Object Editing Help - Changing Colors of Surface Textures

Welcome to the Dysfunctional Designs object modification tutorial!

In this tutorial, we shall endeavor to teach you how to edit your objects in a basic manner to be able to change texture settings on individual surfaces of your object.

The first step to editing your object, no matter what you wish to do with it, is to get into Edit mode with it selected. Edit mode will bring up a new panel.

Step one is to right click the object you want to work on.

Once you've done this, you should see a pie menu like this one.

Choose the option labeled 'Edit'. It will bring you to a new tab that will pop up in your Second Life window.  It will look like the example to the left.

This tab will at first display a variety of buttons, the name of your object, the permissions you have (and can set for the next owner if you have full permissions) and other information about your object.

At the bottom of this window, you will see the words "Next owner". Below them, there are three check boxes, each labeled with a permission setting. If the modify permission does not have a check next to it, you cannot modify anything but the position of your object in-world. These settings apply only to the object itself, not the content it may have inside it that you can view under the "Content" tab of this window.

The most important things to notice in this tab are the tools you have at the top which are all check boxes and radio buttons.

For the purposes of this tutorial, check the radio box labeled "Select Face".

This will change how your object is selected but don't worry!

You may now see some of the surfaces of your object displaying a cross-hair target on it.  Every object, as part of a link or alone, has at least one surface. Every object can have up to 8 surfaces as well. A surface on an object in Second Life is a geometric face or collection of faces that can have an image dropped onto it, can be recolored, have the transparency and glow settings changed of, etc.

For example, the "[DDD] Elegant Double Bed (PG)" has many two linked objects that have multiple surfaces each. Let's change the color of some of these surfaces.

With your object still selected in "Select Face" mode, click on a part of your object.
For this tutorial, I'm going to start by selecting the blanket fold/sash between the comforter and the pillows and sheet.

The name of the object may change. This is okay and only means you now have one of the linked object's surfaces selected. 

The next step is to click the texture tab of the edit window. This will bring us to a new set of options that we can change with our object's texture.

Let's change the color of this sash.

Click on the box below the word color that is filled with a given color. In this case, it is a pink/salmon color. This will bring up another new tab along side your edit window.

While this window may seem confusing and offer a lot of buttons to press, we can make it simple by choosing one of the preset colors at the bottom. 

Let's say we want to change our sash to be blue. Click one of the various blue preset options and it should automatically apply it and show you the change in-world. If it doesn't change right away, click on the check box at the bottom left labeled "Apply now".

Notice how only that one part has changed color, but the reset has stayed the colors they were before? That is because we only changed one surface, in this case the sash.

Now, select another surface. You might have to click around a little before you find another in some cases. For this tutorial, I'm now going to select the middle, smallest pillow and change it to be purple.

Now we have two differently colored surfaces!

If you want a bit more of a refined color, you can also click and drag inside of the rainbow window above to find the perfect hue you're looking for. Once you have your hue, you can also click and drag in the bar to the right to refine how light or dark your color is.

Keep going, selecting each surface and changing colors as you like until you get your desired look.

Good luck and have fun!