Written by ina on Wednesday, 6 of May , 2009 at 12:34 am
Tags: fD, lsl, secondlife
I’ve been working on getting fashDoll ready for a semipublic beta. On one hand it might be considered another one of my super-fancy super-extravagant pet projects (of startlingly limited scope. read: lots of work; little point. 
), but, considering that my fave programming projects are typically “weekend projects“, this was good experience having to plan it out, and work on it across several weeks to create a large-scale program with serverside PHP/MySQL and multi-link LSL/http-re to render the (esoteric) clientside interface. Anyway, here’s a brief preview and draft of a manual-esque for fashDoll:
{fD} fashDoll is a fashion “paperdoll” social networking platform. It lets you dress “fashDolls” by creating “dollfits” from both existing outfits and outfit pieces that either you create (upload the imagery) or find on the fashDoll network. (Here’s a screenshot from Second Life.)
Each fashDoll dollfit consists of at most 4 layers, with the lowest layer consisting of a “base layer” (or semi/nude “paperdoll”) and the other three clothing layers being any combination of transparent or paperdoll outfit design. Essentially, a fashDoll dollfit is a paperdoll that lets you easily put on up to three possible layers of “paper outfit”.The fashDoll HUD has three core modes: Create, Browse, or Shop. Both Shop and Browse display a collection of possible outfits for you to choose from, and Create lets you create your own outfit component.
Shop: This is where you shop for clothing and base layers and dollfits! Clothing and base layers are just individual layers, but dollfits compose of up to 4 layers. You can find out more about each item by clicking on it to find out who created it in SL, and more!
Create: You can create outfit components or base layers by submitting the UUID of each layer texture. Each layer consists of a SL photo (1680×1030) you take of an avatar, whose background has been made transparent. These photos are easy to make: The fashDoll Photobooth is a “pinkscreen” booth, which you can use with either the default fD magenta skin and avatar, or recolor to use with a different set, depending on your colorset. Once you take a photo of your outfit or base, you take it into photoshop, Select > Color > and put the eyedropper on magenta, expand by 1 radius, cut and delete, then crop to fit 512×512 — or you can use either the “de-pink” or “de-pink and size” Photoshop actions.
Browse: Unlike both RL and SL, you never start with an empty wardrobe! By default, the fashDoll library consists of several dozen outfits and base choices either created by its maker (Ina Centaur) or used with permission by its respective creator(s). As you add in outfits, your inventory will grow in size, and newer outfits will be displayed first. Similar to the Shop mode, you can also search tags to find outfits.
Once you select or upload an item, it is shown in the fD Preview Pane. Any item in your wardrobe that you set for a non-0 price will be publicly available in the Shop mode for other users to share and create from; you can change the price of an item by clicking on the Price Pane.
Each outfit component is classified by a base type–by default, the fashDoll Photobooth has the classic paperdoll pose, but you can create fashDolls based on other poses (or other shapes). Each outfit component (and dollfit) can be named, and anyone can add tags to it to help others find it on the fashDoll network.
The Search button lets you search for things based on tags, separated by comma’s. There’s also a neat “BUY LOTD” button that lets you buy the “Look of the Day” featured in the panel above that button.
Finally, when you’re done with your dollfit, you can click the “WEAR on VIZ” button to have your SL-sized non-HUD vizDoll wear it! VIZ sort of hovers around you like your own personal daimon from the Golden Compass — so, anyway, via VIZ, fashDoll is your fashion pet and new best friend 
And… Should you (or anyone) wish to by the 3D SL version of each fashDoll component from its original SL creator (before being turned into a fashdoll paperdoll piece), you’d just click VIZ for more info about the outfit and its components.
So, if you’ve read through this far, I should mention that you’re welcome to join in on the upcoming semipublic beta! Please post your SL name to the comments!
Category: Amusing, Projects, Tutorials
Written by ina on Friday, 26 of December , 2008 at 2:02 pm
Tags: design, secondlife
Why is it that LL has absolutely positively pitifully no sense of decency with respect to quality SL pictures?
Category: Reflections
It seems like there are three general consumer types for skins:
- newbies trying to find their first skin
- people trying to find a skin to identify with/bond with
- fashionistas who would wear the latest rage skin or pretty fashion finds
With enough Type 1’s (who generally go for the L$1 option) visiting, you can accumulate several thousand $L a day at least. But, they’re generally clueless, and many actually end up begging you for the L$1. Sometimes, they also ask nubbie questions, “how do I take off this L$1 skin I got from you?” Or worse, “how do I take off this skin [weird name - it’s obviously someone else’s skin but they’re nubbie so they think it’s yours]?” Type 1’s are to be avoided. They aren’t really worth the customer support to coax.
Type 2’s generally don’t purchase a new skin, lest they “lose” the look and get confused on not looking like themselves. Type 3’s are the ones who often buy skins from many of us. Now, I’m thinking about Type 2’s - I’m actually kind of a Type 2, or was… I ventured into skin creation since my previously penurious avatar-self couldn’t afford to buy her own premium skins (this was before I became the spoiled protégé of far too many designers <3). Anyway, I have an idea that might coax Type 2’s into taking a look at new skins (at least).
In theory Type 2’s have already bonded with their current skin, but they wouldn’t mind wearing a mask - especially during mask season, such as Halloween. They’d likely look at the mask, or if not, they’d definitely look at it after the lag and crowd and hunts ubiquitous across the grid - in the Nov 5th event. So ergo the idea:
Trick’o'Mask (with trade-in’s for discount or additional freebie). Yup, that’s my idea. Implementation steps follow:
- create masks based on the faces of new skins (or skins you want to promote);
- put it out front like Halloween goodies;
- if you’re curious at results, try having “mask trade-in’s” that come with irresistible offers, such as 50% off or a special goodie - but the idea is that the mask would activate a discount or special pricing, not just another freebie. (Skin City merchants: scripts and promotional textures and Halloween box for the event will be provided… but suggestions welcome!)
- Nov 5th Event: We’ll celebrate Guy Fawkes Night with an open fashion show parade that’d show off the masks (if it gets too crowded, the event would move to the 4-sim Sky Globe venue down the street) - everyone who has a mask gets to walk on the runway!
It’s an interesting test to see what happens, whether or not we get data, my idea just might also prove to be a unique and interesting Halloween Trick’o'Treating event at Skin City.
Category: Projects, Reflections
Ina Sedai is my character in Tar Valon. Here are her specs.~OOC Attributes~
SL Name: Ina Centaur
SL Join Date: 10/31/2006 11:59 pm…
~Character Attributes~
Character’s Full Name: Ina Centaur
Ajah: Brown
Age: Unknown
Home Country: Cairhien
~Character Details~
Personality:
She’s the type of girl who can lock herself up in a cloister for half a lifetime, reading and cross-referencing, and writing.
Likes:
She likes books.
Dislikes:
She extremely dislikes unwanted visitors, and is said to have come close to using the One Power as a weapon to ward off solicitors.
~Character History~
Family:
They say that there’s a Waygate hidden in the basement of her ancestral home, and that she spends much of her sabbatical time studying it and venturing to worlds beyond.
History:
Little is known of the Aes Sedai named Ina Centaur. Nothing is known for certain other than that she’s from a wealthy family in Cairhien.
There are tales, however…
It is said that her parents, wealthy nobles, had been appaled that their only daughter was “cursed” with the One Power, and would think nothing of having her sent off to Tar Valon. The Aes Sedai who found her had had to use the One Power to protect herself from her family’s mercenaries, and to steal Ina away.
It is also said that she became very drawn into herself, would often fast just to spend long hours reading uninterrupted, when she saw a girl who looked just like her chained to an a’dam and forced to kill another, when she ran away a novice.
It is believed that she has returned to her ancestral home to study a Waygate.
Other Alts:
Her twin sister, who was separated at birth (stolen by the goodwife, who was a darkfriend), Ina Minotaur is rumored to be a darkfriend and disciple of Lanfear.
Category: Amusing, RP
Category: Designs
Category: Designs
Written by ina on Monday, 4 of August , 2008 at 5:30 am
Tags: IC-skins, secondlife, skins
Thank you for purchasing a skin created by Ina Centaur.
Although, our skins are optimized for fast loading and quality the following tricks may help:
1. edit > preferences > graphics > custom
* bump maping and shiny
* basic shaders
* TURN OFF atmospheric shaders
* Lighting Detail: Nearby local lights
2. Wear a face light
3. Press Ctrl alt R to rebake a few times if needed. (This is especially useful if you are on a wireless or old connection, where your face de-rezzes a lot. Your face should rez a few seconds after ctrl-alt-R depending on the lag at your sim.)
* Note, you must have Advanced/Debug mode activated to use the above shortcut. If you see an “Advanced” menu on your SL toolbar, then you have it activated, and should be able to rebake using Ctrl alt R.
* If you do not have Advanced mode activated, Press Ctrl Alt D to toggle it on. (If you press Ctrl Alt D again, you will turn it off.)
* Press Ctrl Alt R to rebake! (A couple of times, if needed.)
And you should look dazzling. As good as the ad pic, but as yourself! I promise!
We’re in here for the art more than the commerce, and thus unlike other skin stores, we rarely tint a skin and call it a “new” product. None of our skins look generic. Each has its own distinct look because each one is made from scratch. Each purchase helps fund the creation of a new skin. And, we believe that each purchase helps make another avatar on Second Life look more unique. Thank you, once again.
Category: Uncategorized
Pillar #1: Ransom for the SL Shakespeare Company & SL Globe Theatre
Shakespeare, Second Life: The SL Shakespeare Company last month announced its Fourteen Pillars Fundraising Campaign, whose goal is to fill up all fourteen pillars to raise L$14 million, L$1 million per pillar. On Friday, July 18, to kick start the closing weekend of its month-long Twelfth Night staged reading series, the troupe plans to hold a “Twelfth Night MegaFundundraiser” in attempt to fill up the first pillar.
At 1 pm on Friday the 18th, seven actors will be jailed for their acting crimes by “an evil director,” likely Enniv Zarf, producer and director of the Twelfth Night staged reading series. Each actor’s bail will be set to L$100,000. Their goal is to woo the audience with only improv acting and their wits. Enniv Zarf explains, “The practical point is to get all of them out by 7 PM so that we can give the encore performance at our previously scheduled time.”
For the remaining L$300,000, the Company also plans to turn the SL Globe Theatre into a true black box theatre—“black, black, and nothing else”—in the historic first ransom of a virtual building.
Ina Centaur, artistic director and executive producer, comments, “We are truly what we say we are—a group of thespians and other professionals dedicated to our craft, bound together by Shakespeare, and way-too-excited to wait for outside funding before beginning something truly spectacular within the virtual world of Second Life. Furthermore, beyond the fact that we are trying to be Shakespeare’s analogue in live virtual theatre (the man was the foundation of modern theatre; we aim to establish the foundation of virtual theatre), we are also trying to create good within and for the audience of a virtual world that has more often been associated with the bad. In turn, though the money would be raised to create the good within, we believe this good will flow out of Second Life through the positive impact of the experience we create.”
Centaur has also been involved with numerous fundraisers based in Second Life, most notably her recent notable contributions in the Second Life Relay for Life campaigns. Despite her success she holds uncertainty in this upcoming fundraiser, “While my RFL teams together have raised over L$3 million through passive efforts and huge bursts through short-term events, we had the relatively easy job of campaigning for an existing and well-established charity for a direct health-related cause. Albeit The SL Shakespeare Company is known to be a source of good in Second Life, the concept of campaigning for major funding for a good within Second Life may be too revolutionary for others to get. We’ve got some tough mileage ahead, both with the technology and production mechanics, and also with convincing people of our ideas… We’ll just have to see what happens.”
Category: Projects
Shakespeare, Second Life: In June 2008, the SL Shakespeare Company (SLSC) announced the “Fourteen Pillars Fundraising Campaign” to help raise capital for its highly anticipated full-length full-ensemble production of Hamlet and other Shakespearean works. The goal is to raise L$14 million to fill up all 14 currently-empty pillars of the Campaign.
In a backstage private presentation given to VIP and members of the 1300+ member SL Shakespeare Company group on Second Life, executive producer and artistic director Ina Centaur gave a brief recounting of the various Globe Theatres she had built on Second Life and other virtual realities, and also the Second Life land problems the Company had to face, which ultimately forced her to invest in purchasing four island simulators for the Theatre. She then explained the Company’s goals and revealed its financial status, “We’re not funded by any external agency other than our own passion for the endeavor—and that’s really also internal… And it is so rare to see that in a humanities project, but we have it! We’ve already done what other projects with hundreds of thousands of real US dollars could not do. But, to maintain it for any longer, we will need your help…”
The problem arose in April from the Company’s all-too-sensational, but all-too-sudden miniproduction of Hamlet: The Mousetrap, which featured a cast of a baker’s dozen live actors and introduced the faces of the play’s main characters, including Hamlet, Ophelia, Claudius, Polonius and Gertrude. Centaur explained the miniproduction’s major problem, “We tried our best to work the schedule based on the actor’s availabilities; but having Second Life as a second or third or fourth or lower priority simply won’t do for a full-ensemble full-length production.” Managing director Sabina Stenvaag stated, “Scheduling was chaos, and we’ve even had to deal with some last minute re-casting before a show opened.” Co-executive producer and director Enniv Zarf agreed that, “The only way a full-length full-everything production would work is if we had everyone taking Second Life seriously, take their roles as a full time first life job for a month.”
“We’re going to continue no matter what. We hadn’t planned to ‘demote’ our productions to staged readings, but we had to do so due to funding and because we wanted to be able to continue to perform,” said Enniv Zarf.
Ina Centaur explained, “Outside institutes and funding agencies do not seem to understand what we’re doing, and that perhaps explains for their reluctance in funding. We’re new and we’ve got a sprakling new idea. For the past eleven months, I have been spending a huge chunk of my time in both finding and fostering the SLSC. The theatre prides itself in its professional productions and large-scale venue—but those come at a cost. Practically everything I have done on Second Life is in attempt to break even and make the theatre self-sufficient within Second Life.”
The Campaign’s characteristic donation kiosk is a self-updating posterboard, which visually represents the fourteen empty pillars as printed woodcuts on aged parchment. As the funds accumulate, the pillars will appear “filled.” Currently, two kiosks are placed in the SL Globe Theatre. They will soon be dispersed on the walls of upcoming builds in the Shakespeare island simulator as “Elizabethan graffiti”.
Category: Projects
I’m thinking of the RFL prom - the immersive virtual prom event on Second Life created by the passion of numerous designers, to benefit ACS through Relay for Life. I’m also thinking of data loss, oil paintings, and quantum mechanics… the ephemeralness of everything coherent.
A younger me used to find it apalling and infuriating that great canvases of oil paintings would burn in a building fire. And be lost forever. I used to regard cases like that with the naive innocence of someone with too much pride in her own era’s distinction. I’d scoff and think — had they done that digitally, it would exist forever. And yet…
The great works of art from the ancient past will outlive the great works of this era. Modern art is relative, and in the eye of the beholder. Digital data is ephemeral. Hard drives fail, CD’s fail, DVD’s fail, flash drives get lost. Simulators on Second life get wiped because their maintenance fees are far too great.
It’s amazing the amount of passion and love people put into Second Life - and the beauty of some of the work is just wow… The insane amount of time and tendency to details the creator puts in… just defies good reason… especiallly when the details won’t survive after its creation - the creator, galvanized by more things to create would never look at it again… the detail, being to subtle and fine, would get overlooked by others, especially when there are a thousand others. (”The greater you are, the less of each of your works.”) And yet, I guess the only thing that really matters is the experience. There’s no gaurantee that the end product will survive or what sorts of freak accidents would prevent it from successfully reaching its destination. It is as Eshi says. It is all about the process of creating it. It is not about the end product, and yet the process of creating it is often unbearable in the horrible way - and while creating it you’re thinking about the end product. But, in the end, it is only about you. There’s a high chance no one will see it beyond you. And a high chance you’d never look at it after you’re done with it. It’s the process, and yet…
I guess that’s why in the middle of my personal life experiment in Second Life I start pursuing live theatre. I’d always strayed away from it after I “developed” my philosophy of life. Really, I studied physics thinking that knowing physics I would be able to understand everything else, and that really wasn’t it. Philosophy was more rhetoric and tenure politics than truth. And bioengineering was just unrigorous physics and luckiness. I used to pity people who spent their time doing art and that sort of stuff, since I thought they were so deep into their own niche they were “shallow” — savants, in a way… and yet, what I wanted to be was a savant too, actually a savant polymath, if that makes sense… Anyway though, live theatre is often not recorded not because of technical reasons but because of politics - recording rights and all. In Second Life, live theatre can’t always be recorded “live” because of lag and “ruthing” and gray-unrezzed-textures - they often render the view not as optimal, and a substantial amount of postwork becomes necessary. Thus, in Second Life, you’re lucky if you see things “in the eye of the creator,” textures rezzed and sculpties rezzed and everything as beautiful as intended.
The other element of a live event involving multiple people is that it isn’t always easy to get all of them together simultaneously. Some things only happen once in a lifetime - once in all of creation and existence. The extreme amount of anti-entropy required and butterfly effect and the mess that might precipitate an event. It’s a miracle it happened. And even if the medium has limited reach due to technological lackings… I guess I was lucky to have taken a part in it.
And then back to data. The loss of it. The capital necessary to maintain it. And even then there’s the possibility of these digital bytes succumbing to its own butterfly effect as random cables suffer random effects to sudden blow up a huge data center. I’m thinking about the no-cloning theorem in quantum computing. And I’m thinking of paintings, the massive oil canvases. They can’t really be cloned either - taking a photo just isn’t the same, and even so-called restorations where a lesser paints over the work of the master…
But I’m thinking about simulators on Second Life again, and the beautiful things created on them… and then destroyed on them because of the cost to maintain these simulators. It’s just such a pity when copying data is so easy in other digital mediums, and yet so hard in the infrastructure of Second Life. Why isn’t there an archive.org for Second Life?
I dunno, I guess I have a super-weak weak spot for beauty. If told that the only way I can immortalize beauty if only for the span of another’s lifetime were to lose my own, yet pass on what transpires of it, I would… You live and then you die.
Category: Reflections
