Ephemeral Creations

With many prim items such as jewelry, hair, and prim clothing, you will need to adjust their fit for your avatar. After all, each avatar has a different body and head shape, and what fits one avatar well right out of the box may not fit another avatar well at all. Thankfully, we all have the tools we need to adjust prim things for the perfect fit.

This article will teach you the three basic ways you can adjust your worn prim items. It covers not only moving, rotating, and resizing items, but also moving, rotating, and resizing just selected parts of a prim item. Incidentally, all of these techniques apply to building things in Second Life® in general.

We are using a set of prim facial piercings as an example, but what you learn here is easily applied to any worn prim item. When an object comes with several distinct pieces combined - like you would find in many facial piercings - you are bound to run into fit troubles, and will want to make adjustments so your item looks just right.

If you want to use all of these techniques, your item will need to have both “modify” and “copy” permissions - modify so you can actually do everything shown below, and copy so you can make a master backup of your item before hand in case you really mangle it in the process. This particular piercing set is both copy and modify, so we’re safe; most hair is also copy/mod, so you could also try out your new skills on a nice mane. (Here I have actually removed my hair so it doesn’t accidentally get in the way while I work on these piercings).

The final thing you need before we start is a posing stand; it will hold your avatar still and straight in a convenient position while you work on your attachments. If you don’t already have one, there are free posing stands all around the Ephemeral Creations main store, you may simply buy one for 0L$ off of the floor. Also feel free to use one of our posing stands in the store to do your work.

Let’s start with moving the position of your attachment. Go ahead and attach your item (wear it), and then focus your camera into a convenient position where you can see it well. If you wear a prim item, and it’s hidden too far into your avatar’s body, then you will want to move it out until it looks at least mostly right. The next picture shows you the steps to move your entire prim attachment’s position. Please click on it below to enlarge for a better view.

• Note in the Edit controls there is a drop-down menu for “Ruler mode” just below where it says “Edit linked parts”. For this article, make sure it is set to “Attachment”.
• Tip: Accurately clicking on tiny prims that are next to each other can be difficult. Zoom in as close as you can with your camera controls, then press ctrl+0 (that’s zero) repeatedly to zoom even closer by steps. Press ctrl+9 to cancel your extra close zoom.

Now let’s try moving the position of just part your attachment. Go ahead and attach your item (wear it), and then focus your camera into a convenient position where you can see it well. If you want to move just part of your prim attachment you will need to select only the prims involved (in this case we are moving just the nose ring in these piercings). The next picture shows you the steps to move just some of the prims in your attachment. Please click on it below to enlarge for a better view.

Why would you want to move just part of your item? Let’s say your nose is narrower than the nose that was used to build these piercings. Because of that, the nose ring on the right nostril, and the studs on the left will be hovering in the air on either side. That’s really no good, you want them to actually pierce your nose! Now you can easily move them to the side until they do.

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Next we will try rotating your attachment. Go ahead and attach your item (wear it), and then focus your camera into a convenient position where you can see it well. The next picture shows you the steps to rotate your entire prim attachment. Please click on it below to enlarge for a better view.

• Usually, you won’t need to rotate your entire attachment because most designers will have properly set the rotation for you, but you still should know how to do it.

Now let’s try rotating just part your attachment. Go ahead and attach your item (wear it), and then focus your camera into a convenient position where you can see it well. If you want to rotate just part of your prim attachment you will need to select only the prims involved (again we are adjusting just the nose ring in these piercings). The next picture shows you the steps to move just some of the prims in your attachment. Please click on it below to enlarge for a better view.

Why would you want to rotate just part of your item? Let’s say the shape of your nostril, or ear, or brow is different than what the designer used when building these piercings. Because of that, your nose ring is twisted so that it cuts into your skin, or your new earring set sticks out at an angle away from your ear. You would probably prefer that your brand new items actually look like your avatar is wearing them! Now you know how to rotate bits and pieces until you’re totally happy with your appearance.

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Finally, let’s try resizing your attachment. Go ahead and attach your item (wear it), and then focus your camera into a convenient position where you can see it well. This skill is especially useful, and you will likely use it regularly on hair, chokers, bracelets, and many other assorted items. Because your head and body may be bigger or smaller than the one the designer used when fitting her products, you will definitely need to know how to enlarge and shrink things. The next picture shows you the steps to resize your entire prim attachment. Please click on it below to enlarge for a better view.

• Note in the picture above, there is a check box labeled “Stretch Both Sides”. For our purposes, make sure it is checked. This will make your item grow or shrink in all three directions simultaneously, no matter which little white box you drag. Typically, with items like hair, chokers, and bracelets, it will keep them centered on your body part (who wants off-centered hair?).
• Prim objects can only be shrunk to a certain point. Things with tiny prims may already be as small as they can get.
• If you do not have Modify permission on your item, you will not be able to resize it.
• Resizing combined with adjusting the position will solve the majority of the item fitting problems you will encounter in Second Life®. Facial piercings can be an exception, and may sometimes need extensive fine tuning.

Now let’s try resizing just part your attachment. Go ahead and attach your item (wear it), and then focus your camera into a convenient position where you can see it well. If you want to resize just part of your prim attachment you will need to select only the prims involved (once more we are adjusting just the nose ring in these piercings). You probably won’t need or want to resize just part of your item because resizing the whole thing will keep all of it in proper proportion, but it’s still a good skill to know. The next picture shows you the steps to move just some of the prims in your attachment. Please click on it below to enlarge for a better view.

When would you want to resize just part of your item? Let’s say you have a lip ring that is a lot bigger in diameter than your lower lip, and you want it to fit more snugly. You could try to select just the parts for the ring and shrink them. Remember though, that prim piece may already be as small as it can go, so if it just doesn’t seem to work for you, then that’s probably why. There are sometimes other ways to adjust individual prims smaller, but we’ll save that for another article.

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Hopefully, you have found this informative, and that it helps make your experience in Second Life® easier and more enjoyable. Please feel free to discuss these techniques in this article’s comments, and we will approve your comments as soon as we see them.

~ Peace, Arkesh Baral, Ephemeral Creations