Viewed from afar

I'm stuck in FL! Something's gone wrong with my account and I can't log into SL. Linden isn't exactly falling over themselves to solve the problem so... pffftt... I have no idea how prolonged this agony will be.
In some ways it's an interesting experience. The withdrawal symptoms and the soul searching... ^^ 



The blogging bug has, however, bit me badly and I have a NEED to do something. So I'll present something I prepared earlier as they say. 
This weekend, I was hoping to enter a competition at Finesmith... but... pffftt!!! I put this outfit together for my application. I've blogged everything before, everything except the Lorena Shawl by Finesmith, a very contemporary creation of loose balls of metal wire mounted on a light frame. The fresh lightness of this creation is pure pleasure and it asks something of a different response than most other pieces of jewellery. 


A menu gives several options of metals and colours which creates umpteens possibilities. Just to uphold the public moral, I'm wearing my male nipples today, ok? No need for any upset ;) 
Hahahaha... that's about as much I've got without prattling. Hope to see you inworld soon. In the meantime, have fun!

Happy Halloween!!

A sexy little group gifty is available at Blacklace just in time for Halloween!

The hair Im wearing is new from the Dressing Room Blue by Exile! You get 4 colors for 60L!

Skin: Al Vulo Past Group Gift

Hair: Exile at The Dressing Room Blue - Iona 60L

Lingerie: Blacklace - Gimme my Treat -Halloween Group Gift Free!

Boots: SLink - Whitney

The Perfect Hunt

I have just completed my second hunt this year and feeling sort of proud. It's rapidly approaching it's last week so if you've intended to  to do The Perfect Runway Hunt, there's no time like now to do it.

50 stores are involved and it ends at the end of this month, the 31st. Hints and SLURLs can be found on the web site ==> X.

TPRH is catering mainly for fems so most of the clothing and hairs and the like was beyond me but I do think this rose bodice is cute and has potential for a great outfit or two. However, there's several pose stores involved and together with other gifts I've landed myself with almost 50 poses, both genders combined (when it comes to poses, androgynes tend to score double).


Photos show some of my favourite things from the hunt, poses included (not hair, eyes and skin). I've added eye liner. The shoes comes with a colour picker available for the nail polish, beside the skin one I mean. 
Photos from Originalia... hopefully it's just the number of visitors that had created the painful lag.
Happy hunting as they say ;)

Easy Tiger!

We all get happy when we have a three day weekend, but sometimes the one day weekends are the ones we really enjoy. When Saturday night rolls into Sunday morning and you watch the sun come up it's probably a night to remember. Sure, we're still in our posh frocks and swanky suits but our clothes take on a new life as they've worn into the night.

Brocade Tiger have captured that morning after attire well with their Double Take suit. It's 250L and purple - which may not be to everyone's taste it's true. No jacket, but that's been hung carefully already hasn't it? Jacket off, tie undone, and stretch out remembering everything you got up to. Rather nifty attire for a lazy Sunday after a great Saturday.

#3 Mannerism

Dooohhh... this outfit is jinxed! Every time time I've worked on it, I've had to re-build it from scratch because it refuses to load. Someone or something don't want me to go there.
It's time for the third week of my personal fashion challenge based on a competition held by Finesmith Jewelry last year. It will feel good to have this one behind me, for more than one reason.
The theme for the third week's challenge was 'Mannerism', the period of late Renaissance, the period of da Vinci and Michelangelo. It's characterised by intellectualisation and a move away from 'art imitating nature' to 'art imitating art'. I read somewhere that the art at this time was criticised for the un-natural poses and aloof expressions of the human subjects and that got my associations running haywire.


The image of FL fashion models sprang to mind and I could see the whole modern era with it's obsession with mind on the expense of feeling. An era of control, elitism, dominance and increasing artificiality. I don't see any point where the fashion genres labelled 'avant garde' and the hard side of 'fetishism' breaks off from modernism... they are thoughts thought to their logical end.


So... something that most would put in the 'avant garde' genre used to interpret the late renaissance, all based around Finesmith's In the Flash - Acupuncture pieces. The chest piece consisting of the official chest piece with a couple of earpieces added. The weight of the jewellery would make attaching and wearing them a feat of self control me thinks... but they are fantastically beautiful to look at and this is SL. No avatars were hurt taking these shots.
Clothing wise I started of down the line of the control a good horseman has over his/her animal and geometric symmetry. A lot of searching and I decided the Triangle pants from Source with all those nails inserted in a regular pattern matched my thought and the jewellery best. The hip pads were colour modded and used with the high cut Reich pants from Tableau Vivant... sometimes solid black is a blessing! 
G246 Boots from Graves, shoulder pads from Osakki's Assassin outfit and Cyber tattoo from sYs completed the image, all giving the right visual signs and keeping the lines flowing.
There you have it. The spooked outfit! 
While on the subject and since you can't go anywhere without stumbling over pumkins at the moment, here's to the season:

Enjoy and have fun.... muahahahahahaha

Shadow Play

I'm blind... *blinks hard at the pile* Am standing at MADesigns, where I've been so many times lately, and not until right now do I see them. 'Them' being 25 free gifts packages to pick up from familiar and respected stores and some not as familiar. *Grabs them all and rushes home to a few hours of fun.*

Hectic unpacking and trying on. Although most are for guys, as could be expected at MADesigns, there's good things for other peeps as well. Thumbs up for this initiative. There's a few stores among this stuff that will get a visit a bit later, that's for sure. 
Here's some of what I found in the treasure trove...


This poncho is from CheeNo not only comes in fem and male versions but also versions with their own AO to keep arms under the garment. Khaki pants, chosen for their colour, where gifted by Shiki together with a blue top.
Pose was gifted by BeScene. I did a lousy job with it above, my apologies to the creator. I didn't want to modify it for any reason since it was to be named so I left the arm poking through the poncho a little. The light/shadow effect on the wall was too satisfying to turn and stand properly against the wall. Sometimes being a visual artist is a handicap :P

In fact, to learn more about shadows in SL was as much the goal for this photo session as showing the stuff. My apologies for my lessons taught me what NOT to do. Life's a journey ^^
The set of 10 (12 if a couple of relaxed hand alternatives are included) from Diesel Works are not only too good to ignore but proved handy to show the upper body kanji tattoo from HUZ TATS without breaking the rating as well. XD 
Jeans (with prim cuffs) and tied wrist band are to be found in the gift from *FIR* and the black gloves in SF design.

The most important thing I've learnt about light and shadows is that you loose transparent textures as soon as you turn them on. That's a real bummer and a big limitation on such a cool feature. I was to pre-occupied with figuring out how to catch the movement in the little trying-to-stand-still-but-the-music-is-too-good-dance from AKEYO to realise that the dark glass in the sunglasses didn't render. No wonder everything tends to look so solid with shadows switched on.
Shorts and shirt are gifted by Connors, sunglasses (complete with dark frames, promise) by Adjunct and shoes by Duh!. The watch from GBTM is a keeper even if I use my computer to keep track of time. The scripting involved behind the complex display must be a scripting master piece and will be treasured as such.


MADesigns has a giftie, too... but not a hair. Their box is filled to the brim with of a long list of really useful stuff such as a HUD controlled face light, emoter HUD, full perm building textures, eyes and even a couple of their male poses. There's also a full perm pose stand filled with all the 'classic' freebie poses from around the block. A real juicy package that made me go all soft in my knees to be honest. Among what I understand are older eyes are two pairs of brown of the latest generation. I'm wearing a  pair of those in these images. Wonderfully clear and with just the right amount of tinting of the whites to look natural without  the hay fever or the morning after effect.
The hair is not part of these riches, it's my Rosa from Discord Designs. Why such a great unisex hair has such a gendered name is beyond me... it's a fantastic tangle of braids that would look good on anyone with almost anything! 

Pearls of Wisdom

My comeback was weirdly serious! I mean I know I did the ranty blogger thing but... there was discussion! I must confess to only reading the ones here after getting sucked into much brain thinking in the ensuing Plurk debate and I'm a bit calmer now, so I figured my next appearance should be one of my old faithfuls - silly with lots of skin! One slight problem I had though - my skin was falling off.

Nope, not some Viewer 2 bug, no fancy mesh skins - I just went rummaging through my inventory and found out that skin had gone off. I guess I should've patched up the holes before I put it into storage but now it's all mouldy and falling apart. But it's that time of year when we all remember we have some zombie skin we picked up somewhere long forgotten and try to dress it up sexily for some spooky party. You know the ones - half the people want to pull a vampire and the other half just want Candi (ideally with a heart dotting the i). Luckily for me Vision Eyes gave out a nice launch pack a while back which included Vampric Eyes (which are usually 50L a pair), so I threw the blood balls in and felt ready to impress the vampire hunters!

With the zombie look developing nicely I decided to fall back on that piece of trivia that for some reason there is always one person willing to tell the room despite the fact that 90% of the people there already know it and it was only kinda cool the first time you were told it anyway - when you die your hair and nails keep growing. This was a dilemma for my shaven headed self, but luckily I'd seen an advert for a weekend sale at Bryce so I hopped on over - and promptly ignored what the 50L bargain I'd been eyeing up, because round the back of the reception desk I picked up the Saul fatpack for 0L which suited my cheap self rather finely if I do say so myself. Bingo, not only did I have hair but the pack contains a nicely deathly white offering too!

With skin and hair I figure I'm a fully equipped zombie, so I went ona graveyard tour looking for some friends. Big mistake. At my first stop I tried talking to some fellow zombies, but despite being far more decomposed than they were they kept biting me! And the free pistol at the front door didn't actually blow their prim selves up either. So I moved on to find real people! We'll ignore the tragedy of the next few sims (although really, if you don't want strangers arriving at your graveyard just take yourself out of search...) before I landed at a jam packed graveyard sim! Granted, I don't speak much spanish so I couldn't mingle brilliantly, but I did realise they thought there was something a little unusual about my attire. Which is when I realised I needed to hide my pumpkin!

Now personally I think they were over-reacting. Whilst I was naked, I had rotted enough that my parts had fallen off so I was pretty PG. But apparently it still counts. Luckily I knew I had the perfect little pills tucked away, some healthy VITAMEN pills in fact, in the shape of their seasonal peark thongs. They're free gifts and you get one in black and one in orange - they really do put the treat in trick or treating!

Realising that no-one wanted to talk to me now I was less obscene I went to sulk by a tree. I got out the newly released Undead Pose pack from Embody and started playing with myself - which was when a crazy lady followed me over (she probably had the same dirty thoughts you perverts did when I said I was playing with myself!) Luckily she arrived just in time for a little growl and she soon ran off, because it's only when you crawl around on all fours you notice that those pearl thongs do not cover much of your rosey buttocks!

#2 Kitsch

He he... time for the second instalment of the personal ten week challenge. One year ago, Finesmith Jewellery had this competition based around their own pieces. I responded... missing the deadline by only one year. ^^ Could have been worse... I might not have seen it at all :P

The theme for the second week was 'kitsch'. 
*Groans* Here goes...
Kitsch in everyday speech refers to something cheaply made, sentimental and in bad taste... and it was a popular term with modernists who looked down their nose on popular culture from their self proclaimed pedestal of the avant garde. Clement Greenberg's essay 'Avant-garde and Kitsch' (1939) is obligatory reading in art history. In our post-post-modern times, 'kitsch' is appreciated as 'camp' and we can love, laugh or cry or whatever we feel about it.

Kitsch in fashion seems to refer to those unique items you've salvaged and wear with pride in a contemporary setting. To be honest, the term seems to be as loose as the proverbial canon. For this week's challenge I decided to base it all around something iconic SL retro of disputable good taste... the PENGUIN SHIRT!!! And it was FREEEEEEEE!!!!! He he, the classic top now sleeping wherever computer files go when they're deleted from the library.

For the rest, I let my SL sentimentality guide me.... My most brightly coloured happy poofy pants from deviant girls...  One of those short japanese jackets that were popular last year... or was it the year before? I won it on a lucky board in a store I can't even trace now, anyway. It came complete with a non-working resizer script so it won't fit me but I keep it because I like the lining... Christmas themed sneakers from In Her Shoes, wonderfully free and beautifully picking up the colours of the rest.

And... the jewellery... well, he he... Ethnica is a past group gift from Finesmith. It's unfortunately no longer available since they moved to their new location. With this outfit, the set is loud and fake looking... and simply wonderful and fun.
Overall result, loving the fun and colours... I think the word 'kitsch' springs to mind. *Strikes a pose* I still look better than the first time I was here, however.

To complete this journey, I used a place with which I have a sentimental connection to, the art works that brought me to SL in the first place. It wasn't with Siss but with The First One, who was revived only last year. I was researching an essay on avatars when I came across SL for the very first time. I found references to the crossworld art exhibition 'Pixel dolls, meat space and everything else at once'... back in 2006 at the Seattle Bumbershoot Art Festival. SL art was shown in a FL gallery and visitors could sit down at a computer and have an inworld walkabout to watch the pieces in situ. What about that eh?
Of course I had to stretch my then lousy internet connection to venture inworld to see for myself. The pic above shows the very birth place of my second life. ^^
A few of the original works still linger on the now derelict looking sim. The ones in the pick above are by Carl Fizz and Chance Abattoir. The wooden figures fall apart as soon as you approach. That was enough to gob smack an absolute noob, for sure.
There you have it, with a little SL art history thrown in for good measure! If any of you want to see the works in first person, here's the limo => X.
Take care and have fun. If anyone fancies the penguin shirt, just contact me inworld and I'll be happy to forward a copy.

Sweet Tart

I wanted to do a quick post to share this sweet treat from Tart. This Tart- Look 3 complete outfit, includes some of their most versatile and popular items. The open chest vest, cropped tee and ruffle mini skirt with and without garters , stockings and shoes!! That is right it even comes with the shoes. All this for an astounding 99L available for a limited time on the market place. Check it out here.

Helping to round out this complete outfit, this awesome Oct Group Gift skin from Filthy. There is a 199L fee for joining the group and you get great new skins every month, one for women and one for men too. This membership pays for itself and then some with just one gift. Another gorgeous and very generous group gift, Mana hair from D!va to celebrate the group going over 15000 members!! This group is free to join. Many old group gifts still available as well as luck boards and discount hair. So have a look around when you pick this up.

Well there it is, don't miss out!!
See you around the grid.
Mxx

Truth Behind The Mask

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.  ~Oscar Wilde

The allure of the face hidden behind the mask... and the freedom to hide behind one! A bit like having an avatar. You can pretend to be anyone but will reveal more about your true self in the process. 

As a species, we're obsessed with masks. Tribal ones that brings the dreamtime to life... the haunting fine featured beauty of a decorated venetian volto... or the crude homemade mask that hides the features of the rampaging psychopath in a slasher movie. Whatever the origin, they're beacons of deep seated allure and gets us in our soft spot.

They certainly get me and in SL I can't resist them... as long as they're not simply an uploaded stolen photo pasted on a prim. I added three new ones to my collection this last week and I can't wait to show them off.





The first one is the result of the raid at the 4.44.444 event. Yay! Can't believe my eyes with this beauty, The Three Eyed by ContraptioN. What is it? Tribal steampunk? It defies labelling and simply looks great fun together with the Wrecked Horns from the same source. I combined it with Nuuna's yellow BodyCross Makeup from the same event and some henna tattoos (tattoo 10) from Peace and Lol. 
Hair is the Aura by Discord Designs, free in four colours at Savoir Hair. 

The second one isn't so much about hiding as about enhancing. The fine metalwork and the colourful gems of the Jacqueline mask from The Jewellery Exchange was enough to get me scrambling for some white lace to match. The top is part of Myrthe, a recent group gift from ALB Dreamfashion. The Creativ. Facepaint is by Osakki, available at their stall on Modavia.
Hair, again almost visible, is Penelope from MADesigns.

Last but not least, the elegant Light & Shadows lace mask from Tableau Vivant. Matched with the Aeneas 4 top from the same designer, albeit with random shoulder pads added.
Hair is another new release from MADesigns, Fifi. 
Three masks, three looks and three very different me. All three are probably true as well... the raw, the light and the heavy, as with all of us ^^
Until next time, take care and have fun!

#1 Steampunk

I've got good news and bad news for you today. The good news are that I'm not making another post with me in a tutu at Burn2. The bad is that only one day remains before the gates close on the festival.

But life moves on and I've got a date with a date, a so called deadline. 

One year ago, Finesmith Jewellery had a large styling/modelling competition stretched over ten weeks. Each week an outfit had to be presented on a given theme using at least one of Finesmith's pieces. I found a nc about it a few of months ago and until I quite recently saw the date, I thought it was still on... so... and... yeah... ^^

I was intrigued by the themes. Several were art styles, simply yum yum. I don't care much for competitions so who cares I missed it by just under one year. You know what the say about blinking and you've missed it... I'll do the challenges on my own and present the result here each week instead.... muahahahahaha!

I'll try to do it with as few words as possible and prattle with my pics instead.

The theme for the first week, to be presented on 8 October, was 'Steampunk'. 
I love the look of Steampunk, the wrought iron and rust, Jules Vernesk imagination, steam and curious contraptions. However, I can't identify with it. For me it represents a triumph of the clockwork/ mechanical universe with no place for spirit/soul. A constrained world like the victorian where there were concerns for the dignity of children's sleeping positions. 

A world where the human mind rules and the rest can be replaced with machinery. My gut felt response to the steampunk challenge developed along the ideas of constraint/self control and contraptions.

I used the Finesmith - Collar inspired by Blackliquid as starting point together with LeeZu's Au Revoir de Sade Jacket (modded). Together they create a suitable flowerlike cradle for the seat of the prime cut of the human carcas, the brain. I kept the androgyne by combining gender associations of the various bits and pieces. 
I love this collar. One of Finesmith's pieces that goes new places. It comes with a resize and colour change menu with many many choices of metals and colours. I prefer it in platinum and I'm real happy that the other things naturally fell into each other colour wise. 
Will just list the other stuff:
Pants - Pin Men, Davinel Corset - free Orient Corset Dress, KWZ Hair - Free Hair, Black Maria Eye piece - Scanner eyepiece (slightly modded), Grim. Bros. 
The artificial leg and bustle are bits from the sweet avatar on the pic below, Ms. Art Deco, which is freely available on Alpha Point. The bustle was cobbled together using the prims of the chest. The leg required a custom alpha which was an interesting little project in its on right.

The shots are from the Forgotten City, a place that suddenly make perfect sense in my present outfit inspired mood. A beaut for a visit. May it get what support it needs for it's continued existence.
Until next time... as always - have fun!
Music find of the week:

Meshy Madness

Yes, the crazy angry male blogger is still alive! Just... But I'm still here. Why so quiet lately though? Because SL has been annoying me. I'm not a viewer 2 hater but I must say it does run slower on my computer, and the inventory options do make it a little harder for me to keep everything organised as well as before (and I'll be honest, it wasn't that well organised then...). But I do like the Outfit stuff, I'm slowly building up those so that I can dress quickly should I need to leap out a window or anything. But it's the mesh thing that is bugging me.

You see, the problem is... I like mesh! It's pretty cool when you look at it really, it's just the whole resize problem. And this is where my personal anger and problems come in - it makes me not want to buy any clothing just now! I want super cool menswear meshes and no-one will make them. Okay, not quite no-one. My friends over at 22769 (who now have a swish island all to themselves btw) have made mens jeans in mesh. I really like them too. I just don't fit them.

In fact it's even worse if I take off the alpha layer...

And then they release some dirty blue denims for La Venta Eventa with prims. And the thing is, they don't fit me either.

But this time I can lower the cuffs and narrow them down slightly and they fit!

And those are nice prim jeans. Now I know it's a weekend sale but for 75L I get those jeans, a sweater, and a scarf. All prim! So do I buy prim clothing know it's a dying technology, or mesh in the hope that any resizing fixes will apply to stuff I already own? Or do I just buy nothing at all? it's so frustrating it just makes me shake my fist! Which I can actually do with the Slasher poses Embody have at The Theme Park.

But I've decided to mellow a bit. I still like a lot of prim clothing, and although I suspect in a year or so I'll think it looks dated and newbish I'm turning my back on good clothes now. Which is silly, and not in the good way. We all know I do silly in the good way, that's why I've been playing Glitch instead of getting annoyed at SL's current state of flux. That's also why I went to A:S:S for the Glitchy Tees they're ofering in this weekend's La Venta Eventa, and the boys and girls even get different badges, but I'm definitely a cheesemonger so I'm glad I'm male.

I do hope this mesh debacle sorts itself out soon though. There's the JIRA, and the fundraising, and lots of uncertainty about who is doing what. I guess I pay enough attention to this stuff to realise I'm not confident in anything happening right now, so rather than give up, I'm going to keep eyeing prims and accept that mesh isn't actually here yet. Which is a shame.

Bridal Dreams in Color

At some point in every girls life no matter how brief, we all dream of being a bride. Some girls have these dreams in color. Such lucky girls are Indian brides. Indian bridal wear is traditionally red, to symbolize fertility and abundance, feature lavish embroidery and decorations usually in gold or silver. This gorgeous Exotic Maharani Lehenga from Glitterati by Sapphire, with its rich texture and great details it is sure to compliment any ceremony and make the wearer feel like true royalty.

Besides the Lengha the Bride is also adorned from head to toe with extravagant jewels. This stunning Nisam set from Zaara Couture comes with all you see here as well as jewels for the feet additional head pieces and an additional necklace. ( I am wearing 2 of the necklaces in this pic). Worth every L and also made to work with special hairs from Maitreya. Please check out some of the talented Indian designers and fashions in sl and discover something new and exotic.


Hair: Elikatira
Skin: Exodi
Mehndi: Yak &Yeti
Nails: Finesmith Designs 
Jewelry: Zaara Couture (with the exception of the belly jewel by Glitterati by Sapphire)
Wedding Lengha: Glitterati by Sapphire
Location : All pics shot on the Zaara Sim gorgeous and worth the trip. Be sure to check out the temple there for Ganesh, Hindu God of prosperity and remover of obstacles. For more pics and info about this sim look here 

Have a great week fashionistas and fashionistos and
see you around the grid
Mxx

Ehm... A Bit Silly *Blushes Slightly*

Ehmmm... I haven't got a clue how or what to write.

Burn2 is in full swing and I'm there... with an umbrella. Don't ask me why. Seemed the right place to blog about an umbrella... but it grew to a sort of performance piece. I've been standing here for hours in the desert with an umbrella that makes it rain. The idea is a bit hilarious, it doesn't even rain until I open the umbrella. How about that?

In the beginning it was only me in normal clothes clasping an umbrella, standing on one of the empty parcels that dots the festival. One minute I was in a warm jacket and rubber boots, standing on the parched soil looking like a one person rain storm and and the next I looked like this! The effect this place has on you!

What really gobsmacks me with this umbrella from NODe is the beauty of the animated rain that plashes against the material and runs off the cloth. I've mentioned this in another post. It really has to be seen to be believed. I tried in vain to catch the magic in a photo, but the effects have the subtlety you can expect from a japanese creator. I had to contend with catching the different textures available in my version (several other sets at the store). There's even a good sound effect!
However, to be honest, this marvel has a couple of draw backs, the most serious being that the AO interferes with the hold pose when you walk so the umbrella swings everywhere except over your head. That's a serious point. But then... the big cloud of rain has no hope to keep up with you anyway when you walk. The second one is less serious. The umbrella opens and closes with a quick click, but how heavy rain, even if any at all, is decided by pure chance. Very poetic, but more control would be welcome. Said like a typical westener.

Other things of interest... simply listed from top to bottom:
Mask - Sirius 'V' Mask by Sirius Solo free on the marketplace or in his inworld store (can't access    profiles atm, so I can't give LM).
Jacket/gloves - Part of the Reputation outfit, group gift at Beautiful Dirty Rich.
Corset with pants - Santina corset - ALB Dreamfashion.
Tutu - Fairy Land Tutu by Trill Zapatero, free from the tutu tree, just inside the front gate at Burn2. Many colours to choose from.
Socks - Loose socks from Klamotte, comes in colour packages of four for 180L (I seem to remember...)
Chucks - Smilys by [-yo-], bought at XYRoom (VERY happy but texture is a bit disappointing, even for the discounted price).
Trust Murphy's law... back home, changed outfit, opens the umbrella to confirm what I'd written about the animation and get a deluge.... At least you can see the rain now ^^ Take care and have fun!

Roll Up, Roll Up!

Burn2 has started and is in full swing with music and builds and crazy avs!!! Come and join in this celebration of the human spirit! At full speed until the 9th October.

Among everything else, there are of course plenty of fun and and arty gifts... after all, giving is the spirit here. I present to you this outfit made entirely from those. What? You can tell? *Blinks in incomprehension* How...?
Bad jokes aside, come on down and join into the fun. There's even a couple of Burn2 fashion shows in the program (I don't have the SLURL yet):
Wed Oct 5  2-3 pm SLTThu Oct 6  5 - 6 pm SLT


Stuff from allover the sims, photos taken on my partner's and mine little poetic installation, Flow.
As always, take care and have fun! See you at Burn2!

Smooth Move

Hiya yet again... another few days behind us and I've got a fresh pile of stuff to show and tell as well as as another 'old friend' of mine to introduce.




First, I've got some new stuff that looked so cool I couldn't resist it and which ended up in this futuristic cyber haute outfit. Starting point is a new release male high waisted pants from Tableau Vivant disclosed at the Modavia Fashion Week. Hehe... they are so black that beside their outline, I don't have clue what they actually look like. XD Still, the outline is great as is the high waist and I'm very fond of them. *Nods nods in earnest* 
The intriguing top with it's single poofy sleeve is the jacket and dress top is the latest and VERY generous and worthwhile group gift at Beautiful Dirty Rich, the black Reputation dress with jacket and gloves (fat pack of colours to celebrate the umpteen numbered group size). Their MM boards are featuring bits with similar potential atm, the Dancing in the dark jacket is a definite have even if fishnet dresses or neko isn't your style.
The TERA hair and sans heel Activa ankle boots (some colour changing options available) are new releases from MADesigns and Neurolab Inc. respectively. The hairs are being pushed in black but they are available in all colours in the women's hair department. Combed hair base's from BooN, which I like because of the realistic hairline down the side of the face.
The pants are still only available on the Modavia sim, they haven't reached the stores yet. In fact, the whole shopping area from the earlier fashion week is still up... as are all the freebies. If you haven't been there yet, there's still time. Just join the group and they're all yours. It's well worth the effort.
 
OK, that was my new stuff. What about my old friend? Well, believe it or not but the pose in the picture above with the mask is my own and I made it inworld. How cool is that? (I'm not referring to the pose.) 
Some time ago I bought the Animare Pose & Animation System by YT Recreant on the market place for the massive amount of 299L and those are probably some of my best spent lindens to date.

Animare's greatest usefulness for me is in modifying existing poses for a photo. Like this one by Del May. With these poofy pants, my hands ends up inside the poofs, which doesn't make a decent shot. With the help of the HUD, a single click freed my hand so I can use this angle to show off the heel-less design of the boots. Nifty eh? The changed position of my arm even added a little extra dynamics.

This is how the Animare HUD looks like... you simply click on the joint you want, then click on the arrows to move it. The blue dots shows the ones you've fiddled with and the green shows the presently selected one. Simple.
You can even move your avatar around by using a rezzed pose ball in case you're using props. I should make it clear that this is not a tool with which you can simply 'record' and steal other peoples creations. It doesn't work that way. What it allows you to do is to make temporary adjustments of existing poses or create your own from scratch. 
If you have created a pose you want to keep, a click on the export button will give you a set of values in chat which you copy paste into a downloadable file from the website. After saving and renaming the file, it can be uploaded into SL again as an animation file. You don't need any animation software, only a text editor that can open BVH files. I'm using the free Textwrangler on my Mac, TY mentions Notepad. It's even possible, apparently, to use Animare for animations.... Simple to follow instructions are found on the website and the creator is a pleasant person who happily makes himself available in case of problems that's not covered by the webpage.
HOWEVER, this tool will not replace a 'traditional' animation software. The movements of joints are done in steps and for some body parts, like the hips, those steps are a bit too large for subtle poses. It is, HOWEVER again, a brilliant and fun toy... ehm, TOOL... to work with inworld and as I'm getting more and more into making my own poses, I find it an invaluable help.
This is that for this time. See you soon. In the meantime, take care and have fun!
Ohps! If you haven't firmly closed the shutters to the resent FL issues, I can't recommend you enough to listen to the interview below. If you're doing your best to ignore it, I recommend it even more. There are signs of attempts from above to stop it from being widely watched. This is, indeed, the time of 'speak up now or be silenced forever'. It's our choice. If this link cease to work as well, enjoy the practical demonstration of 'free speech' ^^