hauksdottir opened this issue on Feb 23, 2004 ยท 39 posts
hauksdottir posted Tue, 24 February 2004 at 3:12 AM
Allie, Finally... the junk drawer. :) One folder that you should have is "Misc Stuff". If you have no idea where to put it, it goes in there until you ahve enough others like it to make them a separate folder. You really don't want to leave loose files sitting around the desktop like doorstops to be tripped over. I strongly recommend this. Last week the DAZ freebie was a valentine's set, and Andi gave us a bone gate, and Ockham another python script, and free stuff was full of equally unrelated items. Where do you put a rocking horse or a coffin? The freebies at some site are only available for a limited time: anywhere from a day to a month, typically a week. Other sites archive the freestuff, so you can go back for an item once you realize that you need it. However, links break, artists leave the community, sites vanish, stuff disappears. I recommend downloading only what you think you will need, but nab it when you see it. Example: you might never plan to do a scene with a golfer so you ignore the nicely-made cart and set of clubs. 2 years later there is a contest about "the sporting life" and you want to do a scene with little green moon-men playing golf... you have a deadline... good luck finding the props. OTOH, you don't want to take everything. That leaches bandwidth from the folks generous enough to give us the sweat of their brow. Also many of the props might not fit your style or may be for characters you have no intention of ever owning. Example: lace textures for lingeree... if you have no intention of doing pin-ups and will never buy the lingeree set for a figure you don't even own, why take the texture? Leave the bandwidth for those folks who need all the stocking textures they can find and who actually own the model. (They are probably ignoring the astrolabe or player piano or British phone booth.) This is the main folder which will grow the most quickly, so be prepared to subdivide it as needed... and your needs will be different from mine. I didn't even have a file for buildings or backdrops when starting out... but by the time I had a half dozen castles, 5 gold temples (unoccupied), 4 gazebos, 3 fountains, 2 bridges, and a pear tree it was obvious that some subfolders would be necessary. Example: Buildings was not only established, but further divided into !architectural (includes cottages, mushroom houses, and windmills... and parts of buildings such as walls or balconies), !castles (includes palaces and sandcastles), !bridges, !garden shed and tools (it made sense to keep wheelbarrows with potting sheds), !wells&fountains&pools, and !neoliths. As soon as I get a dozen or more similar items, it makes sense to group them. There are more than 50 subfolders, but they are based upon what I have, not what is available as a broad spectrum of the models here. I seldom download modern furniture or appliances, and avoid bondage or fetish gear... but have a nice selection of bottles, books, carpets, creative tools, fun&games, alchemical supplies, and scientific apparatus. :) The important thing here is to have a flexible folder for all the random props and be prepared to ride herd on it constantly. So, that ought to get you started. Pat and I can tell you where to find the best stuff, or wierdest stuff, or most interesting stuff (or even stuff you might need)... but it wouldn't have been fair to unleash you in the toy department without giving you a wagon in which to put stuff. Carolly