Author Archives: Cajsa Lilliehook

About Cajsa Lilliehook

Santino Rice's little ditty "It's only fashion" seems a perfect title for my little fashion blog as you and i know that fashion means the world to him. Co-founder of It's Only Fashion and Blogging Second Life.

Creators Roundtable #2

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This is the second installment featuring Second Life® creators discussing their work and the limitations that determine what is possible. Again, I thank the following designers for their generous gift of time and willingness to participate: Cyclic Gearz (CG), SySy Chapman (SS), Tyr Rozenblum (TR), Siddean Munro (SM), Anya Ohmai (AO), Shai Delacroix (SD). 

You can find the rest of the series at Creators Roundtable #1, #3 and #4.

Why can’t we apply an alpha to mesh body parts like a texture map?
For more information about this question, see this article at New World Notes.

 

Cyclic


CG: That’s a limitation within SL itself, a Jira was created, but LL have said it’s not feasible. (Link to the Jira https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-8100)

 

Tyr

 

TR: What she said

 

SySy

 

SS: That.

 

Shai
SD: Yes you can. This is possible with our own creations only and crafting specific models for our own lines.  I’m not sure I understand the point of making alpha maps for mesh bodies. Sorry.

 

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Creators Roundtable #1

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A while ago while out shopping, I bumped into Shai Delacroix, the well-respected creator behind the Shai brand. We chatted a bit and she suggested I do a post addressing some of the common questions that come up about creating in Second Life and volunteered to provide her technical expertise. It seemed like a great idea to me, so I eventually made a couple plurks soliciting questions and then recruited some designers to offer their answers and opinions. The result is a sort of Creator’s Roundtable discussion which thanks to the many questions and answers has run to more than 20 pages. For that reason, I am breaking it up into a few separate pieces. The series continues with Creators Roundtable #2, #3 and #4.

First things first, though. I have to thank the following designers for their generous gift of time and willingness to participate: Cyclic Gearz (CG), SySy Chapman (SS), Tyr Rozenblum (TR), Siddean Munro (SM), Anya Ohmai (AO), Shai Delacroix (SD). 

Why do people make so many strapless tops and dresses. Why no sleeves? 

Cyclic

CG: In all likelihood, it’s because sleeves are harder to rig and shape well. You have to take into account how the shoulder, elbow and wrist moves, and for people new to rigging, strapless items are a good start.

 

SySy

 

SS: I second what Cyclic says, specifically the shoulder area is very hard to rig.

 

TyrTR: Agreeing with Cyclic, but to add, sleeves (while one of my fave things to do), aren’t the only major issue. You see a lot of strapless more so because the shoulder blades of the avatar are basically awful. Often you’ll see them unweighted and pulled out from the av (which to me looks awful), or they move oddly. Generally they move oddly because the creator is trying to adjust to the terrible weights on the avatar base. If you don’t you get a lot of clipping through straps when shoulder/collar joints move.

ShaiSD: The shoulder portion of the avatar shares 3 – 4 weight areas: Collar, Shoulder, Neck, Chest. Balancing these with little polycount/points to hold the those weights is a bit tricky to do. Skinning it on a tpose (default skeleton with arms out) is also a point of contention, when it comes into SL, you cross check it on a pose standing with arms down, it can become a nightmare. With strapless, tube top styles, you don’t have to deal with this and can produce mesh faster.

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Catching Up

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Snapshot

I shot these pics a few days ago wearing an outfit featuring items from last month’s Collabor88. Don’t despair, you can now find them in the store. The top, leggings and boots are all from Tres Blah. They come with a puffy jacket, too, but I left that off. Growing up in a place where it’s really cold, I have never understood those puffy jackets with no sleeves as anything more than an extra lining if your coat is not warm enough.
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White and Black

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Snapshot

 

 

I was playing with lights and shadows using a single narrow line of white light for my projector. The background prim is white and the blackness comes from wind light set to 100% black everything and bringing gamma down to 0. Then the only light there is comes from the projector. The thin sliver of light in the dark made me feel very noir

Snapshot

I love the modernist simplicity of NYU’s new Thalia coat. Eschewing all the usual outerwear detailing, the epaulettes, the fabric belt, the stitched edging and the rows of buttons, its design details are a simple notched collar and a single button. This is simplicity at its most stark and striking. I wanted to maintain that sensibility in styling and kept to a monochromatic palette of white with touches of black and silver. I chose cigarette pants from One Bad Pixel for their clean and simple lines.

SnapshotI added a fedora (color-change) from Argace that I have had for ages. I also added a touch of whimsy with CAE’s lovely Blizzard earrings in silver.

Snapshot

 

 

My pumps are from Glamistry and are as chic as can be. The come with a color change HUD that allows me to select the color of the metal (silver, copper and gold) and the platform, heel and body separately. However, I did not go for parti-colored shoes with my monochrome mission. There’s a lot of intelligence behind the Glamistry brand – which allows you to add color components to your HUD so if you kick yourself for buying just one color, you can add more later without proliferating your inventory with pairs and pairs of shoes.

Snapshot

 

My skin choice is Sia (FairTales), a new release from Glam Affair for Collabor88 that features soft and ethereal makeups, several with bright, fun colors.

Store info at Blogging Second Life
****SHOPPING LIST******
Poses: Ma Vie
Skin: Glam Affair – Sia skin ( Fairy Tales ) – Asia 08 E
Eyes: [UMEBOSHI] Eon eyes dark Green (med)
Lashes: Mon Cheri *MC* “Falsies” Eyelash
Mesh Attachments:
Slink Avatar Enhancement Hands – Elegant – XSmall L
Slink Avatar Enhancement Hands – Elegant – XSmall R
Slink AvEnhance Feet High XS
Mani/Pedi: FLAIR
Hair: *ARGRACE* Fedora Hat “Wild curl”
Clothing: ::1bp:: Cigarette Pants S White
NYU – Thalia Coat, White
Shoes: Glamistry : GALLA Heels
Jewelry: Cae :: Blizzard :: Earring

Nous Sommes Tous Charlie!

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Je Suis Charlie

I made these Je Suis Charlie pencils and have them out for free at the It’s Only Fashion office.

 

The first paragraph I drafted for this post called what happened yesterday at Charlie Hebdo unthinkable. Of course, I had to delete that and start again because it obviously was not just thinkable, but doable. Three of our fellow human beings went into an office and killed twelve other fellow human beings because they were offended by their cartoons. It all sounds so ludicrous, doesn’t it?

Of course, to say the murders were about cartoons is to miss the point. The killers are bit players in an existential struggle between modernity and traditionalism and modernity is winning. When you are winning, you do not resort to tactics like terrorism. Terrorism is for losers.

Je Suis Charlie

 

You see, if they were not losing the argument already, they had many other options to object to and oppose the satiric cartoons of Charlie Hebdo. They could protest outside the office. They could have billboards saying  “Chalie Hebdo is a poopy head.” They could write letters to the editor or to the advertisers asking them to stop running ads in the magazine. They could call for a boycott of products advertised in Charlie Hebdo. But their side is losing and they know it. So they decided to smash things and kill people.  Continue reading →

Designer Download — Indyra Seigo

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DesignerDownload

I remember the first time I met Indyra Seigo of Indyra Originals and Indy & Co. It was before I was a blogger and I was wandering around outside her store. She was building a new store, if I remember correctly, or landscaping or something. Anyway, she was building and I had not seem someone build before so I lurked about trying to watch and she said hello to me in chat, which totally freaked me out. So we chatted a bit and she offered friendship and I swear, I thought it was the greatest thing. That was back before I learned designers put their pants on one layer at a time just like the rest of us.

Jul12b_008.jpg

Rocking my Indyra Coquette Noir pumps back in paleoprimic era.

I frequented Indyra’s store and bought tons of lingerie, dresses and shoes. I remember particularly loving her lingerie and her Coquette Noir shoes which would be worn out if prims could show wear and tear. They were invisi-prim shoes, remember them? When alphas came along, I was sort of ambivalent. Sure, they’re cool, but what about my Coquette Noir pumps? I have learned to adjust and Indyra continues to produce new shoes with alphas and mesh that are completely up to date, but it still gave me a pang to delete those old beloved shoes.

 

Indyra

Indyra Seigo by Indyra Seigo

It’s Only Fashion: What was your first day in Second Life like? What made you stick it out through the learning curve?
India Seigo: My first day in Second Life was planned and mission based. I knew before I made an avie that I’d be running a fashion store because a family member, who was already on SL for about 6 months, suggested that I join for the purpose of making extra income. You see, I was on maternity leave from my creative job in the real world and being a new mom made me want to find a way to work from home. I thought, everybody else seems to be making money in SL, why can’t I?

In 2006, the learning curve wasn’t as rough as it is today. Still, it took several days to get used to the navigation and camera controls. Battling simulator sickness (that is actually the official term given for motion sickness caused by a navigating a 3D environment LOL) was an uphill battle, but one look at that baby girl in her bassinet made me work through it. No way was I going back to a 9 to 5. Continue reading →

Yearbook Challenge

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Yearbook Smile Saying Cheese does not work

Nonconformist of the Year – The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. – George Bernard Shaw. .

Second Life® Memestress Strawberry Singh has kicked off 2015 with a fun blogger challenge. She asked folks to shoot a high school yearbook picture with a smile – and explain how we achieved that smile. It was not easy, but I did manage a ghost of a smile.

How I Did It: I used a combination of methods, adjusting my face shape, using tips from Melanie Kidd.  Then I turned on slow animations following Gogo’s tips on slow motion animation and Iris Ophelia’s tips on lip-synching.

76c763e25cd0b5b99dd03987f5d6ac26

Saying Cheese did not work at all!

Yearbook SmileI also tried using emotes on the AnyPose HUD I use to control my eyes in combination with the lip-synching and slow animation. OH well! PhotoShop can help.

Yearbook

 

Poses: Adorkable
Truth Hairbase – copper
(Kunglers Extra) TDRF #051 – earring – silver
*Dura-Boys&Girls*45(Mocha)
*MC* “Falsies” Eyelash – Upper+Lower (add)
AnyPose Expression HUD v1.0 – Wear Me
ISON – angora sweater -S- (plum)
[PXL] MIA NAT Opulence ~ Makeup 03 MEB C2
[UMEBOSHI] Eon eyes Dark Green (med)

Resolutions and Regrets

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Untitled

 

I have not made any New Year’s resolutions this year. I did not last year or the year before or any year that I can remember. It has never been part of our family tradition. Our family New Year’s was a day of family gathered together for feasting and fun. New Year’s Eve was never a drunkfest either. Instead, it was a day of housecleaning and food preparation. I have cleaned the over on New Year’s more times than I can count. It all comes from this idea of starting the year as you mean to go on − with a clean house and plenty of food and family to share it with. Of course, my family always served lutefisk for New Year’s dinner and that was most definitely not how I meant to go on.

SL Raw Shots

I asked on plurk if folks had regrets from 2014. Many people said they did not have any which is great for them. What I thought was most interesting is that several folks said they regretted that did not do something sooner. That means they did something that made things better for themselves and only wish they had done it earlier. That means that even their regrets come from a better place. I like those regrets. Actually, that is my big regret for the year. I wish i had put my cat Oscar on Xanax earlier, the first time the vet suggested it. I would have have saved a lot on laundry.
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It’s Only Art #11

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It's Only Art Be sure to check out this column’s Gallery on Flickr. There are stunning pictures there; many who deserve very much to be highlighted in this column. Highlighting five is arbitrary, i know, but it is important that I set a limit or I could lose days writing each column. For me, this time, color seemed to be a recurring element in those I chose to highlight.

You desired my attention,

You desired my attention by paperfairy (나나)

The idea for this column, or more accurately for its precursor What I Like at Shopping Cart Disco, came from the daily plurks of a former SL resident who left several years ago. Each day she would do a WTF plurk and share her critiques of SL photos. Sometimes feelings were hurt and she defended her plurks and advice to help people take better photos. It seemed to me that you could achieve the same ends by highlighting what people did right instead of focusing on what people did wrong. Why do I mention this?

Screen Shot 2014-12-30 at 1.21.50 PMOne of her big complaints was people who shot pictures with backgrounds in a similar color to their clothing. She hated to see clothing disappear into the background. Well,, here is a photo from 나나 that proves that rather than disappearing, the similarity between background and dress intensifies our focus. After all, if we look closely, the skirt is clearly delineated. It is there, but we have to stop, focus and look for it. I love this picture. The subject is well off center, which makes for a more dynamic feeling. The close crop that requires us to interact with the picture, completing it in our minds also intensifies our attention. The bright scarlet red says STOP and demands we look. Everything about this picture says look at me and she knows it – hence the ironic title of the picture. Continue reading →