Certain body skins used in IC-Skins (_AR, _SR, ::RIO::, and others), SL Globe Theatre Gift Shop, and SLface.com products are open-source, and their textures are provided both with the skin package inworld in Second Life and on the web at http://skins.inacentaur.com/extend/body

You may do whatever you wish with the body skins under a typical BSD license. Credits and more stringent requirements of usage are included with each respective body skin in the above listed repository.

You can add your own details and customize the body skin to your desire. Some ideas - you may wish to add custom bruises, or put on tattoos or bandaids (for example).

Editing Skins (Outside of SL)

A simple way to do this is to edit the skin textures in Photoshop (if you don’t have Photoshop already, you can get a function trial copy for free for 30 days on Adobe’s website). You would then create a new layer (shift-ctrl-N) and put whatever funky stuff you have in mind on top of the base skin. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to put bandaid’s on a body skin’s lower body (legs). (You can also export just this layer to create “band-aid” underwear.)

1. Fetch the files for the body you’d like to work on from http://skins.inacentaur.com/extend/body
2. Open up the lower body texture for the skin you’d like to work on in Photoshop. To simplify things, each .psd file has two layers: a (hidden) UV map layer, and the body texture layer. To unhide the UV map, click on the far left “box” in the layer you want to unhide in the Layers panel. (If you don’t see the Layers panel, you may have to press F7 to toggle it on/off.)
3. To save time in this tutorial example, we’re going to download some ready-made band-aid photoshop brushes (http://punksafetypin.deviantart.com/art/Brush-Set-07-Band-Aid-37285501), created by Deviant Art user punksafetypin. We’ll use these somewhat like stencils to quickly put some bandaid’s on our character.
4. To install these brushes, unzip them and put them in your Photoshop Brushes folder. Press F5 to open the brushes panel in Photoshop. On the top right hand corner of the panel, you’ll see a down arrow - click that, and click Load Brushes and find the brushes you just installed.
5. Now, have fun tattoo-ing on these band-aid’s *on a new layer*! Use the UV map as a guide, and try to stay within the lines so your bandaids will appear seamless. (Drop by the Twilight SL Shop in Skin City for some freebie bandaid underwear!)

Creating Skins (Inside SL)

To upload your skin to Second Life, fire up the Second Life software, and go to File > Upload Image. Upon success, you should find your upload in your SL inventory. To apply that to a SL skin, simply follow the steps below:

1. In your inventory, make a copy of the skin you wish to edit. Right click the skin, and select copy, and press paste. (You may wish to rename this second copy so you can find it easily later.)
2. Edit this copy, but double clicking the skin (in your inventory) to wear it. Then right click (in your inventory), select edit.
3. You should now be in Edit > Appearance mode. Click on the skin tab, and drag and drop the body skin on the bottom two skin texture boxes. The body skin is made up of an upper body and lower body skin. You would drop the upper body on the middle texture box, and the lower body on the lower texture box.
4. Click apply to finalize results and exit edit > appearance. This skin in your inventory will now be showing off your new body texture you just uploaded!

I had hoped to provide plentiful tutorials, but it looks like time may be an issue. There are plenty of tutorials that teach you how to use Photoshop on Google (so please google!), but feel free to ask the IC-Skins group inworld for help, though!

I’ve had several people ask me for a detailed step-by-step tutorial on setting up OpenSim on Red Hat, (and I’ve had my fun trying out its installation on different o/s). Last night, I had the fun of trying it out on RHEL5. Below are full directions for setting up Open Sim on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (this should also work for other *nix).

1. Get mono for *nix:
   sudo su -
   cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
   wget http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Mono/RHEL_5/Mono.repo
   yum install mono-complete
2. SVN check out from opensimulator.org repository to opensim directory (As of this writing: http://opensimulator.org/svn/opensim/tags/0.6.2-release)

   svn co {{INSERT SVN ADDRESS TO OPENSIM REPOSITORY}} opensim

3. Compile OpenSim
   cd opensim
   ./runprebuild.sh
   nant
4. SVN and Compile libopenjpeg-libsl-2.1.2.0
   svn co http://opensimulator.org/svn/opensim-libs/old/libsl1550 opensim-libs
   cd opensim-libs/openjpeg-libsl
   make -f Makefile
   cp libopenjpeg-libsl-2.1.2.0.so ../../bin
5. Set up MySQL: Create User, DB, assign admin user (not your sl name/agent name) to DB with enough perm’s
   create database {{{YOUR DB NAME}}};
   use mysql
   INSERT into user (host,user,password) values (’localhost’,'{{{YOUR USER NAME}}}’,password(’{{your userpass}}’));
   quit;

   Invoke mysql and grant priv’s

   mysql> use {{YOUR DB NAME}};
   Reading table information for completion of table and column names
   You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

   Database changed
   mysql> grant alter,create,delete,drop,index,insert,select,update on {{YOUR DB NAME}}.* to {{YOUR MYSQL USERNAME}};
   mysql> quit;

   Create mysql_connection.ini file (assumes you know nothing about vi)

   vi mysql_connection.ini

   Press i to enter insert mode.

   hostname=localhost
   database={{{YOUR DB NAME}}}
   user={{{YOUR USER NAME}}}
   password={{{YOUR PW}}}

   Press ESC to return to command mode. Type this (worksavequit) and press enter:

   :wq
6. Config OpenSim.ini

   cp OpenSim.ini.example OpenSim.ini
   vi OpenSim.ini

   Press ctrl-F a few times to page down to STORAGE. Press i to enter insert mode, and make sure the mysql part looks like this:

    
   ; — To use MySQL storage, supply your own connectionstring (this is only an example):
   ; note that the supplied account needs create privilegies if you want it to auto-create needed tables.
   storage_plugin=”OpenSim.Data.MySQL.dll”
   storage_connection_string=”Data Source=localhost;Database={{DB NAME}};User ID={{USERNAME}};Password={{PASS}};”;

   Press ctrl-F a few times again, and press i for insert, when you get to the asset server, inventory, user db part. You want to select mysql for all choices:

   accounts_authenticate = true
   welcome_message = “Welcome to ICRHL5 OpenSim”

   ; Asset database provider
   ; asset_plugin = “OpenSim.Data.SQLite.dll”
   asset_plugin = “OpenSim.Data.MySQL.dll” ; for mysql
   ; asset_plugin = “OpenSim.Data.NHibernate.dll” ; for nhibernate

   ; the Asset DB source. This only works for sqlite, mysql, and nhibernate for now
   ; Asset Source SQLite example
   ; asset_source = “URI=file:Asset.db,version=3″
   ; Asset Source NHibernate example (DIALECT;DRIVER;CONNECTSTRING)
   ; asset_source = “SQLiteDialect;SqliteClientDriver;URI=file:Asset.db,version=3″
   ; Asset Source MySQL example
   asset_source = “Data Source=localhost;Database={{DB NAME}};User ID={{USERNAME}};Password={{PASS}};”;

   ; Inventory database provider
   ; inventory_plugin = “OpenSim.Data.SQLite.dll”
   inventory_plugin = “OpenSim.Data.MySQL.dll”
   ; inventory_plugin = “OpenSim.Data.NHibernate.dll” ; for nhibernate

   ; Inventory Source NHibernate example (DIALECT;DRIVER;CONNECTSTRING)
   ; inventory_source = “SQLiteDialect;SqliteClientDriver;URI=file:Inventory.db,version=3″
   ; Inventory Source MySQL example
   inventory_source = “Data Source=localhost;Database={{DB NAME}};User ID={{USERNAME}};Password={{PASS}};”;

   ; User Data Database provider
   ;
   ; Multiple providers can be specified by separating them with commas (whitespace is unimportant)
   ; If multiple providers are specified then if a profile is requested, each is queried until one
   ; provides a valid profile, or until all providers have been queried.
   ; Unfortunately the order of querying is currently undefined (it may not be the order in which
   ; providers are specified here). This needs to be fixed
   ;
   ; userDatabase_plugin = “OpenSim.Data.SQLite.dll”
   userDatabase_plugin = “OpenSim.Data.MySQL.dll”
   ; userDatabase_plugin = “OpenSim.Data.NHibernate.dll” ; for nhibernate

   ; User Source NHibernate Example (DIALECT;DRIVER;CONNECTSTRING)
   ; user_source = “SQLiteDialect;SqliteClientDriver;URI=file:User.db,version=3″
   ; User Source MySQL example
   user_source = “Data Source=localhost;Database={{DB NAME}};User ID={{USERNAME}};Password={{PASS}};”

   Press esc and :wq to worksasvequit.

7. Run opensim (makesure you’re in opensim/bin or wherever you put opensim in:
   mono opensim
8. Enter initialization info, such as region name, xy axis, agent name etc, etc

   01:20:30 - [BALANCER]: Entering Initialize()
   01:20:30 - [LOADREGIONS]: Load Regions addin being initialised
   01:20:30 - [LOADREGIONS]: Loading Region Info from filesystem
   DEFAULT REGION CONFIG: Region Name [OpenSim Test]:
   utopia
   DEFAULT REGION CONFIG: Grid Location (X Axis) [1000]:
   137
   DEFAULT REGION CONFIG: Grid Location (Y Axis) [1000]:
   137
   DEFAULT REGION CONFIG: Internal IP Address for incoming UDP client connections [0.0.0.0]:

   DEFAULT REGION CONFIG: Internal IP Port for incoming UDP client connections [9000]:

   DEFAULT REGION CONFIG: External Host Name [127.0.0.1]:
   {{{INSERT YOUR SERVER IP ADDRESS}}}
   DEFAULT REGION CONFIG: First Name of Master Avatar [Test]:
   Alpha
   DEFAULT REGION CONFIG: Last Name of Master Avatar [User]:
   Omega
   DEFAULT REGION CONFIG: (Sandbox Mode Only)Password for Master Avatar account [test]:

9. Connect using a SL viewer, -loginuri (your sim ip address:port #)
   Make sure to specify your region!
10. Rule of thumb for troubleshooting: if you encounter any errors, delete bin (you might want to copy/save the config file first though!), reload svn, purge db, rebuild
    rm -rf bin

    Then, go into mysql and drop opensim. Recreate and reassign db and user. BEFORE running mono OpenSim.exe BE SURE TO cp your opensim.ini file over to bin as OpenSim.ini!
    (And scroll back up to the svn part to download and recompile opensim)

Extras

sLiterary, Second Life—Beginning February 1, 2009, WoWA (“Works of Women Authors”) will be reading and discussing Stephenie Meyer’s epic #1 bestselling novel Twilight in conjunction with Twilight SL. All are invited to attend the group’s daily and weekly sessions: 7 PM SLT (GMT-8), Mondays thru Saturdays, and 3 PM SLT on Sundays. The discussions are tentatively held at the Long Discussion House, sLiterary or the Blackfriars Theatre, Shakespeare. Details will be posted at http://twilightsl.com

The discussions will progress at roughly a chapter a day on Mondays thru Saturdays, with a recap of the past week’s six chapters on Sundays, to finish the twenty-four chapters of Twilight in the twenty-eight days of February, 2009. Participants may wish to finish reading the novel before February to engage in more advanced discussions through the month.

While the discussions are designed to be informal, and the topics variable, the group hopes to critically analyze the novel to discover both insights in the saga itself, as well as the craft of fiction.

About WoWA

WoWA, a.k.a., “Works of Women Authors” is a sLiterary initiative with the purpose of bringing awareness to literary works written by female authors. WoWA events usually manifest in the form of a discussion group that meets on Second Life to (critically) discuss literary works written by women. The group has analyzed in depth over the period of several months the works of Ayn Rand, Virginia Woolf, and Mary Shelley. While the group has traditionally studied works by non-contemporary authors, the group is now venturing into contemporary authors.

About sLiterary

With humble beginnings as a literary magazine and discussion group formed in mid-2006, sLiterary is now a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering literary and artistic endeavors in Second Life and virtual worlds. In addition to sLiterary Magazine, a literary journal dedicated to “fiction set in the virtual world of Second Life”, sLiterary actively supports several major initiatives, notably the SL Shakespeare Company, the sLiterary Art & Writing Gallery, and Primtings Museum. Various literary and artistic events of note are held in the sLiterary sims.

About Twilight SL

Twilight SL is a new group on Second Life dedicated to connecting Twilight fans on Second Life to do Twilight-related things on SL! Planned activities include in-depth discussions of the Saga, RP, fan fiction creation and critique, machinima, photography, and more! Please join the Twilight SL group for updates. More info @ http://twilightSL.com !

This upcoming production of Twelfth Night will be totally erudite. I’m directing the entire thing. Hoo!!!