Color and Transparency
Sometimes a texture is almost perfect. If only you could change the color just a bit. Guess what? You can. In fact, you can even make it almost transparent for special effects.
Instruction
While you can’t completely change colors in a texture, you can tint a texture or make it a solid color.
Practice
Step 1: Tinting a texture
Rez a prim with the default plywood texture. Make sure it is in Edit mode. In the Texture tab, right next to the Texture Picker window, is a white box called Color. This is the Color Picker window. Click on it to bring up the Color Picker. By default, the Apply Immediately box in the lower left corner should be checked. To change the tint of your prim, click on any of the colored boxes towards the bottom of the Color Picker.
[image – intro2build.15.a]
With your prim in Edit mode, choose the Color Picker and click on one of the colors already provided for you. Notice that the wood grain still shows through the tint. Coloring a texture does not replace the texture, it merely tints the texture with the color you’ve chosen. Be careful, sometimes colors don’t mix well with an existing texture. It’s best to tint textures within the same color family unless you intend to radically change the color.
Step 2: Choosing your own colors
You are not limited to the colors already in the Color Picker. You may also design you own and save them to use on your projects. In the Color Picker, click anywhere on the large rainbow of colors (Spectrum).
The exact color you’ve chosen will appear in the box Current color. You will also see a slider to the right to adjust your color to be lighter or darker. If Apply Immediately is checked, you should see your prim take on the new color right away. If you would like to save that new color, just drag it out of the Current Color box to replace one of the default colors.
[image – intro2build.15.b]
With your prim selected, open the Color Picker and use the Spectrum to create a new color. Click on the light/dark slider to adjust. Drag it from the Current Color box to replace a default color. Note: You may also choose RGB values in the upper left corner to select a color.
Step 3: Choosing a solid color
To make a prim a solid color, open the Texture Picker and choose the Blank button. Your prim will look solid white.
[image – intro2build.15.c]
Now, you can use the Color Picker to tint it a solid color. Note: You may also select the Select Texture button to tint each face of a prim separately.
[image – intro2build.15.d]
Step 4: Transparency
You can make an object up to 90% transparent using the Transparency or Alpha control (depending upon your viewer, it may be labeled one or the other). While 0% is fully visible, 90% will make your object look like a faint shadow.
[image – intro2build.15.e]
Change the transparency of your prim. Note: There are completely, 100% transparent textures to be found in the OpenSim Library, but be careful! Once you make a prim completely transparent, it can be difficult to find it again.
Try this for fun: Rez a cube and stretch it to look like a wall. Texture it with something like bricks or stone. Now, use Select Texture to select just one side and change the transparency to 90%. If you look at it from all sides, you will find you just made a one-way see-through wall!
If you are using the PRIMLAND Tutorial game, stop here and continue on the path!