I just took an excellent class at Builder’s Brewery in Second Life given by Eleanora Newell, need to copy some of the class notes and the link for the information I need. Also, have to reinstall the latest version of the “public” or free-will version of JASS-2.

Blender: Begin with Basics

Before you attend the Blender: Begin with Basics class, please get the latest free version of JASS-2 inworld in Second Life at:

You will need to pay 1L$ to be given your download page.

Install the version needed for your OS and platform (both Mac and PC versions are available).

This embedded version (Blender-Python-Primstar) is easy to install.

It is recommended that if you have any versions of Blender, Python or Primstar on your computer, that you delete these. A clean install is good for any installation.

UPDATE: For XP users, if you are having trouble, please uninstall with the Jass Uninstaller and reinstall and make sure that when you come to the option where it says “Use Application data directory” or “Use the installation directory”, choose “Use the installation directory”.

Once you have installed JASS-2, open the program and take a look around.

There are a few things to check:

1. Under the File Menu, look under Import and make sure you have an option for Second Life Sculpties. Have it? Good.
2. With your cursor in the View Window, touch your Spacebar.
3. On the menu that pops up, choose Add.
4. Then Mesh.
5. Look for an option for Sculpt Mesh. Have it? Good.
6. Important note: New changes have been taking place in the most recent JASS-2 releases. The latest release in 2.3.8 (released 02-13-2011). Public version shows Setup & Bake Sculpt Meshes under the Render menu and now has the SR:6 screen layout back in the list. The Pro and Magic versions contain an additional menu item in Render for Quick Bake Sculpt Meshes

via Blender Classes – TAMA Products

Further important resources are under her Calendar Dates page.

There’s also online tutorials and an online book. I still haven’t downloaded Messiah Studio yet to play with but I’m feeling a little more comfortable with even the ability to make standard sculpts quickly and with good quality in Blender.

Taking a break now at Virtually Speaking, which has a science-and-politics topic tonight:

Alan Bolyle | Robin Snelson | Tim Pickens: Virtually Speaking Science (the podcast will be up later, I think).

Cosmic Log’s Alan Boyle and Space Studies Institute’s Robin Snelson, aka Rocket Sellers, explore the often-volatile landscape of science, politics and policy. With Tim Pickens, team leader of the Rocket City Space Pioneers, inventor, innovator and educator – with a successful track record as a space entrepreneur – they discusss the state of government and commercial space programs, as well as Picken’s team’s bid to win the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize.

While in class earlier, the instructor noted that the number of scripts and ARC load everyone had (avatar rendering cost) was high, causing lag. There’s a way to turn on these numbers that appear over the heads of everyone that indicates how many prims they are wearing, how many scripts running, etc. It’s in the Advanced menu, under Rendering Displays/Info/Avatar Rendering Cost.

Anyway, a number under 500 is green, which is good. Anything up to about 1200 is yellow, up to 1500 is orange, and anything in the 2000-up range is in RED, which is NOT GOOD when you get a bunch of people logged in at the same location (often, logged in from all over the world).

There were some rather foolish people in the 3000 range at the class…

And now here at VS there’s a bunch over 5000.

And oh hey, Pooky Amsterdam sighting (I only know of her from other SL blogs I read, she’s into machinima and SL Media, I believe).

Meanwhile, there were some rather unfortunate displays – skirts set to rotate up so high when sitting on a seat that the crotchal area was exposed, and prim piercings so extreme (on a male) that the ARC count was over 5000.

Feeling a little embarassed about my count, which is under 900, anyway.

After the “second set” at BlogTalk, with Sam Seder and Daily Kos’s McJoan, I’ll go listen to some music and tinker with Blender. I have some really pretty Art Nouveau textures I’d like to see on some of these relatively simple default shapes for vases.