M-M-M-More Prim Toes!

Just a quick post here... a friend recently tipped me off regarding some new shoes at B&G Shoes. There are three versions which feature a full prim foot, ala Moody, but the big news here is they are WAAAY affordable! How does $350L sound? Not bad at all, I hear you answer. Here is a pic of the display:



Of the three versions, I prefer the Selena best (the other two are the Amanda, and the Melody). There is a drop-down menu for skin color adjustment and toenail color. No toe rings on these, but I am told that the skin color CAN be fine-tuned by inputting the RGB color value, much like on the Moody shoes.

The fat pack can save you another 15% (eight different colors) at an incredible $2380L, but even if you can only afford one pair, you owe yourself, girlfriend! No, I didn't have time to review them personally, but I WILL get back to you on this, I promise! I have been busy with a lot of things, including building a large ocean-front house for a couple of great friends. More to come!

Hugzzzz

If It Ain't Broke...

As you may already know, I HATE change, and this applies especially to changes with the Second Life viewer (the version of the SL program we use to access our "other" life). Such a strong word for a girl, you say... hate?? You actually HATE change? Perhaps you mean that you just don't care for it very much.

Nope. I HATE it. As they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Right... I suppose it's LL job justification. After all, what is a development team to do? That's right: create CHANGES. Change for the sake of change. Let's improve something that is already just fine as it is.

Well, most of you have by now seen the notice on your log-in screens. We have been advised that we MUST upgrade to the new viewer by next Thursday or else. OK, so I added that last bit, but you get the idea. We have all seen this before. The last time they said we would NOT be forced to use the new viewer if we didn't want to. A couple weeks later we were given the ultimatum. Now it's back to the same routine once again.

I figured I may as well just do it now rather than wait 'til the bitter end. It's Sunday morning, and not much else is going on here anyway. I went to the main Second Life web page and chose the latest version, v1.22.11 and let it load. After I installed it I logged on to see if there was much of a difference. Ummmm, YEAH, there's a difference.


The HORROR... the HORROR...



The first thing I noticed, to my HORROR, was that now the water looked rather cartoonish, and it was transparent enough that when looking at the sea, all the surrounding underwater landscape was ghosted on the water. I knew I would have to do some tweaking, so I set forth to conquer my preference settings and maybe even tinker with the Environment Editor if necessary (World > Environment Settings > Environment Editor). I should caution you here to go easy with these settings, because unless you really know what you're doing, you can screw things up royally.



Enough whining, you say? SHOW us what you mean...
Okay, okay. I anticipated this, so I took a few screen shots to illustrate my point, and to show the results of what I did to fix it. BTW, you can click on all of my images in this blog to see them in a larger format (Oh? You already knew that?? WhatEVERrr... )

The first one shows how things looked initially. I set the light settings on "sunset" because I thought it would add a little color to my otherwise bland-looking diatribe.

Notice the not-so-faint outline of the surrounding underwater terrain:



If you look, you can see an island and where it extends under the surface of the water. This is progress?? I thought they were fixing things. Hmmmm...

Notice, too, that you can see my legs beneath the water's surface (pic was taken behind my house. Not a bad view, eh?).


This was when I decided to open the Environment Editor. I took notice that the Water Fog slider (which controls the water transparency) default setting was at 4.0; I pushed it to the right until I hit 8.5, and the offending underwater terrain went away. So did the clean look of the water. Now the water was looking a bit yucky, thick and slimy, and possibly crawling with critters that I could only imagine nibbling at my virtual toes.



Not liking this look at all, I reset the slider at 4.0 and went to my preferences window (Edit > Preferences). I went to the Graphics tab and clicked the Custom button to bring up further options.

I suppose it might depend on your computer's configuration as to what the default settings will be, but in my case, the Quality and Performance setting was set at mid range. This was fine for my older viewer, but now things were looking a bit flat and unexciting. I felt that with these so-called "improvements" things should be looking a lot better. I tweaked my level up to High, and right away I noticed a difference. The water had much more texture to it, yet my draw distance only increased from 96 to 128. My concern here was that I did NOT want to see clear across several sims; I wanted to keep things looking fairly distant.

I actually liked the results:



You'll notice that by setting the Water Fog level back to where it belonged, I restored the transparency of the water, yet the increase in the general quality of the imaging made things look so much better than the old viewer did!

The problem is, these improvements are not without their trade-offs; for me, lag increased just a bit. Not a lot, but for those with older or slower machines, this might be an issue. I will just deal with it. It's not too laggy, and it looks awesome now.

One other thing I noticed was that at certain times, the picture could appear to look "washed out," or almost over-exposed, especially on my avatar's face. I turned my face light down to the low setting, and this seemed to help.

Another thing... I don't know if this is something new, or if I had just never noticed it before: the clouds in the sky seem to move as if there is a wind! Nice effect. I hope it works well for all of you, but I'm sure they are already hard at work "fixing" things again. Oh, well... such is our Second Life.

LeLutka Skins On Sale Now!

This just in from Minnu Palen: LeLutka Skins (formerly MM Skins) are ALL marked down to 50% off!

The sale will last from today (May 15) for two weeks, until May 28. My first choice was always MM Skins, and that goes back to before I was actually in SL (I read all the fashion blogs even then), and right now I have a huge collection of them. It looks as if I am about to acquire a few more!

Here is the LM:
LeLutka Beaute

If you see me there, please stop and say hello! I promise I won't bite (at least not hard, anyway).




While you are out shopping, why not wander over to check out the new releases at Maitreya Hair?

I found out about these new releases last night just as our Model's Workshop meeting began, so I flew over there about as fast as I could once we had finished. They have three new styles, and they are unique in that they all have an option for some lovely Zaara jewelry to be worn in the hair (jewelry sold as a separate item).

Here are the display advertisements so you can see what they have.

The first one is called Amber, and is a lovely long, straight style with the front strands pulled around and tied in back. The version set up for wearing the jewels is included, but as I mentioned before, the jewels are not included. Lovely hair just by itself:




The next one they have is called Aisha, and it is a cute updo, with the hair gathered in a bun on top. Again, this style includes the one set up for the not-included jewelry, which incidentally, is for sale right there:




The last hairstyle offered among Maitreya's newest releases is Aisha II, and it is similar to the previous one, except that instead of a bun on top, it is gathered at the back and pinned upward, giving a clean, uncluttered look perfect for displaying your favorite necklace with a formal gown. Aisha II also includes provision for the featured Zaara jewelry:




Did I buy any myself, you ask? Of course. I bought two fatpacks, Amber, and Aisha II. Maybe we will do a session on hair at a future Model's Workshop. Sound good?

Meanwhile, I'm off to LeLutka to peruse some of their wonderful skins, and possibly add to my collection. Perhaps I will see you there!

Model's Workshop

As some of you may already know, I belong to a SL group called Model's Workshop. Founded by Monica Balut, this group features open enrollment (meaning that we aren't snobbish and it's free to join). The description of this group would be best served by simply quoting from the Group Charter:

"The Model's Workshop is a group of professional SL models dedicated to helping each other be the best they can be. Its goal is to provide an atmosphere where group members are encouraged to share their knowledge, information and skills to help each other grow as models. Projects may include regular workshops, development of a resource library, holding mock shows."

Whew! I really couldn't have put it better. We have weekly seminars every Thursday at 5 pm SLT (Left Coast time), and the subject matter will vary. No one knows everything, and by sharing our knowledge with the group it serves to strengthen us all. It's also a great opportunity to make new friends and for NETWORKING, a thing of great importance in the modeling industry. Many people have commented that they got choice jobs partly because of recognition. Think about it, who would YOU hire... someone whose name and face rings a bell with you, or a virtual unknown?



Last night's meeting had to do with shoes, and who doesn't love shoes? Everyone had something to say, and several members were happy to display specific shoes from their inventories. A list is being compiled from those who responded to the request to submit a notecard detailing our favorite makers, and I will post that list here, with landmarks, as soon as I get my hands on it.

I will be leading next week's discussion, which will be on prims and their adjustment. If you would like to meet me and the members, or if you just think you have something pertinent to add, please do an in-world search for Model's Workshop. If you have room for another group, feel free to join so that you'll receive our notices. If you DON'T have room, make some! I think you'll enjoy the friendly interaction we have to offer.

Oh, before I forget... we are sponsoring an impromptu modeling competition. It will enable members to become involved in all phases of organizing and running a show, as well as being able to participate in it. This is a plus for those with little or no runway experience, and is one way to gain a bit of confidence before venturing out in the "real" world. I only wish I had announced this sooner, but we already have 15 models who are going to participate, and the auditions have now been closed. Not to worry; we will be doing this again, so please join us, and see what we're all about!

More info on this show to follow as the details unfold. Tentative date for the show is Sunday May 31 at 4pm SLT.

The show will be held at THIS location.


Our regular meetings are held HERE in case you want to stop in next Thursday. We will be happy to add you to the group.

Change is NOT better, or Please Stop Fixing Things!

From my good friend Monica Balut at the Model's Workshop:

"As some may know, SL is starting development of the next version of the viewer v 1.23. Some of you may have tried it. It has an annoying "improvement" that will make our lives more difficult unless changed.

"When you try to edit an attached object in this RC (Release Candidate) viewer, the edit option is buried in a second menu under More. This requires two steps to edit a worn object instead of one.

"If you are concerned about this go to http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-12946 and add your vote to this topic."

I thought her point was valid enough to repeat here. If it DOES concern you, please check out the link and VOTE. You'll have to log in with your Second Life name to do so; it doesn't take but a minute of your time. This is the only way we will be heard, so voice your opinion NOW, before it's too late.

To the Linden family:
PLEASE! STOP FIXING THINGS!
The constant changes to SL are just NOT needed! Change for its own sake is NOT good!

*****

This has been a public service announcement; we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming already in progress.

Feets, Don't Fail Me Now

We all know what "prims" are in SL, right? Prim is short for "primitive," a term that refers to individual basic objects created in Second Life. We have prim hair (which is way better than the old n00b hair we used to be stuck with), prim skirts (which never look right until we fiddle and adjust, and they still aren't perfect), and of course, SHOES! We all love to shop for shoes, and I'm willing to bet that a lot of you have many more than I do. It's an addiction, and an obsession even, for many of us.



Personally, I prefer to go for the BEST I can find. No longer content with the freebies that I initially thought were such a bargain, I began to buy only what I felt were shoes of the highest quality. Sure, I've been burned along the way, but I soon learned that some makers are consistently EXCELLENT, while others are there just to take your money. You live and you learn (hopefully!). All I can do here is to recommend what I think are good choices.


As nice as a lot of shoes are these days, the look of open toed sandals and heels is often hampered by the pathetic-looking Linden (non-)Toes. Sure, we all share the same look, or at least we DID, until the advent of the Prim Toe arrived in SL.

What, you've never heard of prim toes? It's an amazing concept, really. The first I ever saw was by J's and was shown to me by a close friend who made me promise not to tell anyone. Well, the cat is out of the bag, Honey!

Hers were very early ones, before the idea was at all widespread. I bought a pair myself, and remembering my oath of secrecy, rarely wore them (yes, I have principles). I did take a pic of hers though, the first time I ever saw them:



They are normal shoes with one difference: the front part has some nicely-proportioned toes, complete with (optional) toe rings and color-change nails. There is a menu-driven skin tone changer as well, and with a bit of faffing about, a fairly good match can be made. I think it's great.

The idea was too good for others not to improve upon. Soon Stiletto Moody came out with their Bare line of shoes, the difference here being they created an entire prim foot instead of just the toes. An added plus with the Moody shoes is that the skin color can be changed by inputting an RGB value into the appropriate section of the menu for a very close color match!



The way you do this is to first make sure you are wearing something leggy like a short skirt. Take a GOOD picture in-world (use daylight!) and save it to your hard drive. You will then open that pic in PhotoShop or Paintshop Pro (other photo editing programs should do; those are just the ones I use) and use the eyedropper tool to sample a representative area of skin color. Save the RGB value to your shoe menu and you're done. Follow these instructions:

Once you are wearing the shoes, click on the left shoe to bring up the menu. Select Skin > Control Freak > Direct Input. There you can type in the RGB value that you got from your photo editing program. It will be three numbers, each with three digits. For example, mine was 165-97-69, but I had to enter it with zeros: 165-097-069. Then hit SET and you're golden. Oh, be sure to exit the menu properly, or go back and change your nail color, etc. You may have to try this a few times until it looks just right, but it is a very easy and accurate way to make things match. I love it. In fact I just went and bought another pair. Expensive, but SOOO good!



Well, upon seeing these prim toes, I thought, "Hmmm... why can't they just have prim feet, without the shoes?" Someone must have read my mind, because guess what?



Yes, that's right: Prim Bare Feet! Thanks to J's once again, if you buy their new bare toe flip-flops, there is an option in the menu for shoes/no shoes! Of course, as you can see, they come with the optional toe rings and color change nails. I just LOVE this look!

The difficult part for me was making a good color match. Just be sure you do this in strong light, outdoors at mid day. Included is a pair of ankle bracelets which help hide the transition between your new feet and your Linden legs. All in all, a really fun concept, and just in time for summer!



Prim toes are the new standard by which all SL shoes will be judged.

I have a feeling that I am going to be spending a lot of time barefoot this summer. Just see to it that you don't step on my toes!