At the end of a long day shopping and shooting in the studio, I have to confess I require some caffeine. It’s probably why I put my coffee station right next to my door – so I could grab a cup coming or going. If immediate access to coffee is wrong, I don’t want to be right. Continue reading
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?
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.
SS: I second what Cyclic says, specifically the shoulder area is very hard to rig.
TR: 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.
SD: 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.
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.
Continue reading
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
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.
I 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.
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.
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
The best way to face the worst day of the week is to be it’s boss, I think. I decided I was going in full force in some lovely new clothes from ISON, I’ll be unstoppable if I am cute don’t you think? Continue reading
Ingenue has released some adorable oxfords at this month’s Collabor88. It’s not enough that they are cute with polka dots – they’ve got a hud and you and mix and match patterns! Continue reading
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.
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
Voted Most Likely To Appear On G.L.O.W. in High School. No really, I was.
I decided I had the perfect sweater/shirt for a high school pic so I had to participate.
I tried getting a smile that didn’t look crazy, most of the slow motion captures I did had my teeth floating in the middle of my mouth. That just seemed wrong. I so put on PXL MOUTHPRO and the alpha #3 and it falls into a relaxed smile imo. I wasn’t a big smiler in HS anyway.
Gidge Is Wearing:
Lips: [Pink Fuel] Harley Lipstick <Crystal> – Barbie Pink
Lashes: Amacci – Eyelash Tattoo 6
Eyeshadow: [PF] Doll V2 <Crystal> – Eyeshadow (Purple)
Hair: Slink Bianca Hair Swedish
Body: Slink Physique Mesh Body V1.4
Sweater: The Secret Store – Luna Preppy Cardigan – Silver Stars – S
VR Studio HUD
Teeth: [PXL] OpenMouth PRO TEETH v1.2 (Mod/Copy)
Skin: [Pink Fuel] Doll V2 <Crystal> – Pure (blondebrow)
Eyes: IKON Eternal Eyes – Iris (S)
Pose: PRETENSE
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.
Saying Cheese did not work at all!
I 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.
How ’bout a round of applause?
A standing ovation?
‘Cause you put on quite a show
really had me going
Now it’s time to go
Curtain’s finally closing
That was quite a show
Very entertaining
But it’s over now. Continue reading