To get up and running with the MetaHarper Show Tools, wear or rez the box that contains the tools and copy them to a folder in your inventory.
If you are building acts for a particular existing theater, ask the owner or manager of that theater has a “stage template” you can use to help get started building acts.
- Find a place to build: Go to a place where you can rez objects and leave them out for many hours. Ensure you are not too close to any region boundaries or edges. When looking for build space, be sure to avoid the terrain floor and also avoid the 4096m build height limit. Don’t work directly on the terrain floor or you can have trouble rezzing objects that need to be moved down. Similarly don’t work too close to the 4096m altitute limit, or you will have trouble rezzing objects that need to be moved up.
- (Optional: Rez your stage template if you have one): Some theaters give out stage templates to assist people creating shows. If you are working with a particular theater, rez your template now.
- Place the MST Centerpoint: Find the “MST Venue Centerpoint” object in your show tools folder. Rez this object on the ground. Move it to the center of your stage floor or performance area. If you are using a stage template for a particular theater, you may have instructions for where to place the centerpoint.
- Name your Centerpoint: Using your viewer, select and edit this centerpoint. In the build tools window, change the name of the centerpoint object to something specific to you, such as ‘My stage”
- Rez and name a Performance Engine: Next, find the object “newAct” in your show tools folder. Rez this object on the ground. You should also select and edit this object. In your viewer’s build tools window, rename the ‘newAct’ performance engine to reflect the name of your soon-to-be show. For example “Pirate Show”
You have now rezzed the basic components you will need to quickly build and take down your performance scene. You can think of the above components as the digital version of an efficient stage crew, or in SL terms you can think of the above tools as a theater-optimized rezbox.
You can also do more than simply rez props. You can choreograph avatar movement, audience camera movement, animation sequences, outfit changes, and a number of other related things. Because this is such a large range of possible topics you may wish to pick one, and then explore the written documentation for that specific topic in the sidebar, or view contributed video tutorials for how these different effects can be achieved.
June 17, 2019 — Video Tutorials are under construction, look here and in the sidebar for a new page coming soon.