Happy Rez-day to me

Well dear reader(s),

It has come so far. I am one year old in SL terms. Ancient and wrinkly compared to the average SLer I encounter these days.

Yesterday was my Rez-day. I celebrated as most oldies do with a quiet cup of chocolate and some cake in the presence of a few friends. (Fiona, thanks for the scarf).

Here's a picture of me "celebrating".....Why is it snowing for goodness sake. I could be on a hot beach somewhere.

I've done something silly

Dear Reader,
I think I may have done something silly. In a moment of weakness (admit it we all have them) and perhaps slight boredom (we have them too), I slipped on some rather skimpy outfit gleaned from a charity shop, searched for some "low brow" sim, clicked on a tip jar and hit "dance".
What came over me?
Within a few minutes, a nice young man came to sit at the podium and we chatted a bit. Next thing I know I've got 200L$ in my jar. "Cool" I thought, so I kept chatting. Then I get another 200L$ and another. In total (and I'm still wearing all my clothes, almost) he gives me 1200L$.
Now I'm getting a bit worried. What happens now I ask myself?
Well nothing, the nice young man thanks me for friendly and funny chat and leaves me dancing on my own. Whoever you are, thanks again. Any tips on what to do with my "ill gotten gains"?

To KC, my one reader

Dear reader (singular - you know who you are KC),
I now have proof that only one mad woman is reading this blog (excluding myself of course. Not from being mad, merely from reading this Blog).
What's the point of a Blog? Is it a waste of bandwidth or electrons? Does it contribute to global warming? Lighting up my PC to write this is of no use to man or beast and just heats the atmosphere.
And then there is the content.... I could be writing about England's imminent success in the rugby world-cup finals (come on the blues, or is it whites?). Alternatively I could chat sweetly about the different shades of coral pink lipstick worn my Victoria Beckham recently (nice colour by the way) or why I still don't have a proper boyfriend (don't ask). Instead I'm Blogging about Second Life. Can't be normal, can it?
I think it's a lack of coffee in my blood. Must get that cafetiere fixed. I may delete this whole Blog, give the space to someone else. It's the only humane thing to do.

Time to get sculpting

No.... It can't be October already. Where has it all gone? Time I mean. I must be living in a parallel universe or some such nonsense.

Anyway, now the winter is setting in, it's time to sit snug and red-eyed behind my computer I guess. It wont improve my posture but then hey, who cares.

So my project for the winter is to understand sculpties and use them in making some shoes and boots (or both). I've already made a start with prim boots (see horrible picture) and they are a pain to put together. But that's because I'm all thumbs I guess. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Boots are for sale at the usual place, namely SLExchange

Mill Pond and good coffee

Had some fun encounters this weekend in SL. Lost for things to do (how can it happen you asked), I did a place search with keywords such as "rest" and "quiet". I came up with Mill Pond, a good coffee emporium where conversation comes a close second. On all my visits I have had the chance to chat sensibly and with humour for as long as I could stand it. I also met the owner of this oasis, Micala Lumiere. Obviously a very clever lady. Well done Micala and thanks. Here's some info from the Mill Pond blog..... Perhaps I'll meet you there dear blog reader (if there is one).

Has it been so long?

I can't believe it..... Has it been so long since my last entry here? This has got to stop. I must be more diligent in blogging. Of course I have mitigating circumstances. For example, I'm lazy. That's the honest truth. Oh and I haven't been hanging around in SL so much these past weeks. That has got to change too.

Anyway, let's make up for it today by starting a new thread of site-links for even more scrummy clothes and things. Here we go.....

Teen clothes at Daisy Maze for instance.
Great clothes and pictures at Bunny Hug.
Multi images at Zappos.
Beautiful satin collection at Wheels and Doll Baby

I'll add more to this list as usual (see my earlier entries).
Love as always, Bea

Lucky chairs and all that

I've been bitten by the lucky chair bug. You know, the craze to rush from sim to sim in the hunt for the letter "B" (in my case). I've been a member of some lucky chair groups at the suggestion of my friend Q and have had great success filling my inventory with all sorts of things. Maybe I'll do a fashion show with it all one day. However, last night I met up again with Sky and she gave me the "LC Helper". Wow, this is even better. Wear it as a HUD and you're in chair hopping heaven. Just click on the HUD and it lists a whole bunch of chairs with your letter on it plus the title of the object to win. Couldn't be easier if you tried. Of course you still have to fight the other girls to be first but then that's part of the fun.

Am I mad or am I mad?

I've gone and bought a small island. Just sand and sea. What do I want that for you may ask? Well I blame KC personally. She "forced" me to do it. Honestly! Still it's fun. Now I have to find a suitable beach style, clothes, furniture, little house etc. Exciting. KC... I need your help.

Tadaaaa... The finished article

Here is the finished article. Fresh from the pixel press. It fits well and looks OK too. I'm not entirely happy with the straps at the back close to the arm-pits. I'll have to look into placing them slightly differently. Now I guess I should package it up together with some matching leggings and pop it on SLExchange. Don't know why I bother, my sales there are miserable. Oh well, such is commercial life.

Here's a funny thing I read the other day...

Before I go on, I must point you to an funny article on sex in SL. It's worth taking the time to read if you are a newbie and are looking for some nice genitals for your avatar. Caveat emptor.

So what have I been making these last few days? Well I've been experimenting with photoshop to take a photo and make it into a top for myself. First my source of inspiration. To the right you see a pretty blue polka dot tank top with spaghetti straps. I must be able to do something with this.

I use the templates down loadable from SL. These help with marking the seams and give a good indication where everything should be. After many attempts at getting the photos to fit I discover the "warp" transform. This is a most wonderful transform found under the "Edit" menu. It allows you to push and pull parts of a photo into and out of shape. It has its limits of course but it is very helpful in getting most of the photo to match the template. Took me most Saturday to do it though, because as I said, I'm a slow learner. Will post the results soon.

Where did I get the photos? Well look at my earlier posts. There are some nice sites with great clothes and some useful photos for us SL couturiers.

Leggings for the masses

At last something I've been wanting to do. Seamed leggings in SL. After much fiddling, I have made the template for seamed leggings with a lace trim. They are semi-transparent and look great. I've chosen 7 colours so far and of course they are available at SLX.

SLX - SL Exchange

Had some problems with SL Exchange yesterday. All my inventory was gone (well there wasn't much anyway) and I couldn't reset my "blue box". I posted on the forum and within no time had a detailed answer from SLX. Great service guys. Now it's working. I recommend them.

More sites, more dresses

Here are yet more sites with lovely ideas for dresses, skirts and tops. There must be something here I like.
Simply Dresses
Gap
E Luxury
About Women's Fashion
Dorothy Perkins
Funny legs
Glamour Magazine
So Much Easier
Alibaba
Target
Dress a Day (a blog with some great ideas)

Sources of inspiration

So no more about pantyhose today. Let's talk about inspiration. Where does it all come from. Well you can never have enough if you want to design cute clothes and stuff, so here are a few addresses that may come in handy where you can buy some real life clothes and where they are well illustrated so that the details can be shown. So in no special order:
Girl Props (bling galore)
Top Shop
So Feminine
Forever21
Shop Bop
Old Navy (thanks to KC)
ASOS
Angel Garments
Zappos (shoes and bags)

Bea's 10 denier Pantyhose box sees the light

Well that was a productive evening. It's available, Bea's 10 denier Pantyhose Box in 6 great colours. God, I sound like an advert.

It's quite a job making a product in Second Life you know. You have to do everything. Make the masks, upload images, assemble the clothes, package them up for re-sale, take some photos, edit photos, make advert etc. etc. It's a full time job, even for something as simple as these pantyhose.

Anyway, it's done and you can see my product as usual at SLExchange.

As for my product, well the pantyhose are rather sheer so I guess they correspond to around 10 denier (pure guess as I never have understood that measure of material weave). For these I made a reinforced gusset and waist-band (don't want the things to ladder after five minutes). I think I'll make a 20 denier set with more colours as a follow up.

By the way, that's me in the picture modeling my creation. It's hard work stepping in and out of pantyhose in SL and I had an audience whilst changing even though I asked nicely if they would move to the other side of the screen. Oh well, such is the life of a Second Life Supermodel.

Let's get organised

So. I've done my experiments and have some experience how it's done. Now my question is, how should I go on from here? My wish is to make a pantyhose pack with the following variations; sheer, support pantie and open-crotch (just for a start). This can be augmented by adding patterns and seems. All of these should be in modern colours and different thicknesses (denier). With all those combinations, I'll have to make a choice of where to start. Of course I can also make leggings. Wow the ideas just keep coming.

Tights pack - gotcha

So I waited until the next morning and did the same exercise again. Nip to Blaze, pay yet another 100L$ (she must be making a fortune) and then back home to my own private changing room (actually my front garden but then who cares). This time Linden Labs was up to the challenge. The rez worked fine and I am the proud owner of a folder full of pantyhose in various colours, all with a sweet pantie to hide your bits.
How are they made? Well I was right, just like my idea, they are formed from two parts, the pantie and the stocking. Anyway, a nice set. I'm happy with them. Another new thing I've learned.
What's my next task you ask? Well I'm toying with the idea of seeing how I can use Deep Paint 3D to paint textures directly to the SL Avatar. I'll keep you posted if you're interested.

I was done

Continuing my experiments in pantyhose technology, I TPed over to Blaze in the Glory Sim. Wow. Nice place with lots of reasonably priced things. Anyway, back to the plot. A nice assistant in a light blue evening gown showed me the way to Blaze's tights pack. I payed my 100L$ then nipped home to try them on. This is where I was done by Linden labs. My rez failed and what's worse I lost the object in the process. Blast....... Well there was no point in hanging around so I logged out like any sensible girl would.

A lot to learn

Oh dear. After all my efforts I spot a blog with some of the sweetest pantyhose in SL. Blaze has for a mere 100L$ some pantyhose with thong panty. Nice and very professional. I'll have to get my skates on a nip over there to get some. I'm determined I can do just as well. I'm just rather a slow learner. In fact Blaze appears to have loads of nice things. Better leave my SL credit card at home.

Easy wear pantyhose - just texture and go

Well as you can see from the picture. I had another go at my pantyhose... This time with success. I was right, you must not mask the stocking and pantie layers and then change the resolution. This is bound to cause problems.

One area still not solved is the foot. It appear that the SL mapping of feet is rather basic. There is an abrupt change in mesh density here with not continuation from the calf area. This causes obvious discontinuities between these two parts. Of course, this is no problem if the pantyhose pattern is very tight or non-existent (like traditional nylon material), but for the more spectacular pantyhose designs out there, there will remain a problem. I'll have to get my thinking cap on over this one.

Pantyhose and tights in SL

So what have I found out about SL that's worth telling you all? Good question guys.... Well one experiment I've tried is to use procedural textures from 3DSMax and bake them to a texture after lighting the model etc. What was the result you may ask? Well mixed I might reply. Let me explain......
It occurred to me that certain clothing items were rare in SL. For example, a simple pair of pantyhose (like the dozens I have in my RL drawer at home) do not appear on avatars normally shapely legs that often. Why you may ask, given the RL interest. Well I believe it's because Linen Labs made it difficult to do as there is no one pantyhose layer. These ladies essentials have to be made from a sock and undergarment layer. Then the question is, how do you match across the two textures accurately? This is where perhaps a baked texture from 3DSMax (or some other such software) could come in handy. So what did I try? The steps were....
1. Import OBJ into Max; 2. Convert lower body parts to mesh; 3. Attach meshes; 4. Apply procedural texture (check in my case); 5. Light model (this is where I'm rubbish); 6. Bake texture. 6. Import texture into Photoshop (PSP etc.); 7. Create sharp dividing mask for lower legs and pantie regions; 8. Upload both TGA textures and apply to respective sock and undergarment layers; 9. Wear and be admired
So what were the results? Well slightly mixed, but that was my own fault. First I noticed a one pixel gap between sock and pantie textures. How can this be I asked myself? Then whilst cleaning my RL teeth the penny dropped. I had made the textures at 1024x1024 (including the masks). I then reduced to 512x512. Everything looked OK but I guess the mask layer has to decide what to do with the sharp line. Is the last pixel row in the pantie layer or the sock layer? Well in either case one or the other will be missing one row of pantyhose material in-game. So next time, I'll mask at the correct texture resolution. OK. Pictures of my results to follow. Ciao

Bea Georgette and the grey silk dress

Hi there. This is my first ever blog for my Second Life avatar Bea Georgette. She's my favourite girl in SL. That's me in the picture above, modeling my own creation. Although not a complete newbie, I'm a slow learner and want to do everything there is to do in SL. I intend this blog to be a my chance to give back to the SL community some of the things I learn along the way so that other newbies can take advantage of my slow learning. Anyway, that's the aim. I'll probably just wax lyrical about the clothes I've bought in SL, but that's just me I'm afraid. I'll try to stay focused, but bare with me if I stray towards the girly things in life.

By the way, my grey silk dress above is available for a mere 10L$ via SLExchange.com (shameless plug ...) Or simply IM me in game and we can come to some arrangement.Love to hear from you.
http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=220985