I might try my hand out on making one of these helping pages on Second Life, I have 2 other Web sites on Xanga, one is my old Second Life name, which had tutorials with some odds and ends that will be transferred here. The other, is my name that I posted some of my art and jabbered how I felt about life’s issues (girls) :D. Being a busy gent, I chose to combine the two and make posting easier on me.

Why the Title “A Clean Slate”? It has two meanings, one because if you noticed "Cleanslate" is a last name in Second Life and the other, is because I am making a clean slate with my avatar and whole internet life. Not that I made a mess of my original SL avatar, just crammed it with textures and building objects and other odds and ends. I felt with a new character I could build in peace and have fun and party on the other older dood. So, what is Second Life? To me, it’s a virtual world vacation, my Utopia. I can; fly, walk, be underwater, create anything, meet people, learn and have all around fun. If I get bored, I can teleport to a new region and explore and try again.

Why do you do this Jacks? It’s fun, I mean the helping others part, when I first started SL I didn’t know where to turn. Soon things started to pull together for me and it will for you as well. When it does, remember me :D

When you first start SL you land in Orientation Island - chores to help you learn how to maneuver, change your avatar, talk and search in the game. Helpful yes, if you are new, I suggest doing them all if you are new but I wasn’t so I did the first chore on all of them and dropped the HUD and searched a place and teleported outta there! My favorite spots are Sand Boxes; I bet if you were to TP to one and shout my name you might find me. Try it, "JACKS"!!I’m very approachable and will talk your ear off err fingers. So……

In essence, I hope this page may be of some use to you, if you have any questions you can send me a note card and I can try to help you out. If not we can find someone that can. I think the key think to Second Life is that of course you enjoy it, the more you put into learning the game the more you will get out of it. Have fun and I hope to see you In World!