Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Shop Necklace

This is my newest creation: a necklace you can wear that gives out a folder of LMs, NCs, objects, and pictures to anyone who touches it. Plus you get notified when they do.

This is incredibly useful for anyone who owns a shop or hosts events (or even pet breeders!). Often I find myself chatting with someone and they ask me for a LM. I then have to dig through my inventory to find anything relevant to pass along. With the Shop Necklace, you can just tell them to click your necklace!



The Shop Necklace is only 3 prims and carries a very low resource script. It comes in 3 styles: oval, round, and square, and you can customize the pendant with your own texture so you can wear your store logo with style.



You can find the necklace in three locations:

JovianBay Jewelers


Beau Gatto at KittyCats Cafe

Marketplace

CATS!

So it's been a long time since last I posted. But I have a reason for that: I've been knee deep in KittyCats!

It started with looking for a lower prim, better featured pet cat for my mom than what she currently had. My friend Novella is a breeder and had just gotten into the new cats, called KittyCats. So we went to a couple of sims to check them out. Instantly, we loved them.

I have seen, I believe, all of the brands of pets out there and KittyCats have to be some of the best-scripted, low lag, full of personality pets I've seen. You can breed them (and therefore feed them) if you want to but they give you the option to permapet the cats so that you don't have to feed them (and can no longer breed them). They come in all colors and sizes and I am so addicted there's no turning back! If you ever want to see them in action, stop by my cozy little shop, Beau Gatto, in KittyCats Cafe in Rhineland.

Here are just some of my little lovelies. (You can see more pics on my Flickr account.)




Galen, my pure Burmese Sable



Lily, my Snowshoe Lilac
Kaylee, my Domino
Zoe and Wash, two of my Cream Tabbies
The Cream Army
Cuddling with Six, my coco with Pink Ice eyes

These cats are great. They rez and chase butterflies and bees, they stick their tongues out, they sleep, you can throw a ball for them to play with, and they can even talk to you...well, sort of ;)

KittyCat breeding isn't for the faint of heart. The market goes up and down and you really need to learn the business well before investing any money in it. But for me at least, it's been a very rewarding month so far. I'm loving every minute of it!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

This is so inspirational

I came across this and just have to share because the potential for this kind of multi-media exhibition is candy to the mind.



Can you imagine this technology being used more in all kinds of historic sites? Independence Hall? An outdoor venue like Pearl Harbor?? (Just thinking of American history here, but imagine all the world events that could be covered!)

Take it a step further...could something like this be used interactively? Like have a visitor walk through a building or something and be able to touch a wall to receive a multi-media, immersive history lesson? How could it be individualized or should it be a group experience, like being in a virtual reality movie theater?

If a group experience, what about something like a Disney ride, where you sit in a room full of chairs that can pivot and with 4 screens all around you, you walk or run from a first-person camera perspective, turning as needed to take in what the screen person sees? Heck, add in some wind or smells just for authenticity.

This exhibition in Holland is stunning. I am definitely inspired by it and am eager to see what other similar projects will come about.

Celebrity Look-Alikes

I was reading through the New World Notes blog (a great read, btw), and found an old post about a face recognition feature of MyHeritage.com where you can upload a picture of yourself and it scans your bone structure, etc., to come up with a list of celebrities you most resemble.

The NWN article (from 2006) talked about the unusual number of Indian celebrity matches that avatars were getting. Since I am modeled loosely to resemble an Indian woman, I thought it would be neat to see if this program validated my self-perception. Turns out it does!

I ran several pictures to see if anyone in particular kept popping up. Here are my results:

Here's the first picture analysis



and then another



and one more for good measure



I got Priyanka Chopra 3 times for an average match of 72.3%. Not bad! And I also got "the most beautiful woman in the world," Aishwariya Rai once at 71%. In my book, I'd say that's a win.


For the heck of it, I ran a scan on a picture (which I've kept anonymous) of what I look like outside of the grid, and it came up with this, haha



So who do you look like?

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Nordari

If I could spend my afterlife on the grid, I would definitely haunt Nordari. It's a digital heaven - a haven - and I've treasured it since I discovered the sim in the fall of last year. I don't remember how I even landed there in the first place, but once I was there, the only thing on my mind was, "what is this strange and wonderful place?"

You would almost not notice the store located on the sim as the owners blend it in so well with the natural scenery. There are no imposing buildings, there is no clutter; everything about this place, from the terraforming to the well-plotted grass, takes you to another world. I guess you could say it takes you to the virtual world - and what a showcase of digital technology it is!

I worked on this video for 12 hours today and it's still a bit bumpy but it's the best I can do with my processor and graphics card. I know I can't do it justice but I hope that this little video at least relays a bit of how I feel about Nordari.

Watch the video and then visit for yourself!

The video

Nordari

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Spring is Here!

Slowly but surely, ice is melting from the grid and shops are starting to stock up on springtime pretties. My Bohemian heart is warmed by all of the new textures, which manage to blend earthy colors with cheerful tones. I can't wait to show you my new spring low lag outfit!

There are two different overall ARCs and prim counts for this one because the dress comes with both a long and short skirt to choose from. But even with the long skirt option, the dress's use of resources is low and honestly overall it really did boggle my mind a bit that I was able to get such a low ARC from such a detailed ensemble.

So, here's the overall ARC and prim count for the outfit with either skirt option. I will detail each clothing article's use further down.

Long skirt: 879 ARC, prims 359
Short skirt: 682 ARC, prims 335

There's only one script and that's in the hair to change the colors of the flowers (you get to color both individually) so you'll want to keep that one in!

Remember to click on the pics to enlarge.


The seams of this dress are not even noticeable. Just gorgeous.



I got the necklace for 50L Friday and it comes with a bunch of options. Also, this hair is just the epitome of spring to me.


Okay so these are my favorite boots in SL. It's the first and rare time I've ever purchased a fat pack because I just couldn't decide which color. They are 100 prims of HAWT and I've gotten many compliments on them. The stockings are old-fashioned sexy and I love that this dress lets me show them off perfectly.

 

 



Dress: Mimikri - Mia Sand. 213 ARC, 26 prims for short; 410 ARC, 50 prims for long
Boots - *G Field* - Lace-Up Boots - Sand. 230 ARC, 100 prims
Hair: Fashionably Dead (fd) - Rainy Day - Nothingness from the Earth Pack. 188 ARC, 77 prims
Necklace: *League* - Wanderer Necklace - Plain. 35 ARC, 132 prims
Stockings: *League* - Side-Gartered Stockings - Khaki with brown garter (you get one pair with brown garter and one with black garter). no attachments.
Bubbles!: Eyefliez Inc. Bubble Blower

Also, if you're curious like I was as to if the dress is made of flexi prims or sculpts, it's composed of both, strategically used. It fits like a glove but also moves when you walk (and without your legs flashing through too much). It's just really well made and the creator Mimikri Kit was very quick and friendly in responding to my question.

Now go out and play!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Casual Monday

Started out with a 16 ARC (usual disclaimer that ARCs may vary for you). As always, click on each picture to enlarge.

Consisting of only 114 prims and sporting an ARC of 432, you can pretty much wear this outfit anywhere and barely make a blip on the grid. This outfit would be great for a crowded class because you can sit in it without displacing prims and even keep your hair!

Let's get it on:







The only scripts are in the shoes and can be self-deleted.

Something that really stands out for me about this particular ensemble is just how well everything fits. The pants prims blend in perfectly with the pants layer and the shoes fit me right out of the box with no need to re-size, as did the scarf that came with the tank top. Seriously, this is no muss no fuss fashion!

Shirt & Scarf: The Sea Hole - Sheer tank top & scarf sets: mocha. 40 ARC, 3 prims
Jeans: [Decoy] Dana 76 Jeans, Black. 30 ARC, 2 prims
Shoes: Tesla - High Oxford *chocolate*. 166 ARC, 27(x2) prims
Hair: Tousled (KNOTTED) Onyx. 196 ARC, 55 prims

Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Cyclone!

I made this video today of me riding the Cyclone in Healthlink's New York estate. It took much more work than the Caledon train tunnel video from the last blog - about 4 hours for a 2 minute video, but I was teaching myself as I went along. I'm actually quite satisfied by the outcome!



Or you can watch it directly on Youtube

Let me know what you think!

Monday, February 28, 2011

My First Published Video

My very first published wee bit of machinima isn't the most fabulous thing ever, but it's a darn good start! View it in all of it's silent 22 second glory on Youtube!


Working on some longer stuff at the moment, but trying to gather all the props, etc., and also waiting on my spicy new spacenavigator. I can't wait to see the world with it!

Monday, February 21, 2011

New York Again

One of the many things I like about New York is that it's a big town with lots of activities and space for exploring but yet it has a small town feel. Folks here are warm and friendly - traits that are nurtured with all of the social opportunities we have throughout the week. I travel somewhat extensively, but I pop back to the house throughout the day, and often times I see a few dots on the mini-map and feel a bit comforted that there are people nearby - though not so close that I lack privacy of course.

The other day, I was in between projects and decided to take a walk and meet some other residents. There are almost always a few dots over in Hudson and since I saw some activity, I figured I'd start there just to poke around.

When I arrived, I found a few people dancing on the riverboat Club Idylls. I wasn't really in the mood for dancing so I continued on my way to the next dot on the map, a woman that I see practically every day in the sim one over from me. I thought it would be nice to introduce myself so I walked down the street to Harumotors and NYC Music Hall.



I started out in her car showroom where I admired some very nicely detailed sports cars and then TPed up to the club to say hello. Come to find out, she had noticed me on the map regularly also and was glad I stopped by. She was putting the finishing touches on the club, which she was set to open on Saturday.

The topic came up of my house and she said she thought she had broken into it previously to look around. When we did the math, it turned out she had broken in while I lived there (but at least she complimented me on my decorating, which I always welcome). Since we were confessing, I told her that though I hadn't actually gone into her house I had at least cammed inside and noted we shopped at some of the same stores. And then I confessed to stealing her car.

Remember my joyriding adventure a while back with the Mini-Cooper? Yeah, it was hers. (And just an update: I was informed by the lovely NY sim manager, Panacea Luminos, upon her reading my blog, that we do, in fact, have a jail, haha!)

We had a good chuckle but I assured her that I did park it back on the curb in front of her brownstone after my adventure (I swear I usually am a nice girl!). Apparently I was not the first to take one of her cars for a spin - they are VERY well detailed. People will sometimes just take off in her cars, drive them, then leave them somewhere. She even found one in a tree once. Her neighbor had borrowed one of her cars (with permission) and had had a tricky sim crossing and lost the car. Since I had nothing else to do at the moment, I told her I would go out with a scanner and look for it and report back if I found it.

It was last seen when crossing the Hudson-Triborough bridge, so I started out in the water there. I swam around 3 sims at varying depths looking for the car with no luck. But in New York even the water is pretty.

Swimming with the help of the Swimmer HUD. If you don't have this already you are missing out! I may blog about it soon but you can go ahead and buy it and start swimming the way it SHOULD be done in SL.


The bright sunny day turned into a beautifully cloudy afternoon




Having no luck in the water, I popped back over to the park in Triborough
I witnessed a lovely sunset on the coast


I was starting to get tired from all my searching but decided to give one last look over from the sky. While flying around TriBorough, I spotted a neat looking building off the waterway with what appeared to be art displayed on the deck. I had turned off my mini-map for a better view so when I landed, I was surprised to be greeted by "Hello Mathilda!"

My first reaction was embarrassment as I was still in my swim suit, standing in an art gallery. I certainly hadn't intended on being seen there by anyone and I felt very inappropriately dressed for the place. I turned around to find the artist proprietor standing there. I apologized for my attire and she ever-so-kindly waved it off. After introductions I learned that this was to be yet another venue in New York, Fat's Jazz, a jazz club/art gallery, which I found magnificent.

We chatted and I discovered that she had just moved here and was already enjoying the location. Now, I have only really begun to explore the intimidatingly vast world of art in SL, and have only found a handful of works that appeal to my tastes. But this woman's work is very, very nice. The colors are soothing to the eye and the compositions of the pieces easily absorb the viewer. I mentioned that we have a sort of warehouse-y art district over in SoHo and she was already familiar with it because a friend of hers recently opened a gallery there.

After all of my exploring of the day, I decided to give up on my car search and head home to enjoy the SL evening and reflect while sipping on my favorite new accessory, a pumpkin spice latte from {theosophy}.


The whole day left me very excited and even more thrilled to live in NY. We are quickly becoming an even more active artistic community with RL artists and musicians finding an accommodating environment here. In one day, I started at one club and ended up visiting two more that were soon to open in addition to the new art gallery of a very talented artist. With live performances, game nights, frequent dances, and art galleries and events, New York is fast becoming the place to be. I'm just sayin'...


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Practical Traveler

This next outfit is a great one for everyday use, whether you're building or shopping or just exploring. I have found that this a great go-to outfit in many scenarios, from parties to lounging around my house, and with a very low ARC and small amount of prim usage, you can wear this comfortably in any area and know that you are not contributing to the lag and don't have to sacrifice cuteness. The fact that you can get such a great realistic look using mostly just fantastically textured clothing layers is a tribute to all of the creators that made these items.

Again, ARC is different for everyone but I figure that whatever I'm getting is going to be at least close to what you will get with whatever your specs are. In other words, though the ARC may vary, I think you will still achieve a low ARC with this outfit (maybe even lower than mine!). My ARC baseline for this time is 43 when naked. Let's get started!

Click to enlarge pictures

With all prim attachments, inc. hair and shoes: ARC 504, 158 prim


Sweater attachments contain scripts but they have a self-delete feature and you can still edit in build mode after deleting



Without attachments, wearing jacket layer to get the bottom shirt part

Back view without shirt attachments

There are 4 total scripts for this outfit: 3 sweater prim resizers (collar and sleeves) and 1 hair script to change hat color. The hair script is not deletable but the sweater scripts are. However, the sweater is no copy so if you delete the resize script you will have to edit the prims manually in your build menu. 

Hair - Tiny Bird - Have You Forgotten - Deep Warm Black: ARC 161, 69 prims
Sweater - GizzA - Argyle Suit DarkCream Female: with all attachments: ARC 55, 7 prims
Pants - PROZAK - Fat Cords - Brown: no attachments
Shoes - In Her Shoes - Sneakers Brown: ARC 245, 82 prims

I would also like to give thanks to the creator of the sweater, Giz Seorn. When I went back to GizzA to purchase a dress and had a question, her partner, who was at the landing point, called her to me and she was very helpful. Gotta love great customer service!

Once again, the In Her Shoes are free, but I encourage you to tip the creator at the shop for providing you with good looking free shoes!

Also, this time I featured PROZAK pants and I will most likely feature PROZAK again because I love the pants and they are FULL PERM and FREE. I did some research to make sure they weren't copybotted and discovered that the creator, Amiya Kimble, generously provided the line of clothing free and full perm to the SL community. Some people will try to sell you a wholesale PROZAK pack (which includes pants, shirts, shoes, and tattoos), and I think it's pretty rotten to try to make a profit off of someone else's work, especially when it was meant to be free and full perm to start with. You can get the full PROZAK pack for FREE here on Marketplace.

These are some of my favorite pants in SL because they're good quality, versatile, and modifiable so you can adjust the length, flare, and other attributes to your tastes. For your convenience, I am providing a box of the pants free and full perm (as they are meant to be) at my jewelry store under the info board. Please do not sell these on Marketplace. It's just not nice to profit off of someone else's work, especially when it's not meant to be sold.

Enjoy the outfit; I sure do!

Monday, February 14, 2011

My First Live Dance

Art in SL is something all its own. I am a big fan of those who use this virtual space to express themselves and to provoke the senses of such a vast and diverse audience. That we have so much at our disposal in this metaverse opens up a wealth of human potential and I'm excited to watch our artistic futures unfold here. 

Through a twist of good fortune, I learned about an upcoming dance adaptation of Narnia, performed by The Dramatiques Performance Troupe. Even today as I reflect on what I viewed yesterday, I'm left with a great satisfaction. Animation is what quite literally moves us in SL and dancing seems to be getting more and more sophisticated as more animation artists and choreographers hone their skills. Narnia appeared to me a perfect example of SL technology at its best.

The Patch Thibaud Auditorium on Couture Boulevard provided an ethereal ambiance that suited the performance well. At one point, while the audience was getting situated, I counted 44 in attendance, but I know there were ultimately more.

(You can click to enlarge all of the following pictures)



Before Narnia began, we were treated to a short routine, Romeo and Juliet. The ambition of the scenery paid off, creating a more vivid setting than real life could naturally provide.



Already the motions of the dancers were stunning to me. Phenomenally synched, each movement was executed gracefully and on point.

And then Narnia began.


From here on out, I'm just going to post pictures to let the dancing and scenery speak for itself. I tried really hard to narrow down my shots but, really, it's hard to do justice to a live virtual dance performance with just a few quick shots.








The entire White Witch scene was mesmerizing.






After the performance, the cast welcomed us to a champagne reception on the property. When they announced that they will begin touring Alice in Wonderland in April, I eagerly subscribed to their update group. I'll see you there!